New Sanctions Bill Targets Forced Labor and Organ Harvesting, Bans PRC Seafood Sales on Military Bases

The Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act of 2025 is a massive update to how the U.S. government deals with human rights abuses in China, specifically targeting the persecution of Uyghur, Kazakh, and other ethnic groups. At its core, this bill expands sanctions, tightens visa restrictions, and imposes significant new supply chain rules on U.S. federal agencies. It’s essentially the government saying, “We’re not just talking about this issue anymore; we’re going to make it much harder for those involved to do business or travel here.”

Expanding the Sanctions Net: New Reasons to Be Blacklisted

If you’re a foreign official or entity involved in human rights abuses, the reasons you can be sanctioned just got a lot longer. The bill expands the existing Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 by adding several new, specific abuses that trigger sanctions (Sec. 2). This includes systematic rape, forced sterilization, human trafficking for organ removal, forced separation of children into boarding schools, and forced deportation. The bill also forces the President to identify and potentially sanction any foreign person who knowingly provides significant goods, services, or technology to someone already on the sanctions list. This means the net now catches not just the main perpetrators but also the companies and individuals helping them keep the lights on. For multinational corporations, this means supply chain due diligence just got a lot more critical, as supporting a sanctioned entity could now lead to your own blacklisting.

Visa Bans Get Mandatory and Tough to Waive

For those involved in forced abortions or forced sterilizations overseas, the U.S. entry ban is now mandatory (Sec. 3). Where the Secretary of State previously had wiggle room to deny entry, the language has been changed to shall not admit these individuals. Waivers are now extremely limited—they can only be granted if the person wasn't directly involved in overseeing the abusive programs and if their entry is necessary for U.S. national security or compliance with the U.N. Headquarters agreement. This means fewer diplomatic exceptions and more accountability for officials who oversaw these horrific population control practices.

The Government’s Shopping List Just Got Shorter

Section 9 introduces a major change for federal agencies: a strict prohibition on contracting with entities linked to forced labor or human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. If a company is on the sanctions list, if its goods have been detained by U.S. Customs due to forced labor, or if an agency head determines it’s helping with the genocide, the U.S. government cannot buy goods or services from them. This is a huge deal for government contractors. If your company relies on components or labor sourced from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), or if you’ve been flagged for using forced labor anywhere in China, you are now locked out of lucrative federal contracts. This significantly raises the stakes for supply chain transparency.

Military Bases Say Goodbye to Chinese Seafood

One of the most immediate, tangible impacts of this bill involves what’s sold on military bases (Sec. 13). Starting 30 days after the bill becomes law, raw or processed seafood from the People's Republic of China (PRC) is banned from being sold in military commissary stores. Within 90 days, the Department of Defense can no longer purchase this seafood for use in military dining facilities, like ship galleys or base cafeterias. While the Secretary of Defense can issue waivers for overseas installations or if necessary, this is a direct hit to PRC seafood suppliers and a protective measure against forced labor entering the military food supply. For military families, this means the frozen fish selection at the commissary might change, and for U.S. seafood producers, it could open up a new market.

Support for Victims and Scrutiny on Tech Giants

Beyond sanctions, the bill provides practical support, authorizing funds for medical, physical, and psychological assistance for Uyghur, Kazakh, and other victims who have fled China (Sec. 4). It also mandates a sanctions review within 60 days for a specific list of Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance Ltd. (TikTok’s parent company), Hikvision, and Dahua Technology (Sec. 6). The Treasury Department must determine if these companies are complicit in human rights abuses and meet existing sanctions criteria, potentially leading to their assets being frozen. Finally, the bill requires the State Department to develop strategies to actively counter PRC propaganda (Sec. 7) and to investigate allegations of forced organ harvesting (Sec. 10), ensuring the U.S. government is actively pushing back on multiple fronts.