MEDIA ADVISORY: Select Committee and Congressional Executive Commission on China Ranking Members to Hold Joint Shadow Hearing on Human Rights in China Ahead of Xi’s Visit to Washington
WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Ro Khanna of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Ranking Member Jim McGovern of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China will jointly hold a shadow hearing titled The Void in China Policy: Why Human Rights Must Be on Trump’s Agenda with Xi at the White House. The hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 15 at 3:30 P.M. in HVC-215.
The Chinese government’s human rights abuses have traditionally attracted bipartisan concern in Congress—resulting in the passage of recent legislation such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President Biden in December 2021, as well as the creation of bipartisan panels like the Select Committee and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
Unfortunately, the Trump Administration’s disregard for human rights in China and assault on organizations advocating for human rights has jeopardized bipartisan support for U.S. human rights policy. President Trump has praised Xi Jinping’s abysmal human rights record and carried virtually no human rights agenda to Beijing during his visit in May—other than a request to free two wrongfully imprisoned individuals, only one of whom was released. The Administration has also slashed funding and eliminated grants for China human rights organizations, reduced human rights staffing at the State Department, and sought to eliminate entities that empower human rights defenders in China, such as the National Endowment for Democracy and Radio Free Asia.
Hearing witnesses will discuss the state of human rights in China and provide an assessment of and recommendations for U.S. human rights policy.
The following witnesses will provide testimony:
- Tahir Imin, Founder and Director, Uyghur Post
- Palden Gyal, President, International Tibet Media Organization
- Yaqiu Wang, Fellow at the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania
- Jonathan Stivers, U.S. Director, Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong; Commissioner, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
When: Tuesday, September 15 at 3:30 P.M.
Where: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, HVC-215
A livestream of the hearing will be available here.
Members of the media planning to attend should RSVP to Julia.Snodgrass@mail.house.gov and Matt.Bonaccorsi@mail.house.gov