As President Obama prepares to host Chinese President Xi, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to reverse his government’s course on critical human rights and rule of law issues.   

   At a congressional hearing Sept. 18 entitled “Urging China’s President Xi To Stop State-Sponsored Human Rights Abuses,” Smith and six witnesses noted that Chinese authorities have targeted for arrest and harassment human rights defenders, media outlets and journalists, human rights lawyers, Tibetans and Muslim Uyghurs; religious groups; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), intellectuals and democracy advocates, and supporters of Hong Kong voting rights.  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. 

   “President Xi comes to the U.S. next week at a time when his government is staging an extraordinary assault on the rule of law, human rights, and civil society,” said Smith, longtime advocate of human rights in China. “Under Xi’s leadership, the Chinese government has pushed through new laws and draft legislation that would legitimize political, religious, and ethnic repression, further curtail civil liberties, and expand censorship of the Internet.” 

   “China is in a race to the bottom with North Korea for the title of world’s worst violators of human rights. The hope that President Xi would be a different type of Chinese leader has been completely destroyed. Nonetheless, despite the torture and arrests, despite the harassment and censorship, despite the “black jails” and failed promises—rights advocates, civil society activists, and religious believers continue to grow in prestige and social influence in China.  Persecution has not silenced them—at least not at this moment.  It has not dimmed their hope for a different kind of “China Dream” that embraces human rights, freedom, and democracy.”      

   Smith said U.S. policy should be geared to protect China’s rights defenders and religious communities, nurture China’s civil society, and work with those committed to the rule of law and fundamental freedoms. Click here to read Smith’s opening statement.

   Sen. Tom Cotton (AK), Cong. Robert Pittenger (NC-09) and Sen. Marco Rubio (FL) also participated in the hearing. Testifying were: 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, and; Ethan Gutmann, China analyst and author of The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret to Its Dissident Problem. CLICK ON NAMES ABOVE TO READ STATEMENTS.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 as China prepared to enter the WTO, is mandated by law to monitor human rights, including worker rights, and the development of the rule of law in China. Its members are a bipartisan combination of Congress and White House appointees.

    Smith also noted China also continues its coercive population control policies.

    “The ‘One Child Policy’ will mark its 35th anniversary next week,” Smith said. “That’s 35 years of telling couples what their families must look like; thirty-five years of forced and coerced abortions and sterilizations; thirty-five years of children viewed by the state as “excess baggage” from the day they were conceived.  This policy is unacceptable, it is hated, it is tragic, and it is wrong.  We urge President Xi to do the right thing and end China’s horrific population control policies forever.”