Mihrigul Tursun said she pleaded with God to end her life as her Chinese jailers increased the electrical currents coursing through her body. Tursun, a Muslim Uighur whose escape led her to the United States in September, broke down weeping at a Nov. 28 congressional hearing as she recounted her experience in one of China’s infamous political “ re-education centers.”
It is an appalling story but one that is all too familiar as existential threats to religious freedom rise in President Xi Jinping’s China. The world can’t ignore what’s happening there. We must all stand up and oppose these human rights violations.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has undertaken the most comprehensive attempt to manipulate and control — or destroy — religious communities since Chairman Mao Zedong made the eradication of religion a goal of his disastrous Cultural Revolution half a century ago. Now Xi, apparently fearing the power of independent religious belief as a challenge the Communist Party’s legitimacy, is trying to radically transform religion into the party’s servant, employing a draconian policy known as sinicization.
Under sinicization, all religions and believers must comport with and aggressively promote communist ideology — or else.
Congressman Chris Smith today pressed representatives of the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency to use the tools prescribed in the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction bad actors in China who are contributing to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States through the manufacture and distribution of the synthetic drug fentanyl.
“Chinese-made fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is killing Americans—more than 29,000 in 2017 alone,” Smith said. “We must hold the Chinese government accountable.”(Click here to read Chairman Smith’s full opening statement)
“Are we using existing tools to hold bad actors in China accountable? We have tools, such as the Global Magnitsky Act, which targets corrupt officials and human rights abusers. Perhaps it is time we start thinking outside the box and use something like Global Magnitsky to ensure that corrupt Chinese officials and narco-traffickers are held to account,” Smith said during a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Global Heath, which he chairs.Read the rest of this entry »
Congressman Chris Smith, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Global Health, will hold a hearing on China’s role in the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is killing thousands of American citizens, on Thursday, September 6, 2 p.m., in the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will be streamed live from the Committee’s website.
Smith announced the hearing during his remarks at Robbinville’s International Overdose Awareness Day last week.
Some U.S. lawmakers are urging President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration to recalibrate U.S.-China relations with a harder line on human rights. “It is increasingly clear that there is direct link between China’s domestic human-rights problems and the security and prosperity of the United States,” Congressman Chris Smith said at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive… Read the rest of this entry »
Add Bon Jovi to the list of artists scheduled to perform in China, only to have their concerts canceled due to some sort of affiliation with the Dalai Lama. The iconic New Jersey rockers were scheduled to perform in Shanghai and Beijing next week, as part of an Asian tour that begins Friday in Indonesia. But… Read the rest of this entry »
Speaks out against Chinese trade practices at Foreign Affairs Committee hearing
At a hearing on Capitol Hill last week, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) blasted the Chinese Government for stealing U.S. jobs through deceitful policies and trading practices. Fake products and components made in China and sold in the U.S. put American consumers at risk, he said. Fake Chinese computer chips have even been found in U.S. defense systems.
“All of us know that economic growth and vigorous exports are vital to American prosperity, and now in these difficult times—economic recovery,” said Smith at a full hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee entitled “Unfair Trading Practices against the U.S.: Intellectual Property Rights Infringement (IPR), Property Expropriation, and Other Barriers.”
“American workers can out-compete anyone in the world, but theft of intellectual property – the patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs, and trade secrets of American companies — robs them of a fair return on their innovation and their work,” Smith added.
Mihrigul Tursun said she pleaded with God to end her life as her Chinese jailers increased the electrical currents coursing through her body. Tursun, a Muslim Uighur whose escape led her to the United States in September, broke down weeping at a Nov. 28 congressional hearing as she recounted her experience in one of China’s infamous political “ re-education centers.”
Congressman Chris Smith today pressed representatives of the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency to use the tools prescribed in the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction bad actors in China who are contributing to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States through the manufacture and distribution of the synthetic drug fentanyl.
Some U.S. lawmakers are urging President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration to recalibrate U.S.-China relations with a harder line on human rights. “It is increasingly clear that there is direct link between China’s domestic human-rights problems and the security and prosperity of the United States,” Congressman Chris Smith said at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive… 