Ed Royce: “In point of fact, Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to respond that China invaded Tibet in 1949 and subjugated its people.…”

“In point of fact, Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to respond that China invaded Tibet in 1949 and subjugated its people. So for the government of Beijing to now say this is an internal matter, first there are two points here: First of all, they are claiming it is an internal matter because they subjugated an indigenous people in Tibet and then systematically killed over a million Tibetans and then moved people from mainland China into the Tibetan communities in order to try to erase a culture. Secondarily, even if this was action taking place in Beijing itself, we would be speaking out. Why? Because there are certain fundamental standards of human rights when it comes to freedom of religion and freedom of speech. And when we have things as egregious as a young woman who is a nun, who is tortured and sent to prison for an additional 17 years for singing a cultural song about Tibetan heritage, that is so outrageous that the international community would speak out regardless of what country that crime against humanity occurred in. And this is truly criminal activity.”