Corporate Complicity: Subsidizing the PRC’s Human Rights Violations
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has benefited greatly from the international rules-based order, yet its growing economic power has allowed it to present a systemic alternative that subordinates universal human rights to the PRC’s political and ideological agenda. As a result, international businesses and corporations that seek to operate in the PRC or maintain access to the Chinese market often find themselves at risk of being complicit in human rights abuses—in China and globally. These abuses range from genocide, imports made with forced labor, forced organ harvesting, the creation of mass technological surveillance systems, internet censorship, and restrictions on free speech.
This hearing will examine cases of complicity across various industries and explore options for U.S. policy. Witnesses will provide testimony on the range and scope of corporate complicity in human rights violations and the corruption of supply chains by forced labor, detail the threats to U.S. national interests, and offer recommendations for action by Congress and the Administration.
The hearing can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube Channel.
Hearing Transcript [PDF]
Robert Silvers, Under Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Enes Kanter Freedom, human rights advocate & former NBA basketball player
Shi Minglei, wife of Chinese human rights activist Cheng Yuan
Isaac Stone Fish, Visiting Fellow, Atlantic Council
Aynne Kokas, C.K. Yen Professor, Miller Center, University of Virginia
Submitted Testimony