Dhs Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule on the DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act.

Mr. Speaker, over the past decade, Communist China has persecuted the Uyghur population for their religious and cultural practices. Xinjiang authorities have detained Uyghurs in internment camps without formal charges, forced them into slave labor, and have committed numerous other human rights abuses against the Uyghur people.

This includes severe physical abuse, as well as the forced collection of biometric data like DNA and fingerprint samples.

While the Chinese Communist Party refuses to admit it, researchers believe these abuses are a part of China's ``second-generation ethnic policy.'' This policy advocates the forced assimilation of minorities to create a ``state race.'' One of the founding fathers of Communist China's second-generation ethnic policy is Hu Angang, who leads the Institute for Contemporary China Studies at Tsinghua University.

Unfortunately, American universities such as Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania have engaged in partnerships with Tsinghua University. There is no reason why our universities should be complacent in religious persecutions in the 21st century.

Last Congress, the House adopted my amendment to address the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the previous iteration of this legislation. I am grateful that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger) has included the language in this year's bill text. We should all agree that higher education's willingness to look the other way is always unacceptable.

For these reasons, I encourage my colleagues to support this rule, which is the first step in ending our universities' appeasement of China's crimes against the Uyghur people and countering China's malign influence and espionage at our academic institutions.

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