118th Congress
Close to 2000 North Korean refugees are reportedly held in detention centers near the China-North Korea border. Once North Korea lifts its COVID-19 imposed border closure policy, these refugees will likely face forced repatriation, despite the Chinese government’s international obligation to protect asylum-seekers. Any large-scale repatriation is a humanitarian and human rights crisis, particularly considering that previously repatriated North Korean refugees experienced torture, sexual assault, forced abortion, forced labor, and, in some cases, execution.
(Washington)—The Chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), issued the following statement concerning the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement of additions to the “Entity List” required by the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). The Chairs were the primary cosponsors of UFLPA with former CECC Chairs Marco Rubio (R-FL) and James P. McGovern (D-MA).
(Washington)—The Chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), today wrote to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he begins a two-day trip to United States, urging him to “coordinate actions on Hong Kong policy with the Biden Administration” and “publicly make the release of Jimmy Lai and other political prisoners in Hong Kong a priority.”
(Washington)—The Chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), today issued a statement on the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre and announced formally their 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nomination of Peng Lifa (also known as “Bridge Man”), citizen-journalist Zhang Zhan, and Li Kangmeng, one of the key figures of the “White Paper Protests.” Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA) joined the Chairs in nominating the trio for the prize. The CECC is composed of commissioners from both the legislative and executive branches.
(Washington)—The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) today released a staff report detailing the role Hong Kong judges play in establishing a de facto parallel legal system where basic procedural rights such as trial by jury and presumption of innocence are routinely violated.
According to some estimates, there are over 1,000 political prisoners in Hong Kong, a development that was unthinkable less than a decade ago. Following 2019 protests for democracy and political reforms, the Chinese government unilaterally imposed a national security law (NSL) that created four vaguely defined national security crimes and a set of rules that weakened Hong Kong’s once vaunted judicial independence, creating a parallel legal system to try NSL cases with judges handpicked by the Chief Executive.
(Washington)—The Chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), issued the following statement on World Press Freedom Day.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) is the most momentous piece of China legislation passed by the Congress in over two decades. If enforced as intended, UFLPA imposes significant costs on the People’s Republic of China for its campaign of genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities and takes steps to prevent companies from benefiting from the use of forced labor in their supply chains. The task assigned to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the multi-agency Forced Labor Enforcement Taskforce (FLETF) is daunting and aggressive enforcement is the key to UFLPA’s effectiveness.
(Washington, DC)—Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), today released a letter to Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Robert P. Silvers outlining concerns about the implementation and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (P.L. 117-78, or UFLPA). Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA) joined the Chairs in sending the letter. This bipartisan group of lawmakers were the lead sponsors of the UFLPA legislation.
Tibet faces new and worsening challenges from the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive rule. Threats to Tibet’s linguistic, religious, and cultural heritage have expanded in recent years, and now an estimated 80 percent of all children in the Tibet Autonomous Region are separated from their families and educated in a massive system of colonial boarding schools--a deeply troubling manifestation of the Party’s program of forced assimilation of ethnic and religious minority groups. In recent years, police have conducted mass DNA collection and iris scanning programs in wide swathes of Tibetan society, including in monasteries and primary schools.