Smith, Chris RSS Articles

The Chosun Daily article on Smith's TLHRC hearing'U.S. Congress Hearing Urges North Korea Human Rights as Core Agenda'

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Kim Eun-joong
Published April 29, 2026

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan human rights organization within the U.S. Congress, held a North Korean human rights hearing on the 28th after several years. At the hearing, titled “North Korean Human Rights Movement: Current Prospects and Obstacles,” Republican Congressman Chris Smith, the commission’s chairman, stated, “North Korea is one of the most oppressive regimes in the world” and criticized it for operating a “horrifying system of repression unimaginable for decades,” enforced through widespread torture, deprivation of freedoms of expression, religion, and movement, extensive digital and social surveillance, arbitrary detention, and a vast system of forced labor camps.

Chris Smith, Republican congressman and chair of the 'Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission' in the U.S. Congress, speaks at a hearing on the 28th. / YouTube

Smith emphasized the importance of information inflow to North Korea, stating, “Information is the force that drives change, and any attempt to block it must be taken most seriously wherever it occurs,” adding, “All efforts by the regime to block information only make that information more precious and powerful.” Suzanne Scholte, chair of the Defense Forum on North Korea, read aloud a testimony from Kim Ji-young, representative of Free North Korea Radio, who said she first secretly listened to an external radio broadcast at the age of 13. Scholte highlighted, “The most powerful force to change North Korea is not military power but information,” and added, “Information changes people, and changed people eventually transform society.”

Scholte described the current period as “the most challenging in the history of the North Korean human rights movement.” Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA), which played pivotal roles in publicizing North Korea’s human rights situation and facilitating information inflow, have struggled to function properly due to restructuring under the Trump administration’s second term. In South Korea, the survival of various North Korean human rights groups has become uncertain under the Lee Jae Myung government’s policy of engagement with North Korea. Smith criticized measures including the South Korean government’s suspension of broadcasts to North Korea, the abolition of the Ministry of Unification’s human rights office, and legislative support for banning leaflets to North Korea, calling them “actions directly affecting civil society, especially defector-led organizations, which are one of the most effective ways to communicate with North Korean residents.”

In a VOA interview after the hearing, Smith mentioned that human rights issues were not properly addressed in past nuclear negotiations and stressed that human rights “must be an absolutely core agenda under any circumstances.” He also stated that follow-up measures, including additional legislation, would be considered following the hearing. Meanwhile, Scholte urged sanctions under the Magnitsky Act regarding the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors, stating, “China is clearly violating the UN Refugee Convention it signed,” and warned, “Defectors forcibly repatriated face torture, imprisonment, and even execution upon returning to North Korea.”

This article was published on April 29, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.chosun.com/english/world-en/2026/04/29/PMULGCXKEJGLLF5VA46KQRYSNA/

The Hill Op-Ed by Rep. Smith'What's inside the blind box? Trendy toys on US shelves evade Uyghur labor law.'

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Adrian Zenz, Opinion Contributors - 04/29/26 2:00 PM ET

The cute, collectible Labubu dolls flying off shelves come in “blind boxes” — buyers don’t know which figure they’ve purchased until they open it. But the ugly truth about these popular toys remains hidden: the cotton inside is tied to state-imposed forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The New York Times reports that independent testing of Labubu dolls bought in the U.S. found that 16 of the 20 tested contained cotton whose isotopic signature links it directly to farms in Xinjiang. The Times investigation followed an anonymous tip received by Campaign for Uyghurs in 2025.

Beijing’s repression of Uyghurs is now so deeply embedded in China’s economy that even trendy toys on American shelves are implicated. Under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, Pop Mart’s products should have been stopped at the border.

FILE – In this April 23, 2021, file photo, a person stands in a tower on the perimeter of the Number 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. China’s government rejected U.S. accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Pop Mart’s own record shows the political pressures surrounding its use of forced labor cotton. When Adidas pledged to stop using Xinjiang cotton because of forced labor concerns, Pop Mart ended a lucrative partnership with the company and defended its use of the cotton in Chinese court filings. Under Chief Executive Wang Ning, Pop Mart argued that Adidas had “baselessly smeared Xinjiang for violations of human rights” and “seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”

This is bigger than one company making one bad sourcing decision. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region produces more than 90 percent of China’s cotton and roughly 20 percent of the global supply. Textile hubs in Guangdong and Hebei, where Pop Mart concentrates production, are supplied by regular “cotton trains” from the region, often routed through intermediaries. Inside China, a truly clean cotton supply chain is nearly impossible to maintain.

A former Han Chinese police officer who fled the country described supervising groups of Uyghurs forced to harvest cotton under heavy security to prevent escape. Uyghurs who refused state-mandated labor transfers, he said, were sent to short-term detention facilities and “intentionally subjected to hardship and suffering” until they complied.

The system behind this supply chain is not shrinking. Research from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation identifies the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as the world’s largest system of state-imposed forced labor, putting up to 2.5 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities at risk of coerced work. In 2025 alone, authorities carried out 3.36 million “labor transfers,” forced relocations to farms and factories. That was the highest annual figure ever recorded, 22 percent above the government’s own quota.

Beijing is not backing away under Western pressure. It is expanding the model. When Chen Xiaojiang became Xinjiang party secretary in July 2025, the first factory he visited was Aksu Huafu Color Spinning, a company already blacklisted under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. There, he called for expanding the cotton and textile sectors to increase “employment capacity.” Chen has also spoken of the need to “control the belly and the mind,” explicitly tying material sustenance to ideological transformation.

The trade data show what that policy has produced. According to official Chinese customs figures, direct exports from Xinjiang to Canada, Britain and the European Union rose 465 percent from 2021 to 2025. From 2024 to 2025 alone, they rose 71 percent. Despite import restrictions, Xinjiang yarn output increased 20 percent in 2025 and fabric production 36 percent, creating tens of thousands of new jobs in an industry built on coercion.

Cotton is only part of the story. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region supplies 14 to 15 percent of the world’s tomato paste, about 10 percent of its chili peppers and nearly two-thirds of a key red pigment used in cosmetics and food coloring.

A 2024 investigation by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation tied 72 international and 18 Chinese companies, including Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Del Monte, PepsiCo, McCormick, Unilever and L’Oréal, to supply chains linked to forced labor. That same year, the BBC documented testimony from a detainee who said he could avoid prison only by accepting a job at a tomato plantation.

American businesses and consumers cannot plead ignorance. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, co-authored by Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), creates a rebuttable presumption that goods from Xinjiang are made with forced labor and should be barred from the American market unless importers prove otherwise. It won overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. Yet enforcement has been uneven, even though cotton and agricultural products are supposed to be priority sectors.

That needs to change now. Customs and Border Protection should stop and test imports tied to Pop Mart’s manufacturing hubs in Guangdong, Hebei and Zhejiang. The multiagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force should assess the evidence and add Pop Mart and any subsidiaries to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, so that U.S. importers know which companies or factories to avoid.

U.S. businesses need to stop pretending they can responsibly source inside a system built on state coercion. Pop Mart’s meteoric rise, and its projection that its U.S. membership and store count will double over the next two years, shows how quickly tainted goods spread through the American market when enforcement fails.

If the United States cannot keep toys made with forced labor off store shelves, it has little chance of protecting the supply chains that matter even more: semiconductors, seafood, solar panels and medical equipment. We know what is inside Labubu’s blind box. The question is what we do about it.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) is one of the authors of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Adrian Zenz, Ph.D., is senior fellow and director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

This article was published online on April 29, 2026 and can be found at https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5854324-labubu-dolls-forced-labor/

Affirming pregnancy care centers' First Amendment rightsSmith welcomes Supreme Court's decision in First Choice Women's Resource Centers v. Davenport and protection of pregnancy care centers

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)—who, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), led a bicameral amicus brief defending the rights of First Choice Pregnancy Resource Centers—welcomed the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision this morning in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport, handing the faith-based pregnancy resource center network a victory and finding that a subpoena by the New Jersey Attorney General had violated their constitutional right to association.

Smith, Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said: “I am very grateful for the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport, which defends the ability of pro-life pregnancy care centers to fulfill their missions of providing life-affirming, compassionate care to mothers and their precious children—and to do so free from government suppression and intimidation.

“Pregnancy care centers are absolute oases of love and compassion for all who seek their services; unfortunately, time and time again, they have been unfairly maligned and disparaged by radical pro-abortion state governments, especially and including my home state of New Jersey.

“Today’s unanimous decision by the Supreme Court affirms pregnancy care centers’ constitutionally-protected freedom of association and protects them from intimidation and harassment by hostile state governments. It sends a clear message to New Jersey and other states that this kind of bullying and infringement of pregnancy care centers’ First Amendment rights will be given no sanction.”

By way of background, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport—formerly known as First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, named after former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin—arose when the former Attorney General subpoenaed First Choice for its donor records.

First Choice then challenged this unwanted subpoena on the grounds that it violated their First Amendment rights and that they had been viciously targeted by the pro-abortion state of New Jersey because of their life-affirming mission and religious speech.

In the Supreme Court’s opinion, delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Justices find that Platkin’s subpoena and the disclosure of private donor information does in fact infringe upon First Choice’s freedom of association by functionally discouraging future donors from supporting First Choice or associating with it entirely.

The Justices write, “From its allegations and declarations, and given our many and longstanding precedents… First Choice has established that the Attorney General’s demand for private donor information injures the group’s First Amendment associational rights.

“Since the 1950s, this Court has confronted one official demand after another like the Attorney General’s. Over and again, we have held those demands burden the exercise of First Amendment rights,” the Justices conclude.

In addition to his longstanding support of First Choice in this case, Smith is the author of the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 (HR 2226), federal legislation to prohibit federal, state and local governments from discriminating against the nearly 2,700 pregnancy care centers across the United States.

Smith’s bill will protect the centers by strengthening federal conscience laws, prohibiting states from requiring pregnancy care centers to be complicit in abortion promotion, and identifying mechanisms for relief, including compensatory damages.

###

Opening statement of Co-Chairman Smith at hearing on North Korean human rightsNorth Korean Human Rights Movement: Current Prospects and Obstacles

Tue, 28 Apr 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 April 28^th hearing, entitled “North Korean Human Rights Movement: Current Prospects and Obstacles”:

Good afternoon and thank you to everyone joining us today – above all, our witnesses, Tara O and Suzanne Scholte, for their dedicated service to the people of North Korea, and for their unique knowledge of the North Korean human rights movement, which we will benefit from today.

Something important is happening in North Korea—and this is despite the outward appearance of an overwhelmingly controlled society, suffering under what may well be the most comprehensively repressive government in the world.

The government of North Korea continues to operate, as it has for many decades, an unimaginably horrific system of repression—including the pervasive use of torture, denying its citizens every basic freedom of expression, religion, and movement. Above all, it is focused on denying North Koreans access to any information about or from the outside world.

And it enforces those restrictions through pervasive digital and social surveillance, arbitrary detention, and a vast system of penal labor camps. And that system of control has only tightened in recent years, particularly by reducing citizens’ exposure to outside information and reinforcing ideological discipline.

But even within that closed system, we are reminded today of a crucial truth: some information, some ideas from the outside world can always get through—and it does—and all of the government’s efforts to suppress it make it all the more precious and powerful.

It’s long been and continues to be our government’s policy to help as much information, news, ideas, and truth get through as possible.

Some of the North Korean defectors, who are with us in the hearing room today, have experienced the transforming power of ideas firsthand. In a written submission to the Commission, one defector leader explains that when North Koreans come to understand their “God-given rights…everything changes.”

Another defector, now leading a broadcasting effort, recounts that listening to a forbidden radio signal as a child was “the first window through which I encountered freedom and hope.”

And as that same testimony makes unmistakably clear, “one of the most powerful forces that can change North Korea is not military force, but information…information changes people and changed people ultimately change society.”

That insight should guide us, inspire us, and motivate us to do more.

Information is transformative, and efforts to block it—wherever they occur—must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

And that brings us to the deeply troubling actions of the government of the Republic of Korea.

For almost forty years, the United States government and Congress have considered South Korea as a model democratic ally and a partner in advancing human rights. Yet developments in the past years raise serious concerns about democratic backsliding. These concerns include the government’s poor treatment of the North Korean human rights movement, but extend to the Lee government’s violations of core freedoms within South Korea.

The Lee government has taken a series of steps that have had the effect of constraining human rights advocacy related to North Korea. These include:

Disbanding the Ministry of Unification’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Office and withholding its annual North Korean human rights report from public release;
Halting government-sponsored broadcasts into North Korea; and
Supporting legislation that allows police to block activists from sending information—such as leaflets and digital media—into North Korea.

These are not minor administrative adjustments. These are actions that directly affect the ability of civil society—especially defector-led organizations—to carry out one of the most effective forms of engagement with the North Korean people: the transmission of information.

We will also hear testimony that enforcement actions have gone further—targeting activists, restricting access to launch sites, increasing surveillance, and creating a chilling effect on those engaged in this work.

Suzanne Scholte describes this moment as “the most challenging time in the history of the North Korean human rights movement,” pointing not only to the failures of the international community, but to the fact that efforts to send information into North Korea are now being actively constrained.

She relays the words of defectors who warn that “true peace…cannot be achieved while turning away from the freedom and human rights of the North Korean people,” and who emphasize that silencing the flow of information does not promote stability—it strengthens repression.

Tara O likewise raises serious concerns about the trajectory of freedom within South Korea itself, describing “more and more restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other freedoms,” and warning that these measures are increasingly being codified into law.

These developments deserve careful scrutiny.

Policies that suppress the flow of information into North Korea, or that penalize those seeking to expose the truth, are not neutral acts. They have consequences. They affect whether the people of North Korea hear alternative voices. They affect whether defectors can continue their work. And ultimately, they affect whether the cause of human rights advances or recedes.

We need peace on the Korean peninsula – but we will not deter the North by suppressing the voice of freedom in the South, or by limiting fundamental freedoms.

The defense of human dignity and human rights are central to meeting the challenge of the militant North Korean dictatorship. It is in deep commitment to human rights that we find the strength and stability to responsibly stand up to the nuclear blackmail games played the Kim dictatorship over North Korea. Congress has acted on that principle through legislation, such as the North Korean Human Rights Act, and through sustained bipartisan engagement on this issue.

The North Korean defectors play the leading role in this defense. They are the best, most credible witnesses for human dignity and what is at stake between North Korean nuclear blackmail and the free world. They are witnesses that we need to hear – in Congress, and in South Korea.

They are agents of change, strengthening and educating the hearts of the people of North Korea. That’s why our government should help, and South Korea should help, amplify their words into the North. As one defector testified, “what the North Korean regime fears most…is outside information.”

###

Smith chairs hearing on North Korean human rights & weakening of democracy in South KoreaIs South Korea under President Lee becoming communist?

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC), today held a congressional hearing—his twelfth on North Korea—on North Korean human rights movements and the obstacles imposed by the South Korean government.

In a dangerous development, Smith said, under President Lee Jae Myung, “South Korea is abandoning human rights and is beginning to look more like North Korea and Communist China.

“Not only is Lee failing to advocate for the victims of the North Korean dictatorship, but he is abusing his own citizens’ freedoms.”

In his opening remarks, Smith warned of the South Korean government’s “democratic backsliding” and called out its “poor treatment of the North Korean human rights movement” and “violations of core freedoms within South Korea.”

Tara O, a member of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s Academic Council and a witness at today’s hearing, underscored the erosion of democracy, capitalism, and the freedoms of speech and religion currently taking place within South Korea.

“Increasingly, the measures to suppress freedom are being codified into laws, and now, they are even trying to change the constitution,” she said.

“Those in South Korea who are supportive of the communist parties of China and North Korea, and who are anti-US, anti-ROK, anti-Japan—are trying to change the fundamental nature of the ROK by deleting freedom from the constitution, and adding a socialist agenda into it, which would essentially turn South Korea into a satellite state of Communist China.”

Witnesses also described how the government of South Korea has intensified its crackdown on North Korean activists, threatening their freedom of speech and making it exceedingly difficult for them to perform their essential duties.

“We now have an administration in the Republic of Korea that is abandoning its constitutional obligations in multiple ways to ensure the Kim dictatorship continues,” testified Suzanne Scholte, the Chair of the North Korea Freedom Coalition and Free North Korea Radio.

“For the first time, the Republic of Korea has ended all its radio broadcasting to North Korea, and for the first time, the Republic of Korea has ended all support for the North Korean defector organizations. It is vigorously enforcing an anti-leafletting law that was declared unconstitutional.”

Closing out his opening remarks, Smith said, “Policies that suppress the flow of information into North Korea, or that penalize those seeking to expose the truth, are not neutral acts. They have consequences. They affect whether the people of North Korea hear alternative voices. They affect whether defectors can continue their work. And ultimately, they affect whether the cause of human rights advances or recedes.

“North Korean defectors are agents of change, strengthening and educating the hearts of the people of North Korea. That’s why our government should help, and South Korea should help, amplify their words into the North. As one defector testified, ‘what the North Korean regime fears most…is outside information.’”

###

The Epoch Times article featuring Smith's commentary'US Lawmakers Voice Support for Falun Gong on 27th Anniversary of Peaceful Appeal in Beijing'

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Frank Fang
Published April 25, 2026

A group of lawmakers expressed solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners on April 25, the 27th anniversary of a peaceful protest in China whose effects still reverberate today.

The peaceful gathering, now known as the April 25 appeal, took place in 1999. It was one of the largest protests in communist China’s recent history, as about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Beijing, seeking to secure the release of detained adherents and the right to practice their beliefs freely.

Despite assurances from officials at the time, the event did not lead to expanded freedoms. Less than three months later, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started a brutal persecution campaign against the group. The persecution continues unabated to this day, and some experts have described it as a “cold genocide.”

Falun Gong practitioners attend a parade to call for the end of the persecution in China and commemorate the 26th anniversary of the April 25, 1999, appeal in Beijing, in the Flushing neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., on April 19, 2025. Larry Dye/The Epoch Times

“Each and every day—and especially on April 25th—we honor and remember the unwavering courage and conviction of Falun Gong practitioners worldwide, who continue to endure the Chinese Communist Party’s cruel campaign of persecution, defamation, and transnational repression,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), cochair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement.

“The CCP’s brutal effort to stamp out the Falun Gong will be remembered as one of the worst crimes of the 21st century.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, after a hearing about the Chinese Communist Party's practice of forced organ harvesting, in Washington on March 20, 2024. York Du/The Epoch Times

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline with slow-moving exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It was introduced to the public in China in 1992 and spread rapidly through word of mouth across the country. By the end of the decade, at least 70 million people had taken up the practice, according to official estimates at the time.

Early on, China’s state-run media cast Falun Gong in a favorable light. A 1993 article in China Today, a state-run magazine, described its broad appeal, noting that practitioners came from all walks of life and included military personnel, government officials, professors, and students. In November 1998, state-run publication Yangcheng Evening News reported that about 5,000 people gathered in a park to practice Falun Gong exercises.

That report would be among the last instances of favorable coverage of Falun Gong in China.

On April 11, 1999, a college in Tianjin, a city adjacent to Beijing, published an article in its school magazine that criticized the practice. The publication prompted Falun Gong practitioners in the city to seek out school representatives and local government officials to address the misleading allegations made in the article.

Later the same month, the Tianjin Public Security Bureau dispatched riot police, who used force against a peaceful demonstration by Falun Gong practitioners, resulting in 45 arrests.

Police brutality in Tianjin quickly spread. On April 25, 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Beijing seeking the release of the Tianjin detainees and asking for the freedom to practice their beliefs. After a meeting between CCP officials and five Falun Gong representatives at the State Council, Tianjin authorities complied with the request.

However, less than three months later, on July 20, 1999, the CCP started a nationwide campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. At the same time, China’s state-run media began to publish propaganda about the peaceful appeal, often describing it as a “siege” against the CCP regime.

“As we mark the anniversary of the 1999 peaceful appeal in Beijing, we remember the courage of more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners who peaceably stood for their beliefs in the face of repression,” Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), who serves on the House Select Committee on the CCP, said in a statement.

“The United States stands firmly with those facing religious persecution in China and around the globe.”

Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) speaks at a press conference and rally in front of the America ChangLe Association, highlighting Beijing's transnational repression, in New York City on Feb. 25, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Since the persecution began, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, and hundreds of thousands have been tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. Many have been killed, and many have been victims of China’s state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting.

Accountability

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong “brutal and senseless,” according to a statement.

“The Chinese people have continued to endure horrific acts under the communist regime,” Scott said.

“The United States and every other freedom-loving country on Earth must take a stand and demand accountability for the CCP’s despicable religious persecution and forced organ harvesting, and work to put an end to Communist China’s blatant human rights violations.”

Scott was one of the cosponsors of the Falun Gong Protection Act. The legislation, reintroduced in March 2025, would hold people who are involved in forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners accountable by imposing targeted sanctions such as visa restrictions, fines of up to $1 million, and prison sentences of up to 20 years.

Rep. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in Las Vegas on Sept. 4, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), who serves on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the House Select Committee on the CCP, called the Chinese regime’s practice of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners “abhorrent.”

“Twenty-seven years ago, the Chinese Communist Party launched a brutal campaign against Falun Gong practitioners, using a peaceful call for freedom as its pretext,” Nunn said in a statement.

“The United States stands firmly with Falun Gong practitioners.

“I will keep working to hold Beijing accountable until this persecution ends.”

Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) speaks to reporters after a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 15, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

In 2020, the China Tribunal—an independent, London-based people’s tribunal—concluded that the Chinese regime had for years been forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, identifying Falun Gong practitioners as the primary victims.

Smith said that he will continue to hold hearings, introduce legislation, and call upon the U.S. government to “prioritize human rights in U.S.–China relations.”

“The world must not look away,“ he said. ”The CCP must be held accountable, and the atrocities against the Falun Gong must end.”

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, said he remains “deeply concerned” about religious minorities, political dissidents, artists, journalists, and human rights advocates who are facing persecution in China.

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) participates in a ceremonial swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol on May 19, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“America stands with those who seek to chart their own democratic future, speak their mind, and exercise their freedom of worship and conscience without fear of penalty or retribution,” he said.

Tiffany pointed out that the CCP has subjected some Falun Gong practitioners to criminal penalties.

Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that tracks the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, reported 751 new cases of prison sentences against practitioners in 2025. One of the longest sentences—eight years—was handed to Meng Qingjie, a 72-year-old retired elementary school teacher, in March 2025.

Tiffany was one of the cosponsors of the Falun Gong Protection Act, which passed the House in May 2025.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 11, 2023. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who serves as chairman emeritus of both the House Foreign Affairs and House Homeland Security committees, said that the CCP has “brutally suppressed any form of dissent.”

“Today, on the anniversary of Falun Gong’s peaceful protests on April 25, 1999, I strongly condemn the CCP’s ongoing oppression of these practitioners and vow to stand with all victims of the CCP’s tyranny,” McCaul said.

This article was published on April 25, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/us-lawmakers-voice-support-for-falun-gong-on-27th-anniversary-of-peaceful-appeal-in-beijing-6015713

Washington Examiner article on Smith-Wicker letter to NIH Director Bhattacharya'Anti-abortion Republicans call on NIH to stop human embryonic stem cell research'

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Gabrielle M. Etzel
Published April 24, 2026 at 6:00am ET

A coalition of anti-abortion legislators is calling for an end to human embryonic stem cell research at the National Institutes of Health, reviving a debate on the ethical use of aborted fetal materials in research after nearly two decades of inaction on the controversy.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), along with 16 other House members and five other senators, sent a letter on Friday to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya asking NIH to halt the use of embryonic stem cells and fetal cell lines obtained through abortion procedures and instead use new alternative methods that have been pioneered in recent years.

The letter from the coalition, obtained by the Washington Examiner, is in response to a Request for Information that the NIH disseminated in January, seeking public comment on emerging biotechnologies to reduce or replace reliance on human embryonic stem cells in biomedical research. During the RFI review period, the agency put a temporary pause on all new applications and approval of new stem cell lines to be added to the agency’s registry.

The 23 cosigners called human embryonic stem cell research a “moral blot on the NIH” and asked the agency to “permanently end” all new applications for human embryonic stem cell lines, as well as completely stop funding for such research.

“This research is unethical, it has not yielded good results, and there are ethical alternatives available that have already provided treatments and cures,” the coalition wrote.

Human embryonic stem cell research has been a point of concern for anti-abortion advocates for decades because it involves the intentional destruction or death of human embryos.

But major policy debates on the issue have been dormant since 2009, when former President Barack Obama signed an executive order removing barriers to human embryonic stem cell research established under the George W. Bush administration.

More recently, there has been a renewed interest in questions regarding fetal or embryonic personhood, or when a developing human can be considered a so-called “full human” with recognizable rights, as part of debates over abortion and in vitro fertilization policy since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating federal protections for abortion.

Fetal or embryonic personhood is at the core of the coalition’s argument in terminating human embryonic stem cell research.

“It is repugnant to treat any human life as disposable for so-called ‘medical research purposes,’” the coalition wrote. “There is no such thing as a ‘spare’ human being, and the US government should not be facilitating or funding research that depends on killing and harvesting cells from human beings in their youngest form.”

But the authors note that there has been remarkable progress in biotechnology development since 2009, with a variety of more ethical sources for experimentation.

Recent advancements in adult stem cells from blood and bone marrow, for example, have resulted in novel treatments for a range of conditions from blood cancers to type 1 diabetes and neurological disorders.

Umbilical cord blood and placental tissue, which used to be discarded as medical waste, have since the 2010s been used in treating more than 75 different diseases, according to the coalition’s letter, including leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell disease.

There have also been advancements in what scientists call induced pluripotent stem cells, in which normal body cells are effectively “reprogrammed” to function the same as embryonic stem cells without involving human embryos.

These three options, the authors of the letter argue, are not only more ethical but also more effective than human embryonic stem cells but have lacked NIH investment compared to less effective means.

The coalition authors note that, between 2021 and 2024 alone, the NIH spent over $1.2 billion on human embryonic stem cell research “rather than focusing resources on more promising, less ethically compromised areas of research.”

“The NIH should never have allowed research that relies upon and incentivizes the destruction of human life to be funded with billions of taxpayer dollars,” wrote Smith and his colleagues. “It certainly should refrain from continuing to do so, especially after that great expense has delivered so little benefit.”

In the press release associated with the NIH’s RFI on embryonic stem cell research in January, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the move was intended to help the agency pursue “gold-standard science that delivers better results for patients.”

“As new technologies prove more effective, we have a responsibility to move beyond practices becoming obsolete and invest in more promising alternatives,” Kennedy said in the statement.

This article was published on April 24, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/4541233/anti-abortion-republicans-call-nih-stop-human-embryonic-research/

The Daily Signal article on Smith's press conference on HR 1144'Congress Advances Prevention and Education to End Human Trafficking'

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Virginia Grace McKinnon
Published April 24, 2026

Congress is putting parties aside to extend the bipartisan protection and prevention of human trafficking in the United States.

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act has been stalled in the House since February 2025.

But Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Kwesi Mfume, D-Md., are now calling for more education to prevent human trafficking, increased funding to support victims, and stronger guardrails to combat trafficking abroad.

“Survivors told us clearly that healing doesn’t end when someone exits a trafficking situation—it’s just the beginning,” Smith said at a press conference on Thursday. “They asked for safe housing, mental health support, education, and job training. We listened.”

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) speaks at a press conference in front of The U.S. Capitol November 19, 2024. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Smith announced that House leadership agreed to schedule the debate, and a vote, which is expected in two to three weeks. The wait time is based on other legislation already lined up, mainly FISA reauthorization.

One key component Smith highlighted from this bill is the education element.

“There will be targeted funding for grants to hire prevalent higher risk populations. … That’ll be done through a careful analysis, where those grants should go,” Smith told The Daily Signal.

Smith highlighted the educational organizations he worked closely with on the legislation. 3Strands Global Foundation has digital training materials ready to send to schools for teachers to facilitate; Paving the Way Foundation does in-person training at schools by experts.

“We need to get those into every elementary and secondary school,” Smith continued. “It’s all age appropriate, and it empowers the students as well as the teachers, the principals, the school boards, and the people. We need an all-out effort to not just mitigate, but to end this exploitation of our young people,” Smith said.

The legislation will direct different programs across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, and Department of State to combat human trafficking and support victims.

Kevin Malone, a senior advisor at HHS, claimed that the gap is not knowledge, but rather funding, and the $31 million this bill appropriates to HHS is not enough.

“We need more money from Congress to fight for Americans, adults, and children,” Malone said. “We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got, but Congress, wake up, you’re funding all these other things. Let’s fund the protection and the help for children.”

Smith acknowledged that while the progress is undeniable, “the fight is far from over.”

“Today’s trafficking networks are more sophisticated, more global, and more brazen than ever, exploiting women, men, and children.”

The legislation will also expand Megan’s Law, a federal and state law that requires sex offenders to register and notify the public. Under this new legislation, Megan’s Law would extend to foreign travel by requiring sex offenders’ passports to be stamped, allowing border control to identify them as such.

Smith originally introduced and passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. Since then, 5,200 traffickers have been federally convicted, including Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, under this legal framework.

This article was published on April 24, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/04/24/congress-advances-prevention-and-education-to-end-human-trafficking/

23 members of Congress send letterRep. Smith, Sen. Wicker urge NIH Director Bhattacharya to halt unethical human embryonic stem cell research

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), and 21 other Republican members of Congress sent a letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, urging him to permanently end the agency’s funding of human embryo-destroying stem cell (hESC) research and terminate the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (Registry).

The letter, first obtained by the Washington Examiner, asserts that hESC research—which the NIH has spent over $1.2 billion on between 2021 and 2024—is “unethical” and “has not yielded good results,” and argues that the NIH should redirect its attention to more promising and ethical types of stem cell research, such as adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

“The NIH policy on funding hESC research and maintaining the Registry, which currently lists more than 500 hESC lines, has been a moral blot on NIH. This research relies on the death of human embryos,” the Republican lawmakers write. “There is no such thing as a ‘spare’ human being, and the U.S. government should not be facilitating or funding research that depends on killing and harvesting cells from human beings in their youngest form.”

The 23 co-signers of the letter go on to argue that hESC treatments have failed to yield consistent, positive results for recipients, underscoring the need for the NIH to cease funding this unethical, outdated initiative, and instead focus on advancing ethical stem cell research, which has already procured tangible, beneficial outcomes for patients.

For instance, adult stem cells have successfully treated a number of hematopoietic conditions, such as blood cancers and blood disorders, as well as certain cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, metabolic, and autoimmune diseases. Umbilical cord blood, rich in stem cells, has been used to treat more than 75 diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell disease, and the use of iPSCs has proven to be indispensable in various applications, such as disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and drug discovery studies.

“The proven effectiveness of these ethical sources of stem cells, contrasted with the dismal record of hESC research, reveals the urgent need for NIH to modernize its funding strategy for stem cell research,” the authors state.

“The NIH should never have allowed research that relies upon and incentivizes the destruction of human life to be funded with billions of taxpayer dollars. It certainly should refrain from continuing to do so, especially after that great expense has delivered so little benefit for patients.”

Rep. Smith is the author of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 (PL 109-129), groundbreaking legislation that created the national umbilical cord blood program, expanded the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, and connected patients with genetically matched umbilical cord blood stem cells. Given the significant success rates of ethical stem cell and umbilical cord blood treatments, Congress reauthorized the law in 2010, 2015, and 2020.

In September of 2025, Rep. Smith introduced his newest reauthorization of the law, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2025 (HR 5160), which will authorize more than $280 million over five years for national umbilical cord blood and bone marrow transplant programs.

###

“This legislation is of, by, and for survivors—to help heal, restore, and empower”Lawmakers, human trafficking survivors, and advocates call on Congress to pass Smith’s new anti-human trafficking bill, H.R. 1144

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) speaks at his Capitol Hill press conference on H.R. 1144 on Thursday, April 23, 2026.

At a widely attended press conference on Capitol Hill, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), author of landmark anti-human trafficking legislation, and Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) called upon Congress to pass their new, comprehensive bill, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (FD TVPRA) (H.R. 1144).

The press conference gathered human trafficking survivors, advocates, and service providers from across the country to highlight the importance of this bipartisan legislation, as well as the urgency of its final passage.

“Last year, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA)—comprehensive, bipartisan, landmark legislation that I authored and that became the cornerstone of U.S. and global efforts to combat human trafficking,” said Smith, the author of five comprehensive laws to combat human trafficking.

Despite the United States’ undeniable progress in the fight against human trafficking—more than 5,200 human traffickers have been convicted under the TVPA and are serving long prison sentences—“the fight is far from over,” according to Smith.

Smith’s survivor-informed and survivor-led FD TVPRA reauthorizes and strengthens anti-human trafficking programs across numerous federal agencies; promotes anti-trafficking strategies and situational awareness trainings for instructors and students within elementary and secondary schools; authorizes housing, educational resources, and employment assistance for trafficking survivors; and reauthorizes his International Megan’s Law to protect children from being trafficked and exploited by convicted child sex offenders abroad.

“This legislation is of, by, and for survivors—to help heal, restore, and empower,” stated Smith.

Rep. Mfume, the leading co-sponsor of the FD TVPRA of 2025, said: “Frederick Douglass, after he escaped from bondage, spent the rest of his life devoted to a simple conviction: that no human being can be bought, sold, owned, or exploited. That principle, sadly, still demands action today, as there are some 27 million people trapped in forced labor worldwide. Those 27 million souls are counting on us to get this bill passed. We owe it to every survivor, and every potential victim, to see this through – and I promise to do everything in my power to make that happen.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), the lead co-sponsor of H.R. 1144.

Gina Cavallo, survivor leader and Vice President of the NJ Coalition Against Human Trafficking (NJCAHT), said: “This is not just another bill. It is a promise. This is not a partisan issue. It is a moral one. Human trafficking preys on the vulnerable, the unseen, and the unheard. And as long as even one person is exploited, none of us can truly call ourselves free.”

Marcel van der Watt, Ph.D., President and CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), said: “H.R. 1144, why we are all here today, is the result of real-world experiences translated into real-world solutions… This is why the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2025 matters. It really, really breathes life into a response system that should look remarkably similar to the system that perpetrates these crimes.”

Hollie Nadel, survivor leader and Director of Advocacy and Engagement at 3Strands Global Foundation, said: “When we focus on prevention, prosecution, and liberation, what is often missing in the conversation is about what happens when systems fail to recognize victims—and the consequences of that failure… Through legislation like H.R. 1144, we have the opportunity to move closer to a truly survivor-centered response, one that prioritizes protection over punishment and justice over convenience.”

Kevin Malone, Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Co-Founder of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, said: “We have to stand up and fight for our kids, and we have to get this bill passed. We have to. Because traffickers are not waiting; they’re using technology, they’re using relationships and moments of vulnerability to exploit individuals wherever they are. That is why prevention education matters… Congress, it’s your duty, it’s your responsibility to protect Americans, especially kids, from sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and tech-facilitated abuses.”

Jan Edwards, President and Founder of Paving the Way Foundation, said: “Today, Congress has an opportunity to educate more kids to assist law enforcement in catching bad guys that are harming our children and provide much needed assistance to survivors. I, along with the 48,000 kids and parents we’ve had the opportunity to empower in preventing this horrific crime, are asking Speaker Johnson to bring H.R. 1144 to the floor for a vote and for our Senators to hotline this bill.”

Gina Cavallo, survivor leader and Vice President of the NJ Coalition Against Human Trafficking, delivers remarks at Thursday's press conference.

Alexandra Bailey, Chair of the Foundation for Judicial Discretion, said: “When it comes to H.R. 1144 and combating human trafficking across this country, you can see that the union is with us. And we are fortunate to have Representative Smith leading us, and Representative Mfume also leading us. The union agrees that we are not for the exploitation of human beings for sex or labor in this country, or anywhere around the world—which is why the United States leads the fight against human trafficking, and we must maintain that mantle.”

Katrina Massey, human trafficking survivor, subject matter expert, and member of Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT)’s Survivors’ Council, said: “I stand in strong support of the TVPA because it recognizes a truth that often goes unaddressed: public safety is not just about responding to a crime. It is about preventing harm before it happens, and ensuring that survivors have the support they need to rebuild their lives… [The TVPA] acknowledges that real public safety is built through prevention, protection, and partnership. It aligns resources with the realities that survivors face, and reinforces the idea that safety must be proactive, not reactive.”

Tanya Gould, Director of Public Policy at NCOSE, said: “[The Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act] interrupts the conditions that allow exploitation to exist in the very first place… What this bill gets right is that it prioritizes prevention education around grooming. Because when we teach young people, educators, parents, and communities how to recognize grooming, we are stopping the potential of trafficking before it forms.”

Reps. Smith and Mfume with trafficking survivors, advocates, and service providers who attended Thursday's press conference on H.R. 1144.

###