The U.S. Congressional and Executive Commission on China (CECC) released its annual Human Rights Report 2020 on Thursday, January 14. The report found that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committed unprecedented human rights crimes in 2020, with human rights violations reaching the highest levels.
The report states that the CCP committed unprecedented levels of human rights crimes in 2020, including measures such as media censorship, intimidation and detention of legitimate individuals and groups exercising their fundamental human rights, including human rights crimes in places such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
The Chinese Communist Party Destroys “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong
The report points out that the Chinese Communist Party has bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and unilaterally imposed a version of the National Security Law in Hong Kong that violates the Basic Law of Hong Kong. In addition, because of its vague definition of criminal offenses, the National Security Law can easily be used to unduly restrict the freedom of others. At the same time, the law directly threatens Hong Kong people’s right to due process of justice and threatens their freedom of expression and freedom of association.
The report argues that the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law was clearly enacted to intimidate and silence Hong Kong’s vibrant civil society, including Hong Kong organizations that have long been voices for human rights on the mainland.
Communist China Commits Crimes Against Humanity in Xinjiang
The report estimates that 1.8 million Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui and other ethnic groups are currently detained in concentration camps in Xinjiang. These people have been forced to work hard, tortured and persecuted, and subjected to political indoctrination.
In March 2020, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon S. Scott Center for The prevention of genocide wrote in a report, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Chinese Communist Party committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
There is also disturbing new evidence that the CCP has systematically and extensively adopted a policy of forced abortions and birth restrictions in Xinjiang. The CCP has also purposefully worked in Xinjiang to destroy the families, cultures, and religious beliefs of the Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, and thus may have committed genocide against the Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region.
CCP Still Persecutes Falun Gong Practitioners for Forced Organ Harvesting
The report reveals that the CCP continues to harass, arbitrarily detain, and persecute Falun Gong practitioners, and continues to forcibly harvest their organs.
The report notes that, as in previous years, the CCP authorities are using administrative means other than the law, with the Party-run state security apparatus, to eliminate Falun Gong and other dissident groups. The CCP has continued to imprison and abuse Falun Gong practitioners. The exact number of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners is difficult to obtain because of the repression from the government.
The report cites a report by Minghui.com, which provides first-hand information from mainland China, that 96 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death and 774 were sentenced in 2019. In the first quarter of 2020, six Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death while in detention, and 11 others died after being released or as a result of abuse by public security officials.
The CCP Extends Human Rights Abuses Globally
The report found. Not only has the CCP committed human rights crimes on the mainland, but it has also extended its human rights abuses globally, not even to foreign citizens and Chinese living abroad.
The report cites examples of the CCP’s efforts to prohibit overseas Chinese from discussing sensitive CCP topics such as the Tibetan issue, the Xinjiang issue, the Hong Kong issue, and the Taiwan issue by monitoring, intimidating, and coercing mainland students overseas and their mainland relatives who have emigrated overseas. At the same time, the CCP also uses intimidation or inappropriate economic retaliation to silence voices in the United States and international companies that do not agree with the CCP.
The report also reveals that the CCP uses economic coercion, surveillance, intimidation and censorship of mainland social media, and secret control of discourse in an attempt to ensure the CCP’s political legitimacy. At the same time, the CCP is also forcing overseas institutions and organizations within the mainland to self-censor and crack down on freedom of expression by censoring the speech of employees of foreign companies and individual members of foreign organizations.
The report recommends that the U.S. government work with allies and partners to advance the interests of the United States and the peace-loving Chinese people who seek the rule of law and genuine political reform on the mainland by forcing the Chinese government (CCP) to improve its government transparency, better comply with principles of mutual benefit, and comply with international policies and norms. The report also recommends that the U.S. government use bills similar to the Magnitsky Global Human Rights Accountability Act, the International Religious Freedom Act, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, and the National Defense Authorization Act to hold CCP officials accountable for crimes against freedom of religion and human trafficking.
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