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Under Secretary Zeya’s Remarks at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Hearing on “Combatting the CCP’s Historical Revisionism and Erasure of Culture” [1]
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Date: 2024-12
Under Secretary Zeya’s Remarks at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Hearing on “Combatting the CCP’s Historical Revisionism and Erasure of Culture”
As delivered.
Good morning. I am grateful to join this important discussion of the PRC’s efforts to control and distort historical narratives and repress marginalized religious and ethnic communities. As we gather this morning, the PRC continues its genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, the erosion of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, suppression of Tibetans’ unique cultural, religious, and linguistic identity, and other persistent human rights abuses throughout the country. As Secretary Blinken has noted, under President Xi, the Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.
In this troubling context, the United States Government has been steadfast in raising human rights at the highest levels with the PRC. Our Administration prioritizes shining a light on and takes actions against the PRC’s abuses. Let me elaborate some of the key ways we’ve done so.
First, we have led the way in multilateral fora, including the PRC’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in January at the Human Rights Council. We submitted 15 Advanced Questions – more than any other country – to the PRC covering a number of core human rights concerns. The January 23rd U.S. Statement at the UPR contained a series of specific recommendations, specifically calling on the PRC to cease discrimination against individuals’ culture, language, religion or belief, and end forcible assimilation policies. We again raised these concerns in July at the UPR’s formal adoption.
We have also worked in common cause with allies and partners since 2021, leading joint statements with dozens of governments on the human rights situation in Xinjiang at the Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly, commending the efforts of human rights defenders and the courage shown by survivors of forced labor and detention camps. Just this past October, we joined 14 other countries in an Australian-led statement condemning the human rights situation in Xinjiang and Tibet at the United National General Assembly Third Committee.
In August, the State Department released a statement to mark the second anniversary of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Assessment on the Human Rights Situation in Xinjiang. We expressed our grave concern with the PRC’s ongoing repression of Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang and urged the PRC to take immediate action to end these ongoing atrocities.
Second, we are robustly implementing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), including via additions to the UFLPA Entity List. Last month, the multi-agency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force added 29 companies to the Entity List, bringing the total to more than 100. We are unwavering in our work to prevent the importation of goods made with forced labor into the United States, and to ending forced labor of Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities, both inside and outside of Xinjiang. In December 2023, we released a report under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) to promote accountability, which identified two PRC government officials connected to ongoing serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang whom Treasury concurrently sanctioned.
Third, we continue to voice deep concerns on democratic erosion in Hong Kong as the PRC attempts to silence those peacefully expressing their political views. In September, we worked with 22 partners of the Media Freedom Coalition to release a joint statement condemning the conviction of the former chief editors of Stand News for sedition, which is a direct attack against media freedom. In November, we strongly condemned the sentences of 45 defendants in Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL) trial of pro-democracy advocates. Throughout the year, we took steps to impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials responsible for implementation of the NSL.
And meanwhile, in my dual hat role as U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, I see all too clearly that the CCP aims to subsume Tibet’s rich traditions into its one-party framework.
This manifests itself through forced relocation; the requirement of monks and nuns to pledge loyalty to the state; co-optation of the traditional succession processes of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama; and restrictions on religious practices central to Tibetan culture and identity.
We’ve taken multiple actions in response, including for the first time designating two PRC officials under Global Magnitsky sanctions in connection with serious human rights abuses in Tibet; imposing visa restrictions against PRC officials involved in the forced assimilation of over one million Tibetan children in government-run boarding schools; and most recently, in July, imposing visa restrictions on PRC officials for their involvement in repression of individuals in marginalized religious and ethnic communities.
In conclusion, we will continue to promote accountability in defense of these and other human rights in China.
Beyond the work that we do, I want to recognize our witnesses today and their civil society compatriots, both in the PRC and in diaspora communities around the world, who are fighting every day to protect these integral parts of identity. I thank these brave individuals and will continue to do everything I can to make sure your voices are heard and heeded, despite the PRC’s efforts to silence them.
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[1] Url:
https://www.state.gov/under-secretary-zeyas-remarks-at-the-congressional-executive-commission-on-china-cecc-hearing-on-combatting-the-ccps-historical-revisionism-and-erasure-of-culture/
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