Gentleman from texas, mr. Castro. Mr. Castro madam chair, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and tend their remarks the speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Castro i yammings. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman virginia tech. Mr. Castro i rise in support of the uighur forced labor prevention act. The human rights atrocities, the Chinese Government is perpetuating are now wellknown. More than a million uighurs and muslims, ethnic north have been thrown into detention camps where they face torture, brainwashing, sexual abuse, and even forced sterilization. These atrocities are horrific, and the congress has acted to hold perpetrators of these crimes accountable by passing the uighur human rights policy act. We must not stop there. The legislation we are considering today focuses on a specific form of abuse. Forced labor, an abuse of human rights, which also has grave implications for supply chains and consumers worldwide. Importing goods made from the force forced labor violates u. S. Law and americans certainly would not want to contribute to the p. R. C. Governments human rights abuses by unwittingly purchasing apparel or Hair Products made by detained uighurs. Among other things, the legislation reaffirms u. S. Policy to reduce the number and types of goods made from forced labor, mandates reports surprounding the u. S. Government strategy to spread awareness of forced labor and address that challenge and requires the secretary of state to determine whether the practice of forced labor constitutes crimes against humanity or even genocide. This measure builds on what congress has already done to hold the Chinese Government accountable and to 12 15. 12 15. Mr. Castro beijing and its cri i urge my colleagues to join me in support of the bill. This is a good measure. And im pleased to support it. Im also pleased that it has, i believe, bipartisan support. I reserve the balance of my ime. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Mccaul thank you, madam speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Mccaul madam speaker, i want to start this debate with a simple truth that we cannot afford to forget. The truly free trade cannot involve slave labor. Tood Chinese Communist party is using the forced labor of the uighurs and other minorities to help bank roll its cultural genocide against those very same groups. The regression taking place right now is breathtaking in its scope and in its brutality. It million to three Million People in concentration camps. Madam speaker, the house is not in order. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. Mr. Mccaul involves the detention of one to three Million People in concentration camps it involves surveillance and attempted brainwashing on a massive scale. It involves breaking up families and taking children from their parents. It involves forced sterilization. Madam speaker, forced abortions. This should be a terrifying warning to the world, to chinas neighbors, and to the American People that the Chinese Communist party is fundamentally focused on expanding its power, its control, and its authoritarian style of government. It views things that it does not control like religion, cultural identity, and the yearning for all people for freedom as threats that must be destroyed. And because we have drawn the c. C. P. Into our most essential supply chains it can hold our National Security hostage while it uses u. S. Consumers to subsidize its atrocities. As many as one in five cotton garments globally could be tainted with uighur slave labor. In july u. S. Customs and Border Protection seized a 13ton shipment of human hair. Madam speaker, human hair that originated in the forced labor system. We havent heard about human hair since the nazis in the concentration camps of the war that my father fought in, world war ii. Its brazen and sickening. We must refuse to be complicit financially or otherwise. And the c. C. P. s crimes against the uighurs, the muslim uighurs, for that reason i support this bill before us today. I must point out the abuses in this province are not only one small part of the grave and growing threat the Chinese Communist party poses to the interests, the values, and the security of the United States, that threat is global and has military, economic Public Health and philosophical aspects. I know that many on the other side of the aisle share my concerns. I, unfortunately, regret, that during this congress the majoritys not given the c. C. P. Tenth of the time they put in their partisan efforts to bring down this president. We were told that the chinese task force was going to be bipartisan, madam speaker. At the last minute the majority ulled out. F task was supposed to be bipartisan. This should be a bipartisan issue. It is an American Issue against the greatest National Security threat to the United States of america. I believe this failure perspective needs to change. Our work on the China Task Force we have met with 125 people from both sides of the aisle to gain better insight into how our relationship, our Foreign Policy as we speak here from the Foreign Affairs committee, how we need to treat the Chinese Communist party from a Foreign Policy standpoint. This again is an American Issue not republican or democrat. This report coming out october 1 will include 400 recommendations , including 100 pieces of legislation that have bipartisan support like the bill before us today. So i strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation. And then once we get past this election, madam speaker, let us come together on both sides and analyze objectively our Foreign Policy with the Chinese Communist party and address the bipartisan bills that will be recommended by the task force to address the Chinese Communist partys malign activities throughout the world. With that, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from texas. Mr. Castro thank you, madam speaker. Id like to yield six minutes to the author of this bill important, the cochair of the tom lantos human rights commission, the gentleman from massachusetts and chairman of the rules committee, mr. Mcgovern. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for six minutes. Mr. Mcgovern thank you very much. I want to thank my friend from texas for yielding, but also for his commitment to human rights, not only with regard to the repression thats going on in china but all around the world. Madam speaker, i rise in strong support of h. R. 6210, the uighur forced labor prevention act. I am proud to have authored this legislation to address human rights and forced labor abuses against uighurs and other muslim groups in china. There is strong, diverse bipartisan and bicameral support for this legislation, including from my colleagues on the Congressional Executive Commission on china. Senator marco rubio, representative chris smith, representative tom suozzi all helped draft this legislation. Thank you, speaker, nancy pelosi, for your longtime advocacy for human rights in china and for your leadership in getting this bill to the house floor. And thank you, chairman engel, as well as Ranking Member mccaul, chairman neal, and chairwoman waters for the support of your committees. The Congressional Executive Commission on china, which i serve as chair, held the first congressional hearing on this topic a year ago. Followed it up with a groundbreaking staff report, and then held an expert round table event on the issue. We found that the evidence of systematic and widespread forced labor in xinjiang is astounding and irfuthable and includes evidence from camp detainees, satellite imagery of factories being built at internment camps, and public and leaked Chinese Government documents. All of the evidence we accumulated led to the introduction of this bipartisan, bicameral legislation in paragraph, 2020. It is time for congress march, 2020. It is time for congress to act. Over the past several years we have watched in horror as the Chinese Government first created and then expanded a system of extra judicial mass internment camps. As many as 1. 8 million uighurs and members of other predominantly muslim ethnic minority groups have been arbitrarily detained in the camps and subjected to forced labor, torture, political intimidation, and other severe human rights abuses. We published during the past year detailed and expansive and systematic policy of forcibly separating ethnic minority children from their families. A Chinese Government policy document stated that nearly half a Million School children were attending boarding schools. The forceable displacement of children is a violation of the Chinese Governments law on the protection of minors and the u. N. Convention on the rights of the child. Investigations during the past year detailed the policy of forcibly separating ethnic minority children from their families, and the use of forced Birth Control and sterile days which sterilization which may be in contradiction of the u. N. Convention on genocide which is a party. The u. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum had already determined that crimes against humanity may have been committed. In july, i jointly led a bipartisan letter signed by over 75 members calling on the Trump Administration to make an official determination as to whether atrocity crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity are being committed. We have yet to hear back from the administration. It is time for congress to act. We know forced labor is widespread and systematic and exists both within and outside the mass internment camps. These facts are confirmed by the testimony of former camp detainees against slight imagery and satellite i amagery and leaked documents from the Chinese Government. We know that many u. S. International and Chinese Companies are complicit in the exploitation of forced labor and specific products include textiles, electronics and food products. Audits of supply chains are simply not possible because workers cannot speak freely and honestly about working conditions given heavy surveillance and intimidation. Current u. S. Law states it is illegal to import into the United States goods, wares, articles, merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor. Unfortunately, products made with forced labor are still making their way into the Global Supply chains in our country. The Trump Administration has taken some action, including sending out a Business Advisory and placing withhold release orders on some businesses and entities in china. But these piecemeal actions fall far short of addressing the regional, Economic System that is built upon a foundation of forced labor and repression. Further, we should all be disturbed by reports that President Trump gave a green light to president xi by telling him building the camps was the right thing to do. Ending forced labor was also not even discussed as parts of the phase one trade deal. It is time for congress to act. The uighur forced labor prevention act prohibits imports from xinjiang to the u. S. By creating a rebuttal presumption that all goods produced in the region are made with forced labor unless u. S. Customs and Border Protection certifies by clear and convincing evidence that goods were not produced with forced labor. The legislation also authorizes targeted sanctions. Requires Financial Disclosures about involvement in the region and requires a state Department Determination about whether crimes against humanity or genocide is occurring. For more than two years u. S. And International Companies have been aware of forced labor throughout the xinjiang region. It is long past time for these companies to reassess their supply chains and find alternatives that do not exploit labor and violate human rights. Their failure to do so as led u. S. Consumers to unwittingly purchase goods made with forced labor. That must end. Effective enforcement would mean workers and farmers would no longer have to compete against forced labor from xinjiang. For too long the world has been silent while uighurs and other muslim groups suffered under severe repression. I believe the lack of any International Response i believe the lack of International Response for so long allowed the Chinese Government the space to impose this extreme system of repression, but now the world has woken up. Today the u. S. House of representatives is taking the strongest action yet. Im proud to stand in solidarity with the uighur people and alt People Living under the rule of the Chinese Government in their struggle to live freely, practice their religious beliefs freely, speak their own languages freely. I look forward to the passage of this legislation. Continuing our bipartisan Work Together to support the rights human rights in china. Thank you. I yield back. 7. He the speaker pro tempore members are advised not to traffic the well. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Mccaul i would like to commend the the gentleman from massachusetts for his support for human rights across the world. You and the next speaker have een on this issue, visionary leaders, the two strongest in the house of representatives, representing both sides of the aisle and thank you for that. I would like to recognize the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Smith, Ranking Member of the human rights subcommittee. He has been working on these issues along with chairman mcgovern for decades. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. Mr. Smith i thank mr. Mccaul for his leadership and for his strong statement today. I would like to thank mr. Mcgovern, the chairman of both the China Commission as well as the lantoost commission and i serve with him as cochair on the lantoost and Ranking Member on the China Commission and the principal republican cosponsor on this bill. We have been teaming up for years on this issue. And our chairman for his work. ,t a 2018 congressional hearing one accounted her ordeal of torture, sexual abuse and detention at one of the massive internment camps. She pleaded with god to end her life. They restrained to her a table and increased the electrical curpts going through her body and mocked her pleff in god. He was tortured of being an ethnic uyghur in china. There are thousands of stories to be told like this. Nightmareish accounts of his genocide. This is xs genocide. This includes the mass internment of millions. 1. 8 million victims in concentration camps. Children ripped from the warm embrace of their families and forced to renounce their religion, culture and language. Rape and sexual abuse of women eing held in internment camps, forced sterilization to prevent the birth of uyghur children. Direct violation of article 2d which states in part that abortion. Including and Companies Profit big time. Chinese authorities initially the existence of mass internment camps and tried to portray them as vocational training. The Chinese Communist party p employed the big lie to stifle any discussion of their crimes. However, documents obtained by the New York Times and International Consortium of International Journalists have exposed the brutality behind the plan to radically transform the culture and religion and other muslims in china. The papers showed detailed plans, this is back years ago now, between one and three llion uyghur go in these concentration camps. In other words, if you are a muslim, your thinking is infected. At the same time, beijing instituted plans to erase the influence of islam in all of western china, bulldozing mosques and shrines and forcing detainees in the camps to renounce their camps. Xi documents show president ordered the crackdown and show absolutely no mercy in dealing with the uyghurs and other mississippi. He said, the weapons of the Peoples Democratic