Asa Hutchinson: “This case only builds upon the repeated efforts from Chinese dissidents, Amnesty International, and the U.S. Department…”

“This case only builds upon the repeated efforts from Chinese dissidents, Amnesty International, and the U.S. Department of State concerning the declining human rights conditions in China. Again, as the Washington Post reported last month, these human rights abuses include ``torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced abortion and sterilization, crackdowns on independent Catholic and Protestant bishops and believers, brutal oppression of ethnic minorities and religions in Tibet and Xinjiang and, of course, absolute intolerance of free political speech or free press.'' Mr. President, how long must this list of oppression get before this Government acts? The increased arrogance of China's leadership in the face of the world's silence is evident in President Jiang's statement late last year that ``both democracy and human rights are relative concepts and not absolute and general.'' Accepted absolutes are now considered relative by China's leadership. This brutal Communist regime has now decided to determine the moral parameters within which civilized countries can stand within its judgment. In short, religious persecution, organ harvesting, and torture are now within the bounds of moral behavior in China. The unacceptable is now acceptable and the inhuman is now humane. While the world stands silent, China has managed to redefine the very nature of what is right and what is wrong.”