Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and Ranking Member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, today issued the following statement on the eleventh-hour release of a human rights report by the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights that condemned Communist China for “crimes against humanity”:

            “This week’s human rights report issued by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights demonstrates that, at a minimum, China under Xi Jinping is guilty of serious human rights violations that constitute ‘crimes against humanity’ in the eyes of the world community.  I would go further – China is guilty of genocide, as the two most recent U.S. Secretaries of State have concluded. 

            To its detriment, the report pulls punches, as High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet caved to China’s demands to water down the section on forced sterilization and failed to identify what is happening to Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Central Asians as genocide.  Beyond that, outgoing High Commissioner Bachelet waited until the eleventh hour to issue the overdue report, which was released just under the wire, a mere thirteen minutes before her term expired.

            Still, as a whole, the report undeniably reveals that China under Xi Jinping has become a global pariah.  Xi Jinping must be held to account for his crimes by the world community, and by the Chinese people for the moral shame he has inflicted upon them.”

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