Human Rights Without Borders Exhibit ``Human Rights and Freedom Defender'' Award Ceremony

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to include in the Record my speech at yesterday's event, ``Human Rights without Borders,'' organized by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation and the European Union Parliamentary Liaison Office. It was my privilege to receive the ``Human Rights and Freedom Defender'' award.

We must continue to shine a light on human rights abuses in China. I look forward to working with my colleagues on a bipartisan bases to continue to carry the torch for liberty in China and globally.

Thank you all so much for the invitation to this very poignant exhibit, ``Human Rights without Borders.''

Thank you to Wei Jingsheng as well as Antoine Ripoll of the European Parliament Liaison Office for so graciously hosting this very special event.

Wei, what a pleasure to see you again. I had the honor of hosting him in my district 16 years ago at the Toledo Labor Day Parade, as well as an event at the University of Toledo.

And thank you all for continuing to carry forward the flame of human rights in China, and across the world.

What an honor to receive this reward. I am truly humbled.

I would like to dedicate it to all the freedom fighters in China and across the world that are being detained, tortured, or persecuted due to their pursuit of liberty.

As you all know, human rights and democratic principles are not just for wishful thinking.

These principles are central to our nation's security because we know a more democratic world is a more secure world. We know that countries with strong human rights records are more prosperous, stable, and reliable partners to build world peace.

Tragically, the Chinese regime has a deeply troubling human rights record.

As we speak, up to one million Uyghur Muslims are languishing in concentration camps in North West China.

At least 321 Tibetans have been detained since 2012, yet heroically continue their struggle for self-determination.

Meanwhile, millions of Chinese workers toil away at penny- wages in slave conditions to benefit the Chinese regime and transnational corporations.

There is no freedom of association to form trade unions, leaving the level of occupational disease and injuries alarmingly high. And also prevents oversight of child labor and severe abuse of migrant and ethnic minority workers.

During peak production season, workers are forced to cover 80-175 overtime hours per month with little to no protections, exposed to hazardous chemicals and deadly working conditions.

More than 480 million people in China--one third of its population--live on less than $2 a day.

The lack of an independent judiciary, independent press, rule of law, and due process raise serious concerns of core principals of fundamental human rights.

With such an ancient and rich culture, the Chinese people deserve better than this brutish and crude oppression.

As Congress debated allowing China into the World Trade Organization, many argued that welcoming China into the world fold would lead to democratization. They said that a middle class would demand their rights.

Instead, we've seen more oppression and a more aggressive Chinese foreign policy that can use its new-found riches to challenge American influence abroad.

China has yet to open its markets to American goods. Our trade deficits have soared, clocking in at over $375 billion in 2017 alone and despite promises from the Trump Administration to correct this gaping imbalance.

As a result, American workers in Ohio and across the Midwest have lost thousands of jobs to corporate greed and offshoring.

Free trade with China has surely been a one-sided deal.

Just as China shows a blatant disdain for human rights and rule of law in their own country, she tramples upon international law and seeks to overturn the global rules- based order.

As a strategic competitor, she seeks to spread its propaganda and tear down the virtues of democracy. She would seek to replace the blessings of liberty and replace it with its oppressive and dark ideology.

China provides diplomatic cover and assistance to the pariah-state North Korea that threatens global security with nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles.

China fails to control illicit flows of fentanyl into the United States killing so many unsuspecting victims in my District, Northern Ohio, and across America.

While the United States takes a step back in global leadership and diplomacy, China is too eager to fill the void. We see China investing millions in developing nations in South American and Africa, spreading its undemocratic and tyrannical influence.

We watch as Chinese foreign aid and influence pays dividends in nations as they shift to recognize mainland China over a free and democratic Taiwan.

China seeks to illegally take control of international waters in the South China seaway and undertakes aggressive naval maneuvers to challenge stability in the region provided by our naval fleet.

China's global strategy and dominance is that of a sleeping dragon. But with its aggressive state-driven Belt and Road Initiative, which will invest $1 trillion on development projects globally, America can no longer tip-toe around the dragon.

As a Member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, I join my colleagues in the commitment to work to hold China accountable on its deeply disturbing human rights record.

We need to take China's failure to live up to its commitment much more seriously. We need a trade policy that creates jobs in the U.S. And we must continue to check China's revisionist and aggressive foreign policy.

Thank you all again for this great honor, and I look forward to working with you and my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to continue carrying the torch for human rights in China and globally.

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