[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6848-S6849]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HONG KONG

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, over the past few months we have all 
watched as the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong turned the tables 
on Beijing, and, indeed, we have passed legislation in this Chamber and 
the President has signed that, addressing the issue.
  Hong Kong's recent elections really were a stunning rebuke to 
Beijing.
  Seven in 10 eligible voters risked persecution to speak out at the 
ballot box, and the government's allies' political control over Hong 
Kong collapsed. Hong Kong wants their freedom. We are proud of those 
freedom fighters. We continue to support them. But we also must 
recognize that Beijing's crimes spread far beyond the world of 
cellphone cameras and fearless journalism.
  In the far west Xinjiang region, Chinese officials are perpetrating a 
different and even more horrific human rights violation. Xinjiang is 
home to 11 million Uighurs, an indigenous Turkic Muslim ethnic minority 
that the Chinese Government has tormented for decades. Although the 
Uighurs built their lives and a booming economy in China, they feel 
more culturally and ethnically close to their neighbors living in 
Central Asian nations.
  Much like Tibet, Xinjiang is an autonomous region that, after the 
Communists subjugated the area in 1949, the central government 
increased its control over the lives of Uighurs by oppressing 
commercial, religious, and cultural activity deemed inconsistent with 
state doctrine. Think about that; the Chinese Communists said these 
activities are inconsistent with state doctrine.
  In the wake of 9/11, China seized on the actions of Uighur 
separatists to create a propaganda campaign comparing the separatists 
to Al Qaeda. They use these accusations to blame the Uighur population 
at large for unrest and crack down mercilessly on even peaceful 
protest. In 2016, the government further ramped up persecution of 
Uighurs under the guise of repressing antigovernment activity.
  Their current playbook really looks familiar: arbitrary detention of 
over a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in concentration 
camps that they have labeled ``political re-education centers;'' 
torture for those who fail to tell the Communist Party what the 
Communist Party wants to hear; compulsory digital and physical 
surveillance and the merciless eradication of free expression, freedom 
of religion, and basic expectations of privacy.
  The camps have garnered widespread international attention, in spite 
of Chinese officials' uncompromising repression of foreign journalists, 
but the government's pervasive digital surveillance programs are 
putting the Communist Party in a position to racially profile and 
persecute those who threaten China's plans for dominance.
  Yesterday's New York Times featured a story detailing how Chinese 
Government officials are forcibly collecting blood samples from the 
Uighurs with the ultimate goal of using DNA to improve facial 
recognition capabilities. Although the government claims that these 
capabilities will place a new tool in law enforcement's tool box, human 
rights watchdogs rightfully fear that Beijing will use it to justify 
even more intense racial profiling and persecution.
  These violations are all committed by a member of the United Nations 
Human Rights Council. These are going almost completely ignored by the 
international community. The EU and the European academic institutions 
have supported China's research and development of facial recognition 
technology, often without verifying that the necessary DNA samples were 
not forcibly obtained.
  Unfortunately, American technology companies have supported and 
profited from China's increasingly sophisticated surveillance 
capabilities. Tourists and corporate partners will once again flock to 
Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Games, even though they are fully aware--
fully aware--that the Chinese Government will track them, record them, 
surveil them, and analyze their every move.
  The Trump administration's crackdown on tech exports to Huawei and 
other Chinese entities, that sent a strong message to Beijing. Just 
last month, I joined my colleagues in a letter to Secretaries Pompeo, 
Mnuchin, and Ross urging them to sanction individual Chinese officials 
responsible for ordering and coordinating mass internment and forced 
labor in Xinjiang.
  But most leaders and executives even in the West fail to realize that 
China's bad behavior is an indication of their global ambitions. China 
thinks power and the almighty dollar--not freedom--rule the day. 
Everything China does, from their military activity in the South China 
Sea and the Horn of Africa, to the flood of Chinese-made products into 
the global market, is done with the goal of exporting their 
destructive, repressive ideology.

[[Page S6849]]

  What they are doing to the Uighurs, to the Hong Kong people, and even 
to their own supposedly loyal comrades, they intend to do to you. The 
Chinese surveillance state is an essential means to their end game of 
absolute control of the thought, movement, and relationships with other 
global powers.
  How far must China go before we reject the notion that their 
influence will stop at our border? I ask my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle to consider their answer carefully, as questions will 
inevitably rise about the relevance of free speech and the Constitution 
or the importance of a strong national defense.
  We are in the midst of great power competition, and we do not have a 
National Defense Authorization Act. It would be the first time in 58 
years. I encourage my colleagues to work with us. Let's get this 
complete because the threats are real, and the more we compromise our 
own values, the easier it will become for foreign influence to take 
hold in our society.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island.

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