Chris Smith

The whole family goes to jail and I think that is under-appreciated by policymakers everywhere.

I do not know any other country in the world where Muslims are persecuted the way the Uyghurs are in the People's Republic of China.

The evidence is overwhelming.

What the government is doing to its own people is poison.

To be able to live according to your conscience, for Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents, it outweighs the fear of death.

This antagonistic and arrogant approach to governance over the past two and a half years has earned Xi the nickname 'Chairman Mao, Jr.,' or 'Xitler.'

I also thank the Cochair, Senator Rubio, and thank all the members, Congressman Walz and Congressman Hultgren, who are demonstrating their support, your support, for this honorable cause.

The same goes, I believe, with the Uyghurs, less visible to many people.

They have, in my opinion--and they ought to be held to account for it--committed multiple acts of genocide and do so to this very day.

We deeply fear for their future, should any deportation happen, but we already know the Chinese Government is harassing the relatives of the nearly 60 Uyghurs detained in Thailand.

This is not the environment for him to get a red-carpet welcome. He is not welcome by the American people.

The government that became part of a Mafia-style, to arbitrarily force the disappearance and kidnapping of these human rights lawyers.

I received a note from one of the missing human rights lawyers with whom Congressman Smith has met, attorney Li Heping.

This morning, Chairman Smith, there was a case in Guangzhou involving three bold human rights defenders.

This new wave of attacks against human rights lawyers and human rights defenders really proves that the Xi Jinping administration has no intention--no intention at all--to obey its own law, let alone international law.

So, these kinds of barbaric acts of just demolishing churches and destroying the peaceful symbol of Christian faith, not only to the Protestant churches, but to Catholic churches as well, demands and warrants a unanimous condemnation by…

During the Xi administration, and particularly in the past 18 months, religious freedom abuses have reached a level not seen since the Cultural Revolution.

Given President Xi Jinping's bold disregard for human rights and his brutal suppression of dissent, does he deserve to get the red carpet treatment in Washington?

Religious freedom, according to the Pew Research Center, can be a powerful and effective antidote to religious extremism.

We call the detentions unjustified and said the roundup of human rights lawyers was an undeniable set-back in U.S.-China relations.

Because religious freedom conditions are deteriorating globally, I recently introduced H.R. 1150, the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.

The reality is, and the tragic reality is, governments and terrorist groups do restrict the freedom of religion.

No government should deny or suppress this essential claim to conscience.

The freedom of religion is the most fundamental and the most elemental of all human rights.

On religious grounds, the Tibetans, there is no clearer example ever of genocide.