Marsha Blackburn: “over the past few months we have all watched as the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong turned the tables on Beijing…”

“over the past few months we have all watched as the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong turned the tables on Beijing, and, indeed, we have passed legislation in this Chamber and the President has signed that, addressing the issue. Hong Kong's recent elections really were a stunning rebuke to Beijing. Seven in 10 eligible voters risked persecution to speak out at the ballot box, and the government's allies' political control over Hong Kong collapsed. Hong Kong wants their freedom. We are proud of those freedom fighters. We continue to support them. But we also must recognize that Beijing's crimes spread far beyond the world of cellphone cameras and fearless journalism. In the far west Xinjiang region, Chinese officials are perpetrating a different and even more horrific human rights violation. Xinjiang is home to 11 million Uighurs, an indigenous Turkic Muslim ethnic minority that the Chinese Government has tormented for decades. Although the Uighurs built their lives and a booming economy in China, they feel more culturally and ethnically close to their neighbors living in Central Asian nations. Much like Tibet, Xinjiang is an autonomous region that, after the Communists subjugated the area in 1949, the central government increased its control over the lives of Uighurs by oppressing commercial, religious, and cultural activity deemed inconsistent with state doctrine.…”