119th Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-New Jersey), the Chair and Co-chair respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) released a letter today calling on the President to personally raise the cases of Americans, U.S. lawful permanent residents, and their family members, who have been unjustly detained in the People’s Republic of China, during his next meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping.
The Chairs were joined on the letter by CECC Ranking Members Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative James McGovern (D-MA).
The systematic, widespread, and nonconsensual removal of human organs for transplantation—often described as forced organ harvesting or illegal organ trafficking—remains one of the gravest human rights concerns associated with the People’s Republic of China. Reports by researchers, human rights advocates, and medical ethics experts have raised serious concerns that prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, and other political and religious prisoners, have been targeted within a state-enabled transplant system.
The PRC has expanded its use of subsidized and aggressive illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, threatening maritime security globally, distorting seafood markets, harming U.S. economic interests, and enabling serious human rights abuses in the seafood supply chain. This hearing will examine the economic, human rights, and strategic implications of the Chinese Communist Party's role in IUU fishing and illicit labor in the seafood sector, including the use of Uyghur and North Korean forced labor in processing facilities and on distant-water fishing vessels.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair and Co-Chair respectively of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), released the following statement in response to the sentencing of Jimmy Lai by the Hong Kong authorities:
“We condemn today’s sentencing of democracy advocate and prisoner of conscience Jimmy Lai—another step in Beijing’s campaign to crush independent journalism and peaceful dissent in Hong Kong. This is not justice. It is the weaponization of the courts to punish speech and intimidate an entire society.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair and Cochair respectively of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), released the following statement on the conviction of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong:
“We condemn the ongoing prosecution of Jimmy Lai and so many others in Hong Kong, who are detained simply for exercising their God-given freedoms. We urge the Hong Kong authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai and end political prosecutions that criminalize fundamental rights and expose the crumbling foundations of the rule of law in Hong Kong.”