Chinese flags are displayed high along the road outside a concentration camp facility in Hotan, Xinjiang, believed to house the Uighur Muslim minority. (May 31, 2019)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congressional and Executive Commission on China (CECC) released a new report Thursday (Jan. 14) citing an unprecedented series of human rights violations and crackdowns on freedom by China’s Communist government over the past year, particularly in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. The report points to new evidence that Beijing authorities “may have committed genocide” in Xinjiang.
The Congressional and Executive Commission on China (CECC)
The 2020 annual report on human rights and the rule of law in China says the Chinese government and the Communist Party have intensified their repressive actions against Chinese society through censorship, intimidation, and the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of individuals exercising their fundamental rights.
“(Repressive policies) are most evident in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” the report said, “where new evidence has emerged that crimes against humanity – and possibly even genocide – are taking place. “
The report mentions that as many as 1.8 million Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui and other ethnic minorities are currently estimated to be arbitrarily detained in extrajudicial collective detention camps in the XUAR and face persecution through forced labor, torture and political indoctrination.
“Over the past year, the Chinese government has taken shocking and unprecedented actions to crush human rights and the rule of law in China,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), chairman of the committee, in a statement, “The United States must continue to stand with the Chinese people and lead the world in a united response to the Chinese government’s human rights violations.”
Committee co-chairman Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) also said in a statement that the CECC’s annual report documents year after year the brutal atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party’s mistreatment of its people and calls for action to address the Chinese Communist Party’s egregious assault on human dignity.
“This report shows us once again the terrible cost of the Chinese Communist Party’s unbridled abuses and why we must find ways to support the Chinese people,” Rubio said in the statement.
Last year, a document leaked from the Chinese government provided additional evidence that the mass detention camp system was organized under the direction of top Communist Party officials and confirmed the widespread use of coercion and punishment against prisoners.
The CECC report calls for a formal decision by the U.S. administration on whether the brutal atrocities in Xinjiang constitute genocide. It is expected that the U.S. Congress and the incoming Biden administration will continue to take a tough stance on human rights in Xinjiang on a bipartisan basis.
Last August, the Biden campaign, which is preparing for the presidential election, said in a statement that the Chinese government’s oppression of Uighur Muslims and other minorities in northwestern Xinjiang was “genocide” and that “Biden strongly opposes it.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced a new U.S. government enforcement action to ban all cotton and tomato products produced by companies and entities in Xinjiang from entering the United States on the grounds that they are allegedly made from the forced labor of Uighur Muslim detainees in Xinjiang. The move is the latest in a wave of countermeasures by the U.S. government against China’s human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Report: Hong Kong’s “One Country, Two Systems” Framework Has Been Torn Down
Another major focus of the report is the current state of freedom in Hong Kong. The report states in the section on Hong Kong that “the framework of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong has been dismantled,” seriously undermining the rule of law and the human rights and freedoms that Hong Kong people have long enjoyed. The report also highlights the U.S. Secretary of State’s determination that Hong Kong has failed to maintain a high degree of autonomy for the first time since the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997.
The report argues that the Chinese government is currently doing nothing to reduce tensions in Hong Kong, but has instead intensified its efforts to impose the National Security Law in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, skipping the Hong Kong Legislative Council, an action that directly threatens the legitimate rights of Hong Kong residents and their freedoms of speech and assembly.
The report adds that the National Security Law raises human rights and rule of law issues because it violates the presumption of innocence under Hong Kong’s common law. The National Security Law’s vague definition of criminal offences opens the door to excessive restrictions on fundamental freedoms. The report notes that the National Security Law is clearly designed to target the civil society that has allowed Hong Kong to flourish and to threaten the operation of organizations, including human rights advocates, in Hong Kong.
Report: China’s Long Arm of Censorship Extends Worldwide
The 373-page annual report discusses for the first time in a new and complete section how China’s long arm of speech and online censorship extends around the world and blocks social media content, undermines academic freedom, intimidates human rights activists, and pressures U.S. and international businesses to conform to the Chinese government’s political ideas and positions.
According to the report, the Chinese government’s suppression of freedom of expression outside of China has become increasingly common and severe. Most commonly, economic coercion, surveillance, intimidation and censorship are used on Chinese social media platforms to silence critical voices, punish foreign organizations for private statements about individual employees, and encourage corporate self-censorship.
The report cites the retaliation against Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey as an example: in October 2019, the Chinese government retaliated against the National Basketball Association (NBA) after Morey posted a personal tweet in support of protests for democracy demands in Hong Kong.
The report mentions that the Chinese government’s censorship tentacles crossed national borders, targeting Chinese students, Uighurs living in the United States, and U.S. and international businesses. Beijing authorities have even threatened or repressed Chinese citizens living overseas by coercing relatives living in China.
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