Skip to main content

The Long Arm of China: Global Efforts to Silence Critics From Tiananmen to Today

2016-05-24T12:00:00 - 2016-05-24T14:00:00
Capitol Visitor Center, Room HVC 210

This hearing will examine the Chinese government's reach beyond its borders to stifle critical discussion of its human rights record and repressive policies. China has long used its visa denial and censorship policies to muzzle discussion of the Tiananmen protests and their violent suppression by punishing and marginalizing the former student leaders and encouraging self-censorship among academics and foreign journalists writing about "sensitive" topics, including the events of 1989. Twenty-seven years after Tiananmen, these heavy-handed tactics are global in reach as China uses its diplomatic relationships and rising economic and trade clout as a means to achieve its aims. Recent cases represent an escalation of China's efforts to blunt scrutiny of its rights record and criticism of government policies. These efforts include pushing neighboring nations to crack down on dissidents who offer a critique of Beijing or to forcibly repatriate Uyghur refugees and Chinese asylum seekers; the disappearances and alleged abductions of five Hong Kong booksellers; clandestine efforts to discredit the Dalai Lama through a Communist Party-supported rival Buddhist sect; harassment of family members of foreign journalists and human rights advocates; and threats to the operations of non-governmental organizations engaged in work in China through the newly passed Overseas NGO Management Law and other means. Witnesses will discuss their own experiences with the "long arm" of the Chinese government and offer recommendations for Congressional and Administration action.

This hearing is webcasted here.

Hearing Transcript

Opening Statements

Representative Christopher Smith, Chairman

Senator Marco Rubio, Cochairman

Witnesses

Su Yutong: Journalist, Internet activist, human rights defender, and former news broadcaster, the Chinese service of Deutsche Welle

 

Angela Gui: Student and daughter of disappeared Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai

 

Teng Biao: Chinese human rights lawyer, Visiting Fellow, U.S.-Asia Law Institute, NYU Law School, and Co-founder, the Open Constitution Initiative

 

Ilshat Hassan Kokbore: President, Uyghur American Association

 

Statement Submitted for the Record


 

Wen Yunchao