Condemning the Ongoing Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Being Committed By the People's Republic of China

Floor Speech

Let me thank the chairman for bringing this measure with me here today. I also want to thank him for his passion on this issue. We talk about human rights, whether it was the African Americans who were enslaved in this Nation to the Native-American Indians who were mistreated by this Nation to the victims of the Holocaust where the Geneva Convention came out with the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide and defined what genocide is after the atrocities of the concentration camps that were perpetrated by the Nazis--a war that my father fought in and bombed Nazi Germany, and I am proud for his service and the entire Greatest Generation.

And it is clear, the language, it says: ``targeting members of an ethnic or religious minority group for death or serious bodily and mental harm or taking steps designed to destroy such a group constitutes genocide.'' That is precisely what the Chinese Communist Party has been doing.

Since 2017, they have interned more than one million Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in an effort to wipe out their culture, to wipe out their ability to carry down to other generations by sterilizing them.

During their unjustified detainment, Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz and members of religious minority groups are forced to work in horrific conditions, they are deprived of food, and they are beaten. Their religious practices are suppressed. There are reports of families being separated and of sexual abuse, of forced sterilization, forced abortions, and even reports of killing to wipe them, quite simply, off the face of the Earth.

It is horrific to imagine that this is happening in this day and time, in this time that we speak, in this age. Mr. Speaker, it is clearly a genocide under the Geneva Convention.

These crimes are the moral test of our time and our generation. The world and certainly the Chinese Communist Party is watching. And that is why it is vital that we speak in a united voice with the current and prior administrations by calling these ongoing atrocities what they are, and that is genocide.

Genocide is not to be taken lightly. It is a term we reserve for history's most serious crimes against humanity. It is essential we get our response right, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans, as freedom-loving Americans who stand up for human rights and against genocide. Because we have faced this test before, and we have not always passed.

Our response to the Uyghur genocide should be an example of our character in this Congress, rather than a stain on our history.

This humanitarian crisis is about more than just U.S. foreign policy toward the People's Republic of China. It is about the legitimacy of the post-World War system designed to stop these atrocities whenever and wherever they are being committed.

And it is about how we stop the CCP from contaminating consumer supply chains with slave labor. It is about how we stop using cotton sourced by the Uyghur homeland and picked by those without a voice. It is about stopping shipments of hair. It is about how we convince our private sector to act morally, consistent with our American values.

So let me just say, I, again, thank the chairman. This is probably one of the most important bills to come out of the committee this year. I am proud to have introduced it, and I am so proud to have the chairman's support. I thank him for cosponsoring this resolution and all of our colleagues on the committee who support our efforts to condemn these atrocities.

I urge the entire House of Representatives on this vote, because China is watching and the Uyghur Muslims are watching, to join us as we speak in a united voice and condemn this genocide by supporting this measure.

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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, let me say in closing, I again thank Chairman Meeks, my friend, who has been in strong support of this legislation. We pride our committee in doing what is right by the country. We try to take the politics out of it as much as we can. And as Eliot Engel often said, it stops at the water's edge, and this is no exception.

Mr. Speaker, this is a historic day. Congress is rarely in vote or declared genocide on another people, but it is very appropriate today to do so. And the international community is watching, and China is watching this right now. They are watching this on C-SPAN, and the world knows that the United States stands for higher moral values, and we stand for human rights.

And that is why this bill was introduced, and the lives of over a million people depend on it. Think about that. A million people in internment camps, concentration camps, being exterminated, depend on this legislation. We pass a lot of things in this Congress but it is very rare you can pass something like this that condemns this kind of moral atrocity and call it to the world so the entire world can see it for themselves what is, in fact, happening. And when Congress speaks, the world does listen. And when we speak as Americans in this Chamber, not as partisan politicians, they listen. And I know they are listening today.

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