Smith, Chris RSS Articles

HR 1744, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Reauthorization Act of 2026House overwhelmingly passes Smith bill to reauthorize and strengthen U.S. international religious freedom board

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Reauthorization Act of 2026 (HR 1744), legislation authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) to extend and authorize annual appropriations for USCIRF through fiscal year 2028.

During the floor debate on HR 1744, Smith reiterated the necessity of continued federal funding for the Commission: “USCIRF’s high-quality reporting and high-profile commissioners influence the State Department’s work on religious freedom, making it more transparent, honest and effective.

“The Commission defends the universal right to freedom of religion abroad. It sponsors hearings, fact-finding trips, and reviews reports of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations,” the leading human rights lawmaker continued.

Ahead of yesterday’s vote, HR 1744 had garnered significant bipartisan backing, including from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), who wrote a letter in support of USCIRF and urged lawmakers to vote “yes” on the legislation:

“The Catholic Church has long viewed religious freedom as a basic human right since it is rooted in the dignity of the human person and is critical to the health of societies. Over the years, USCCB has advocated strongly for the mission of USCIRF because of its critical role in promoting human rights around the world by monitoring and promoting religious freedom. At a time when international religious freedom is increasingly imperiled, it is vital that USCIRF be reauthorized so that it can continue to highlight the need to protect those who are discriminated against, harassed and even killed for their faith.”

USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan legislative branch agency designed to promote religious freedom, was created through the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998 (PL 105-292), of which Smith was an original cosponsor. The law instituted a strong, coordinated U.S. government response for addressing and combatting worldwide religious persecution, establishing numerous religious freedom-focused offices and positions at the State Department and the National Security Council.

“[The IRFA of 1998] created a system for naming and taking action against Countries of Particular Concern, or CPCs,” Smith said on the House floor. “History has shown that when the U.S. elevates religious freedom and that priority is conveyed to Countries of Particular Concern, conditions often change for the better, prisoners of conscience gain their freedom and progress is made toward freer exercise of religious liberty.”

Smith is also the author of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (PL 114-281), which updated the IRFA of 1998 to enhance and expand United States’ actions to advance religious freedom globally through enhanced diplomacy, training, counterterrorism, and foreign assistance efforts.

“Since its founding, USCIRF has issued 27 annual reports and recommended that 26 countries be designated CPCs—18 of them have ultimately been designated by the State Department,” noted Smith, who has chaired more than 30 congressional hearings on the state of religious persecution throughout the globe.

A notable and recent example of the State Department implementing USCIRF’s recommendations for CPC status is the case of Nigeria, where thousands of Christians and non-radical Muslims are executed by Islamist extremists for their religious beliefs every year.

“USCIRF recommended Nigeria for the CPC list in 2009 and has done so every year since. But, the Obama Administration would not make the designation,” stated Smith. “The first Trump Administration got it done in 2020, but the Biden Administration returned to the Democratic position of attributing this horrific modern martyrdom to climate change and tribal conflict.

“The second Trump Administration restored Nigeria to the CPC list last year. Through it all, USCIRF recommended CPC status, calling it like it is and pulling no punches,” asserted the senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“USCIRF is a genuinely independent force, a constructive influence on the State Department… USCIRF is important to millions of people of all faiths. I therefore ask all our colleagues to join us in reauthorizing it for two more years,” concluded Smith.

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Fox News Op-Ed by Rep. Smith'Tiananmen Square tank man taught us to stand up against the worst of China'

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Rep. Chris Smith
Published June 8, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT

This past June 4, we marked the 37th somber anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, where millions of Chinese citizens peacefully and earnestly asked for political reform and democratic openness. Instead, their hope was met with tanks.

On that awful day, the Chinese Communist Party unleashed the People’s Liberation Army on these peaceful demonstrators. Mothers lost sons. Fathers lost daughters. And China lost an idealistic generation.

Over three decades later, and China has still not accounted for those killed, imprisoned, or disappeared, instead endeavoring to erase a massacre the world must never forget. But, despite the CCP’s best efforts, Tiananmen cannot be erased.

The enduring image of that day is the Tank Man, the solitary figure standing before a column of tanks. His courage reminds us that the desire for freedom is not Western, not foreign, and not imposed from outside — rather, it is universal.

As I have said before, a choice has to be made by us all: you either stand with the Tank Man, or you stand with the tank. There is no middle ground. And there is no middle ground in the issue of transnational repression.

The same Party that tried to crush truth at home now tries to chase and snuff out the truth abroad. The tactics and technology have changed, but the reach has expanded.

Inside China, the CCP uses surveillance, censorship, prison, torture, forced disappearance, and fear to maintain power. Now, what happens in China no longer stays in China. The Party wants to control what is said about China here and control who says it.

As both Chair and Co-Chair of the CECC over the past several years, I have warned about the CCP’s documented and consistent pattern of global abuses stretching outside of China’s borders, beginning with Confucious Institutes in 2014.

Over time, tactics have become more digital and more ruthless: detaining family members in China, doxxing, spyware, deepfakes, Hong Kong bounties, and illegal police stations, right here in the United States. The purpose, however, is the same: to make people afraid to speak the truth — by almost any means necessary.

Transnational repression is part of a broader, interconnected CCP strategy that targets and threatens Americans. It is outrageous and absolutely unacceptable, and it must end.

We see the CCP’s strategy in scam networks that steal from US citizens, fentanyl that poisons our cities, PRC-linked land purchases near military installations, efforts to corrupt our politicians and elections, steal private personnel and biometric data, and intellectual-property theft from businesses and universities.

These may look like separate problems, but they share a common purpose: to exploit our openness, gather leverage, weaken our institutions, spread propaganda, and make Americans pay a price for standing up to Beijing. Transnational repression is the most personal form of that strategy. It brings the pressure campaign to the doorstep of the student, journalist, dissident, artist, and family member. That is why state and local responses matter.

A victim may first call local police, a student may go to a university official, a state attorney general may see the pattern, and a state legislator may realize existing law does not fit the threat. But do local officers recognize this threat, do universities know how to protect students, do states have the tools they need, and does the federal government have a real strategy?

Today, I am working with Chairman Sullivan, Senator Merkley, and Representative McGovern on the Transnational Repression Policy Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation would define the abuse, improve coordination, train officials, support targeted communities, and hold perpetrators accountable.

If the CCP threatens people here, there must be investigations and prosecutions. If it reaches across our borders to spread fear, there must be sanctions. If it takes family members hostage to silence a critic, we will demand their release and expose the cruelty of that tactic. And if it tries to censor a free people, we will defend and spread the rights Beijing fears most: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and the right to tell the truth without fear.

A regime that fears a student’s question, a refugee’s protest, an artist’s statue, or the simple memory of Tiananmen is not a strong and confident superpower. It is afraid. And fear in the hands of a dictatorship is dangerous. It becomes coercion. It becomes censorship. It becomes repression that crosses borders and reaches into our communities. So, our response must be unmistakable.

Because in the United States of America, unlike in China, no one needs the Party’s permission to speak, to worship, to protest, to remember, or to be free.

Elected in 1980 to the Fourth Congressional District, Congressman Chris Smith, R-N.J., is senior member of the House of Representatives and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

This article was published online on June 8, 2026 and can be found at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tiananmen-square-tank-man-taught-us-stand-worst-china

SocialNews.XYZ article on Smith's CECC hearing'Chinese govt's moves to silence critics in US spark alarm'

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By GOPI
Published June 5, 2026

Washington, June 5 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Chinese government's efforts to silence critics beyond its borders have come under fresh scrutiny in the US Congress, as lawmakers, state officials and democracy activists described what they called an expanding campaign of intimidation, surveillance and coercion targeting people living in America.

At a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), held on the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, lawmakers argued that Beijing's methods have evolved from domestic repression into what they described as a global strategy of "transnational repression".

Opening the hearing, Co-Chair Representative Chris Smith said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was using a range of tactics, including "detaining family members in China, doxing, the use of spyware, deepfakes, Hong Kong bounties, and illegal police stations right here in the United States."

"Tiananmen cannot be erased," Smith said. "You either stand with the tank man or you stand with the tank. There is no middle ground."

Co-Chair Representative Jim McGovern said China remained "the world's worst perpetrator of transnational repression", citing data from Freedom House showing 319 reported incidents since 2014. He urged Congress to advance the bipartisan Transnational Repression Policy Act, which would establish a statutory definition of the practice and strengthen federal, state and local responses.

Among the most striking testimony came from Arthur Liu, a former Chinese democracy activist who fled China after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and later settled in California.

Liu told lawmakers he believed political persecution had ended when he arrived in the United States. That changed in 2021, when the FBI warned him that a Chinese operative was allegedly tracking him and seeking personal information about him and his daughter, Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu, ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

"The FBI told me to watch out for my surroundings and be careful," Liu testified.

He said agents informed him that a suspected Chinese spy would monitor his movements, place a GPS tracker on his vehicle and attempt to obtain passport information.

"I was terrified for the safety of Alisa when she goes to Beijing to compete for the United States of America," Liu said.

Anna Kwok, board chair of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, described what she called an intensifying campaign against pro-democracy activists living in the United States.

After testifying before Congress in 2023, she said Hong Kong authorities issued a HK$1 million bounty for her arrest. She said she subsequently received threats online and faced intimidation during protests held in San Francisco during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States.

"Feeling safe is a privilege," Kwok told lawmakers. "I am among hundreds of thousands of rights defenders in America who live every single day knowing we are being watched and threatened."

She also described the imprisonment of her father in Hong Kong, saying authorities had used family members as leverage against activists abroad.

State officials told the commission that local governments were increasingly taking steps to counter perceived Chinese influence operations.

Eliot Bostar, a Nebraska state senator, outlined a series of laws enacted in his state to address foreign influence, protect critical infrastructure and combat transnational repression.

"The People's Republic of China is a threat to every state and every community in our country," Bostar said.

Stephen Cox, counsel to the Governor of Alaska and a former US attorney, argued that state authorities have a growing role to play because threats increasingly intersect with consumer protection, technology and infrastructure issues.

"Consumers are on the front lines of our geopolitical conflict with China," Cox said.

The hearing came as lawmakers renewed calls for passage of legislation designed to improve coordination among federal, state and local authorities in responding to transnational repression cases.

This article was published on June 5, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.socialnews.xyz/2026/06/05/chinese-govts-moves-to-silence-critics-in-us-spark-alarm/

Rep. Smith, Assemblyman McGuckin meet with GAO to discuss progress of report on whether the U.S. military weaponized ticks with Lyme disease

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Rep. Smith and Assemblyman McGuckin with top leaders from the GAO.

Rep. Chris Smith and NJ Assemblyman Gregory McGuckin today met with top leaders from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to discuss the progress of their investigation—mandated by Smith’s amendment to the FY26 NDAA—into whether the Cold War-era Department of Defense (Department of War) ever used ticks as hosts or delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents.

“Today’s meeting was highly encouraging and eye-opening,” said Smith. “The GAO is in the process of fully and faithfully implementing the investigation required by my legislation, bringing us closer to the truth of how Lyme disease came to be so pervasive.”

The GAO report, once completed, will include an exhaustive review of experimentation and potential weaponization of ticks conducted by the military and federal government between the period of January 1, 1945 and December 31, 1972.

During the meeting, Smith urged the GAO to review different DOW files and documents relating to Fort Detrick in Maryland and other military installations throughout the country.

“Tick-borne diseases are exploding throughout the country, and New Jersey has one of the highest Lyme rates in the United States. In 2025 alone, New Jersey recorded 5,211 cases of Lyme disease,” stated Smith, a leading lawmaker and advocate for Lyme disease research, prevention, and identification.

“The findings of this report could provide valuable insights into how Lyme disease came to be so common and chronic over the years, potentially leading to the identification and development of new treatments and therapies that could significantly improve Lyme patients’ quality of life and care,” Smith continued.

“If the report determines that the U.S. government did not play a role in the proliferation of Lyme disease, we can close this chapter. But, if the GAO uncovers that the spread of Lyme disease was, in fact, enhanced by U.S. bioweapons specialists, we will be equipped with even more information and evidence to help us find a cure for this debilitating illness.”

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Smith thanks President Trump, VA Sec. Doug CollinsSmith highlights improved VA operations and commitment to Veterans under new VA leadership

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), former Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, met with U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Doug Collins, where he thanked him for the Trump Administration’s historic commitment to improving Veterans’ quality of life and care, reducing Veteran homelessness, and speeding up the processing of VA benefits and claims.

“Secretary Collins has been doing an extraordinary job as the new head of the VA,” said Smith, the author of 14 enacted laws to assist Veterans, including the Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act (PL 107-95) (HR 2716).

“Under Secretary Collins’ and President Trump’s leadership, the VA has made ending Veteran homelessness a priority—in fact, in FY25 alone, the VA permanently housed 51,936 homeless Veterans. This achievement was made possible in-part through partnerships with vital charitable organizations like Soldier On, which serves many Veterans in my congressional district,” he continued.

“The VA has already made significant improvements to the quality of their facilities, the speed of their paperwork processing, and the reallocation of federal funds towards critical health initiatives, and I look forward to seeing the heights to which the VA will soar over the course of President Trump’s and Secretary Collins’ tenures.”

Since President Trump has taken office in January of 2025, the VA has:

Reduced the backlog of Veterans waiting for VA benefits by 62%;
Eliminated the backlog of Veteran families waiting for VA health care;
Processed more than three million VA disability claims;
Opened 25 new VA health care clinics throughout the U.S.;
Offered Veterans more than 1.9 million appointments outside of normal operating hours;
Launched a reorganization of the Veterans Health Administration management structure;
Requested proposals for new community care contracts;
Increased the expenditure cap for in-home and community-based services for Veterans with certain complex medical conditions;
Accelerated the deployment of its integrated electronic health record system;
Permanently housed 51,936 homeless Veterans across the country in FY25;
Made it easier and faster for VA-enrolled Veterans to access care from non-VA providers at the department’s expense;
Partnered with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to identify and recover $106 million in duplicate billing; and
Ended DEI and treatment for gender dysphoria at the department, reversing the divisive Biden-era policies and stopping more than $14 million in DEI spending.

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Opening statement of Co-Chairman Smith at CECC hearingThe PRC’s Threats to Americans: Transnational Repression & State-Level Responses

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)’s June 4^th hearing, entitled “The PRC’s Threats to Americans: Transnational Repression & State-Level Responses”:

Before we begin, I want to mark a solemn anniversary. Today marks the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Thirty-seven years ago, millions of Chinese citizens peacefully asked for political reform, democratic openness, and basic human dignity. Their hope was met with tanks.

The Chinese Communist Party unleashed the People’s Liberation Army on peaceful demonstrators. Mothers lost sons. Fathers lost daughters. And China lost an idealistic generation to the violence of June 4, 1989.

There has been no full accounting of those killed, imprisoned, or disappeared. The Party still tries to erase a massacre the world must never forget. But Tiananmen cannot be erased.

The enduring image of that day is the Tank Man—the solitary figure standing before a column of tanks. His courage reminds us that the desire for freedom is not Western, not foreign, and not imposed from outside. It is universal.

As I have said before, a choice has to be made by us all: you either stand with the Tank Man, or you stand with the tank. There is no middle ground. And there is no middle ground in the subject before us today.

Tiananmen is not a detour from this hearing. It is the key to understanding it. The same Party that tried to crush truth at home now tries to chase truth abroad. The tactics have changed. The technology has changed. The reach has expanded. But the purpose is the same: to make people afraid to speak the truth—by almost any means necessary.

Inside China, the CCP uses surveillance, censorship, prison, torture, forced disappearance, and fear to maintain power. But what happens in China no longer stays in China. The Party wants to control what is said about China here and control who says it.

The CECC has warned about the CCP’s long arm for years. Long before “transnational repression” became common phrase, I held a dozen or so hearings in this Commission documenting and exposing a consistent pattern of global abuses—starting with Confucius Institutes in 2014.

Over time, tactics have become more digital and more ruthless: detaining family members in China, doxxing, spyware, deepfakes, Hong Kong bounties, and illegal police stations right here in the United States. It is outrageous and unacceptable and must be stopped. Transnational repression is not the only threat Americans face. But it is part of a broader, interconnected CCP strategy.

We see that strategy in scam networks stealing from US citizens, fentanyl poisoning our cities, PRC-linked land purchases near military installations, efforts to corrupt politicians and elections, steal private personnel and biometric data, and intellectual-property theft from businesses and universities.

These may look like separate problems. But they share a common purpose: exploit our openness, gather leverage, weaken our institutions, spread propaganda, and make Americans pay a price for standing up to Beijing. Transnational repression is the most personal form of that strategy. It brings the pressure campaign to the doorstep of the student, journalist, dissident, artist, and family member. That is why state and local responses matter.

A victim may first call local police. A student may go to a university official. A state attorney general may see the pattern. A state legislator may realize existing law does not fit the threat. So, the questions are practical: do local officers recognize this threat, do universities know how to protect students, do states have the tools they need, and does the federal government have a real strategy?

That is why I am proud to work with Chairman Sullivan, Senator Merkley, and Representative McGovern on the Transnational Repression Policy Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation would define the abuse, improve coordination, train officials, support targeted communities, and hold perpetrators accountable. Because victims need more than sympathy. They need protection and a place to turn.

But let me make one point clear. A regime that fears a student’s question, a refugee’s protest, an artist’s statue, or the simple memory of Tiananmen is not a strong and confident superpower. It is afraid. And fear in the hands of a dictatorship is dangerous. It becomes coercion. It becomes censorship. It becomes repression that crosses borders and reaches into our communities. So, our answer must be unmistakable.

Because in the United States of America, unlike in China, no one needs the Party’s permission to speak, to worship, to protest, to remember, or to be free. That is why this hearing matters.

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Turkish Minute article on Smith's TLHRC hearing'US congressional commission spotlights Turkey's authoritarian rule and rights abuses'

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Turkish Minute
Published June 4, 2026

Turkey is moving toward full authoritarian rule as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan intensifies its crackdown on political opposition, independent media, civil society and perceived critics at home and abroad, US lawmakers and expert witnesses warned at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Speakers pointed to the March 2025 arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, pressure on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the misuse of terrorism charges against government critics, Turkey’s refusal to comply with European Court of Human Rights judgments and its targeting of dissidents overseas as signs of accelerating authoritarian consolidation.

The hearing was held by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan body in the US House of Representatives, and hosted by Representatives Christopher Smith, a Republican representing New Jersey, and James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts. Witnesses included Henri Barkey, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Serkan Gölge, a NASA scientist who was imprisoned in Turkey for nearly five years; and Andrew O’Donohue, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Rep. Smith said thousands of people remain imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism-related charges based on activities that were lawful at the time, such as attending schools affiliated with the Gülen movement, having bank accounts at Bank Asya or maintaining ties to family members accused of links to the movement.

Smith also said Turkey targets critics abroad through surveillance, intelligence-gathering and intimidation campaigns, citing an incident in which Erdoğan’s security detail attacked protesters in Washington, D.C., during an official visit.

President Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

Congressman McGovern said the human rights situation in Turkey has continued to deteriorate, pointing to pressure on the main opposition CHP, criminal investigations targeting journalists and activists and Ankara’s refusal to comply with binding judgments from the European Court of Human Rights.

Henri Barkey said Turkey’s state institutions have been reshaped to ensure Erdoğan’s political survival, with the judiciary increasingly used as a political tool against opponents. He described İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu’s arrest as the most aggressive use of prosecutorial power against electoral competition in Turkey’s history.

İmamoğlu, widely seen as President Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, was arrested in March 2025 on corruption charges that critics say are politically motivated and intended to sideline him ahead of the 2028 general election.

Barkey warned that the appointment of trustees to opposition-run municipalities on terrorism-related grounds has enabled authorities to override democratic election results.

Barkey also said tens of thousands of people dismissed under emergency decrees following the coup attempt in 2016 continue to face what he called “civil death,” losing not only their jobs but also passports, professional licenses, pensions, social security and health insurance while being stigmatized as linked to terrorism without evidence or conviction.

Following the attempted coup, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency, known as OHAL, that remained in effect until July 19, 2018. During that period, the government purged state institutions through emergency decrees, dismissing more than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors and more than 24,000 members of the armed forces, over alleged links to terrorist organizations.

Serkan Gölge, who was imprisoned in Turkey for nearly five years before returning to the US, said his case showed how individualized justice has been replaced by collective punishment. He said activities that were legal at the time, including opening a bank account and attending a legally operating school, were presented years later as evidence of terrorism.

Gölge said the punishment extended to his family, with his wife and children, all US citizens, prevented from leaving Turkey while he was imprisoned.

Describing his prosecution as an example of “hostage diplomacy,” Gölge said his US citizenship brought international attention to his case, while hundreds of thousands of less visible victims of the post-coup crackdown remained largely forgotten.

Gölge said the post-coup purge of the judiciary left defendants in politically sensitive cases with little hope of impartial review after Turkey’s judicial council suspended 2,745 judges and prosecutors the day after the coup attempt, with more than 4,000 ultimately removed. He said the message to those who remained was clear: Rule against the government, and “you may be next.”

Andrew O’Donohue warned that Turkey has reached a “dangerous inflection point,” saying the country is shifting from a system in which elections are unfair but still competitive to one in which opposition forces are prevented from gaining power.

He described İmamoğlu’s arrest as a decisive moment in that transition and warned that the muted international response risked enabling further democratic backsliding.

Michael Rubin described the current period as among the most repressive in modern Turkish history, saying Erdoğan used the 2016 abortive putsch as a “gift from God” to justify a pre-planned extensive crackdown against perceived opponents.

He characterized Erdoğan’s targeting of opposition figures such as former pro-Kurdish party leader Selahattin Demirtaş, İmamoğlu and CHP leader Özgür Özel as “political decapitation,” saying it was aimed at reshaping society along authoritarian lines while preserving the ruling establishment’s access to state resources.

The hearing also addressed religious freedom and the situation of Turkey’s Christian communities. While Barkey described the outlook as “a lost cause,” Rubin warned that silence would likely result in a further deterioration of religious freedoms.

Witnesses called on Washington to tie cooperation with Ankara more closely to respect for the rule of law, democratic norms and fundamental rights, including at the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara.

Rubin urged US officials to raise concerns about political prisoners and democratic backsliding more forcefully. “It would be great to have a prominent American say, ‘Mr. Erdoğan, tear down Silivri,” he said, referring to the high-security prison outside İstanbul that holds many of Turkey’s best-known political prisoners. He called on Washington to encourage European allies to do the same if necessary.

This article was published on June 4, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.turkishminute.com/2026/06/04/us-congressional-commission-spotlights-turkeys-authoritarian-rule-and-rights-abuses/

Thurs., June 4: Rep. Chris Smith to chair CECC hearing“The PRC’s Threats to Americans: Transnational Repression & State-Level Responses”

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On Thursday, June 4^th, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), will chair a congressional hearing on the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) expanding use of transnational repression and malign influence in the United States, and the growing role of state and local governments in responding to these and other threats.

We will hear from victims about the tactics used to target them and their families, examine how federal, state, and local governments can better work together to protect Americans, strengthen law enforcement responses, and defend varied U.S. interests from the challenges posed by the PRC.

WHAT: Congressional hearing on how PRC authorities and their proxies seek to intimidate, censor, and silence critics in the United States.

WHEN: Thursday, June 4, 2026 at 1:30 PM

WITNESSES: (Partial list)

Hon. Stephen J. Cox, Counsel to the Governor, State of Alaska
Hon. Eliot Bostar, Nebraska State Senator
Arthur Liu, Owner, Inter-Pacific Law Group
Anna Kwok, Board Director and former Executive Director, Hong Kong Democracy Council

WHERE: 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building and livestreamed here

WHO: Chairman Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Co-Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), other members of the CECC, and witnesses

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IANS article on Smith's Tibet Atrocities Determination Act'US lawmakers seek Tibet genocide determination'

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By IANS
Published June 3, 2026 at 6:32 AM

Washington, June 3 (IANS) Bipartisan lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have introduced legislation requiring the State Department to determine whether China has committed genocide or crimes against humanity against Tibetans, adding fresh congressional pressure on Beijing over its human rights record.

Representatives Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, and Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from New York, on Tuesday introduced the Tibet Atrocities Determination Act, which would require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress within one year of enactment assessing China's actions in Tibet.

The bill is the House companion to legislation introduced in the Senate by Republican Senator Rick Scott and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley.

If enacted, the measure would require the State Department to investigate whether Chinese authorities have subjected Tibetans to arbitrary killings, serious bodily or psychological harm, inhumane living conditions, forced displacement, mass detentions, coercive sterilisation and abortions, and the removal of Tibetan children from their families and communities.

The legislation also calls for a review of Chinese government actions aimed at "sinicising" Tibetan Buddhism and repressing Tibetan language and culture. The report would draw on State Department findings and third-party analyses and recommend possible US responses, including sanctions, visa restrictions and diplomatic measures.

"For far too long, and with complete impunity, the Chinese Communist Party has been committing clear atrocities in Tibet against the Tibetan people," Smith said in a statement announcing the legislation.

"To marshal the clear and concrete actions needed to confront these crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable, we must disclose them by name, plainly and officially," he said.

"The United States must stand alongside them as they fight to stop the erasure of their religion, language, culture, and identity. They deserve the support of every nation committed to freedom and democracy."

Suozzi said China's treatment of Tibetans and other minority groups posed a broader challenge to democratic values.

"The Chinese Communist Party's brutal transnational repression campaign, which targets Tibetans and other ethnic minority groups, is a threat to democracy everywhere," he said.

"I continue to stand with the Tibetans who are demanding independence and the freedom simply to be Tibetan - to speak their language, to practice their religion, and to live freely in their own country."

He added: "Whether it's Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, or democracy advocates in Hong Kong, we need to stand up to China for its failure to promote basic human rights. We must call out oppression and religious persecution around the world."

Scott, the Senate sponsor, said the international community should not ignore what he described as abuses in Tibet.

"Communist China is an evil, despicable regime, and the world can't ignore the genocide happening right now in Tibet," Scott said.

He accused Chinese authorities of carrying out "systematic killings, torture, forced sterilization, forced displacement, government sanctioned kidnapping, and a myriad of other crimes against humanity in its oppression of the Tibetan people."

The proposed legislation specifically directs the Secretary of State to examine evidence related to systematic killings, torture, psychological intimidation, forced indoctrination, mass detention, deprivation of basic necessities, enforced sterilisation, coercive abortion practices and the transfer of Tibetan children through China's "colonial boarding school system."

Tibet has long been a source of friction between China and Western governments.

This article was published on June 3, 2026 and can be found online at: https://ianslive.in/us-lawmakers-seek-tibet-genocide-determination--20260603055103

Opening statement of Co-Chairman Smith at hearing on TurkeyCan Turkey Find Its Way Back to Freedom? Authoritarian Consolidation versus the Defense of Turkish Democracy

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s June 3^rd hearing, entitled “Can Turkey Find Its Way Back to Freedom? Authoritarian Consolidation versus the Defense of Turkish Democracy”:

Welcome to our witnesses, and to everyone joining us this morning. It’s good to see many Turkish Americans in the room. Thank you for your concern about the future of Turkey, and also for your contributions to the United States.

The title of today’s hearing poses a question of immense importance: can Turkey find its way back to freedom?

Many people now fear that the Erdogan government may have taken Turkey near to a point of no return—that President Erdogan’s government has left democratic institutions so weakened, and power so concentrated, that it will be very difficult to restore civil and political freedom in its most basic aspects: rule of law, free and fair elections, judicial independence, religious freedom, and respect for internationally recognized human rights.

But the answer to the question will be given by the Turkish people themselves, and that is cause for hope. The Turks are a famously courageous people. Throughout Turkey’s modern history, men and women have defended democratic values, free institutions, and fundamental liberties—sometimes under difficult circumstances—but they made progress. Today, many continue that work, but the situation is more difficult.

Perhaps the most dramatic indication of that is the number of political prisoners in Turkey, today estimated at well over 10,000, including journalists, lawyers, elected officials, academics, civil society leaders, and democracy activists, as well as those imprisoned in abusive use of counterterrorism laws used to target people with links to Hizmet or to banned Kurdish groups.

One of our witnesses, Serkan Golge, will recount his own harrowing tale of such repression. A U.S. citizen, he was imprisoned by the Turkish government for nearly three years, much of it in solitary confinement. Turkish authorities treated lawful conduct—including his education, the innocent location of his bank account, family relationships, and even possession of a one-dollar bill—as evidence of terrorism. As he writes, “the legal system that imprisoned me... began with a conclusion and then searched backward through my life for facts that could be arranged to support it.”

Even in the case of Turks abroad, standing up for freedom and rule of law requires courage. One of the most disturbing features of the current situation is the government’s record of transnational repression. Freedom House has repeatedly ranked Turkey among the world's most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression, targeting perceived opponents, critics, and dissidents abroad, including Turkish Americans, who have been subject to surveillance, intelligence-gathering, as well as pressure, intimidation and harassment.

Of the hundreds of people imprisoned in Turkey today, the most high-profile individual is Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. He was one of the most popular leaders of political opposition in Turkey, and a likely candidate for president—few credit the “independence” of the prosecutors and judges who arrested him and charged him with leading a criminal organization, along with other opposition figures and elected officials.

His arrest in March of 2025 came on the very day that his party was expected to nominate him as its candidate for the next presidential election. Since then, he has remained in prison while prosecutors have pursued a series of cases against him and many of his associates. More than 400 of his supporters have also been put on trial. This has marked a critical and ominous turning point—President Erdoğan had previously refrained from arresting his principal electoral rival.

This, more than anything, prompts the question whether Turkey can find its way back to freedom. The Turkish government appears to be moving from a system in which elections are unfair, but still winnable, for the opposition to one in which, as Andrew O’Donohue states in written testimony, “it has become increasingly doubtful that Turkey's government will allow voters to choose new leaders through elections.”

Our witnesses will address the increasingly systematic use of legal and administrative mechanisms to sideline political opponents, as well as heavy restrictions on freedom of expression, prosecution of journalists, blocking of online content, criminalization of social media activity, and pressure on independent media.

We will hear about the increasingly systematic use of state institutions to neutralize political opposition and reconfigure the country so as to serve “the political survival, the prerogatives, and the personal preferences of a single individual,” as Henri Barkey will testify.

Denial of religious freedom remains another serious problem. Crippling restrictions on Christian communities include the heavy interference in the internal life of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the continued closure of the Halki Seminary.

Yet, despite all of this, elections still matter in Turkey. Erdogan tilts the playing field, but opposition parties compete—and very often, they win. The opposition holds almost half of the seats in the Turkish parliament. Civic engagement remains strong. The desire for accountable government endures.

As the administration prepares for the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, I urge the administration to remind the Turkish government that freedom, rule of law, and democracy are also matters of alliance strength, stability, and security, as Michael Rubin warns in his testimony, and to meet with the Turkish parliamentary opposition.

Strong allies require trusted courts, predictable legal institutions, and confidence that prosecutions are based on evidence rather than politics.

Likewise, NATO allies are strongest when voters have genuine choices and when opposition parties can compete fairly.

And likewise, effective counterterrorism requires transparent evidence, fair trials, and public confidence in the justice system.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what the Turkish people can do to defend their freedom and the best of their culture and national traditions from the abuses we have seen in recent years—and what policies Congress and the U.S. government should pursue to support them.

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