[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
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available at www.cecc.gov or www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-732 PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.]
?
=======================================================================
A P P E N D I X
=======================================================================
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.
?
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T0451.189
?
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]