As President Obama prepares to host Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24-25, 2015, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), will hold a hearing Friday, Sept. 18 to examine the critical human rights and rule of law issues that deserve frank and robust discussions during the planned state visit.
Chinese authorities have targeted for arrest and harassment human rights defenders; media outlets and journalists; human rights lawyers; Tibetans and Uyghurs; religious groups; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); intellectuals and democracy advocates; and supporters of “universal suffrage” in Hong Kong. The CECC Political Prisoner Database has case information on over 1,300 political and religious prisoners currently known or believed to be detained or imprisoned.
Who: Rep. Chris Smith, CECC chairman and longtime advocate of human rights in China, other invited members of Congress, and witnesses:
- Teng Biao, Chinese human rights lawyer, Harvard University Law School Visiting Fellow, and Co-founder, the Open Constitution Initiative
- Xiao Qiang, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, China Digital Times
- Yang Jianli, President, Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China
- Wei Jingsheng, Chairman, Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition
- Shohret Hoshur, journalist reporting on news in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for Radio Free Asia
- Ethan Gutmann, China analyst and author of The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret to Its Dissident Problem
When: Friday, Sept. 18 @ 2 p.m.
What: Hearing entitled “Urging China’s President Xi To Stop State-Sponsored Human Rights Abuses”
Where: Room 210 of the Capitol Visitor’s Center
