[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 13 (Friday, January 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S106-S107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





   SENATE RESOLUTION 13--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
 INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SHOULD REBID THE 2022 WINTER OLYMPIC 
  GAMES TO BE HOSTED BY A COUNTRY THAT RECOGNIZES AND RESPECTS HUMAN 
                                 RIGHTS

  Mr. SCOTT of Florida (for himself, Mr. Braun, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Young, 
Mr. Cotton, Mr. Inhofe, and Mrs. Blackburn) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                               S. Res. 13

       Whereas the International Olympic Committee announced 
     Beijing, People's Republic of China, as the host city of the 
     2022 Winter Olympic Games;
       Whereas the Olympic charter states that the goal of 
     Olympism is to promote ``a peaceful society concerned with 
     the preservation of human dignity'';
       Whereas, on January 19, 2021, the Department of State 
     determined that the Communist Party of China has committed 
     genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other 
     ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
     Autonomous Region (XUAR);
       Whereas the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report of the 
     Department of State relating to the People's Republic of 
     China indicates that--
       (1) authorities in the People's Republic of China have 
     arbitrarily detained more than 1,000,000 ethnic Muslims, 
     including Uyghur, ethnic Kazakh, and Kyrgyz individuals, in 
     as many as 1,200 ``vocational training centers'', which are 
     internment camps designed to erase ethnic and religious 
     identities;
       (2) the national household registry system of the People's 
     Republic of China restricts the freedom of rural inhabitants 
     to legally change their workplace or residence, placing the 
     internal migrant population of the People's Republic of China 
     at high risk of forced labor in brick kilns, coal mines, and 
     factories;
       (3) the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     subjects Christians and members of other religious groups to 
     forced labor in brick kilns, food processing centers, and 
     factories as part of detention for the purpose of ideological 
     indoctrination; and
       (4) the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     provides financial incentives for companies to open factories 
     near the internment camps, and local governments receive 
     additional funds from the Government of the People's Republic 
     of China for each inmate forced to work in an internment 
     camp;
       Whereas, in June 2020, the Associated Press reported that--
       (1) the Government of the People's Republic of China uses 
     forced birth control, sterilizations, and abortions on Uyghur 
     and other minority women to diminish the birth rate among 
     Muslim populations; and
       (2) Uyghur and other minority women are subjected to 
     internment camps and large fines for giving birth to too many 
     children, which is subjectively defined by the Government of 
     the People's Republic of China;
       Whereas, in October 2019, Radio Free Asia reported that--
       (1) the Government of the People's Republic of China, as 
     part of its Pair Up and Become Family program, assigns male 
     Han Chinese ``relatives'' to monitor the homes of Uyghur 
     families in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and to 
     regularly sleep in the same beds as the wives of men detained 
     in the internment camps of the region; and
       (2) Uyghur individuals who protest hosting ``relatives'' or 
     refuse to take part in study sessions or other activities 
     with the officials in their homes are subject to additional 
     restrictions and may face detention in the internment camps;
       Whereas, in July 2019, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, 
     Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, 
     Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New 
     Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United 
     Kingdom jointly condemned the arbitrary detention and 
     surveillance of Uyghur individuals and other minorities in 
     the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
       Whereas, in June 2019, the Independent Tribunal Into Forced 
     Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China of the 
     China Tribunal found that--
       (1) forced organ harvesting has been carried out for years 
     throughout the People's Republic of China on a significant 
     scale, and practitioners of Falun Gong have been the main 
     source of organs; and
       (2) the Government of the People's Republic of China has 
     committed crimes against humanity with respect to Uyghur 
     individuals and practitioners of Falun Gong;
       Whereas the report of Freedom House entitled ``Freedom in 
     the World 2019'' indicates that--
       (1) women, ethnic and religious minorities, and the LGBT 
     community in the People's Republic of China have no 
     opportunity to gain meaningful political representation and 
     are barred from advancing their interests outside the formal 
     structures of the Communist Party of China;
       (2) foreign journalists in the People's Republic of China 
     were surveilled, harassed, physically abused, detained to 
     prevent meetings with certain individuals, and had their 
     visas withheld;
       (3) hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have recently 
     received long prison terms, and many other individuals were 
     arbitrarily detained in various ``legal education'' 
     facilities, where they were tortured, sometimes fatally, 
     until they abandoned their beliefs;
       (4) limitations on due process in the People's Republic of 
     China, including the excessive use of pretrial detention, are 
     rampant, and an extended crackdown on human rights lawyers 
     has weakened the access of defendants to independent legal 
     counsel; and
       (5) individuals attempting to petition the Government of 
     the People's Republic of China with respect to grievances or 
     injustices are routinely intercepted in their efforts to 
     travel to Beijing, forcefully returned to their hometowns, or 
     subjected to extralegal detention in ``black jails'', 
     psychiatric institutions, and other sites at which they are 
     at risk of abuse;
       Whereas the annual report of the U.S. Congressional-
     Executive Commission on China for 2019 indicates that--
       (1) the one-party authoritarian political system of the 
     People's Republic of China deprives the people of the 
     People's Republic of China of their right to meaningfully 
     participate in electoral processes and public life generally;
       (2) in 2019, the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China detained and prosecuted individuals who criticized 
     government officials and policies online and censored or 
     distorted a range of news and information that the Government 
     of the People's Republic of China considered ``politically 
     sensitive'', including--
       (A) the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre;
       (B) human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous 
     Region; and
       (C) the protests in Hong Kong against proposed extradition 
     legislation;
       (3) Hong Kong authorities, under the influence of the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China, violated 
     fundamental freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, as 
     articulated in the Basic Law, including the freedoms of 
     expression, association, and assembly;
       (4) the Government of the People's Republic of China has 
     used propaganda, disinformation, and censorship in an attempt 
     to shape reporting on the Hong Kong protests, attributing the 
     protests to influence by ``foreign forces'', and threatening 
     protesters in Hong Kong;
       (5) officials of the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China and the Communist Party of China continue to abuse 
     criminal law and police power to punish critics and 
     ``maintain stability'' with the goal of perpetuating one-
     party rule, often targeting human rights advocates, religious 
     believers, and ethnic minority groups; and
       (6) the Government of the People's Republic of China is 
     likely committing crimes against humanity;
       Whereas, before the 2008 Summer Olympics were held in 
     Beijing, the Department of State Country Report on Human 
     Rights Practices for 2006 reported that the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China practiced severe cultural and 
     religious repression of minorities, especially of Uyghur 
     individuals in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and 
     according to the Department of State Country Reports on Human 
     Rights Practices for 2018, such repression has intensified 
     since the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing;
       Whereas four Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations have 
     urged the governing authorities in Hong Kong and the People's 
     Republic of China to ensure protestors in Hong Kong may fully 
     exercise the right to peacefully assemble, including--
       (1) the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection 
     of the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
       (2) the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights 
     defenders;
       (3) the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of 
     peaceful assembly and of association; and
       (4) the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, 
     inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
       Whereas police in Hong Kong have arrested more than 6,000 
     individuals and fired more than 16,000 rounds of tear gas 
     during the seven months of protests by people of Hong Kong 
     seeking to uphold their liberties and the autonomy of Hong 
     Kong, as articulated in the Basic Law of the Hong Kong 
     Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of 
     China (referred to in this preamble as the ``Basic Law'');
       Whereas, the Law of the People's Republic of China on 
     Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special 
     Administrative Region (referred to in this preamble as the 
     ``Hong Kong national security law'') is implemented to 
     suppress pro-democracy demonstrators and remove the rights 
     and liberties from the people of Hong Kong guaranteed in the 
     Basic Law;
       Whereas the report of the Network of Chinese Human Rights 
     Defenders entitled ``Defending Rights in a `No Rights Zone': 
     Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in 
     China (2018)'' indicates that--
       (1) authorities in the People's Republic of China continue 
     to charge Tibetans with ``inciting separatism'' for 
     expressing political or religious dissent and impose heavy 
     prison sentences on such individuals;
       (2) the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     continues to implement its draconian 2017 cybersecurity law, 
     which authorizes invasive cyber surveillance and provides

[[Page S107]]

     broad authority to restrict and penalize online expression;
       (3) the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     intends to have ``full coverage, connectivity, and control'' 
     of the entire People's Republic of China by police video 
     surveillance; and
       (4) the Government of the People's Republic of China boldly 
     retaliates against human rights advocates for their work 
     upholding international standards and cooperating with the 
     United Nations human rights mechanisms;
       Whereas, in January 2020, the editorial board of The 
     Washington Post questioned whether the People's Republic of 
     China should ``be allowed to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 
     one city while running concentration camps in another''; and
       Whereas the flagrant human rights abuses committed by the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China are inconsistent 
     with Olympic values: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That--
       (1) the Senate supports the values of Olympism and the 
     principles of Team USA with respect to the protection of--
       (A) the rights, safety, and well-being of athletes; and
       (B) the integrity of sport; and
       (2) it is the sense of the Senate that, consistent with the 
     principles of the International Olympic Committee, unless the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China demonstrates 
     significant progress in securing fundamental human rights, 
     including the freedoms of religion, speech, movement, 
     association, and assembly, the International Olympic 
     Committee should rebid the 2022 Winter Olympics to be hosted 
     by a country that recognizes and respects human rights.

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