The State Department’s newly-released 2017 human rights report reveals a continued disregard for human rights by the Chinese Communist Party, and shows that the U.S. must speak out even more forcefully against human rights abuses in China, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, stated on Tuesday.
“2017 was a particularly bleak year for human rights in China,” Rep. Smith, who is also co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) stated. “From the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo in state custody to the continued harassment of human rights lawyers, advocates, and their family members, and on to the government detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs, Chinese Communist Party repression continues to increase, and the space for peaceful expression, association, and religious practice continues to shrink.”
“As the Party further consolidates its power under Xi Jinping—under whose leadership it has engaged in increasing levels of political oppression and human rights abuses—those of us living in freedom should take every opportunity to speak out on behalf of those suffering repression in China,” Smith stated.
The 2017 State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released on Friday, detailed human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party that included detaining citizens without due process, torture and inhuman conditions in prisons, systematic violations of freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, disappearances of human rights lawyers and advocates, and the arbitrary detention or harassment of Muslim Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Notably, the human rights activist and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo died in police custody in a hospital in July of 2017, after being imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party since 2009; he was sentenced for “inciting subversion of state power” after he called for political reforms in his “Charter 08” manifesto. While in prison, Liu was diagnosed with liver cancer in May of 2017 but was denied the freedom to travel outside of China for medical attention; medical reports had showed signs of liver problems years before his 2017 diagnosis, according to the State Department report.
“Liu Xiaobo’s death was an unspeakable tragedy, and one for which the Chinese government bears responsibility,” Smith said. “His legacy of courageous promotion of democracy, due process, liberty, and the rule of law in China will not be forgotten.”
Smith praised the removal of “reproductive rights” language in the report, which had been featured in previous country reports on human rights. He applauded the inclusion of a new section in the report entitled “Coercion in Population Control,” which more clearly reveals the brutality behind the Chinese government’s policies to limit the size of families.
The report provides details on the human and demographic consequences of the Chinese government’s decades-old population control policies, enforced through sometimes violent measures that include forced abortions and sterilizations.
“China’s long-standing one-child policy—now a two-child policy—has resulted in nothing less than horrific forced abortions and sterilizations on a mass scale, for decades,” Smith stated. “Now we are seeing even more starkly the dreadful effects of this policy.”
There are now 34 million more males than females in China, out of the population of 1.4 billion, the Washington Post reported last week. Because of forced family size limits and cultural norms, more families than not have preferred a baby boy to a baby girl, resulting in a massive demographic shift, millions of unmarried men, and an increase in the trafficking of women into China.
“The eyes of the world are upon us to see if we will stand for the freedom of those who are unjustly imprisoned, harassed, or brutally tortured by their own government,” Smith said. “The United States cannot be silent in the face of these abuses by the Chinese government; our leaders must continue raising these issues with China. The heroic witness of champions of freedom—like Liu Xiaobo—demands it.”
