Washington D.C. – Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Republican Leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke on the House Floor in support of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, legislation that would hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their egregious human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities.  

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-Remarks as Delivered-

“Madam Speaker, the last several months have made it clear to the entire world that the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP, has little regard for human life.  When faced with a decision, they have chosen and will continue to choose to preserve their own power over helping their own people.

“Rather than alert the world to the true dangers of the coronavirus, posed to the world, they instead lied and orchestrated the worst cover-up in human history, exposing the Chinese people and the entire world to a virus that has killed over 350,000 people, including nearly 100,000 innocent Americans. Another 5.5 million have been infected worldwide.  And those numbers only continue to climb.

“This atrocity is far from the only example of the CCP prioritizing its power over human life and liberty. At this very moment, the CCP’s rubber-stamp legislature is working to dismantle Hong Kong’s freedoms.

“Under the guise of “national security” legislation, the CCP plans to expand its police state to Hong Kong and fundamentally change Hong Kongers’ way of life and freedom and autonomy. The CCP is showing the world that they are willing to tear up the international commitments they made to preserve freedom in Hong Kong. We can no longer stand idly by while the CCP consolidates its power at the expense of freedom around the world.

“The ultimate example of the what the CCP is willing to do in the name of “national security” has been clear for some time: and that is the cultural genocide of the Uyghurs and other ethnic minority Muslim groups in Western China.  Over the last several years, these ethnic minorities have been rounded up and forced into concentration camps where they are brainwashed with state propaganda and forced to do grueling work as a part of their “freedom.” 

“They live under a complete Orwellian surveillance program, an apparatus tracking their every move.  Some have been tortured and killed.  Others have been disappeared from their families, never to be returned, with no explanation from the CCP. That is why I stand today in strong support of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.

“The goal of the Chinese government is to completely eradicate an entire culture simply because it doesn’t fit within what the Chinese Communist Party deems quote “Chinese.”  They want to remove the cultural, religious, and ethnic identity the Uyghurs have, and indoctrinate them so they love the Chinese Communist Party more than their family, their culture, or their religion.  In total, one to three million Chinese citizens have been subjected to this state-sponsored cultural genocide.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called this the quote “stain of the century” – and he is absolutely right.

“That is why we can’t sit idly by and allow this to continue.  As I have said before, our silence will be complicit and our inaction will be our appeasement. But today we are acting, Madam Speaker. As the beacon of hope and freedom to the rest of the world, the United States has a responsibility to take action.

“Now is the time for all of us, Republican and Democrat as Americans, to stand together and show the CCP that their egregious human rights abuses will not go unchecked. And we can do that by passing this bill today with strong bipartisan support to show the Chinese Communist Party and the entire world that their treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs is inexcusable and will not be allowed without serious consequences.

“This legislation requires the President to submit a report that identifies Chinese Communist Party officials who have carried out these heinous crimes.  These officials may then be sanctioned for their complicity.

“This bill also requires a separate human rights report that highlights abuses specifically to Xinjiang, China. So Madam Speaker, I am hopeful this is just one of many bipartisan actions that we can take as we push back on the world’s most oppressive dictatorship. 

“We must acknowledge that the CCP is the greatest economic and national security threat of this generation.  We must face this threat not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans.

“As the Chairman of the recently announced China Task Force in the House, I look forward to working with my colleagues to plan decisive action to push back on the CCP. We cannot allow the CCP to remain unchallenged on the world stage.  And with that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. 

-Closing Remarks as Delivered-

“Just today the Secretary of State announced under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Diplomacy Act that we passed last November, which requires an annual certification of Hong Kong’s autonomy, he just announced that he cannot certify the autonomous nature of Hong Kong. This a very significant day Madam Speaker because the Chinese Communist Party now has cracked down on the freedom loving people of Hong Kong and their autonomous nature under One Country, Two Systems.  

“The CCP Chinese Communist Party are in violation now of the Sino UK pact. Madam Speaker this bill, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, is more proof that we can come together as Republicans and Democrats to address the generational threat by the Chinese Communist Party and champion American values. Whether it be the Muslim population of the Uyghurs, whether it be the Tibetan population who have been persecuted and the Dalai Lama who is in exile, to the Christians who are persecuted in China by the Communist Party, this bill will help hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their atrocities and will show the world, including the Uyghur Muslim American community, that the United States Congress will not tolerate these appalling human rights violations.

“We will always stand for human rights across the globe. And the one thing I respect about our committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, is that we stand together when it comes to our foreign policy. As Chairman Engel often says, partisanship stops at the water’s edge, and when it comes to human rights, we stand with our founding fathers and what they stood for in fighting oppression and tyranny and for democracy and freedom.

“And that is why today we stand with the Uyghur Muslim population in China, and for all those listening in China and particularly to those members of the Chinese Communist Party who are probably watching this broadcast on C-SPAN, we are watching you. We are watching you today and we will not back down. We will talk about this until it stops and it will stop, hopefully in our lifetime. It won’t stop this Congress, but it must stop. With that I yield back the balance of my time.

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