Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro) for yielding, and for bringing this important legislation to the floor and giving us a chance to honor our values in the most bipartisan way.

One of the saddest things of all of this is how many people are suffering. One of the joys of it is that it has enabled us to work together over the years.

Madam Speaker, I would ask the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) how many years--at least, 30, working together on this subject.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act, two strong bipartisan bills to send a strong message to Beijing and to the world that the U.S. Congress will not allow human rights to be sacrificed for commercial interest.

As I have said many times, if America does not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interest, we lose all moral authority to speak out about human rights anywhere in the world.

I salute Chairman Jim McGovern, chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a leading voice in the country and in the Congress for human rights.

I thank Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, one of our new freshmen, for her early leadership and dedication she has brought to this priority.

I thank, also, Mr. Smith, and I acknowledge our working together over the years. He is now the ranking member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and co-chair of the Lantos Commission.

I salute our chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Engel, and our leaders in the Senate, Senator Rubio and Senator Merkley.

I thank our chairman, again, for this opportunity and so many of our Members who have spoken on this issue.

Beijing's barbarous actions targeting the Uyghur people continue to be an outrage to the collective conscience of the world. Across the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Uyghur people and other Muslim majorities are brutally repressed in a pervasive state of mass surveillance and predictive policing used to discriminate against and violate the human rights of minorities: incidents of mass shootings, extrajudicial killings, intimidation and suppression of journalists courageously exposing the truth, and the mass incarceration of more than--and this is a lower figure; I think it is higher, but it is a conservative figure--1 million innocent people with beatings, solitary confinement, deprivation of food and medical treatment, and extensively documented programs of forced labor.

So if you are out there watching the Congress, know what this means to you. The exploitation of people in China has a direct impact on our trade policy and on our values, first and foremost.

Tragically, the products of the forced labor often end up here in American stores and homes. In fact, roughly one in five cotton garments sold globally contains cotton or yarn from the Xinjiang region, the Uyghur region.

We must shine a light on the inhumane practice of forced labor, hold the perpetrators accountable, and stop this exploitation. And we must send a clear message to Beijing: These abuses must end now.

I remember years ago when Mr. Smith and Frank Wolf visited forced labor--I don't know if you call them prisons or whatever--in China. Their courage to go there was so overwhelming to the rest of us. They were able to document what we needed to know.

Unfortunately, the challenge to the conscience that they brought to us was not heeded by all here. We could overwhelmingly win in the House and even in the Senate but not be able to override a veto, whether it was a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.

But I remember how brave they were and how brave those prisoners were to show them the evidence of the forced labor so we could make the case to workers in America: You have been subjected to the exploitation of workers there; that is an exploitation of workers here.

Again, we were proud, in May, to pass the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which uncovers the truth of China's abuses and ensures that those supporting labor camps, and urges the application of targeted sanctions against those involved in the oppression of the Uyghur people.

Today, we build on that overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation with these two bills which, together, will ensure that goods made in the Xinjiang region and imported to the United States are not made with forced labor.

Congress must and will continue to speak out against Beijing's other human rights abuses, like the decades-long abuse faced by the Tibetan people--the Chinese are there to crush their culture, eliminate their language, and suppress their religion; their assault on the honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama by saying they will choose his successor goes beyond the pale and it is a challenge to the conscience of the world--the Hong Kong fight for democracy and the rule of law, which they oppress; and the jailing of journalists, human rights lawyers, Christians, and democracy advocates on the mainland.

That is why the House is proud to have passed legislation, including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, and the Tibet Policy and Support Act, which we urge the Senate to take up immediately. All of this was passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way because we respect the dignity and worth of every person.

We have always said that we cannot look the other way when this oppression of millions of people is taking place, and we are acting upon those values and those beliefs that we have.

In honor of the millions fighting for their dignity, safety, and rights in China and around the world, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act.

Madam Speaker, I thank, again, Mr. McCaul, ranking member on the committee of jurisdiction, and everyone for their support.

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