VOC HOSTS INAUGURAL BIPARTISAN EVENT OF HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON CHINA

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation was honored to host the inaugural event of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, a new committee formed to investigate and develop policy to respond to US economic, technological, and security competition with the CCP.

The event was held at the Victims of Communism Museum and featured insights from Committee Chairman Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Committee Ranking Member Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). The discussion covered the human rights atrocities of the CCP and presented testimony from witnesses of China’s brutal policies, including:

-Mr. Zhou Fengsuo, President, Humanitarian China and student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests,
-Ms. Tursunay Ziyawudun, humanitarian and Uyghur dissident,
-Ms. Elfidar Iltebir, President of the Uyghur American Association,
-Mr. Abdulhakim Idris, Executive Director of Center for Uyghur Studies,
-Ms. Dimon Liu, humanitarian and human rights activist, and
-Mr. Wei Jinsheng, President and Founder of the Wei Jinsheng Foundation.

Opening the event, Chairman Gallagher underscored the importance of the bipartisan nature of the Select Committee, particularly when discussing the way in which the Chinese Communist Party is “going after not only Chinese citizens but members of the Uyghur community, the Hong Kong community, and the Tibetan community.”

“We know that over one million Uyghurs have been forcibly detained,” said Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, highlighting the nature of the threat and what’s at stake. “Half a million children have been taken away from their parents and put into state-run boarding schools … Where does this stop? That question haunts us and animates part of our mission as a committee. It’s a bipartisan issue, it’s a human issue.”

Speaking of how the free world can push back against the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Gallagher explained that VOC’s work exposing the CCP’s crimes via the Xinjiang Police Files is “absolutely groundbreaking … it’s absolutely critical. Thank you to the Victims of Communism [Memorial Foundation] for everything that you do, and we hope to continue to highlight your great work going forward.”