[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                          THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
                      AND THE FACES OF REPRESSION
=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

              CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                            FEBRUARY 3, 2022

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
 
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              Available at www.cecc.gov or www.govinfo.gov

                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
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              CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

                    LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

Senate                                     House

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon, Chair          JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts,  
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California                 Co-chair
MARCO RUBIO, Florida                 CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             THOMAS SUOZZI, New York
TOM COTTON, Arkansas                 TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey
STEVE DAINES, Montana                BRIAN MAST, Florida
ANGUS KING, Maine                    VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RASHIDA TLAIB, Michigan
                                     JENNIFER WEXTON, Virginia
                                     MICHELLE STEEL, California

                     EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

                           Not yet appointed

                      Matt Squeri, Staff Director

                   Todd Stein, Deputy Staff Director

                                  (ii)


                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               Statements

                                                                   Page
Opening Statement of Hon. Jeff Merkley, a U.S. Senator from 
  Oregon; Chair, Congressional-Executive Commission on China.....     1
Statement of Hon. James P. McGovern, a U.S. Representative from 
  Massachusetts; Co-chair, Congressional-Executive Commission on 
  China..........................................................     3
Statement of Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House.............     4
Statement of Hon. Chris Smith, a U.S. Representative from New 
  Jersey.........................................................     7
Statement of Yaxue Cao, founder and editor of China Change.......     9
Statement of Nathan Law, democracy activist......................    11
Statement of Jewher Ilham, daughter of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti    12
Statement of Sophie Luo, wife of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi    14
Statement of Nyima Lhamo, niece of the late Tibetan Buddhist 
  leader Tenzin Delek Rinpoche...................................    15

                                APPENDIX
                          Prepared Statements

Cao, Yaxue.......................................................    35
Law, Nathan......................................................    38
Ilham, Jewher....................................................    39
Luo, Sophie......................................................    40
Lhamo, Nyima.....................................................    41

Merkley, Hon. Jeff...............................................    43
McGovern, Hon. James P...........................................    44

                       Submissions for the Record

Article from the Washington Post entitled, ``China Isn't Just 
  `Authoritarian' Anymore. It's Scarier.'', submitted by Senator 
  Merkley........................................................    47
CECC Truth in Testimony Disclosure Form..........................    49
Witness Biographies..............................................    50

                                 (iii)

 
                          THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
                      AND THE FACES OF REPRESSION

                              ----------                              


                       THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

                            Congressional-Executive
                                       Commission on China,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The hearing was held from 10:07 a.m. to 12:16 p.m. in Room 
G-50, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Jeff Merkley, 
Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 
presiding.
    Also present: Co-chair James P. McGovern, Speaker of the 
House Nancy Pelosi, and Representatives Smith, Wexton, and 
Steel.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF MERKLEY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 
   OREGON; CHAIR, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

    Chair Merkley. Today's hearing of the Congressional-
Executive Commission on China entitled ``The Beijing Olympics 
and the Faces of Repression'' will come to order.
    In less than 24 hours, the Beijing Winter Olympic Games 
will commence and usher in weeks of pageantry designed to 
showcase a shiny facade, the face that the Chinese government 
and the Communist Party want the world to see. Beneath this 
glitz and glamour lies the real story. As the Commission and so 
many others have documented, the story of Chinese leadership is 
one of genocide, slave labor, forced sterilization, the 
desecration of democracy in Hong Kong, Orwellian repression in 
Xinjiang and Tibet, bullying of critics at home and abroad, and 
suppression of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, civil 
society, and the rule of law across the country.
    This Commission, which exists to shine a light on the real 
human rights situation in China, has sought to prevent these 
Olympic Games from perverting the Olympic spirit and 
distracting from the real story. We have held multiple 
hearings, including one with the top U.S.-based Olympic 
sponsors. We've engaged those sponsors, the International 
Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, 
broadcasters, and the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Human Rights. I hope it has made a difference in the degree to 
which U.S. companies are willing to lend their prestige to the 
false display of peace and harmony the Beijing Olympics 
represent. I hope it will influence the way these Games are 
covered and the way these Games are perceived by the world. I 
hope it will provide support to the Olympians who fear for 
their freedom of expression, their data privacy, and their 
basic rights.
    But these Olympics are commencing and will show a face the 
Chinese government and Communist Party don't deserve to show to 
the world. In this hearing, we will put a spotlight on the face 
of repression, the exact face and stories the organizers of the 
Beijing Olympics don't want the world thinking about as the 
torch is lit. For the last 60 days, the Congressional-Executive 
Commission on China has conducted a daily Olympic prisoner 
social media campaign to tell a few of these stories. There are 
so many more in the CECC Political Prisoner Database, which is 
only a sliver of the untold number of Chinese citizens detained 
or disappeared merely for exercising their human rights or for 
being a member of a disfavored minority group. To better 
document these cases, in recent months we've revamped the 
database in several ways. In June 2021, we launched a new 
platform aimed at modernizing the database to address the 
security and sustainability concerns, streamline information, 
and maintain our ability to record and display a wide variety 
of data. This upgrade enhanced the database's search 
functionality, added publication of prior detentions, expanded 
detention details, and created a permanent archived source 
link.
    The CECC Political Prisoner Database recently began to 
document cases of political detention and imprisonment in Hong 
Kong, in recognition of the rapid deterioration in rule of law 
conditions, including arrests made under the National Security 
Law, as well as the ongoing loss of independence of the 
judiciary and prosecutor's office. I never thought I would see 
the day when that would be necessary, but the sad reality is 
here, and it's our mandate to document these cases. In this 
hearing, we will hear about some of these cases in Hong Kong as 
well as others we've highlighted in the Olympic prisoner 
project.
    We are deeply honored that one of the greatest champions of 
human rights in China, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, is 
here to help frame our discussion of these cases. I am 
similarly humbled by the panel of witnesses we will hear from, 
who will share deeply personal accounts of the repression they 
and their family members have suffered. These witnesses have 
started organizations dedicated to the causes of human rights, 
the rule of law, and democracy. They have lost fathers, 
husbands, uncles, friends, to the Chinese system of arbitrary 
detention, and they have been locked up themselves. I can think 
of nobody better to hear from on the eve of the Beijing 
Olympics. These and the images behind them are the faces of 
repression we hope the world remembers as the Olympics get 
underway.
    Congressman McGovern.

    [The prepared statement of Senator Merkley appears in the 
Appendix.]

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM 
MASSACHUSETTS; CO-CHAIR, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON 
                             CHINA

    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
convening this hearing on prisoners of conscience on the eve of 
the Beijing Winter Olympics. Thank you for your leadership on 
so many human rights issues. I'm also honored to be here with 
my colleague from Virginia, Jennifer Wexton, who's been a 
leader on so many issues related to human rights, and 
obviously, I am thrilled to be here with--and honored to be 
here with--the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
    Before I begin, I want to just say a few words about the 
Asian American community. They have experienced a spike in hate 
crimes, discrimination, and invective directed toward them. 
This has happened in a climate where public figures have 
declared or implied that China is to blame for all our ills. 
Think ``China virus.'' This Commission monitors the human 
rights record of the Chinese government. Our criticism is not 
directed at the people of China or at Chinese heritage. I take 
great care--and I know that the Chair does as well--to make 
this distinction clear. I hope that all my fellow commissioners 
do as well. This Commission's important work is based on 
international human rights standards. Our message is strongest 
when grounded in the law and morals. We must strive to keep it 
that way.
    Hundreds of athletes are preparing to compete in this 
Olympics. They have trained for years. This may be their last, 
or only, shot at a medal. Ideally, the athletes' experience 
should be uncomplicated by the venue or the host, but sadly, 
that is not the case in 2022. When the International Olympic 
Committee awarded these Games to Beijing in 2015, China already 
had the worst human rights record of any country on the planet. 
It has gotten worse since. The Chinese government has engaged 
in genocide against the Turkic Muslims, cracked down on civil 
society, and snuffed out democracy and freedom in Hong Kong.
    Many, including members of this bipartisan Commission, 
asked the IOC to relocate the Games so that the athletes 
wouldn't have to compete under a cloud of repression. They 
refused. We asked the IOC's U.S.-based corporate sponsors to 
use their leverage to insist on human rights improvements so 
athletes on the medal stand wouldn't have human rights 
violations as the backdrop. They refused. They, save one, 
wouldn't even admit to the fact that genocide is happening in 
Xinjiang. If given a choice, I believe no athlete would want to 
compete in a country committing genocide and crimes against 
humanity. But that is what they are forced to do because of the 
feckless IOC and its corporate partners.
    You know, the risks are real. Last month, a Chinese Olympic 
official said that ``Any behavior or speech that is against the 
Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and 
regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.'' 
Reportedly, the app that athletes are required to use in 
Beijing could result in theft of their personal information. 
Participants could be exposed to food or clothing made by IOC 
exclusive suppliers who use forced labor. Make no mistake, I am 
rooting for the athletes. I hope nothing goes wrong. The 
athletes shouldn't be forced to bear this burden created by 
companies and entities who want to protect their ability to 
make money no matter the human cost.
    I don't drink Coca-Cola anymore. They operate a bottling 
plant in Xinjiang. They source sugar from a company implicated 
in forced labor. Coke will be served at Olympic venues. Every 
athlete should be aware of the risk. Sponsor companies told us 
that if they spoke up, they would lose market share in China. 
And then they don't speak up. This is wrong. You know, this has 
to change. The paradigm must change. These companies are going 
to need to figure out a way to make money other than reliance 
on forced labor and abetting crimes against humanity.
    The IOC will eagerly inform us of how many viewers around 
the world watch the Games. But they won't tell us who can't 
watch the Games, those unjustly imprisoned and deprived of 
their most basic freedoms by the host Chinese government: Ilham 
Tohti, Ding Jiaxi, Joshua Wong, Zhang Zhan, Bonkho Kyi. These 
are the faces of repression, and resilience, who are 
represented by our witnesses today. We must always remember the 
human dimension behind our policy work. It is for prisoners of 
conscience that we speak out. We must never, never, ever forget 
them.
    One person who has never forgotten this is our first 
witness, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She has been a 
principled voice for human rights in China and Tibet for 
decades, and I want to thank her in particular for working with 
all of us in a bipartisan way to get the Uyghur Forced Labor 
Prevention Act through Congress and on the President's desk, 
where he signed it. She has been a champion for so much 
important legislation. We welcome her, and we welcome all of 
our witnesses. I look forward to your testimony.

    [The prepared statement of Representative McGovern appears 
in the Appendix.]

    Chair Merkley. Thank you, Congressman McGovern.
    Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the 52nd Speaker of the U.S. House 
of Representatives. She made history in 2007 when she was the 
first woman elected to serve as Speaker of the House, and again 
in January 2019 when she regained her position, second in line 
to the Presidency. Few alive have been as stalwart as Nancy 
Pelosi in fighting for the rights of the Chinese people. We are 
deeply honored to have you with us this morning. Welcome.

                STATEMENT OF HON. NANCY PELOSI,
                      SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE

    Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for your 
invitation to be here, for your kind introduction, for your 
great leadership. Your opening statement was values based, a 
source of inspiration, and you used the word ``hope.'' It gives 
us hope as to how we go forward and how we can shed light on 
the injustices that are happening in China. I'm honored to be 
with you, and with Mr. McGovern, who has been--we call him our 
spiritual leader on this subject when we've been to China and 
Tibet and the rest, because, again, he has been relentless over 
the years and intensely involved in shining a light on human 
rights violations in China, particularly now with the genocide 
of the Uyghurs.
    Congresswoman Wexton is blessed with a large number of 
Uyghurs in her district, and so she has been an important 
leader in passing the legislation that Mr. McGovern and you 
referenced. I thank you for your leadership, Congresswoman 
Wexton. I know he will probably be coming, Chris Smith, we've 
worked in a bipartisan way for decades on this subject, 
sometimes with another Virginian, Frank Wolf, no longer in the 
Congress but always with us in this struggle.
    So as House Speaker it is my privilege to again testify 
before the CECC, as I did most recently in May 2021, and to do 
so with leaders with whom I have worked to fight for human 
rights in China. As I mentioned, Mr. Chairman, Senator Merkley, 
you have been a respected voice on the Foreign Relations 
Committee, and a CECC chair, bringing a steadfast commitment to 
ensuring that our nation lives up to our values abroad. Mr. 
McGovern, CECC Co-chair, has been a clarion voice on human 
rights in the House, across the country, and around the world, 
and a leader, since his days as a staffer, in Congress to 
advance human rights in China. I thank also Chris Smith, again, 
a former co-chair of this Commission, long-time partner to many 
of us in holding Beijing accountable. And again, I thank 
Congresswoman Wexton for her leadership.
    Thank you, Mr. Merkley, and the entire Congressional-
Executive Commission on China, for hosting this important and 
timely hearing, ``The Beijing Olympics and the Faces of 
Repression.'' When the Winter Olympic festivities begin 
tomorrow in Beijing, the Chinese government once again attempts 
to distract the world from a decades-long campaign of abuse and 
repression. But the United States and the international 
community know the truth: the People's Republic of China is 
perpetrating a campaign of gross human rights violations, 
including genocide. Over the next two weeks it is our urgent 
moral duty to shine a bright light on the many human rights 
violations being perpetrated by the host nation. I say by the 
host nation because I associate myself with the remarks of Mr. 
McGovern. This is not about Chinese people. It's about the 
People's Republic of China and a repressive government that has 
been in power. While we fully support and will root for our 
athletes, we cannot and will not be silent on human rights in 
China.
    I also am honored to be here with brave witnesses 
testifying today. Yaxue Cao, Jewher Ilham, Sophie Luo, Nyima 
Lhamo, and Nathan Law. Nathan remotely, is my understanding. 
For decades, the PRC has orchestrated a campaign of terror and 
repression, from the genocide of the Uyghur people most 
recently, to aggression against the culture, religion, and 
language of Tibet, to crackdowns against basic freedoms in Hong 
Kong, to jailing of journalists, activists, and dissidents 
throughout mainland China, and the intimidation of Taiwan, and 
more. Yet, the Chinese government works desperately to cover up 
their abuses, rewriting history and projecting a very different 
image to the world--or tries to, anyway.
    Many in Congress have fought to ensure that the world 
remembers the truth of the PRC's human rights record and to 
hold them accountable--including by seeking to deny them the 
honor of hosting the Olympics. In 1993, Congress passed 
strongly bipartisan legislation calling on the IOC to reject 
China's 2000 bid and we were successful then in doing so. Many 
of us, again, opposed China's 2008 bid. Sadly, the IOC chose to 
sell out on human rights in China. But we continued to speak 
out, including by urging President Bush, then, to boycott the 
opening ceremonies. Now the IOC, aided by corporate sponsors, 
once again turns a blind eye in the 2022 Winter Olympics, just 
to bolster their bottom lines, as Mr. McGovern mentioned.
    As I said, if we do not speak out against human rights 
violations in China because of commercial interests, we lose 
all moral authority to speak out against human rights 
violations anywhere. That is why at a CECC hearing last May I 
called for no official presence at the Beijing Olympics. Thanks 
to the strong leadership of President Biden, the Administration 
has joined Congress in presenting a united front in this 
effort. And proudly, many nations have followed America's lead 
including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Belgium, 
Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Make no mistake about 
it, our athletes should participate. They've trained. They're 
disciplined. They've dreamed. They've aspired. They've worked 
hard. But this year we must celebrate them from home as they 
compete in China.
    I would say to our athletes: You're there to compete. Do 
not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government, because 
they are ruthless. I know there is a temptation on the part of 
some to speak out while they are there. I respect that, but I 
also worry about what the Chinese government might do to their 
reputations, to their families. So again, participate, let us 
celebrate from abroad, and don't risk thinking that there are 
any good intentions on the part of the People's Republic of 
China government, because there are none.
    While you're competing, Congress continues to take bold, 
bipartisan action to defend human rights in China and hold the 
Chinese government accountable. Most recently the Uyghur Forced 
Labor Prevention Act, which was proudly signed into law in 
December, will harness America's economic might to make clear 
that the genocide of Uyghurs must end now. And now, with our 
America COMPETES Act, which is on the floor of the House, we 
will take another strong step to help those who fear for their 
futures by designating Uyghurs as prioritized refugees of 
special humanitarian concern and pursuing a humanitarian 
pathway for Hong Kongers who feel political persecution.
    Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, and Congresswoman, one of the 
most sinister forms of torture employed by authoritarian 
regimes, and certainly the PRC, is to tell the prisoners: 
Nobody even remembers you. They don't know why you're in 
prison. So why are you just insisting on the truth? We say that 
with this hearing, we declare to all who are suffering in the 
PRC under their abuses: America sees you. America stands with 
you. America will continue to fight for you. That is why I am 
so proud to join our witnesses today to lift up the names of 
those who are in prison, such as democracy activists Jimmy Lai 
and Joshua Wong, Uyghur leader Ilham Tohti, and the Panchen 
Lama, just to name a few. Now, we have--as Chairman Merkley 
indicated--we have reams of names of prisoners. They will not 
be forgotten. Many of them will be named by our witnesses 
today.
    In that spirit of remembering and saying to the PRC, No 
matter what you do, we will not forget, we will not go away. 
Much of our activism on this started in Tiananmen Square, when 
we saw you crush the young lives and hopes and dreams of so 
many young people in China who were there to demonstrate for a 
better future--crush them with your tanks and then try to erase 
from the history and the memory of people in China what 
happened that day. But we will persist.
    In that spirit, I'll close by quoting Lee Cheuk-yan, a 
former legislator who has devoted his life to keeping alive the 
memory of those who died fighting for freedom in Tiananmen 
Square. A former chairman of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance 
in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, he is 
currently serving time in prison simply for standing up for 
democracy.
    He said the following to the judge before he was sentenced 
this past fall: ``For 32 years we have marched together in the 
fight to bring justice to those who put their lives on the line 
June 4th, 1989, and in the struggle for democracy. Despite 
setbacks, we are steadfast in our belief that the universal 
values of freedom, the rule of law, human rights, and democracy 
that we have been struggling for will one day take root in Hong 
Kong and China. And on that day, we will be able to console the 
souls who came before us.''
    Thank you to the CECC for the opportunity to participate 
today and to elevate the voices that the Chinese government has 
worked relentlessly to silence. We will not be silenced. We 
will not let those with courage be forgotten. With that, I 
thank you again for the work of this commission--not just this 
hearing today, but ongoing, and especially at this time, one 
day before the Olympics begin.
    It's hard to fathom how they could choose a country like 
China to host the Olympics, but they have. And we wish all of 
the athletes well. We wish them safety, and that safety 
includes--don't for one moment believe anything the Chinese 
government might tell you about freedom of expression; you take 
a risk. Be safe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam 
Wexton.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your powerful 
words and your powerful advocacy for human rights in China and 
around the world.
    Congressman Chris Smith.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHRIS SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY 
AND RANKING MEMBER, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

    Representative Smith. Thank you. You know, as the chairman 
of this commission for four years, co-chairman for another four 
years, and ranking member for eight as well, 16 years total, 
this has always been a very bipartisan commission, seeking to 
protect democracy activists and others. Certainly today's 
hearing--and I thank you, Chairman Merkley, for bringing this 
about, particularly today, the day before the genocide Olympics 
kicks off. The first hearing we had, because this is part of a 
series, was in the Lantos Commission. I chaired that one along 
with Co-chair McGovern on the Lantos Commission. That was on 
May 18th, entitled ``China, Genocide, and the Olympics.''
    And we were then as well joined by Speaker Pelosi. Thank 
you for that. I do thank her that she reminded us--back in 1983 
Congress took very strong action in admonishing the IOC not to 
accept China for the Olympics in the year 2000. I actually met 
with Wei Jingsheng--the father of the democracy world 
movement--who was let out of prison, I met with him in Beijing, 
as a high-value political prisoner to get the Olympics 2000. 
When they didn't get it, they rearrested him and beat him 
almost to the point of death. So the Chinese Communist Party's 
methods have not changed. They have actually gotten worse under 
Xi Jinping, as we all know.
    In 2018 Chairman Marco Rubio and I wrote a letter to the 
IOC, and I know others have done it too, and that was mentioned 
earlier--to say, Don't go to China. We love the Chinese people, 
and we stand with the oppressed and not with the oppressor, and 
that's the Chinese Communist Party. So thank you, Speaker, for 
reminding us of the '83 efforts. Unfortunately, we did not 
succeed this time.
    The second hearing that you had, and I want to thank you 
for that, was on corporate sponsorship of the genocide games, 
to examine the complicity of companies such as Coca-Cola, Visa, 
and Airbnb in subsidizing Xi Jinping's propaganda extravaganza. 
The genocide against the Uyghurs, and we all know this, this is 
Xi Jinping's genocide. He should be at The Hague being held to 
account for crimes against humanity and genocide. And instead, 
he'll be at those opening ceremonies and throughout, shining in 
the spotlight while people are being forced into labor, are 
being tortured, and are being killed, including forced 
abortions in order to diminish the population of the Uyghurs.
    You know, on the eve of the genocide Olympics, today's 
hearing will elevate the voices of those who speak for the 
oppressed, including Yaxue Cao, who will remind us of the 
ordeal suffered by tennis star Peng Shuai, sexually preyed upon 
by a 75-year-old member of the Chinese Communist Party 
Politburo Standing Committee. In so telling her story, we will 
also hear about the courageous stand taken by the Women's 
Tennis Association in suspending all tournaments in China, in 
stark contrast to the craven pandering by the International 
Olympic Committee and its corporate sponsors, again, to Xi 
Jinping's brutality and cruelty.
    We will hear testimony from representatives from other 
repressed communities, including Tibetans, Uyghurs, and from 
the great Hong Kong defender of democracy, Nathan Law. You 
know, indeed just last week, on January 27th, I stood outside 
the Chinese embassy in protest with a crowd of remarkable 
activists, including Chen Guangcheng, calling for democracy, 
the rule of law, and an end to the human rights abuse. The next 
day in New York, Tom Suozzi was outside of the United Nations 
protesting the Chinese Communist Party. As I noted then with 
the crowd of activists before me--we were there for about three 
hours; it was a three-hour gathering--and I will note today 
with our great witnesses gathered before us that you are 
representing the people and speaking for those in China who are 
voiceless.
    And just as we spoke at the embassy last week, those cries 
need to be heard. The international committee--and, as a matter 
of fact, those participants in this Olympics, they need to be 
protected. If they speak out in China, what will happen to 
them? We will be watching that very closely as well. Thank you 
again, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much, Mr. Congressman, and 
for your longtime advocacy for human rights.
    I'd now like to introduce our panel of witnesses, some of 
whom are joining us here in person and some joining us 
virtually from other parts of the world.
    Yaxue Cao is the founder and editor of China Change, a 
website launched in 2013 to write and translate information 
about Chinese citizens' struggle for human rights, the rule of 
law, and civil society. Cao grew up in northern China during 
the Cultural Revolution. Now she works with dissidents, human 
rights lawyers, activists, and intellectuals to bring often 
suppressed information to a global audience.
    Nathan Law is a democracy activist currently in exile in 
London. The youngest legislative councilor in Hong Kong's 
history, his seat was overturned in July 2017, following the 
Chinese government's constitutional reinterpretation. He was 
later jailed for his participation in the Umbrella Movement. In 
2018, the CECC nominated him and his fellow student activists 
Joshua Wong and Alex Chow for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2020, 
he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the 
world by Time.
    Jewher Ilham is an advocate for the Uyghur community and 
her imprisoned father Ilham Tohti. She works at the Worker 
Rights Consortium and is also a spokesperson for the Coalition 
to End Uyghur Forced Labor. She has accepted numerous awards 
worldwide on behalf of her father, including the European 
Parliament's Sakharov Prize. Her second book, ``Because I Have 
To: The Path to Survival, the Uyghur Struggle,'' will be 
released this spring.
    Sophie Luo is the wife of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi. 
Her husband was detained in April 2013 and sentenced to three 
years and six months in prison after calling for government 
transparency. He was disappeared on December 26, 2019. Ms. Luo 
continues to advocate for the release of her husband.
    Nyima Lhamo is a human rights advocate and niece of the 
late Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a highly revered Tibetan lama 
who died in a Chinese prison in 2015. After questioning the 
cause of his death, Ms. Lhamo was arbitrarily detained, along 
with her mother. She continues to call for an investigation 
into the treatment of her uncle and other Tibetans.
    Our witnesses, thank you for being here. We will now begin 
with our first witness, Ms. Cao.

                    STATEMENT OF YAXUE CAO,
               FOUNDER AND EDITOR OF CHINA CHANGE

    Ms. Cao. Chair Merkley, Co-chair McGovern, members of the 
Commission, thank you for holding this important hearing and 
for asking me to share my thoughts on the case of the Chinese 
tennis star Peng Shuai. Indeed, Peng Shuai has become a special 
kind of political prisoner. Peng Shuai revealed how she was 
forced into a sexual relationship with Zhang Gaoli, former vice 
premier and member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee. 
Despite repeated reassurance from the Chinese government and 
the International Olympic Committee, questions about her well-
being remain. Meanwhile, the Women's Tennis Association's 
decision to suspend all tournaments in China has raised a moral 
question for all of us.
    I will address these two aspects of the Peng Shuai 
incident. China's treatment of Peng Shuai followed a familiar 
playbook, namely censorship, denial of sexual assault 
allegations, a concerted propaganda campaign, and a staged TV 
confession. Both Peng Shuai's Weibo post and her account were 
deleted. A WTA-affiliated WeChat account posts only news and 
photos of tennis events. Chinese netizens are censored for 
mentioning Peng Shuai or the WTA. In short, the Chinese 
government has erased any discussion about Peng Shuai inside 
China.
    Outside of China, Chinese overseas state media and the IOC 
have carried out a propaganda campaign. In the email 
purportedly from Peng Shuai to WTA, Peng Shuai denied sexual 
assault allegations and asked the WTA to cease talking about 
her without her consent. After WTA announced the suspension of 
tournaments in China, the IOC issued a troubling statement 
parroting CCP's official language on ``human rights,'' urging 
quiet diplomacy to address concerns over Peng Shuai. Such 
unlikely unison raises suspicions that the IOC was coordinating 
with the CCP to suppress the matter.
    In mid-December, a pro-Beijing newspaper in Singapore 
posted a video interview with Peng Shuai, in which she stated 
that she had never accused anyone of sexually assaulting her 
and that she had no reason to travel overseas. An important 
takeaway from this interview is that the Chinese government 
doesn't really care whether you recognize the interview as 
staged or not. By getting Peng Shuai to say what she was 
scripted to say, China established the new ground for going 
forward. Now that Peng Shuai herself has spoken, what else do 
you want?
    So what comes next? Since Chinese player Li Na won the 
French Open in 2011, interest in women's tennis skyrocketed in 
China. By 2019, before the pandemic, the WTA was holding over 
20 events a year in China. In 2018, the WTA signed a 10-year 
contract with China to hold its season finals in Shenzhen. 
China needs WTA to develop women's tennis, and WTA was poised 
to expand into the Chinese market, and profit big. So far, WTA 
is not backing down from its demand for verifiable proof of 
Peng Shuai's safety and the investigation into her allegation 
of sexual assault. WTA also confirmed that they have not been 
able to speak to Peng Shuai ``in an environment where we know 
she's not being really controlled.''
    After the Winter Olympics, we will see more CCP maneuvers 
trying to bring the WTA to its knees. China has gotten used to 
foreign businesses bowing to its demands. The WTA's position is 
an unacceptable offense. Now, nobody is against money, but our 
businesses, universities, and sports leagues don't seem to have 
fully grasped that to eat at the CCP's pig trough, you will 
have to turn into a pig, shed your principles. It's long past 
due that we take a look at the way we strike deals with the 
CCP, with China, and if we don't, we stand to lose ourselves in 
the process. It's already happening. Thank you very much.

    [The prepared statement of Yaxue Cao appears in the 
Appendix.]

    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much. We now turn to our 
second witness, Nathan Law.

STATEMENT OF NATHAN LAW, DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST AND NOMINEE FOR THE 
                       NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

    Mr. Law. Chair Merkley, Co-chair McGovern, and members of 
the Commission, it's really nice to hear Speaker Pelosi again, 
and I thank her for her tireless support to our movements. I'm 
very grateful for the invitation to this important hearing.
    On August 17th, 2017, I was sitting in the dock of the 
court of appeals in Hong Kong with Joshua Wong and Alex Chow. 
We were all sentenced to months of imprisonment for inciting 
and participating in an unlawful, yet peaceful, assembly during 
the Umbrella Movement. Today while I'm exiled in the U.K., 
Joshua has been sitting in jail for a year without knowing when 
his trial under the National Security Law can even begin. The 
number of high-profile political prisoners has continued to 
rise as the government cracks down on professors, reporters, 
and many other members of civil society. Americans used to talk 
about Hong Kong as the pearl of the Orient and one of Asia's 
freest enclaves. Now, however, all there is to associate with 
the city is rising authoritarianism and the decline of freedom.
    Since the massive 2019 protests, tens of thousands of 
protesters have been arrested, with more than 2,000 formally 
charged. And all of this has occurred in parallel to 
government-appointed judges presiding over National Security 
Law cases. Joshua was very young when I met him, and we have 
been fighting alongside each other for eight years. He was my 
closest ally, and we shared joys and pains. So it is 
particularly hard that amid the lunar new year, traditionally 
when family and friends gather and celebrate, that he and a lot 
of my friends are still behind bars, while I am unable to 
connect with my family because it will endanger them, and 
political turmoil in Hong Kong and the growing number of 
political prisoners show that Chinese leaders have grown very 
confident about their more technologically advanced and 
sophisticated Orwellian model of social control. They disregard 
any commitment to human rights and international obligations.
    Last December, to counter President Joe Biden's Summit for 
Democracy, at which I was privileged to speak as the sole Hong 
Kong representative, the Chinese leaders published a white 
paper promoting what they call China Democracy. They claim that 
China's democracy was the one that worked. They tried to 
redefine democracy in a way that universal suffrage, checks and 
balances, and the division of power would not be part of it. 
Instead, they called the totalitarian system in China, in which 
the people have absolutely no rights to elect their country's 
leaders, a democracy. This is the level of disinformation and 
hostility they are imposing on the free world. They're trying 
to undermine the history of Hong Kong, the culture of Hong 
Kong, what it means to be a Hong Konger, and, most importantly, 
the democratic values that we all treasure.
    The Chinese government has broken every promise it made to 
the world ahead of the last Olympic Games it held in the summer 
of 2008. Fourteen years later, under General Secretary Xi 
Jinping, it is more aggressive and arrogant than ever. To see 
corporations and other countries rolling out the red carpet for 
it is plainly disgusting. There is nothing to celebrate about 
the current Winter Olympics in Beijing while a genocide is 
literally happening. That is why an even larger coalition of 
activists, not just Hong Kongers but also our Uyghur, Tibetan, 
Taiwanese allies, are standing up now.
    The Biden administration is right to diplomatically boycott 
the event, but there is far more that policymakers in 
Washington can do to support Hong Kong. Congress should 
consider the various bills on everything from sanctions to 
internet freedom that have been introduced in recent years. Of 
even more importance are humanitarian pathways for Hong Kongers 
in need, including the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act, the Hong Kong 
People's Freedom and Choice Act, and the relevant options of 
the America COMPETES Act, which I know the leadership and many 
members of this Commission support.
    The Olympic Games may be a one-off event, but our struggle 
against China is global, essential, and potentially lifelong. 
We will all do well to reduce our reliance on China in every 
way possible and forge better multilateral partnerships with 
like-minded stakeholders to coordinate an international 
pushback. We must grasp every opportunity to send a signal and 
stop the complacency. Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong. 
Thank you so much, and I look forward to your questions.

    [The prepared statement of Nathan Law appears in the 
Appendix.]

    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much, Mr. Law.
    Now, Ms. Ilham.

 STATEMENT OF JEWHER ILHAM, SPOKESPERSON FOR THE COALITION TO 
   END UYGHUR FORCED LABOR AND DAUGHTER OF IMPRISONED UYGHUR 
                      SCHOLAR ILHAM TOHTI

    Ms. Ilham. Thank you, Senator Merkley and Congressman 
McGovern, for hosting this hearing and inviting me here to 
testify. I'd like to thank Madam Speaker Pelosi for being here, 
and for your tireless work to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor 
Prevention Act.
    In April 2014, I testified before this commission on behalf 
of my father, Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at Beijing 
Minzu University who had been detained that year. It has been 
eight years, and my father is still in prison now serving a 
life sentence for the alleged crime of separatism. The Chinese 
government accused my father of being an extremist and advocate 
of violence. These are nothing more than fabricated charges. My 
father had never incited violence nor extremism, or promoted 
separatism, as the Chinese government claims.
    He's a renowned scholar who dedicated his life and work to 
brokering peaceful dialogue among Uyghur and Han people. He was 
well loved by his colleagues and many students. That is why his 
arrest generated such an outcry from not only the international 
community, but also from many inside of China. On his website, 
Uyghur Online, he hosted articles that evaluated the 
disparities in the Uyghur region and opportunities--or lack 
thereof--for economic growth and development. He proposed 
constructive solutions to the Chinese government in efforts to 
develop the Uyghur region.
    Instead of engaging in constructive dialogue, the Chinese 
government locked him up. My father was sentenced in September 
2014. While in prison, he was shackled, beaten, and denied food 
twice--each time for 10 days, and those are only the times that 
we were aware of. He has not seen a lawyer since his second 
trial in 2014. Our family has not been able to visit him since 
2017. Now my family doesn't know whether he is even alive.
    That is also the case for many other Uyghurs who are being 
held captive by the Chinese government. A number of them were 
scholars, like my father, and some were my father's students. 
Atikem Rozi, a former student of my father's, was sentenced to 
four years in prison in 2014 for the alleged crimes of 
separatism and endangering state security. Her association with 
my father and her contribution to the website Uyghur Online 
were reasons for those charges. And Atikem Rozi's term ended in 
2018, but she remained detained.
    Rahile Dawut is a renowned anthropologist, scholar, and 
expert in Uyghur folklore and traditions. She has been missing 
for four years. In the summer of 2021, the Chinese government 
finally confirmed that she is imprisoned but shared no details 
of the charges against her or of her alleged crimes. Rahile 
Dawut's daughter, just like me, lives in the United States 
without her family, does not know her mother's current status, 
and is still fighting for her release.
    Yalqun Rozi, a scholar and a publisher, was sentenced in 
2018 to 15 years of imprisonment for inciting subversion and 
ethnic hatred. Yalqun Rozi published Uyghur-language textbooks 
that authorities claim ``incorporated ethnic separatism'' and 
``terrorism,'' even though the Chinese government had permitted 
use of his language textbooks for years, until PRC officials 
suddenly ramped up their repression of the Uyghurs and their 
language and culture.
    I raise these names as examples, in addition to my 
father's, because it is important to remember that those 
imprisoned on fabricated charges, and the over one million 
Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority people who have 
been arbitrarily detained in internment camps, are not just 
numbers, but real people who have parents, children, and 
friends. We need to lift up the names of individuals who are 
imprisoned in violation of their human rights and draw 
attention to their individual cases. We need to impress upon 
people who are unmoved by the Chinese government's pervasive 
and systematic repression in the Uyghur region that the 
detention of over 1 million people is not an abstract idea. It 
is a horrifying reality that is destroying the lives of 
individuals and families, like mine, like Yalqun Rozi's, like 
Rahile Dawut's, like Atikem Rozi's.
    As I noted, I was last here in front of the Commission 
eight years ago. Sadly, since then the only changes in the 
Uyghur region have been for the worse. I'm grateful to see the 
U.S. Government's support for the Uyghur people. Once fully 
implemented and enforced, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention 
Act will counter the regime of state-sponsored forced labor 
that is taking place on a massive scale. But there is more that 
can be done to call for an end to the Chinese government's 
oppression against Uyghurs.
    This includes raising the names of Uyghurs who have been 
unjustly imprisoned and highlighting the human toll of the 
repressive policies. This can help personalize the large-scale 
atrocities that are taking place in China, and hopefully the 
growing indignation and outcry will move governments that so 
far have remained silent on the repression of Uyghurs to 
action. Through building more united and concerted 
international pressure, we will have a greater chance at 
changing the Chinese government's human rights abuses. I look 
forward to working with you to address these tough issues, and 
I really hope that in eight years we're not having the same 
conversation again. Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Jewher Ilham appears in the 
Appendix.]

    Chair Merkley. Thank you so much for your testimony.
    Ms. Lhamo.

 STATEMENT OF NYIMA LHAMO, HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE AND NIECE OF 
              THE LATE TULKU TENZIN DELEK RINPOCHE

    Ms. Lhamo. Hello everyone. My name is Nyima Lhamo. Thank 
you for this opportunity to testify.
    The opening ceremony of the 2022 Olympics will take place 
tomorrow, so it is urgent that we raise our voice today for 
those who have been silenced by the CCP. I'm the niece of the 
late Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche was a 
highly respected lama in our area, in the Lithang district. He 
earned respect through his social work, establishing schools, 
clinics, orphanages, and old-age homes, but the respect he 
earned among the common people angered the Chinese authorities. 
They falsely accused him of serious crimes and committed him to 
life in prison in 2002. He was kept in prison until he suddenly 
died in custody after thirteen years.
    After Rinpoche died, the Chinese authorities said he was a 
fake lama, a criminal, a threat to so-called ``social 
stability.'' My family and local Tibetans weren't allowed to 
offer butter lamps. We weren't allowed to organize public 
prayer in memory of Rinpoche. Pictures of Rinpoche were banned 
in Lithang. My family was also threatened. Despite the 
difficulties and hardship, I escaped Tibet in order to share 
the story of my late uncle. I left my family and 6-year-old 
daughter behind. Last year in September, the authorities took 
my 57-year-old mother and two brothers for questioning. They 
were kept in different places for seven days. They were 
questioned about how I escaped from Tibet.
    My mother was beaten. They told her that they could easily 
kill her because she is my mother. They were questioned about 
how I escaped from Tibet. My mother was made responsible for 
making me stop my advocacy. They wanted her to say that Trulku 
Tenzin Delek Rinpoche was a fake lama, that I don't know 
anything about the situation inside Tibet, that I'm being used 
by ``outside forces.'' When my mother became ill she tried to 
go to the Chengdu Hospital. At first the police didn't allow 
her to go. Later they allowed her to go, but the police 
followed her there, from her hotel to the hospital, watching 
her the entire time.
    I am very, very worried about my family's safety. They told 
my mom that if I continue to speak up out here, they will beat, 
arrest, or even kill members of my family. Today Beijing is 
putting on a friendly face for the Olympics, but that isn't 
their real face. The Tibetan people have seen who they really 
are. We saw it when they destroyed our temple, when they shot 
and beat us, when they make our religious leaders disappear, 
when they arrest and kill innocent people. Our language and 
culture are on the edge, facing the crushing weight of Chinese 
repression. Tibetans don't have the freedom to speak the truth.
    Hearings like this help those who are inside Tibet. Those 
messages will reach them and give them hope. While growing up 
in Tibet it was common to hear of Tibetans dying in Chinese 
prisons without any justice. There were so many of them. Today, 
I want to bring the case of four political prisoners to your 
attention. The first is Gedhun Nyima Choekyi. He was 
disappeared in 1995 at the age of six and has never been seen 
since. The second is Lhundup Dakpa, a singer. He was given a 
six-year sentence for singing a song opposing Chinese rule in 
Tibet. Third, Bonkho Kyi. A young woman, she arranged a small 
celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's birthday. She was 
sentenced to seven years in prison. Lastly, please remember 
Lobsang Dhondup, a relative of mine. He was arrested alongside 
my late uncle, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, and executed.
    Finally, my mother's health has always been an issue. I 
would like to ask if there is any way my mom can be brought out 
of Tibet for health reasons. My family has lost so much. 
Anything you can do to help her I would greatly appreciate. 
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak.

    [The prepared statement of Nyima Lhamo appears in the 
Appendix.]

    Chair Merkley. Thank you, and we certainly will follow up 
on your question in every possibly way we can.
    Ms. Luo.

                STATEMENT OF SOPHIE LUO, WIFE OF
          DISAPPEARED HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER DING JIAXI

    Ms. Luo. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Co-chairman, and distinguished 
members of the Commission, thank you so much for holding this 
hearing.
    Today I will be telling you about the case of my husband 
Ding Jiaxi and three other rights defenders who are currently 
in detention in China in connection with a crackdown after a 
private gathering in December 2019. My husband, Ding Jiaxi, is 
a human rights lawyer and activist. He met leading law scholar 
Xu Zhiyong in Beijing in late 2011, and the two led together 
the Chinese New Citizens Movement. Their ideas and activities 
centered on getting Chinese people to take their rights, 
written in the Chinese constitution, seriously, practice them 
in everyday life, and become real citizens of the country.
    Their peaceful and lawful activities in 2012 and 2013, 
however, resulted in official prosecution. They were sentenced 
to 4 years and 3.5 years in prison for charges of ``gathering a 
crowd to disrupt public order.'' After they were released from 
prison, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi resumed their activities to 
promote civil rights. They reached out to citizens around the 
country who shared the same aspirations and continued to 
promote the growth of civil society, but their activism caught 
the attention of the authorities again.
    After a two-day private gathering in Xiamen with around 20 
lawyers and friends on December 7th and 8th, 2019, Chinese 
police detained Ding Jiaxi on December 26th, 2019, and Xu 
Zhiyong on February 15th, 2020, and held them under 
``residential surveillance at a designated location,'' RSDL. 
While held in RSDL, both men were subjected to torture and ill 
treatment, including to prolonged sleep deprivation, loud noise 
harassment, interrogation while being tightly strapped to an 
iron ``tiger chair,'' food and water restrictions, no exposure 
to sunlight, and no showers.
    In June 2020, both men were formally arrested on suspicion 
of ``inciting subversion of state power'' and transferred to a 
detention center. In January 2021, Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong 
finally were able to meet their lawyers by video after 13 and 
11 months in secret detention. In August 2021, Chinese 
authorities indicted and charged them with ``subversion of 
state power,'' a more serious crime that could result in life 
imprisonment. Others were detained as part of the Xiamen 
gathering crackdown. Still in detention are Chang Weiping and 
Li Qiaochu.
    Chang Weiping is a younger generation human rights lawyer. 
He was placed under RSDL for 10 days in January 2020 after 
participating in the gathering and was sent to RSDL again in 
October 2020 under the charge of ``subversion of state power.'' 
He was subjected to brutal torture and was denied access to a 
lawyer for 11 months.
    Li Qiaochu didn't attend the gathering but was sent to RSDL 
for four months in 2020 simply because she was Xu Zhiyong's 
fiancee and was detained again in February 2021 under the 
charge of ``inciting subversion of state power'' for exposing 
Xu Zhiyong's torture and disclosing the corruption of the 
detention center. She was denied access to a lawyer for 10 
months and now is suffering from severe mental health issues.
    Senator Merkley, Congressman McGovern, and members of the 
Commission, I am an engineer by training and by profession. I 
would never have imagined that I would be here in Washington, 
DC telling Members of Congress about my husband and our friends 
who are under persecution. This is not something I have ever 
done before. I want to sincerely thank you for holding this 
hearing on the eve of the Beijing Olympics and thank the 
Commission for continuing to advocate for political prisoners 
like my husband Ding Jiaxi. Thank you very much.

    [The prepared statement of Sophie Luo appears in the 
Appendix.]

    Chair Merkley. So much appreciation to all of you for 
sharing your experiences, your insights, your direct knowledge 
of the horrific crimes against humanity that are underway. We 
are here at this moment, less than 24 hours before the Olympic 
Games begin, to say it is not acceptable to let the glitz and 
glamour of Olympic gold hide the egregious human rights crimes 
of the Chinese government. When we had the members of the 
International Olympic Committee before us, in our conversations 
that followed, they said that athletes can express themselves 
outside of the Olympic platform when they are receiving medals. 
On the other hand, the Beijing Organizing Committee warned 
athletes that any behavior or speech that is against the 
Olympic spirit or Chinese laws and regulations is subject to 
certain punishment.
    Do we have any confidence, Ms. Cao, that athletes can 
exercise their freedom of speech during the Olympic Games?
    Ms. Cao. I doubt it. I read in the news that athletes were 
compelled to install an app designed for the Olympic athletes. 
So everyone has the same app. We have known for a long time 
about China's censorship of its own citizens, or any speech 
inside China that expresses any dissent. So these athletes will 
be closely watched through this app. They will also be 
surrounded by minders watching their movements and who they're 
going with and what they're doing, I'd say 24/7. There won't be 
any break. So I would say they will be subjecting themselves to 
a lot of risk if some of them decide to speak up.
    At the same time, the Chinese people, the Chinese citizens 
have had tight control on expression on social media and across 
the board placed on them. They can't talk about anything that's 
disagreeable to the government. They can't--as a matter of fact 
Chinese dissidents, activists, can't even have an account on 
the Chinese social media platforms. So that's the situation. 
Athletes will be risking a lot if they decide to speak up.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you. Which means that if individuals 
do speak up, they know they're doing so at great risk and they 
will be exhibiting the type of courage that so many of you and 
your family members and your friends have exhibited.
    Mr. Law, what recommendations do you have for Congress 
about how we can better support political prisoners in Hong 
Kong, given the new political-legal environment there?
    Mr. Law. Thank you so much, Chairman, for your question. As 
I said in my speech, there are numerous bills that are waiting 
to be passed in Congress, including providing safe harbor, 
including providing security on internet freedom, and also the 
COMPETES Act generally puts pressure on the Chinese Communist 
Party. For now, it's really difficult to directly do a lot of 
things, or do something, on the situation of Hong Kong's 
political prisoners because Beijing always holds the facade of 
the rule of law in Hong Kong. And even though they have full 
control under the national security accords, they appointed 
judges, and the judges are obviously following orders.
    For them they would definitely say that, oh, it's judiciary 
issues and the government has no intervention over it. So 
definitely on the surface level they are saying that there is 
nothing to do. But at the end of the day the reason why Hong 
Kong ended up losing its freedom and that Beijing seems to be 
much more aggressive than ever, is because Beijing has 
confidence in its own system. Hong Kong used to be seen as a 
gateway--or as an example for the Chinese Communist Party and 
the PRC to move towards liberalization. For now they feel good 
in singing the totalitarian song so they no longer need that 
example of Hong Kong anymore. They just treat Hong Kong as an 
ordinary Chinese city. So for now it's really for us to gear up 
our pressure on the Chinese Communist Party, to have a good 
alliance, to have good policy, a good global agenda, and 
coordinate global pushback.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you.
    Ms. Ilham, I'm very struck by two items that I'd like you 
to amplify your thoughts on, if you would like to. One is the 
way in which apparel brands and retailers are complicit in 
forced labor by utilizing products made with that forced labor. 
And second, the incredible impact of surveillance technology, 
which has created an Orwellian world where every movement is 
watched and recorded, giving no personal space for expression, 
or learning, or reflection, or advocacy. Your thoughts on those 
two pieces of the challenge.
    Ms. Ilham. Thank you for your question. First, I would like 
to note that the surveillance tools that the Chinese government 
is using are directly benefiting the forced labor situation 
that's happening there. First of all, virtually speaking, we'll 
have to assume that the entire apparel industry or any 
industry--it doesn't matter what products--made in the Uyghur 
region are tainted by forced labor. That's why we passed the 
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, because of the level of 
surveillance we're talking about.
    People are not free outside of their homes. People are not 
free inside their homes. I grew up having bugging devices in my 
living room. I grew up being followed by Chinese policemen to 
shopping malls. I grew up having policemen constantly coming to 
our homes, traveling with us to different cities, and putting 
us under house arrest. And back then, things were not even that 
bad. Imagine how it is now. The due diligence mechanisms that 
work elsewhere in the rest of the world simply don't work in 
China. That's why if any companies claim that their item is 
free of forced labor, even though they're directly sourcing 
from the Uyghur Region, then they are lying or they are 
pretending that they don't know what's going on.
    Given the exposure of the situation in China, the brands 
and corporations have the responsibility to know what's going 
on with their suppliers and where they're sourcing from. Also I 
want to note that currently the Olympics is happening, and 
recently the IOC issued a statement saying that the Olympic 
uniforms are free of forced labor. I have to say that it's 
hardly a true statement because, first of all, in the IOC's 
recent statement it only listed two brands. One is Anta. 
Another one was HYX, Hengyuanxiang. Both of these two brands 
publicly announced that they have always been using Xinjiang 
cotton, and they would continue to do so.
    How would two brands who have actively supported the use of 
Xinjiang cotton be free of forced labor, even though virtually 
the entire apparel industry is tainted by forced labor? The IOC 
has failed to provide transparent due diligence that they have 
conducted in the Uyghur Region and they have failed to disclose 
their factory names, the auditor names, and they have failed to 
explain why they did not disclose that information. So there is 
a great challenge, but given that we have passed the Uyghur 
Forced Labor Prevention Act, hopefully it will very effectively 
reduce forced labor goods entering the U.S.
    One more note, the Forced Labor Prevention Act is great. It 
has the rebuttable presumption that basically makes sure that 
any goods from the Uyghur Region cannot enter the U.S. unless 
there is clear evidence to support that. But we also have to 
note that the recently released report, ``Laundering Cotton,'' 
released by Sheffield Hallam University, has stated there are 
53 manufacturers linked to over 100 international brands who 
have secondary links to the Uyghur Region. And they could be 
linked to countries like India, to Indonesia, to Pakistan, to 
elsewhere. And those products are not stated as sourced in the 
Uyghur Region, but they have secondary links to the Uyghur 
Region. They are transferred to a second country, third 
country, then they end up in the U.S. market.
    So we need to be cautious and the brands need to be 
cautious. They need to choose to be on the right side of 
history. Thank you.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much.
    Co-chair McGovern.
    Co-chair McGovern. Well, thank you very much. Let me just 
say, in response to the concerns you just raised, one of the 
things that Senator Merkley, Senator Rubio, Representative 
Smith, and the entire Commission are working on is to try to 
make sure that we provide adequate funding in our 
appropriations process so that the bill can actually be 
enforced. I'm going to yield the balance of my time to Speaker 
Pelosi, who has been here for this entire hearing. I think it 
speaks volumes about her commitment to human rights.
    I just want to make one point, and that is that I hope that 
the media that are covering these Olympics--and we sent a 
letter to NBC, by the way, the commissioners here--I hope that 
they make a special effort to highlight the realities in China. 
I hope that they don't see themselves as a vehicle simply to 
promote the propaganda that the government is going to put 
forward, where everybody's holding hands and singing kumbaya, 
and everything is perfect. We know that that's not the case. 
But we know that that's what the Chinese government will want 
to do.
    You know, it is not unreasonable for journalists, sports 
journalists as well, to highlight that there is a genocide 
going on, to highlight the ethnic cleansing that is occurring 
in Tibet, to highlight the issues that Nathan Law talked about 
in Hong Kong. I think the Chinese government is counting on our 
media, the international media, to turn a blind eye to that, 
and I think that would be a tragedy. So this cannot be business 
as usual and I think there is a moral obligation by those who 
are covering these events to make sure that people understand 
the background in which they are occurring.
    Now I want to yield whatever time I have to the 
distinguished Speaker of the House.
    Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    I will be brief because I want you to have the balance of 
your time. I want to thank you and the Chairman for the 
opportunity to be with you today, to have the benefit of this 
very, very important testimony. I want to acknowledge also the 
bipartisan nature of all of this. You mentioned Senator Rubio's 
work as well as Chris Smith's. It's bicameral, both houses. 
It's bipartisan, both parties, and a reflection of the values 
of the American people.
    What I hear from our witnesses is further evidence of the 
courage of the people who are committed to freedom of 
expression and respect for human rights in China. What I see is 
the cowardice of the Chinese government, the cowardice of their 
actions, to take actions against family members because you are 
speaking out in other places, as some of you have mentioned. 
The cowardice of the business community not to have confidence 
in their ability to compete, but to fold to the Chinese 
government without speaking out.
    I will again thank all of you, as well as Congresswoman 
Wexton for her leadership on the Uyghur situation, and make 
this point, and I said this to our caucus this morning: When we 
talk about genocide of the Uyghurs, it's a horrible thing. It's 
diabolical. It also has an impact on the workforce, because it 
is a human rights violation of the greatest magnitude. However, 
it is also unfairness to American workers or workers in other 
economies because you're making people compete with slave 
labor.
    I've told this story in press events before: I talked to 
the former President of the United States, the most recent one, 
when he was in Japan at G-20 and I said: When you talk to 
President Xi, tell him of the bicameral, bipartisan awareness 
we have of what's happening to the Uyghurs and the genocide 
that is happening there. The former President called me the 
next day and said, I spoke to President Xi about that and he 
said the Uyghurs like going to those camps. Really?
    So I would just say to the business community and to those 
who are afraid, as they demonstrate their cowardice vis-a-vis 
the Chinese government, and the cowardice of that government, 
they're afraid of your values, your courage. What does it 
profit a country if it gains the whole world and suffers the 
loss of its soul? We don't want that to happen to us. This is a 
challenge to the conscience of the world. Thank you for your 
courage. And with that, and thanking you, I yield back to Mr. 
McGovern.
    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you very much. I'll ask most of my 
questions in the second round, but I just want to reinforce 
what the Speaker said and, again, remind the business community 
that does business in the region that the Uyghur Forced Labor 
Prevention Act that Senator Merkley, Senator Rubio, and 
Representative Smith and I championed, is now law. We will make 
sure it is funded. We will make sure that it is enforced. The 
days of see no evil, hear no evil are over. The corporations 
that turned a blind eye to what is happening to the Uyghurs, 
and to others, they are complicit. I mean we're all speaking in 
very strong terms here, but it is true. And I get it--everybody 
wants to make money, but the bottom line is, we will make sure 
that the American people know which companies are complicit and 
people will make choices based on that. I'm not drinking Coca-
Cola, as I said at the beginning of this, because of their 
involvement right now. There are clothing companies, there are 
footwear companies, I can go right down the list. They know who 
they are. And so things have to change. Let me yield back my 
time and I'll ask questions in the second round.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much. A special thank you to 
Speaker Pelosi for being here to lend your long advocacy and 
the prestige of your position to these important issues. I 
think your phrase will stick in my head--what does it benefit a 
nation to gain the world but lose its soul? You said it more 
poetically than I did, but I think that sums up what we're 
looking at. Thank you.
    Congresswoman Wexton.
    Representative Wexton. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. 
Thank you also to Chairman McGovern. I really appreciated your 
opening remarks, because it's important that we remember that a 
lot of people conflate the Chinese people, or Asian people, 
with the actions of the CCP. We should never let that happen. 
There's been a huge increase in anti-Asian hate and we want to 
make sure we get that under control and make it very clear that 
that is not permitted.
    Ms. Ilham, I did appreciate your remarks, especially about 
the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. I share with you the 
concerns about the possible shortcomings of that legislation. 
That's why I introduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act, 
which would require companies that are publicly traded to 
actively investigate their supply chains for forced labor and 
ensure that there is no forced labor used in the production of 
those goods, and if it is, to disclose that. Also to disclose 
if they're unable to determine one way or the other. That would 
be publicly, in their SEC documents. That has passed the House 
of Representatives twice, and if anybody in the Senate is 
interested in picking that up, I certainly would be very 
interested in working with you to make that happen.
    I'm glad that we are holding this hearing today on the eve 
of the opening ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Genocide Games, 
because the PRC wants nothing more than to distract the world 
from its crimes against humanity in Tibet, its anti-democratic 
crackdown in Hong Kong, and the ongoing genocide happening in 
Xinjiang. I'm disappointed that we, as a Commission, were 
unable to compel the U.S. sponsors of the Beijing Games, like 
Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Intel, and others to 
withdraw their support, even though we tried. It's very clear 
that they are prioritizing their bottom lines over everything 
else, including human rights. Now, I never expected the IOC to 
do the right thing. They are a deeply corrupt organization. But 
their treatment and what they did as accomplices in the 
disappearance of Peng Shuai was disappointing and even 
undershot my very low expectations.
    I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for joining us here today. 
You have been a champion on human rights in China throughout 
your entire tenure in Congress. I also want to thank you for 
getting my resolution condemning the IOC for their treatment of 
Peng Shuai to the floor so quickly. It passed the House of 
Representatives on a recorded unanimous vote, which does not 
happen very frequently and shows you the wonderful bipartisan 
cooperation that we have on this legislation.
    I do have some questions for some of the witnesses. Ms. 
Cao, you testified that it was really that the CCP's treatment 
of Peng Shuai was basically following their playbook, the way 
that they treated her when she came forward. Can you describe 
that a little bit more fully and also describe what the status 
of the #MeToo Movement in China is? Do many of the women who 
come forward face the same kind of effects?
    Ms. Cao. Yes. Thank you, Congresswoman Wexton, and thank 
you for the resolution you introduced condemning IOC's 
complicity in the Peng Shuai incident. Speaking of China's 
playbook, I wrote an article two months ago called ``What 
Awaits Peng Shuai.'' Initially, I didn't feel like I had too 
much to say about Peng Shuai, but a month into the incident I 
feel like I have a lot to offer. What I have to offer is this 
playbook that, as a human rights activist, I'm so familiar 
with. Many of us are very familiar with this. There is a clear 
pattern and clear components in this playbook when China deals 
with dissent or human rights cases that cause wide 
international attention.
    In my article, I gave a few examples. If I could just 
briefly tell you a couple other stories, everybody here will 
know------
    Representative Wexton. If you could very quickly, because I 
do have some questions for the other panelists as well. If you 
could make it brief, that would be great.
    Ms. Cao. Yes. So for example, when Wang Yu was given the 
Human Rights Award by the American Bar Association, China 
actually sent a false lawyer letter to ABA denouncing the work 
in Wang Yu's name. In the case of Gui Minhai, the Hong Kong 
bookseller who was detained, who has Swedish citizenship, he 
was made to go on TV to confess that he stays in China 
voluntarily and he does not want to return to Sweden, and he 
denounces his Swedish citizenship. So with Peng Shuai, we have 
seen this. Of course, the first component in this playbook is 
censorship. Then there's all manner of different denials--
whatever the allegations are. Then there's a public TV 
confession. An organization called Safeguard Defenders did a 
lot of in-depth research on that.
    Representative Wexton. Ms. Cao, I'm sorry, I'm going to 
need to reclaim my time, because I--thank you very much. You 
gave some very interesting examples of how that playbook has 
been used against other people in China.
    Ms. Ilham, what happens to the children of these people who 
get detained? Because, you know, sometimes both parents in a 
household get detained. What happens to their minor children 
when they're detained?
    Ms. Ilham. From camp survivors or family members of former 
detainees I have learned that many of those children whose 
parents are detained get sent to orphanages or certain types of 
boarding schools, if they're slightly older. And a lot of------
    Representative Wexton. Is there indoctrination by the CCP 
taking place at these boarding schools?
    Ms. Ilham. Yes. At those schools they learn Chinese, speak 
only Chinese, and are not allowed to speak in Uyghur. They eat 
Chinese food, dress like Chinese, sing Chinese songs, learn 
Chinese poetry. That's what I learned from the testimony of 
former detainees and camp survivors.
    Representative Wexton. Thank you very much. I'll yield back 
with that.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much, Congresswoman.
    I believe next up is Congresswoman Steel.
    Representative Steel. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and 
ranking members. It is really unacceptable that the Chinese 
Communist Party is allowed to host the Winter Olympics. I have 
repeatedly called on the International Olympic Committee to 
move the 2022 Winter Olympics out of Beijing and I have pushed 
corporate sponsors to use their advertising during the Games to 
shine a light on human rights abuses happening throughout 
China. The CCP continues to repress the people of Hong Kong, 
Uyghurs, and Tibetans. They all repeatedly try to intimidate 
Taiwan and their allies. I've offered an amendment to the 
America COMPETES Act that resumes diplomatic relations with 
Taiwan, but the majority ruled it was not in order.
    Recently, Qin Gang, China's ambassador to the United 
States, issued a warning of military conflict between the two 
nations over America's continued support of a free and 
independent Taiwan. This should concern every one of us. Thank 
you all today for your stories and for standing up to the CCP. 
To all the witnesses, the United States must stand and fight 
for the people of Hong Kong and those being oppressed and 
prosecuted by the CCP for speaking out against human rights 
abuses.
    So my question is--anybody can answer here--how 
discouraging it is when you see elected officials across 
Western countries and global corporate companies turn a blind 
eye to the CCP and Chairman Xi Jinping? So what do you think 
about that?
    Mr. Law. Yes. Maybe I can jump into answering the 
congresswoman's question. As I said in my speech, it's really 
disgusting to see a lot of big corporations and some of the 
country's leaders literally roll a red carpet out for this 
Winter Olympics, while they obviously know that there is a 
genocide ongoing and there are a lot of people suffering. They 
know that by doing so they are not addressing these problems. 
So for me it's especially disheartening that it is not just 
about the Winter Olympics or Chinese human rights violations. 
It's about how we can retain the integrity and the idea of 
democratic values, while China is redefining the definition of 
democracy and trying to say that the authoritarian system 
triumphs over our democratic system.
    So for now, I think we need more values in our actions. We 
need more values-based diplomacy and we need more alliances and 
coalitions in which like-minded countries can work and act 
together. And some of the democratic countries, if they send 
delegations of high officials to the Winter Olympics, it 
definitely ruins this collaboration and dedication that we all 
put into protecting democracy. And let's not forget, we are in 
the second decade of a democratic backslide. For the last 10 
years, 20 years, democracy has been losing ground in the world, 
and one of the major components is that we were too complacent 
to the rise of authoritarianism, especially in China. And now 
we should change that, and the change starts with all 
democratic countries getting together and at least boycotting 
events like this.
    So American leadership is really important. I am very 
grateful for all the bipartisan support that we as Hong Kong 
democratic activists receive, and the support you give to our 
democratic movement and addressing human rights violations in 
some other regions in China, including to the Uyghurs, to the 
Tibetans, and to the Taiwanese.
    Representative Steel. Thank you, Mr. Law. I sent a letter 
out to 17 Olympic corporate sponsors to give up just a little 
bit of their advertising money to let the whole world know what 
kind of human rights violations the CCP's been committing, 
because it's really important. They have a big platform and 
this is just perfect timing to do that. I never got a response 
from any of those corporate sponsors.
    So my second question is, what do these CEOs and elected 
leaders need to do to protect those minority groups and 
vulnerable populations in China? Because we don't see that in 
the world, and they are not transparent. They've been hiding 
everything. So unless we hear from witnesses today, we don't 
know exactly what's going on, except to just sum up the news 
that we read. So anybody can answer that, and I'd really 
appreciate it.
    Ms. Ilham. I'd like to take this question, please. Well, 
thank you for this wonderful question. First of all, I want to 
connect it to the previous question you raised, that it's 
absolutely disgusting that the corporations have chosen to turn 
a blind eye. It is very saddening, but also we need to be 
positive--because with being positive, there's hope, and then 
there's change. We also need to focus on those brands and 
companies that have chosen to do the right thing. For instance, 
Marks & Spencer, ASOS, Reformation, New Look--these brands who 
have billion-dollar revenues have committed to exiting the 
Uyghur Region. That means that it is difficult to end ties to 
the Uyghur Region, but it is feasible.
    We need to reward those brands by telling them that they 
are doing the right thing. We can show a good example to these 
brands like Anta and HYX who publicly advocate the use of 
Xinjiang cotton. Brands like Hugo Boss and Uniqlo had refused 
to sign the call to action that was proposed by our Coalition 
to End Uyghur Forced Labor, where we asked the brands to exit 
the Uyghur Region at every level of their supply chain. We have 
different brands choosing different paths, and the CEOs are 
fully aware of what is happening. The Coalition to End Uyghur 
Forced Labor has reached out to hundreds of brands. We have 
sent letters to hundreds of brands informing them about what is 
happening, explaining ``this is what you can do, this is what 
you shouldn't be doing, this is how you can do better.''
    We have received replies from many brands. I'm not going to 
name who exactly here. Some of them said yes, we're aware of 
this. We want to do good, but we can't commit to the call to 
action that you have proposed. Some of them say they would like 
to stop sourcing from the Uyghur region, but also some of them 
would ignore us and stop responding even though we are more 
than aware that they have received our letters and they know 
exactly what is happening. So we need to urge those CEOs, those 
corporate leaders to make them follow the good examples, to do 
the right thing, to stop their complicity in Uyghur forced 
labor.
    Twenty-two percent of the cotton production might be from 
the Uyghur Region, but the rest of the 80 percent is from 
elsewhere. That means there are alternatives--they can source 
from other sources. There is a better solution, and we need to 
propose that to those brands. That's why I suggest governments 
around the world also reach out to those corporate leaders and 
let them know that this is not an action that we should be 
encouraging, and what the right thing to do is.
    Representative Steel. Thank you, everyone. I thought this 
was just perfect timing--they have a big platform to let the 
world know exactly what's been going on inside China and they 
can just spend a little bit of money.
    But Mr. Chairman, my time is up, and thank you. I yield 
back.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Steel.
    We're going to turn to Congressman McGovern, who 
courteously yielded his time to Speaker Pelosi earlier. Now 
I'll yield my time to you.
    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. 
Chairman. Again, thank you for your incredible leadership on 
all this.
    Ms. Lhamo, we want to thank you for your tireless advocacy 
on behalf of your uncle. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's case was well 
known in Congress. I remember the sadness I felt when I was 
informed of his death in custody. How has your advocacy for 
your uncle's case affected your family in Tibet? Do you here in 
the United States receive any pressure from the Chinese 
government or Party, directly or indirectly, to stop?
    Ms. Lhamo. Thank you for this question. Thank you for 
continuing to mention his story. It's very important for us to 
continue to mention that story and for the other organizers and 
involved community. Yes, I got a lot of warnings from the 
Chinese through my relatives, from my mom. They always told me, 
if you continue to speak up about the story inside Tibet, they 
might kill you, because they say they have a lot of spies 
around the world.
    So they'd say, your daughter is in danger because we know 
every single town and what she is doing there. If she continues 
like your brother Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, people will just get 
used to it after a few years and nothing will change. China is 
going to be a great power in the world, so there is nothing 
that will change if she keeps talking about these things. It 
doesn't work. You tell your daughter that they will keep to----
    Interpreter. Ms. Lhamo says that the authorities always 
say, Your daughter is advocating. And whatever Nyima does the 
authorities follow her, and they know exactly everything. And 
they could easily stop her and endanger her very easily. The 
warnings are constant.
    Ms. Lhamo [continues through interpreter]. We have spies 
all over the world, watching 24 hours a day. And we know 
everything that she is doing. The Tibetans inside Tibet look to 
the outside world to tell their story and to speak about them, 
and especially they look to the United States as a leader in 
the world in speaking out against the oppressed. Everything you 
do to speak out and raise awareness about what is happening 
inside Tibet helps the Tibetans.
    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you. Sophie Luo, we are sorry that 
you remain separated from your husband, Ding Jiaxi. When 
Chinese security authorities initially took him into custody, 
along with legal advocate Xu Zhiyong, they placed them under a 
police measure called Residential Surveillance at a Designated 
Location, RSDL, for about six months. Can you explain what RSDL 
is? What should the UN and the U.S. be doing about this 
practice?
    Ms. Luo. Thank you, Congressman McGovern. RSDL is a new 
term that they added into the Criminal Law in 2012. It's 
supposed to be a very light criminal procedure to put the 
detainees at home or some designated location, but the Chinese 
Communist Party right now systematically uses it as 
incommunicado detention. Anyone sent into RSDL right away is 
put into a location which no one knows where it is, and the 
setup of the location is just a room with the lights on 24 
hours, with a person watching you one on one, and without any 
communication with the outside world.
    The policemen can do anything they like to the person who 
is detained. Like in this case, Ding Jiaxi was put into 10 days 
of noise harassment, very loud harassment, for 10 days, 24 
hours. Everyone can hear around, but no one outside can hear. 
Chang Weiping was put into the tiger chair continually over 10 
days. So they can do whatever they want. And also Li Qiaochu, 
they threatened her using all kinds of dirty language.
    So Safeguard, the NGO, did an investigation on RSDL. 
Basically, systematically they can use these measures on any 
people they want to get a coerced confession from, like 
reporters, like diplomats, anyone--if they want to get a 
coerced confession, they use this measure. So it's very evil 
and widely used by the CCP now.
    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you. If I could just ask my friend 
Nathan Law, thank you for the update on Joshua Wong. We 
continue to keep him in our prayers, and we hope that he can be 
safe and released soon. But can you provide us an update on the 
47--the pro-democracy people charged with subversion in 
February 2021 over their roles in an unofficial primary 
election held in 2020?
    Mr. Law. Thank you so much, Congressman, for your question. 
Well, the 47 case was a case in which these political 
campaigners were charged under the National Security Law, 
allegedly under the charge of sedition, because they 
participated in a primary election. The government says that if 
you participate in a primary election and you want to get the 
majority, and by getting a majority you are possibly blocking 
government bills, you are committing a subversive act. So let's 
just imagine--every single political party in the West or in 
democratic countries hosts a primary in order to get the best 
lineup for elections. If that happens in Hong Kong, it would be 
a crime that would put you behind bars for years, or even 
decades. That's how drastic and how draconian the National 
Security Law is.
    For now, most of them have been held behind bars for almost 
a year without knowing when the trial will officially begin. No 
one knows when the sentencing will be, so it is a very 
precarious situation. For them especially, for Joshua Wong, 
Benny Tai, and Jimmy Lai, the trio has been named by the 
Chinese government's mouthpiece newspapers multiple times--they 
will probably receive the harshest sentencing. It may take 
decades for them to get out of jail. Some of them, well, we 
doubt whether the government wants them to leave jail alive. So 
it is a really serious situation. Keeping their names in the 
headlines, keeping their names on the statements, and 
continuing to bring up the situation of Hong Kong and what 
they've encountered, are really important for their own safety.
    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you. And let me--I know my time is 
up--I just want to just say a couple of things here. First of 
all, I want to thank the staff of the China Commission. They 
are an incredible group of people who are experts on a whole 
range of human rights issues and China issues. You don't always 
see them, but they're behind the scenes and they are 
responsible for putting together our annual report, which will 
hopefully come out very soon. Their research is second to none, 
and so I just want to thank them.
    Secondly, as Speaker Pelosi pointed out, this is a 
commission that is a bipartisan commission. Anybody who's 
observing Washington, you know that our politics is pretty 
polarizing. I mean, we have trouble agreeing on what to have 
for lunch, right? But on this issue, these fundamental human 
rights issues, we are together with Senator Rubio, and you 
heard Representative Steel, Representative Smith, and others. I 
mean, we are deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation 
on so many levels and we hear from people in China and from 
their families that are all over the world all the time about 
how awful the situation is. It has to change. Really, it is in 
the government of China's interest, I think, to change its 
approach.
    The final thing I'm going to say is--there are not enough 
bad words in the dictionary to describe my feelings about the 
International Olympic Committee and their decision to locate 
the Olympics in China at this particular moment. It's 
disgusting. It's hard to wrap your head around what they were 
thinking. When we met with them, they told us, well, we don't 
deal with politics. They don't deal with this--they have all 
these rules and regulations. I mean, the idea that you could be 
holding an Olympics in a country that is engaged in genocide, I 
mean, boy--I can't believe that that in and of itself wasn't 
enough for them to take a pass on China. We want China's 
behavior to change, but at this moment it hasn't.
    I think you're hearing from all of us this great sense of 
outrage over, not only what is going on in China, but the fact 
that these Games are proceeding. We honor our athletes, 
athletes all around the world, we honor them. We wish them 
well. We hope that they are safe. But the fact that this is 
happening now, it's unconscionable. Again, I hope the media 
will report the truth about what is going on in China and not 
merely be a vehicle to promote propaganda that the Chinese 
government is going to put forward, because the realities in 
China are very, very harsh. And I hope our companies that have 
been doing business in a way that has taken advantage of the 
forced labor situation, I hope it stops now. We passed a law 
that will force you to stop, but quite frankly, anybody with a 
conscience should have stopped doing business in a region that 
uses slave labor a long, long time ago.
    With that I yield back to the Chairman.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you. Do you have additional questions 
you will want to ask in a second round of questions?
    Co-chair McGovern. I have a couple more, but I didn't know 
if anyone else was wanting to----
    Chair Merkley. I don't believe we have anyone else in the 
queue. I do have one or two questions I'd like to ask, but if 
you'd like--do you want to finish, or do you want to come back 
to your additional questions?
    Co-chair McGovern. If I could finish, I'll finish.
    Chair Merkley. OK.
    Co-chair McGovern. Ms. Cao, I want to thank you for your 
testimony and dedication on the case of Peng Shuai. I'm 
concerned that her allegation of sexual assault against the 
senior Chinese official will not be investigated by the justice 
system and that she may not receive any needed psychological 
support as a victim of trauma. Chairman Merkley and I wrote a 
letter to the IOC noting that it was inappropriate for an IOC 
official to claim that she is ``doing fine'' based on a single 
remote video call. We worry that the IOC's focus on optics may 
make it harder for her to receive justice or support. I guess 
my first question to you is, do you agree? And how can we help 
her get these?
    Ms. Cao. Well, I predicted two months ago--I made a few 
predictions in my article after I carefully studied the 
situation. I predicted that she won't be allowed to leave the 
country. She will be completely disappeared from public view. 
She will be forced to deny the allegations and unfortunately, 
all of my predictions transpired. I think Peng Shuai will never 
live free if we don't apply serious pressure and I don't think 
China will do anything about Zhang Gaoli or the investigation.
    So it's interesting to see what will happen next, how the 
WTA situation will be resolved, or whether WTA will stand up 
for women, for Peng Shuai. So the playbook we talked about 
doesn't really give us an answer at this point, because there's 
the WTA decision. It's not just Peng Shuai. If it's just Peng 
Shuai, China will put her anywhere. Look, China doesn't have to 
put her in jail--she can live freely and happily in her home, 
yet not be free at all.
    Chair McGovern. President Thomas Bach stated that the IOC 
does not have any authority to intervene or speak on behalf of 
human rights in the host country. That's what we were told when 
we met with them, and yet he personally intervened with Peng 
and said that he plans to meet her during the Olympics. Do you 
think that this shows that perhaps the IOC can indeed step up 
on a human rights case?
    Ms. Cao. I think the most troubling sign about the IOC came 
on the day of December 2nd. They made a second statement within 
24 hours of WTA announcing its suspension of the tournament in 
China. In that IOC statement, the IOC actually used the Chinese 
government's--the CCP's--language. So I was like, are they 
actually actively coordinating with the CCP to suppress the 
Peng Shuai matter? If you have that kind of an idea, if that 
realization has dawned on you, you know that the IOC is not 
just glossing over things. The IOC is an active participant in 
the suppression.
    Against that backdrop, what will the IOC do? Well, the IOC 
will not do anything. Because China can't use its state media 
for the propaganda campaign because it has no credibility and 
no actual effect. So the IOC took the place of CCTV, Xinhua, 
and Global Times. The IOC will have that dinner with Peng Shuai 
or not, whatever. It's all part of the propaganda package to 
prop up the idea that Peng Shuai is fine. Peng Shuai is not 
fine, precisely because of their efforts.
    Co-chair McGovern. Well, you know, the IOC--those that go 
along to get along under these circumstances are complicit.
    Ms. Cao. Absolutely.
    Co-chair McGovern. And I think that needs to be stated for 
the record.
    Just my final question, to Ms. Ilham. Welcome back to the 
Commission. And as you mentioned, we recently passed the Uyghur 
Forced Labor Prevention Act. Before that was the Uyghur Human 
Rights Policy Act. We're going to be dealing with the COMPETES 
Act, and your testimony reminds us that behind these 
legislative initiatives are real human beings with families 
whose rights and aspirations are being denied by the Chinese 
government. Can you just speak in a little bit more detail 
about the experience of the people whose names you mentioned, 
such as Rahile Dawut?
    Ms. Ilham. Thank you, Congressman McGovern. Rahile Dawut is 
a renowned anthropologist. She had also participated in a 
Harvard program in the past. She's a renowned scholar and is 
well loved and respected not only in the international academic 
field, but also she's well respected in China as well. And she 
disappeared in 2017, just like many other Uyghurs and other 
Kazakhs and Muslim-
majority people. Her daughter had also been speaking out, just 
like me, on behalf of her mother in order to ask for the 
release of her mother.
    She didn't know where her mother was from 2017 until very 
recently, the summer of 2021. Finally, the Chinese government 
said, yes, she has been in prison, but did not reveal any 
information on what kind of crimes she has been charged with, 
what the alleged crimes are, and where she's being held, how 
long she's going to be held. Rahile Dawut's daughter, Akida 
Polat, doesn't know anything. The only information or 
confirmation she got from the Chinese government is that her 
mother is in prison. And that goes for so many other Uyghur 
children and families in the diaspora.
    I know someone who has over 70 family members, distant 
family members, who were sent to either reeducation camps or 
prisons, or some of them are even in forced labor camps. So 
we're not talking about one person, two people, or 10 families 
anymore. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of families 
that don't know where their family members are. I don't know if 
my father is alive. The last time I heard of him was in 2017. I 
knew he was at Urumqi 1st Prison, but since then there have 
been no family visits. We don't know if he has been transferred 
to a prison, if he has been transferred to a camp, if he has 
been killed, if he has died with health issues. We don't know, 
just like in Rahile Dawut's case.
    Co-chair McGovern. Well, thank you for sharing your 
personal story, but also that of others, because I think that 
the number of atrocities is so huge--you know, we're constantly 
being given numbers, and facts, and statistics. I worry that 
we'll lose our human ability to feel what all that means. There 
are individuals behind each one of those numbers, and there are 
families.
    Ms. Ilham. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. The reason 
that I specifically put so few names in my speech, in my 
testimony, was because I want people to stop thinking of what's 
happening as only an abstract idea. I want to put a face to the 
names. I want to put a picture in people's heads. And I also 
want to urge the China Commission to do one thing for me, for 
the Uyghurs. For as many names as you can remember of those 
missing Uyghur families, detainees, please try to remember them 
or write them down.
    Whenever you have a chance to meet with Chinese officials, 
please raise individual cases. I also want the Chinese 
government to stop thinking of this as just an abstract idea 
of, oh, it's just one million people out there. No, we need to 
emphasize to them, you're locking up family members, just like 
your own family members. They're individual human beings that 
have fathers, that have mothers, that have children. Please 
raise individual cases with their names. Thank you so much.
    Co-chair McGovern. Thank you so much. Mr. Chairman, I yield 
back to you.
    Chair Merkley Thank you very much. I just want to echo Co-
chair McGovern's point about thanking you all for sharing your 
personal stories and putting faces to the oppression.
    I want to close with this question to whoever on the panel 
would like to address it. I was reading an article by an 
independent journalist, Melissa Chan. She published it, I 
think, two days ago. She noted that at the 2008 Beijing Summer 
Olympics, journalists were free to travel the country. I 
thought about how she described the circumstances then, and a 
trip that 10 members of the Senate made a couple years later, 
where we met reporters who were no longer required to live in 
official housing where they were carefully supervised. They no 
longer had tenders, or folks who were with them constantly. We 
met environmental advocates who were issuing reports on 
companies that were dumping their industrial pollutants 
directly into rivers, and there was this emerging environment 
movement. We met folks who told us about a slight improvement 
in freedom to worship, and others who talked about improvements 
in the ability to advocate for workers' conditions.
    Now we sit here in the year 2022 and all of that is gone. 
In her article, Chan challenges us with this question: Is the 
term ``an authoritarian state'' still adequate to describe what 
has happened in China under General Secretary Xi Jinping? He 
became General Secretary in 2012. Here are some of the things 
that she mentioned: Authorities are locking up activists that 
they once championed as advocating for the people. We have a 
cult of personality around the General Secretary. We have 
amplification of propaganda that puts forth a glorious redacted 
national history and emphasizes the role of victims of foreign 
forces. We have massive development of a surveillance state. We 
have the disconnection from the social media instruments used 
around the world and replaced by Chinese-controlled social 
media. We have massive oppression of minority populations to 
the point of conducting genocide against the Uyghur population. 
We have a systematic crushing of free speech and free assembly, 
and we have a very significant military expansion abroad.
    And so Chan asks the question: Is this an authoritarian 
state, or is this now a fascist state, with all of those 
characteristics? As she asked that question in that article, I 
was thinking about the comparison to 1936, when the Olympics 
were hosted by Hitler, and where he used the glitz and glory of 
Olympic gold to hide his already horrific acts. And then, 
because the world paid no attention to those acts, he was 
emboldened to go on a spree of enormous assaults on humanity in 
the years that followed. I guess our plea to the world is: Let 
us not repeat or echo 1936, when the world ignored the acts of 
Hitler. And let's not ignore today the acts of General 
Secretary Xi Jinping. So I ask you kind of broadly, are we now 
talking about a fascist state? And should we start thinking of 
China under the rule of General Secretary Xi Jinping in that 
context? If anyone who would like to speak to that----
    Yes, please go ahead.
    Ms. Cao. Yes. I would like to just make a quick comment on 
the difference between an authoritarian state and a 
totalitarian state, or fascist state. Of course, I am not a 
scholar of politics, political science, but if you look at 
Taiwan back in the '60s, '70s, or look at South Korea around 
the same time, and many other countries, or South Africa, an 
authoritarian state still leaves a small part of civil society 
alive. For example, a small slice of elected congressmembers, 
and a small portion of a free press. That allows civil society 
to grow just a little bit. But China is not that place. China 
has gone far past the state of authoritarianism. Thank you.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you. And I believe Mr. Law was 
prepared to speak?
    Mr. Law. Yes. Thank you, Congressman, for the question. I 
think addressing the PRC under the Chinse Communist Party as a 
fascist regime is not an overstatement. If you have been 
keeping up with the situation in mainland China, they have a 
list of core socialist values back in the days when Xi Jinping 
had just assumed power. And they list democracy, freedom, and 
the rule of law as their core values. But in reality, we all 
know that they are not practicing these things. They are just 
using the outer shell that these great terms convey with order, 
legitimacy, and authority, and substitute them into the things 
that literally undermine these values. A lot of scholars 
studying fascist regimes claim that this doublespeak is kind of 
a classic trait characteristic of a fascist regime, that they 
steal the definition of these terms to fit into their agenda.
    To claim that China under the Chinese Communist Party's 
authoritarian government is fascist is also not an 
overstatement. And to a certain degree, it's even an 
understatement, if your own imagination about authoritarian 
government is an Orwellian-style ``1984'' government. China has 
already surpassed that standard. They're much more 
technologically advanced and sophisticated in terms of using 
the technology to control people's lives, to impose social 
control. Just look at the social credit score scheme that is 
still being practiced in certain cities. Just look at all these 
surveillance tactics in Xinjiang and in Tibet. These are 
appalling, and much more draconian than the situation depicted 
in ``1984.''
    So for me, understanding China is really important. We have 
been overlooking a lot of developments that really signal its 
rise as a totalitarian power, and we cannot afford to overlook 
it and to understate what is happening now.
    Chair Merkley. Thank you. Did anybody else wish to comment?
    We're reaching the conclusion of this hearing. At 
approximately 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, here on East 
Coast time, the opening ceremonies will begin for the Beijing 
Winter Olympics. We hope the world will pay attention to the 
horrific acts occurring in China at the same time as the 
opening ceremony initiates. I appreciate all of you bringing 
your knowledge, your experience, your expertise, your 
organizing, to bear on this conversation. I know that you have 
all, either individually or within your circle of friends and 
families, seen much tragedy from the exercise of the power of 
the Chinese government in the various forms we've addressed 
today. Your testimony is producing great value in the world.
    The record will remain open until the close of business on 
Friday, February 11th for any items members would like to 
submit for the record, or for additional questions for our 
witnesses. I do ask unanimous consent to submit the article 
that I referred to by Melissa Chan.
    Without objection, that article will be included in the 
record. This hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:16 p.m., the hearing was concluded.]

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                            A P P E N D I X

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                          Prepared Statements

                                ------                                


                    Prepared Statement of Yaxue Cao

    Chair Merkley, Co-Chair McGovern, Members of the Commission, thank 
you for holding this important hearing and for asking me to contribute 
my thoughts and analysis on the case of the Chinese tennis star Peng 
Shuai. I do not purport to have direct and inside knowledge of Peng 
Shuai's situation; nobody does except for the Chinese government and 
its minders around her, and that's precisely why we are here discussing 
her case and raising our concerns. However, two months ago on December 
1, 2021, I wrote and published on China Change an article titled ``What 
Awaits Peng Shuai'' to lay out my thoughts on what was happening, and 
what will likely happen, to Peng Shuai, drawing from my intimate 
knowledge of what China typically does to suppress dissent and quell 
unwanted international attention. I appreciate the Commission's 
interest in Peng Shuai and the letters you have written to the 
International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeking clarification about Peng 
Shuai's situation and the role the IOC is playing in assisting the 
Chinese government's coverup of her true circumstances. Indeed, Peng 
Shuai has become a special kind of political prisoner in China right 
now.
    It's been three months since the world-renowned 35-year-old Chinese 
tennis player Peng Shuai alleged that she was preyed upon and forced 
into a sexual relationship by now 75-year-old Zhang Gaoli, former vice-
premier and member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee. Despite 
repeated reassurances from the Chinese government and the International 
Olympic Committee (IOC), questions about her wellbeing remain. 
Furthermore, the Women's Tennis Association's (WTA) decision to suspend 
all tournaments in China has raised a moral question that few have been 
willing to contend with. My testimony today will address these two 
aspects of the Peng Shuai incident.
    Last fall, on November 2, Peng Shuai, 35 years old, published on 
her verified Weibo account a 1,900-word post, revealing how Zhang Gaoli 
pressed her for sex more than 10 years ago when she was in her mid-
twenties and a rising tennis star, but it wasn't clear from Peng 
Shuai's account whether he succeeded in having sex with her then. Seven 
years ago, he forced her to have sex with him, and again approached her 
3 years ago, forcing her into a sexual relationship. She wrote about 
her refusal, her discomfort, her humiliation, her anxiety, her self-
loathing, her fear, and her anger throughout the relationship. She was 
determined to bring the truth to light even if it meant her own self-
destruction. And so she did.
    To the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Peng Shuai speaking out 
against one of the highest-ranking Party leaders and subsequently 
causing a massive international response was a political disaster at 
the worst possible time that further damages China's image in the run-
up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
    What has unfolded so far is eerily familiar to those of us working 
in the field of human rights because it follows the same playbook that 
the Chinese government has used over and over again, such as in the 
cases of human rights lawyer Wang Yu, human rights lawyer Xie Yang, and 
Hong Kong book publisher Gui Minhai. The common practice of censorship, 
denial, a concerted propaganda campaign, and a staged TV confession has 
also run through the Peng Shuai case.

    1. Total censorship. Peng Shuai's article was deleted within 30 
minutes of her posting it, and sometime later, Peng Shuai's entire 
account evaporated. Searching Weibo users for ``Peng Shuai'' [Chinese 
translation appears in the original] you will see a blank page with a 
message saying ``There is no content yet'' [Chinese translation appears 
in the original] Not only has Peng Shuai's account been wiped out, but 
the WTA's Weibo account cannot be found either. A search for ``WTA'' on 
Weibo only yields a handful of mentions in a few other postings related 
to tournaments and players. Of course there has been no coverage of 
Peng Shuai's revelation whatsoever on Chinese media.
    On China's other very popular social media platform, WeChat, the 
WTA has an active public account owned by a company called ``Beijing 
WTA Tournament Information Lt. Co.'' [Chinese translation appears in 
the original], but it posts only news and photos of tournaments, and a 
search for ``Peng Shuai'' [Chinese translation appears in the original] 
yielded no results. If you patiently go down its timeline, you will 
find articles on Peng Shuai from 2019 and before.
    Users of Chinese social media said that when they commented on Peng 
Shuai or the WTA's decision to suspend tournaments in China, it would 
result in their postings being deleted, and, sometimes, their accounts 
being suspended.
    In short, the Chinese government has completely erased any trace of 
the Peng Shuai incident.
    From my knowledge of how censorship has been carried out in China 
against dissidents, activists, or anyone the government wants to 
monitor closely, I assume that Peng Shuai's communications, phone and 
email, would have been under total surveillance since November 2, 2021.

    2. Deny the sexual assault allegations, and demand that the WTA 
stop ``hyping'' the matter. For two weeks after her posting, Peng Shuai 
disappeared from public view. The WTA, as well as world top tennis 
players, women and men, took to social media expressing their concern 
about her and seeking answers. Governments issued statements, 
parliamentarians spoke out, including CECC chairs. Steve Simon, the CEO 
of the WTA, said he had tried to contact Peng Shuai through the number 
and email they had previously on file for her but was unable to reach 
her.
    China might have been caught by surprise by such an overwhelming 
global reaction, and starting Nov. 17, it made a series of moves to try 
to suppress and then erase the attention.
    First of all, CGTN (the U.S. arm of China's Central TV or CCTV) 
posted on Twitter an email purportedly from Peng Shuai to the WTA's 
Steve Simon, but Simon himself (and so many others) cast doubt on the 
authenticity of the email. In the email, ``Peng Shuai'' denied that she 
had made allegations of sexual assault, and asked that the WTA not talk 
anymore about her without her consent. The CGTN tweet reads as follows:

        Hello everyone this is Peng Shuai.

        Regarding the recent news released on the official website of 
        the WTA, the content has not been confirmed or verified by 
        myself and it was released without my consent. The news in that 
        release, including the allegation of sexual assault, is not 
        true. I'm not missing, nor am I unsafe. I've just been resting 
        at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring 
        about me.

        If the WTA publishes any more news about me, please verify it 
        with me, and release it with my consent. As a professional 
        tennis player, I thank you all for your companionship and 
        consideration. I hope to promote Chinese tennis with you all if 
        I have the chance in the future. I hope Chinese tennis will 
        become better and better.

        Once again, thank you for your consideration.

    Over the next several days, China's overseas journalists as well as 
a man who claimed to be a friend of Peng Shuai posted photos of Peng 
Shuai at home, Peng Shuai eating out with friends, Peng Shuai meeting 
with young tennis players, and Peng Shuai's video call with Thomas 
Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
    On December 1, the WTA announced it was immediately suspending all 
tournaments in China, including Hong Kong.
    On December 2, within 24 hours of the WTA announcement, the IOC 
again issued a statement, claiming that it had spoken to Peng Shuai 
again on video but released no footage nor a transcript. People cast 
doubt on whether this meeting actually occurred. But even more 
troubling than the timing is perhaps the odd language the IOC used in 
this second statement. It preached a ``human and person-centred 
approach to her situation,'' preferring to address concerns over Peng 
Shuai ``directly with Chinese sports organisations'' using ``quiet 
diplomacy.''
    As Andrea Worden, who has written extensively about the CCP's 
warped language of ``human rights'' in the international arena, pointed 
out, IOC president ``Thomas Bach is now expressly using CCP human 
rights discourse to defend the IOC's (non) action re Peng Shuai,'' and 
``Bach's `very human and person-centred approach to her situation' 
echoes PRC Foreign Minister Wang Yi's speech at the UN Human Rights 
Council in February: `A People-centered Approach for Global Human 
Rights Progress.' '' This unlikely unison raises strong suspicions that 
the IOC was working voluntarily and directly with the CCP to help 
suppress the concerns over Peng Shuai.

    3. A TV confession in the form of an overseas media interview. On 
December 19, Lianhe Zaobao, a pro-Beijing Chinese language newspaper in 
Singapore, suddenly posted a 6-minute video interview with Peng Shuai 
where she appeared with three other athletes, including the former NBA 
player Yao Ming, in Shanghai to watch a ski event. In the interview, 
Peng Shuai stated that she had never accused anyone of sexually 
assaulting her; that the earlier email to the WTA published by CGTN 
reflected her own intention; and that she had no reason to travel 
overseas for the time being.
    Many on social media quickly questioned the identity and 
credentials of the reporter who interviewed Peng Shuai. This same 
``reporter'' apparently has been working as a propagandist for the 
Chinese government. Indeed, few people took the interview at face 
value, and most agreed that it was staged.
    So the question is: What's the purpose of this interview? Why did 
China stage an interview knowing that no one would believe it?
    The most important takeaway from this interview may not be 
immediately obvious to everyone, and it is this: the Chinese party-
state doesn't really care whether you see through the falsehood of the 
Peng Shuai interview. By getting Peng Shuai, who has little choice but 
to obey, to say what she must say, China establishes ``Peng Shuai 
says'' as the new ground for going forward: Now that Peng Shuai has 
spoken, all of your concerns are answered and answered by herself, what 
can you say?
    There is nothing new about this practice. Outside of the Peng Shuai 
incident, on a much larger scale in politics, business, finance, and 
international relations, the CCP regime in China routinely imposes on 
its own people and on the international community China's own 
``facts,'' China's own ``logic,'' and China's own ``rules,'' and gets 
away with little or no resistance, if not eager acceptance, because 
China under the CCP has skillfully weaponized its singular advantage: 
market.
              what peng shuai's situation is likely to be
    In ``What Awaits Peng Shuai'' I made a few predictions about what 
would happen to Peng Shuai. I predicted that Peng Shuai would be 
surrounded by minders and surveilled closely so that she would have no 
opportunities to speak freely to the WTA or other concerned parties, 
and her access to communications and information would be restricted. I 
predicted that she would be made to disappear from public view. I 
predicted that she would not be allowed to travel overseas. I predicted 
that no Chinese tennis players or other athletes, or sports 
organizations, would voice support for her. I predicted nothing would 
happen to Zhang Gaoli. I predicted that, instead of China's state-owned 
media outlets, which would not be effective in the propaganda campaign 
regarding Peng Shuai, the IOC would be used as the CCP's mouthpiece to 
disarm and mislead the world.
    Sadly, all my predictions have transpired, simply because China's 
playbook is very predictable.
                where the peng shuai incident stands now
    The WTA's decision to pull out of China was a game changer. To be 
sure, China wants the WTA back in China, because it's a matter of 
national pride. The national pride I'm speaking of has two aspects. 
First, since Chinese player Li Na won the French Open in 2011, interest 
in women's tennis skyrocketed in China. So did viewership and the 
advertising market. By 2019, before the pandemic, the WTA was holding 
over 20 tournaments a year in China. In 2018, the WTA signed a 10-year 
contract with China to hold its season finals every October in Shenzhen 
where a new stadium was built. China had big plans for women's tennis, 
and they can't be achieved without the WTA, and the WTA was poised to 
expand into the Chinese market and profit big. Both sides were 
committed. Against this backdrop, the WTA's December 1st announcement 
is nothing short of extraordinary.
    Second, China has gotten used to foreign businesses, including 
sports leagues and universities, bowing to its demands, as best 
demonstrated by the NBA controversy in 2019. In the eyes of the CCP 
tyrants, the WTA's decision is an unacceptable offense and must be 
defeated.
    The WTA is not backing down. WTA CEO Steve Simon told the New York 
Times recently that the WTA continues ``with our unwavering call for 
confirmation of Peng's safety along with a full, fair and transparent 
investigation, without censorship, into her allegation of sexual 
assault. This is an issue that can never fade away.''
    The WTA also confirmed that Peng Shuai has so far refused to see 
WTA personnel ``in an environment where we know she is not being really 
controlled.''
    So here is where things stand now: China will not let Peng Shuai 
free, and will definitely not provide ``a full, fair and transparent 
investigation into her allegation of sexual assault'' as the WTA has 
demanded; the WTA will not back down from the line it has drawn.
    After the Winter Olympics, we will see more maneuvers, openly as 
well as behind the scenes, by the CCP to try to bring the WTA to its 
knees. I hope that the WTA will stand up for Peng Shuai, and for women.
    The Peng Shuai incident has brought to a head a long dilemma in the 
democracies' relations with China: profit vs. values. The WTA was 
founded in 1973 with the vision of ``a better future for women's 
tennis.'' That future will be severely compromised, and mocked, if the 
WTA, in the end, sacrifices principles for profits. Too many businesses 
have succumbed, and continue to succumb, to this unfortunate choice.
    Nobody is against money, but making money in China is a different 
story. One thing our businesses, universities, and sports leagues don't 
seem to fully understand is that, to eat at the CCP's trough, you will 
have to turn into a pig. The CCP regime traps you, corrupts you, and 
takes away your principles and your dignity. That's the deal you strike 
with the Chinese Communist Party. It's long past due that we have a 
hard look at our dealings with the CCP regime, and if we don't, we 
stand to lose ourselves in the process. It's happening already.
                            recommendations
    In ``What Awaits Peng Shuai,'' I wrote, ``When dealing with China, 
we are not doing anything if all we do is appeal to the communist 
regime to do the right thing and move on to the next day; we are only 
beginning to do something when we start setting benchmarks, exploring 
the leverage we have and applying it to confront China.''
    (1) I wish I had the space to tell more about Peng Shuai's career 
as a professional tennis player. We all know her world championship 
titles, but she was the first woman player in China who, at the end of 
2006, expressed her desire to free herself from the Soviet-style, 
state-managed sport system to become an independent professional 
player. For this simple desire, she was punished for two years. She was 
expelled from the national team for a period, and had to ``apologize 
for her wrongs'' to be taken back and given the opportunity to take 
part in the 2008 Olympics. Does IOC President Thomas Bach know anything 
about this? Peng Shuai is a fighter and a survivor. Now she is in a 
situation where she has little control over her fate. The CECC, 
Congress, and the U.S. Government must not lose sight of her, and must 
continuously seek substantive ways to speak up for her and help free 
her.
    (2) Congress and the U.S. Government should investigate the IOC for 
its role in working hand in hand with the Chinese government to cover 
up the Peng Shuai incident.
    (3) As far as I'm concerned, the Peng Shuai incident has become a 
test of our principles. The CECC and Congress should think ahead of the 
curve, providing necessary support for the WTA.
                                 ______
                                 

                    Prepared Statement of Nathan Law

    Chairman Merkley, Congressman McGovern, and members of the 
Commission:
    On August 17, 2017, I was sitting in the dock of the Court of 
Appeals in Hong Kong with Joshua Wong and Alex Chow. We were all 
sentenced to months of imprisonment for ``inciting and participating'' 
in an unlawful, yet peaceful, assembly during the Umbrella Movement.
    Today, while I am exiled in the U.K., Joshua has been sitting in 
jail for a year without knowing when his trial under the National 
Security Law can even begin. The number of high-profile political 
prisoners has continued to rise, as the government cracks down on 
professors, reporters, and many other members of civil society.
    Americans used to talk about Hong Kong as the ``Pearl of the 
Orient'' and one of Asia's freest enclaves. Now, however, all there is 
to associate with the city is rising authoritarianism and the decline 
of freedom. Since the massive 2019 protests, tens of thousands of 
protesters have been arrested, with more than 2,000 formally charged. 
And all of this has occurred parallel to government-appointed judges 
presiding over National Security Law cases.
    Joshua was very young when I met him, and we have been fighting 
alongside each other for eight years. He was my closest ally, and we 
shared joys and pains. So it is particularly hard that amid the Lunar 
New Year--traditionally when families and friends gather and 
celebrate--that he and a lot of my friends are still behind bars, while 
I am unable to connect with my family because it will endanger them.
    The political turmoil in Hong Kong and the growing number of 
political prisoners show that Chinese leaders have grown very confident 
about their more technologically advanced and sophisticated Orwellian 
model of social control. They disregard any commitment to human rights 
and international obligations.
    Last December, to counter President Joe Biden's Summit for 
Democracy--at which I was privileged to speak as the sole Hong Kong 
representative--they published a white paper promoting what they call 
``China's democracy.'' They claimed that China's democracy was the one 
that worked. They tried to redefine ``democracy'' such that universal 
suffrage, checks and balances, and the division of power would not be 
part of it. Instead, they called the totalitarian system in China, in 
which the people have absolutely no rights to elect their country's 
leaders, a ``democracy.''
    This is the level of disinformation and hostility they are imposing 
on the free world. They are trying to undermine the history of Hong 
Kong, the culture of Hong Kong, what it means to be a Hongkonger, and, 
most importantly, the democratic values that we all treasure.
    The Chinese government has broken every promise it made to the 
world ahead of the last Olympic Games it held, in the summer of 2008. 
Fourteen years later, under General Secretary Xi Jinping, it is more 
aggressive and arrogant than ever. To see corporations and other 
countries rolling out the red carpet for it is plainly disgusting. 
There is nothing to celebrate about the current Winter Olympic Games in 
Beijing while a genocide is literally happening. That is why an even 
larger coalition of activists--not just Hongkongers but also our 
Uyghur, Tibetan, and Taiwanese allies--are standing up now.
    The Biden administration is right to diplomatically boycott the 
event. But there is far more that policymakers in Washington can do. To 
support Hong Kong, Congress should consider the various bills on 
everything from sanctions to internet freedom that have been introduced 
in recent years. Of even more importance are humanitarian pathways for 
Hongkongers in need, including the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act, the Hong 
Kong People's Freedom and Choice Act, and the relevant portions of the 
America COMPETES Act, which I know the leadership and many members of 
this Commission support.
    The Olympic Games may be a one-off event, but our struggle against 
China is global, existential, and potentially lifelong. We will all do 
well to reduce our reliance on China in every way possible and forge 
better multilateral partnerships with like-minded stakeholders to 
coordinate an international pushback. We must grasp every opportunity 
to send a signal and stop the complacency.
    Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong. Thank you so much, and I 
look forward to your questions.
                                 ______
                                 

                   Prepared Statement of Jewher Ilham

    My name is Jewher Ilham. Thank you, Senator Merkley and Congressman 
McGovern, for hosting this hearing and inviting me to testify.
    In April 2014, I testified before this committee on behalf of my 
father, Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at Beijing Minzu University 
who had been detained that year. It has been eight years and my father 
is still in prison, now serving a life sentence for the alleged crime 
of separatism. The Chinese government accused my father of being an 
extremist and advocate of violence. These are nothing more than 
fabricated charges. He never incited violence or promoted separatism as 
the Chinese government claims.
    My father is a renowned scholar who dedicated his life and work to 
brokering peaceful dialogue among Uyghur and Han people. He was well 
loved by his colleagues and many students. That is why his arrest 
generated such an outcry from not only the international community, but 
also from many inside of China. On his website, Uyghur Online, he 
hosted articles that evaluated the disparities in the Uyghur Region and 
opportunities--or lack thereof--for economic growth and development. He 
proposed constructive solutions to the Chinese government in efforts to 
develop the Uyghur Region. My father believed that if you analyzed 
problems thoroughly, meaningful solutions would follow.
    Instead of engaging in constructive dialogue, the Chinese 
government locked him up. My father was sentenced in September 2014. 
While in prison, he has been shackled, beaten, and denied food twice--
each time for ten days--and those are only the times that we are aware 
of. He has not seen a lawyer since his second trial in 2014. Our family 
has not been able to visit him since 2017. Now, my family doesn't know 
whether he is even alive.
    That is also the case for many other Uyghurs who are being held 
captive by the Chinese government: a number of them were scholars like 
my father, and some were my father's students.

    Atikem Rozi, a former student of my father's, was sentenced to four 
years in prison in 2014 for alleged crimes of separatism and 
endangering state security. Her association with my father and her 
contribution to the website Uyghur Online were reasons for those 
charges. Atikem Rozi's term ended in 2018, but she remains detained.

    Rahile Dawut is a renowned anthropologist, scholar, and expert in 
Uyghur folklore and traditions. She has been missing for four years. In 
the summer of 2021, the Chinese government finally confirmed that she 
is imprisoned, but shared no details of the charges against her or of 
her alleged crimes. Rahile Dawut's daughter, like me, lives in the 
United States without her family, does not know her mother's current 
status, and is fighting for her release.

    Yalqun Rozi, a scholar and publisher, was sentenced in 2018 to 15 
years of imprisonment for inciting subversion and ethnic hatred. Yalqun 
Rozi published Uyghur-language textbooks that authorities claim 
``incorporated ethnic separatism'' and ``terrorism,'' even though the 
Chinese government had permitted use of his language textbooks for 
years, until PRC officials ramped up their repression of the Uyghurs 
and their language and culture.

    I raise these names as examples, in addition to my father's, 
because it is important to remember that those imprisoned on fabricated 
charges, and the over one million Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-
majority peoples who have been arbitrarily detained in internment 
camps, are not just numbers but real people--who have parents, 
children, and friends.
    We need to lift up the names of individuals who are imprisoned in 
violation of their human rights and draw attention to their individual 
cases. We need to impress upon people who are unmoved by the Chinese 
government's pervasive and systematic repression in the Uyghur Region 
that the detention of over one million people is not an abstract idea. 
It is a horrifying reality that is destroying the lives of individuals 
and families, like mine, like Rahile Dawut's, and like Atikem Rozi's.
    As I noted, I was last here in front of the Commission eight years 
ago. Sadly, the only change since then in the Uyghur Region has been 
for the worse. I am grateful to see the U.S. Government's support for 
the Uyghur people: once fully implemented and enforced, the Uyghur 
Forced Labor Prevention Act will counter the regime of state-sponsored 
forced labor that is taking place on a massive scale. But there is more 
that can be done to call for an end to the Chinese government's 
oppression against Uyghurs. This includes raising the names of Uyghurs 
who have been unjustly imprisoned for being outspoken on human rights 
and highlighting the human toll of the repressive policies. This can 
help personalize the large-scale atrocities that are taking place in 
China, and hopefully the growing indignation and outcry will move 
governments that so far have remained silent on the repression of 
Uyghurs to action. Through building more united and concerted 
international pressure, we will have a greater chance at changing the 
Chinese government's human rights abuses.
    I look forward to working with you to address these tough issues. 
And I really hope that eight years from now we are not having the same 
conversation.
                                 ______
                                 

                   Prepared Statement of Nyima Lhamo

    My name is Nyima Lhamo, and I thank you for this opportunity to 
testify before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. The 
opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics will take place tomorrow, 
which makes it quite urgent that we raise our voices today for those 
who have been silenced by the Chinese Communist Party.
    I am the niece of the late Trulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who rose 
to prominence in Kham Lithang in eastern Tibet. Tenzin Delek was a 
highly respected lama in our area, where he was known for his 
philanthropic works and establishing schools, clinics, orphanages, and 
old-age homes. Out of respect, we often refer to him as `rinpoche.'
    But the respect he earned among the common people angered Chinese 
authorities. After harassing him for years, they falsely accused him of 
serious crimes, and in 2002 they sentenced him to life in prison.
    When I heard the news of his arrest, the first thing that came to 
my mind was he would be released soon since he had not committed any 
crime. However, I was wrong. He was kept in prison until his sudden 
death in custody thirteen years later.
    After Rinpoche's death the Chinese authorities continued to 
dishonor his memory. Chinese state media claimed he was a fake lama, a 
criminal, and that he was a threat to so-called ``social stability.'' 
My family and local Tibetans were not allowed to offer traditional 
butter lamps or organize public prayers in memory of Rinpoche, and 
pictures of Rinpoche were banned in Lithang.
    My family was threatened as well, and eventually, despite the 
difficulties and hardship, I escaped Tibet in order to share the story 
of my late uncle. This meant leaving my six-year-old daughter behind. 
Last September the authorities took my mother, age 57, and two brothers 
in, and questioned them for days. They were kept in different places 
and asked about how I escaped from Tibet.
    My mother was beaten, and they told her that they could easily kill 
her because as my mother, she was responsible for making me stop my 
advocacy. They wanted her to say that Trulku Tenzin Delek was a fake 
lama, and to say that I don't know anything about the situation inside 
Tibet, and that I'm being used by `outside forces.'
    When my mother became ill she tried to go to the Chengdu hospital, 
but at first the police didn't allow her to go. Even when they allowed 
her to go, the police followed her there and went from her hotel to the 
hospital and watched her the entire time.
    I'm very worried about my family's safety, and they told my mom 
that if I continue to speak up out here, they'll beat, arrest, or even 
kill members of my family.
    When my uncle was teaching Buddhism, the Chinese authorities would 
tell him not to mention His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and ordered him to 
stop building monasteries or schools, and warned him that if he didn't 
stop he would be arrested. Now they're making the same threats, but 
about my advocacy.
    Beijing is putting on a friendly face for the Olympics, but that 
isn't their real face. The Tibetan people have seen who they really 
are; we see it when they destroy our temples, when they beat and shoot 
us, when they make our religious leaders disappear, when they arrest 
and kill innocent people. Our language and culture are on the edge, 
facing the crushing weight of Chinese repression.
    Tibetans don't have the freedom to speak the truth. The world 
should stand up for truth and justice, and support those who have the 
strength to speak the truth. Hearings like this help those who are 
inside Tibet. These hearings show that there are people around the 
world who care about them, and who hear their voices. These messages 
will reach them, and give them heart.
    While growing up in Tibet it was common to hear such sad instances 
of Tibetans dying in Chinese prisons without justice being done for 
them. I know there are many other Tibetans who continue to face the 
same fate as my uncle. I want to bring the cases of four political 
prisoners to your attention.
    The first is the Panchen Lama; he was taken away in 1995 at the age 
of six and has never been seen since. The second is Lhundup Dakpa, a 
singer who was given a six-year sentence for his songs opposing Chinese 
rule in Tibet. Third, Bonkho Kyi is a woman who helped arrange a small 
celebration of the Dalai Lama's birthday, and for that she was 
sentenced to seven years in prison. Lastly, please remember Lobsang 
Dhondup, a relative of mine who was arrested alongside Tenzin Delek 
Rinpoche and executed.
    Finally, my mother's health has always been an issue, and I would 
like to ask if there is any way my mother can be brought out of Tibet 
for health reasons. My family has already lost so much; anything you 
can do to help her come here would be greatly appreciated. Thank you 
for giving me the opportunity to speak.
                                 ______
                                 

                    Prepared Statement of Sophie Luo

    Mr. Chairman, Mr. Co-chairman, and distinguished members of the 
Commission, thank you so much for holding this hearing! Today, I will 
be telling you about the cases of my husband Ding Jiaxi and several 
other rights defenders who are currently in detention in China in 
connection with a crackdown after a private gathering in December 2019.
    My husband Ding Jiaxi is a human rights lawyer and activist. He met 
leading law scholar Xu Zhiyong in Beijing in late 2011, and the two led 
together the New Citizens Movement. Their ideas and activities centered 
on getting Chinese people to take their rights as citizens protected 
under the Chinese Constitution seriously, practice them in everyday 
life, and become real citizens of the country. They advocated official 
transparency, such as the disclosure of government officials' financial 
assets, and called for equal access to education for the children of 
migrant workers. They did not try to formally register as an 
organization--they would not have gotten permission to register in any 
case. They saw the project as a bigger civil rights movement. Their 
peaceful and lawful activities in 2012 and 2013, however, resulted in 
official prosecution. Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were sentenced to 4-
year and 3.5-year prison terms, respectively, for allegedly ``gathering 
a crowd to disrupt public order.''
    After they served their sentences and were released from prison, Xu 
Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi resumed their activities to promote civil 
rights. They changed the name of the New Citizens Movement to China 
Citizen Movement to attract more people to it. They reached out to 
citizens around the country who shared the same aspirations and 
continued to promote the growth of civil society. But their activism 
caught the attention of the authorities again. After a two-day private 
gathering in Xiamen city in Fujian Province with around 20 lawyers and 
friends on December 7 and 8, 2019, Chinese police detained Ding Jiaxi 
on December 26, 2019, and Xu Zhiyong on February 15, 2020, and held 
them under a police measure called ``residential surveillance at a 
designated location'' (RSDL). While held in RSDL, both Ding Jiaxi and 
Xu Zhiyong were subjected to torture and ill treatment, including but 
not limited to prolonged sleep deprivation, loud noise harassment, 
interrogation while being strapped tightly to an iron ``tiger chair,'' 
food and water restrictions, no exposure to sunlight, and no showers. 
In fact, all the other December 2019 gathering participants were either 
summoned, detained, threatened, or sent to RSDL and tortured before 
being released. Some were coerced to testify against Ding Jiaxi and Xu 
Zhiyong. If you have questions about RSDL, I can discuss this in detail 
later.
    In June 2020, both men were formally arrested on suspicion of 
``inciting subversion of state power'' and transferred to the Linshu 
Detention Center under the jurisdiction of Linyi City, Shandong 
Province, where they continued to suffer physical and mental abuse. 
Some of you may remember Linyi city as the home of Chen Guangcheng and 
the torture and abuse he suffered there. In January 2021, Ding Jiaxi 
and Xu Zhiyong finally were able to meet with their lawyers by video 
after 13 and 11 months in secret detention.
    Their lawyers were forced to sign confidentiality agreements that 
forbade them from copying case files, discussing case details, 
interviewing with media, or speaking publicly about the cases.
    In August 2021, both men were indicted and charged with 
``subversion of state power,'' a more serious crime. The citizens 
movement is labeled as an illegal organization; articles Xu Zhiyong 
wrote, an unfinished documentary about the citizens movement, a website 
managed by a friend abroad, online seminars on non-violent protest, and 
the Xiamen gathering all became the so-called evidence against them.
    I mentioned that others were detained as part of the 1226 Xiamen 
Gathering crackdown. I will mention two people who are now in 
detention, not those already released.
    1. Chang Weiping is a human rights lawyer from Shaanxi Province; he 
was placed under RSDL for 10 days in January 2020 after participating 
in the Xiamen gathering in December 2019. However, authorities detained 
him again after he posted a video about the brutal torture he was 
subjected to. He was sent to RSDL again in October 2020 under the 
charge of ``subversion of state power'' and was tortured again and 
denied access to a lawyer for 11 months. Chang is from a younger 
generation of rights lawyers. He has represented Falun Gong 
practitioners, and cases of gender and workplace discrimination against 
people with HIV/AIDS, among others.
    2. Li Qiaochu is a labor and feminist rights advocate. She didn't 
attend the December 2019 gathering in Xiamen, but authorities held her 
in RSDL for 4 months in 2020 simply because she was Xu Zhiyong's 
fiancee. When she learned from Xu Zhiyong's lawyer that officials had 
tortured him, she posted this on social media. Security authorities 
detained her again in February 2021 under the charge of ``inciting 
subversion of state power'' for exposing Xu Zhiyong's torture, and for 
disclosing the mistreatment and corruption of the Linshu Detention 
Center. She was denied access to lawyers for another 6 months. In the 
past, Li has publicly discussed her struggle with depression--she 
reportedly has not received appropriate medical care while in detention 
and her mother's requests for her to be released on bail have been 
refused.
    Ding Jiaxi, Xu Zhiyong, Chang Weiping, and Li Qiaochu have 
committed no crime. Why are the Chinese government and Communist Party 
so afraid when Chinese citizens promote the rule of law, public 
participation, and the growth of civil society? Why is it considered 
``subversion'' to call for human rights like freedom of expression and 
freedom of religion?
    Senator Merkley, Congressman McGovern, and Members of the 
Commission, I am an engineer by training and by profession. I would 
never have imagined that I would be here in Washington, D.C., telling 
members of Congress about my husband and our friends who are under 
persecution. This is not something I have ever done before. I want to 
sincerely thank you for holding this hearing on the eve of the Beijing 
Olympics and thank the Commission for continuing to advocate for 
political prisoners like my husband Ding Jiaxi.
                                 ______
                                 

                Prepared Statement of Hon. Jeff Merkley

    Good morning. Today's hearing of the Congressional-Executive 
Commission on China entitled ``The Beijing Olympics and the Faces of 
Repression'' will come to order.
    In less than 24 hours, the Beijing Winter Olympic Games will 
commence and usher in weeks of pageantry designed to showcase a shiny 
facade, the face that the Chinese government and the Communist Party 
want the world to see. Beneath this glitz and glamour lies the real 
story. As the Commission and so many others have documented, the story 
of Chinese leadership is one of genocide, slave labor, forced 
sterilization, the desecration of democracy in Hong Kong, Orwellian 
repression in Xinjiang and Tibet, bullying of critics at home and 
abroad, and the suppression of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, 
civil society, and the rule of law across the country.
    This Commission, which exists to shine a light on the real human 
rights situation in China, has sought to prevent these Olympic Games 
from perverting the Olympic spirit and distracting from the real story. 
We have held multiple hearings, including one with the top U.S.-based 
Olympic sponsors. We've engaged with those sponsors, the International 
Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, 
broadcasters, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights.
    I hope it has made a difference in the degree to which U.S. 
companies are willing to lend their prestige to the false display of 
peace and harmony the Beijing Olympics represent. I hope it will 
influence the way these Games are covered and the way these Games are 
perceived by the world. I hope it will provide support to Olympians who 
fear for their freedom of expression, their data privacy, and their 
basic rights. But these Olympics are commencing and will show a face 
the Chinese government and Communist Party don't deserve to show to the 
world.
    In this hearing we will put a spotlight on the faces of repression, 
the exact faces and stories the organizers of the Beijing Olympics 
don't want the world thinking about as the torch is lit. For the last 
60 days, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China has conducted 
a daily #OlympicPrisoner social media campaign to tell just a few of 
these stories. There are so many more in the CECC Political Prisoner 
Database, which is only a sliver of the untold number of Chinese 
citizens detained or disappeared merely for exercising their human 
rights or being a member of a disfavored minority group.
    To better document these cases, in recent months we've revamped the 
database in several ways. In June 2021, we launched a new platform 
aimed at modernizing the database to address security and 
sustainability concerns, streamline information, and maintain our 
ability to record and display a wide variety of data. This upgrade 
enhanced the database's search functionality, added publication of 
prior detentions, expanded detention details, and created a permanent 
archived source link.
    The CECC Political Prisoner Database recently began to document 
cases of political detention and imprisonment in Hong Kong, in 
recognition of the rapid deterioration in rule of law conditions, 
including arrests made under the National Security Law, as well as 
ongoing loss of independence of the judiciary and prosecutor's office. 
I never thought I would see the day when that would be necessary, but 
the sad reality is here and it's our mandate to document these cases.
    In this hearing, we will hear about some of these cases in Hong 
Kong as well as others we've highlighted in the #OlympicPrisoner 
project. We are deeply honored that one of the greatest champions of 
human rights in China, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, is here to 
help frame our discussion of these cases. I am similarly humbled by the 
panel of witnesses we will hear from, who will share deeply personal 
accounts of the repression they and their family members have suffered. 
These witnesses have started organizations dedicated to the causes of 
human rights, the rule of law, and democracy. They have lost fathers, 
husbands, uncles, and friends to the Chinese system of arbitrary 
detention. And they have been locked up themselves.
    I can think of nobody better to hear from on the eve of the Beijing 
Olympics. These and the images behind them are the faces of repression 
we hope the world remembers as the Olympics get underway.
                                 ______
                                 

              Prepared Statement of Hon. James P. McGovern

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this hearing on prisoners of 
conscience on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Thank you for 
your leadership on so many human rights issues. I am also honored to be 
here with my colleague from Virginia, Jennifer Wexton, who has been a 
leader on so many issues of human rights. And obviously I am thrilled 
and honored to be here with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
    Before I begin, I want to say a few words about the Asian American 
community. They have experienced a spike in hate crimes, 
discrimination, and invective directed toward them. This has happened 
in a climate where public figures have declared or implied that China 
is to blame for all our ills. Think ``China virus.''
    This Commission monitors the human rights record of the Chinese 
government. Our criticism is not directed at the people of China or 
people of Chinese heritage. I take great care to make this distinction 
clear. I hope that all my fellow commissioners do as well.
    This Commission's important work is based on international human 
rights standards. Our message is strongest when grounded in the law and 
morals. We must strive to keep it that way.
    Hundreds of athletes are preparing to compete in this Olympics. 
They have trained for years. This may be their last, or only, shot at a 
medal. Ideally, the athletes' experience should be uncomplicated by the 
venue or the host. But sadly that is not the case in 2022. When the 
International Olympic Committee awarded these Games to Beijing in 2015, 
China already had the worst human rights record of any country on the 
planet.
    It has gotten worse since. The Chinese government has engaged in 
genocide against the Turkic Muslims, cracked down on civil society, and 
snuffed out democracy and freedom in Hong Kong.
    Many, including members of this bipartisan Commission, asked the 
IOC to relocate the Games so the athletes wouldn't have to compete 
under a cloud of repression. They refused.
    We asked the IOC's U.S.-based corporate sponsors to use their 
leverage to insist on human rights improvements, so athletes on the 
medal stand wouldn't have human rights violations as the backdrop. They 
refused. They, save one, wouldn't even admit to the fact that genocide 
is happening in Xinjiang.
    If given a choice, I believe no athlete would want to compete in a 
country committing genocide and crimes against humanity. But that is 
what they are forced to do because of the feckless IOC and its 
corporate partners.
    The risks are real. Last month, a Chinese Olympic official said 
that ``any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, 
especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject 
to certain punishment.''
    Reportedly, the app that athletes are required to use in Beijing 
could result in theft of their personal information. Participants could 
be exposed to food or clothing made by IOC exclusive suppliers who use 
forced labor.
    Make no mistake about it, I am rooting for the athletes. I hope 
nothing goes wrong. The athletes shouldn't be forced to bear this 
burden created by companies and entities who want to protect their 
ability to make money no matter the human cost.
    I don't drink Coca-Cola anymore. They operate a bottling plant in 
Xinjiang. They source sugar from a company implicated in forced labor. 
Coke will be served at Olympic venues. Every athlete should be aware of 
the risk.
    Sponsor companies told us if they spoke up, they would lose market 
share in China. And then they don't speak up. This is wrong. This 
paradigm must change. These companies are going to need to figure out a 
way to make money other than reliance on forced labor and abetting 
crimes against humanity.
    The IOC will eagerly inform us as to how many viewers around the 
world watch the Games, but they won't tell us who can't watch the 
games, those unjustly imprisoned and deprived of their most basic 
freedoms by the host Chinese government: Ilham Tohti, Ding Jiaxi, 
Joshua Wong, Zhang Zhan, Bonkho Kyi. These are the faces of repression, 
and resilience, who are represented by our witnesses today.
    We must always remember the human dimension behind our policy work. 
It is for prisoners of conscience that we speak out. We must never, 
ever forget them.
    One person who has never forgotten this is our first witness, 
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She has been a principled voice for 
human rights in China and Tibet for decades, and I want to thank her in 
particular for working with all of us in a bipartisan way to get the 
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act through Congress and to the 
President's desk, where he signed it. She has been a champion for so 
much legislation.
    We welcome her and all the witnesses.

                       Submissions for the Record

                                ------                                


          China Isn't ``Authoritarian'' Anymore. It's Scarier.

              [From the Washington Post, January 31, 2022]

                            By Melissa Chan

    In 2009, when I began to more frequently describe China as 
``authoritarian'' as a broadcast correspondent for Al Jazeera English, 
some editors pushed back, believing it was too much editorializing. We 
have since become more comfortable with regularly using the 
designation, in media coverage and beyond. But as journalists and 
athletes head to Beijing for the Winter Olympics, it may be time to 
reassess and consider calling the Chinese state what it is fast 
becoming: a fascist one.
    When the facts change, it's time to change our minds--and our 
language. Ahead of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, international 
media knew China was authoritarian and described it as such when 
necessary, but entire articles concerning China's political system were 
written without mentioning it. The government had issued regulations 
allowing the foreign press corps to travel freely around the country, a 
departure from years of tight control. And the people we met on these 
trips, many working as labor campaigners or rights lawyers, pointed the 
way to a new, transformative Chinese generation.
    Authorities then started locking up the activists they once 
championed. The country decoupled from the world's popular social media 
platforms, blocking Facebook, Google, Twitter and others. Police began 
aggressively surveilling news teams, sometimes waiting in cars at the 
airport before we even landed. My decision to regularly use 
``authoritarian'' reflected that shift.
    Now, we should consider nomenclature once again.
    Some will argue the country's communist foundation makes it 
fundamentally incompatible with fascism's right-wing roots. The 
respected Chinese legal scholar Teng Biao prefers calling the country 
totalitarian.
    But consider the hallmarks of fascism: a surveillance state with a 
strongman invoking racism, nationalism and traditional family values at 
home, while building up a military for expansion abroad.
    Xi Jinping, a leader who has elevated himself to the level of Mao 
Zedong, has built a cult of personality around him, complete with 
portraits in public and private spaces. Propaganda recalls China's 
glorious history while bewailing its past treatment by Western imperial 
powers, allowing Beijing to play both the nationalism and victim cards. 
As a correspondent formerly based in China and now writing from Berlin, 
I find it difficult to ignore how much China's present echoes Germany's 
past.
    To right perceived wrongs, Xi has a clear revanchist agenda. Taiwan 
has become his Alsace-Lorraine, the Himalayan border with India his 
Polish Corridor, and Hong Kong his Sudetenland. With military or 
strong-arm tactics, he has made clear that moves to control these areas 
are not off the table. In addition, Beijing has reportedly moved into 
Bhutanese territory. China also claims most of the South China Sea, 
where it has built military outposts marked by its own ``nine-dash 
line'' that, on a map, protrudes far beyond Chinese land borders in a 
Lebensraum-like expansion.
    21st-century technology has provided the Chinese Communist Party 
surveillance capabilities that 20th-century fascists could only dream 
of. Facial recognition cameras work to track 1.4 billion people, 
invading even public bathrooms to stop toilet paper theft. The state, 
with coordination from its technology giants, controls and tracks 
messages and content shared between smartphones.
    No entity operates freely from the CCP, including these technology 
champions. Companies may chase profit margins like other capitalist 
enterprises, but party officials step in when they see an overriding 
state interest. Those who fail to fall in line are felled--the most 
spectacular example being billionaire tech magnate Jack Ma, who 
disappeared for months after criticizing the country's financial 
regulators. Together with Beijing's anti-union, anti-labor stance, the 
Chinese economy today recalls Mussolini's corporatist fascism.
    The state has also become fixated on machismo, another fascist 
obsession. It bans what it considers ``effeminate'' behavior, which it 
associates with the LGBTQ community, where activists have also faced 
increasing government reprisal. It exhorts men and women to procreate, 
in a sharp reversal of Beijing's decades-long one-child policy. It has 
invaded citizens' most private spheres to do so, even attempting to 
bolster male virility by clamping down on vasectomies.
    Critically, Beijing targets ethnic Han Chinese in this campaign--in 
its eyes, the ``master race.'' Against minorities, most troublingly 
against Muslim Uyghurs, the state has sought to prevent births, 
including by using extreme measures such as forced sterilization. Its 
treatment of Uyghurs, not as citizens but rather a problem to be dealt 
with, has led to the establishment of hundreds of reeducation camps 
that experts say constitute the largest detention of ethnic and 
religious minorities since World War II. The legislatures of several 
democracies have called what's happening genocide.
    Taken together, ``authoritarian''--used to also describe declining 
democratic states such as Hungary and Turkey--hardly feels enough, nor 
does it feel accurate. That is a disservice to the public. Journalists, 
politicians and others should consider calling elements of the Chinese 
state fascistic, if they are not entirely comfortable describing the 
state writ large as fascist.
    We may be facing an absence of existing terminology to properly 
describe contemporary China. But it behooves us to rethink our 
vocabulary and not dismiss the f-word out of hand.

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                          Witness Biographies

    Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the 52nd Speaker of the U.S. House of 
Representatives, having made history in 2007 when she was the first 
woman elected to serve as Speaker of the House. Now in her third term 
as Speaker, Pelosi made history again in January 2019 when she regained 
her position, second-in-line to the presidency, the first person to do 
so in more than 60 years. For 33 years, Speaker Pelosi has represented 
San Francisco, California's 12th District, in Congress. She has led 
House Democrats for 16 years and previously served as House Democratic 
Whip.

    Yaxue Cao, founder and editor, China Change

    Yaxue Cao is the founder and editor of China Change, a website 
launched in 2013 to provide information and produce videos about human 
rights, the rule of law, and civil society in China. Cao grew up in 
northern China during the Cultural Revolution and attended college at 
Peking University in Beijing. She came to the United States to study 
literature in 1991 and stayed. She currently lives in Washington, DC.

    Nathan Law, human rights activist and nominee for the 2018 Nobel 
Peace Prize

    Nathan Law is a young Hong Kong activist, currently in exile and 
based in London. During the Umbrella Movement in 2014, Law was one of 
the five representatives who took part in the dialogue with the 
government, debating political reform. Upholding non-violent civic 
actions, Law, Joshua Wong, and other student leaders founded Demosisto 
in 2016 and ran in the Legislative Council election. He was elected in 
the Hong Kong Island constituency and became the youngest Legislative 
Councilor in history, but his seat was overturned in July 2017 
following the Chinese government's constitutional reinterpretation. Law 
was later jailed for his participation in the Umbrella Movement. The 
persecution sparked global concern over Beijing's crackdown on human 
rights and the democratic movement in Hong Kong. In 2018, Law and his 
fellow student activists Joshua Wong and Alex Chow were nominated for 
the Nobel Peace Prize by the CECC and British parliamentarians. Due to 
the risks imposed by the draconian National Security Law, Law left Hong 
Kong. In 2020, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people 
in the world by TIME.

    Jewher Ilham, advocate for the Uyghur community and daughter of 
Ilham Tohti, renowned scholar

    Jewher Ilham is an author and advocate for the Uyghur community and 
her imprisoned father, Ilham Tohti. She now works at the Worker Rights 
Consortium as a Forced Labor Project Coordinator and is also a 
spokesperson for the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour. Ilham 
testified before the CECC in 2014, spoke at the UN General Assembly, 
and met with President Trump in the Oval Office on the Uyghur issue. 
She has written several op-eds and a book, ``Jewher Ilham: A Uyghur's 
Fight to Free Her Father.'' Ilham has received numerous awards 
worldwide on behalf of her father including the European Parliament's 
Sakharov Prize and Geneva's Martin Ennals Award. Her second book, 
``Because I Have To: The Path to Survival, The Uyghur Struggle,'' will 
be released in spring 2022.

    Sophie Luo, engineer and wife of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi

    Sophie Luo is the wife of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi. A 
native of Shanggao county, Jiangxi province, she received a master's 
degree at Beihang University and worked at a research institute there. 
Since 2004 she has worked for Alstom Transportation in China and, since 
2013, in the United States. Luo's husband Ding Jiaxi, a lawyer active 
in human rights advocacy, was detained in April 2013 and sentenced to 
three years and six months in prison for allegedly ``gathering a crowd 
to disturb public order'' while calling for government transparency. 
Luo wrote articles and advocated for the release of her husband. Ding 
was released from prison in 2016 and visited the U.S. before returning 
to China. Chinese officials subsequently refused to allow him to travel 
to the U.S. to attend his daughter's college graduation in 2018. Ding 
Jiaxi was forcibly disappeared on December 26, 2019, in connection with 
his participation in a gathering held earlier that month in Xiamen in 
Fujian province. Luo continues to advocate for the release of her 
husband.
    Nyima Lhamo, human rights advocate and niece of Trulku Tenzin Delek 
Rinpoche

    Nyima Lhamo is a human rights advocate and the niece of the late 
Trulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a highly revered reincarnate lama and one 
of the most prominent Tibetan political prisoners. He died in a Chinese 
prison in 2015. As a result of Lhamo publicly questioning the cause of 
her uncle's death, she was arbitrarily detained by Chinese authorities, 
along with her mother Dolkar Lhamo. She subsequently fled Tibet, 
leaving behind her mother and 6-year-old daughter in 2016. Nyima Lhamo 
has continued to speak out about Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's death in 
custody, calling on the Chinese government to carry out a thorough 
investigation into the circumstances of his death. She participated in 
a side event at the UN Human Rights Council, briefed UN Special 
Procedures' offices and diplomats and testified before the Tom Lantos 
Human Rights Commission. Her family continues to face harassment by the 
Chinese authorities.
      

                                 [all]