U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who will be leading the bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, told Newsmax on Thursday the Chinese Communist Party "is an existential threat to its own people."
Smith told "Spicer & Co." that China's Communist Party under the leadership of Xi Jinping has committed every human rights abuse imaginable, from religious persecution and the harsh treatment of ethnic Uyghur Muslims, who are working in slave labor camps, to harvesting human organs and killing unwilling donors, to restricting freedoms of Hong Kong residents.
"What we need to do is a full-court press on all of the human rights abuses, exposing the Chinese Communist Party for the threat in the region," Smith said. "We're going to be redoubling our efforts."
Smith and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., worked on the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, which was signed into law by former President Donald Trump and requires a State Department-led annual assessment of whether Hong Kong retains sufficient political autonomy to qualify for favorable trading terms with the U.S. Any officials deemed responsible for violating human rights could face sanctions and visa restrictions.
"We want to make sure that is faithfully implemented," Smith said. "And the same goes for the [Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act] to make sure that this administration is seriously enforcing it to make sure that no goods come out of that area, which is made by concentration camp labor."
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which Smith co-sponsored and was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021, bars any goods manufactured in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from being brought into the U.S.
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