Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and ranking member of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, took to the House floor today during debate on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Below are excerpts of his remarks:

   “At a 2018 congressional hearing I cochaired, Mihrigul Tursun  recounted her ordeal of torture, sexual abuse and detention in one of China’s “mass internment camps” in Xinjiang,” Smith said. “She broke down weeping telling us that she pleaded with God to end her life. Her Chinese jailers restrained her to a table increased the electrical currents coursing through her body and mocked her belief in God. 

AT LEFT: Smith cites the atrocities the Chinese government has done to Muslims. Click here or on image to watch.

   “She was tortured simply for being an ethnic Uyghur and a Muslim in China.

     “There are millions of stories like this waiting to be told about President Xi Jinping’s genocide that include:

•  > The mass internment of millions on a scale not seen since the Holocaust.
   > Children ripped from the warm embrace of their families to be indoctrinated in Communist ideology and forced to renounce their religion, culture, and language.
   > Rape and sexual abuse of women being held in internment camps.
   > Forced abortion and involuntary sterilization to prevent the birth of Uyghur children—a direct violation of Article II (d) of the UN Genocide Convention.
   > Forced labor on a massive scale that allows Chinese companies to profit from modern-day slavery.

   “We cannot be silent. We must demand an end to these barbaric practices and accountability from the Chinese government.  Chinese authorities initially denied the existence of mass internment camps and have tried to portray them as vocational training centers.  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) employed lies, censorship and economic coercion to stifle discussion of their crimes. 

   “But documents obtained by the New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have exposed the brutality behind Beijing’s plans to radically and coercively transform the culture and religion of ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslims in China. The leaked internal papers show detailed plans to intern between 1 million and 3 million Uyghurs in modern-day concentration camps--where they are subjected to severe human-rights abuses and Orwellian indoctrination efforts for those “whose thinking has been infected.”

   “At the same time, Beijing instituted plans to erase the influence of Islam in western China—bulldozing mosques and shrines, severely throttling all religious practice, and forcing camp detainees to renounce their faith,” Smith said.

   Smith noted over the past year, the Trump Administration has matched strong rhetoric condemning abuses with actions to protect U.S. national security and punish Chinese authorities and corporations complicit in human rights crimes: 

• Since last October, the Commerce Department has placed over 40 Chinese companies and government entities on its Entity List,” restricting exports because of their complicity in human rights abuses and enabling high tech surveillance.
• In July, the Treasury Department issued Global Magnitsky sanctions on six senior Chinese officials, including Politburo member Chen Quanguo.
• The Treasury Department also placed financial sanctions on the Xinjiang Production Construction Corps—a paramilitary organization that reports directly to the Communist Party and controls vast interests in agriculture, mining, and manufacturing.
• This summer, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection banned eight Chinese companies from importing textiles, hair, and electronic parts from Xinjiang.

  “The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act prohibits imports from Xinjiang to the U.S. by creating a ‘rebuttable presumption’ that all goods produced in the region are made with forced labor unless U.S. Customs and Border Protection certifies by ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that goods were not produced with forced labor,” Smith said.

   The legislation, which passed 406-3, also:

• Authorizes targeted sanctions on any person responsible for the labor trafficking of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities;
• Protects U.S. investors and consumers by requiring financial disclosures from U.S. traded businesses about their engagement with Chinese companies and other entities engaged in serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang;
• Directs the Secretary of State to determine whether forced labor or other crimes against Uyghurs constitute crimes against humanity or genocide, and requires a diplomatic strategy to address these issues; and
• Requires a strategy report from the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force and regular updates on the steps taken to enforce the import prohibition on forced labor made goods from Xinjiang.  

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