The following are excerpts of remarks made by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, today during the Victims of Communism’s #NoBeijing2022 rally at the U.S. Capitol:

            “With great sorrow but with equally great resolve, we meet today on the eve of the Beijing Genocide Olympics to protest Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mass murder, torture, state-sponsored rape, and other gross violations of fundamental human rights.

            In January of 1994, I met Wei Jingsheng in Beijing. As one of the most important political prisoners in all of China, the CCP thought his release would grease the skids for China to host the 2000 Olympics.  When that bid failed, Wei was rearrested, tortured, and almost died.  He was released to the U.S and later testified at my congressional hearings.

            Despite our opposition, the CCP hosted the 2008 Olympics and made a mockery of its solemn commitments to human rights.  Along with Congressman Frank Wolf, I traveled to Beijing immediately prior the 2008 Games to protest the arrests of dissidents designed to prevent them from talking to either journalists or athletes.

            So, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) shamelessly awarded the 2022 Winter games to the Chinese Communist Party—at the exact same time Xi was planning genocide against the Uyghurs—some of us again demanded a change of venue.

            Among other actions, Marco Rubio and I wrote IOC leaders in 2018 and admonished them to choose another city and nation—but our appeal fell on deaf ears.

            Today we witness the complicity of many in corporate America—funding and enabling a cruel dictatorship as it puts a façade of legitimacy and honor on an utterly cruel dictatorship.

            We stand with the oppressed and not the oppressor.” 

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