Good morning everybody. Please take your seats we will start our program. Welcome to the Hudson Institute i direct the director for really jet religious freedom happy holidays and i also want to draw your attention to the crisis in china against the population there it is one of the worst with religious persecutions of our day or hour age it is a crisis of religious persecution and of Human Rights Violations of epic proportions. All people should be concerned for china and the rising power that seems to make us a model not just within its borders but exporting the model it is a deep concern to me as someone who monitors religious freedom around the world. It is my deep privilege to introduce the ambassador at large from the state Department Sam brownback who will be giving the keynote address in just a moment ago i have known the ambassador for about 25 years when he was in the Senate Working together including suda sudan. So i am very pleased in this position and someone who has been empowered under this administration and through congress and really is the face of religious freedom as a priority and Foreign Policy and to organize and innovate hundreds or thousands from all over the world who are deeply invested in religious freedoms the czar survivors of religious persecution from across the globe please join me to welcome sam brownback. [applause] i appreciate that greatly its a pleasure to be back at hudson and to be on the phone with the Prime Minister of sudan that is not normal thing 25 years ago fighting the regime statesponsored terrorism that United States experienced firsthand but it shows if you keep after then you can win and you will win. And for those of great hope in the world the hope things continue to move forward in the right direction also thank you to the Hudson Institute secretary of state mike pompeo at different times to speak here regarding china i have looked at both of those and they offer a template of us policy this is the first in decades to take on china and the repressive regime repressive regime that is brilliant and tough and good and confronting china and its important that we do that im pleased to join that discussion is a key priority the peoples republic of china the government Brutal Campaign for oppression against other muslims thank you to Hudson Institute to keep the conversation going this administration has recognized its important to analyze to these abuses from all angles so hopefully that one day is no longer true that it is a war that will not win in the meantime Chinese Government continues to engage in a highstakes game of subterfuge attempting to cloak the truth in this direction of the true intentions and activities but we will not be fooled. The Chinese Government can refer to Inhumane Treatment as war on terror to count religious extremist to label the internment camps as Vocational Training centers to claim detail knees have graduated but the evidence is clear this is not just war on faith but truth that International Norms we know the facts earlier this year ambassador nathan sales co. Offered an oped the repressive campaign is not counterterrorism it is one more chapter in the long history of oppression of tibetan buddhists, christian buddhists, christians, and others. Terrorism is a very real threat including the United States and china with peaceful practices and the identity of terrorism is beyond disingenuous and unconscionable. Also unconscionable was hightech surveillance and monitoring throughout the region that is the future of what it will look like you are seeing the front wave of that also for many muslims for doing the regular daily prayers. And to study the carotid remove them and to destroy the mosques and the Cultural Heritage sites and detaining more than 1 million members of Muslim Minority groups in the internment camps of april 2017 in the current day world 2019 muslim people in the internment camps really that is almost unthinkable in this day and age. These are the abuses that the government tries to hide and deny. So if it was a game changer and the china cables recently came to light as secretary pompeo said these are consistent with an overwhelming and growing body of evidence the Chinese Communist party is committing Human Rights Violations and abuses against individuals and mass detention. And in these papers we see the background of it these documents reveal they have orchestrated this is not random but intentional they would have us believe or bully to believe it can now read these documents to see for themselves the depth of breath of what is happening. If you know anything about chin china, you also know the prc governments campaign of repression is not unique because the ccp first installed the regent Party SecretaryChen Quan Guo remember that name. Chen quan guo live in to bet in week one including religious life. And then he took his playbook to amplify that tactic and economist magazine with tibet to replicating repression and my fear and the headstone princeton one Hudson Institute as well that this is going to continue and increase around the world. They need to be stopped now. So the document strength and this administration ongoing resolve is to respond and importantly accounting for accountability with abuses around the world thats why the department of state previously designated china as a country of concern with the National Religious freedom act to engage in severe violations of religious freedom as we all know such religious Freedom Violations are hardly the only abuse the government is perpetrating elsewhere. When a country doesnt respect the right to practice ones faith and everything that entails, we often see other rights significantly imperiled like the freedom of associatio association, speech, and freedom of movement. Addition to the country of a concern designation specific to religious Freedom Violations we have seen a multifaceted us response. The crisis in both ministerials as well as the global hall for religious freedom the first ever by head of state to call for the topic of religious freedom at the Un General Assembly. Resulting powerful testimony from survivors and Family Members in two consecutive statements of concern underscore the prc government escalating repression of religious groups in china. I will stop here in just a moment and note as well that last week was another testimony on capitol hill in our ministry three young people who testified they told us Family Members were convicted of seven and nine years than the younger Family Member is out speaking. God bless the people that are willing to speak out but it comes at a significant cost to them personally and their families. A number of agencies have executed well targeted actions the department of state imposed visa sanctions for their role of campaign of repression. The department of commerce added 28 government commercial entities to the list which prevents them from buying us products or importing technology that could be used to suppress religious or ethnic minorities us custom Border Patrol holds a release order to make sure products made by Chinese Companies do not end up in american stores. A growing number of International Actors are calling out these abuses we want to see more of this in the months ahead and will continue to encourage stakeholders to take up the mantle. The multilateral response is similarly vital. The United States and for other countries cohosted a Panel Discussion on the Un General Assembly along with the eu representatives and the delegation in 20 ngos with standing room only a truly remarkable turnout with the Family Members addressed sharing their harrowing stories and an eyewitness testimony this is factual testimony they provide no longer allegations that eyewitnesses. The United States is among 23 signatories of Human Rights Violations and abuses delivered at the un committee in october i am also working with a group to launch a priority ministerial call the interNational Religious freedom alliance. Once launched will be the first ever International Body to vote on freedom of religion to bring together likeminded one likeminded countries and this is the first new International HumanRights Organization to focus on the issue of interNational Religious freedom we hope to have that launched the first part of next year. Im excited by this opportunity and reaching out to a number of countries to bring them on boar board. As i close want to humanize the repression in china. Innocent civilians peacefully practicing their faith as their conscious leads and happiness for themselves they do not need their way of thinking reprogrammed they do not need a government controlling every aspect of their lives. They need and they deserve freedom. Freedom of religion to practice their faith peacefully as they see fit. Thats what i and others are working towards in this administration. Thank you again to the Hudson Institute for posting this discussion today and inviting me in previously hosting the Vice President and secretary of state to discuss human rights abuses in china. The expertise you bring to the discussion is tremendously helpful to the administration continue to employ a variety of tools to call on the Republican People of china the Chinese Communist party to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that for more than two years have terrorized a religious and ethnic minority groups. We will continue to push back on chinas one faith. I hope you will continue to join us in that endeavor. Thank you very much. [applause] welcome everyone. Thank you ambassador and thank you to all of you and our cspan viewers to be with us here today with a Panel Discussion with us policy response. Institute launch this program in early 2017 to help challenge with a post 9 11 political complacency over what the Chinese Communist party claims as its own war on terrorism in the northwestern territory. That reappraisal was urgently needed then and it is long overdue for decades the league of muslim people have suffered from institutionalized oppression and discrimination. The longest of 2016 the installation as the new party boss made clear it will be ramping up the efforts to subjugate the people secretary chad was already known for his harsh policies and under his command over the last three years it has been transformed into the most heavily surveilled and oppressive state the world has arguably ever seen. The communist party has since gone to extraordinary lengths to repress information and propaganda about what its doing including here in the United States but in september 2018 a long time human rights activist is here with us today and an american citizen spoke here at the panel at hudson six days later two of her Family Members her aunt and sister vanished. And her whereabouts are unknown today but what we do know thanks to the vital work of three panelists and countless others many of whom have risked their lives is that efforts of 1 million over 10 percent of the population have been forced into mass internment camps for reeducation and the prc clear intent fits the very original definition Chinese Communist rule has dismissed reports about the internment camps and the abuses inside as fake news by western journalist and think tanks to persuade a large part of the world that the camps are Vocational Training centers. Last month the league of classified party documents obtained by the International Consortium revealed the party story is a lie. The china cable expose in chilling detail how it has planned and implemented a larger scale persecution of a distinct ethnic religious group since the end of world war ii. The papers provide a glimpse into their blueprint. Here with us today to discuss this and what it should mean for us policy are the leading usbased experts im happy to welcome back from axios and if anybody knows anything about china they know her byline with the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism and also from the daily beast and foreign policies second doctor adrian who is now a senior fellow at the victims Royal Foundation and research has been key to establish the existence of the camps in the first place to document build up of the prc police state and then a lawyer in the league of human rights project that he founded in 2003. Also born in a education camp at the height of the revolution its important to keep that in mind after we hear from her speakers we will have a q a. We will be conducting that differently today you will receive paces of paper and pencils to write concise questions and we will collect them halfway to the panel to address them when we have time for questions at the end. Thank you again. Thank you for the introduction and also thank you to the Hudson Institute for yet another panel on this important issue as lead reporter for the china cable project along with 75 journalist around the world and about three months ago i was handed a stack of documents and said here you have two months. When i saw them i thought this is very important but the more i looked into them the more i realized how truly groundbreaking they were i will briefly talk about each set and then go to the key take away for each one. First we call it the operating manual for the camp that was disseminated november 2017 who is his righthand man also classified intelligence briefing and a bulletin that detailed for the very first time very detailed insight look at the operations of the integrated platform which is a Data Collection of a policing platform that is behind much of the police state that we see and also a document that shows the tragedy of what happened to one individual man sentence ten years in prison so to convince fellow muslims not to watch pornography and pray regularly. This is for the first time in the Chinese Governments own words, and admission that the camps are not voluntary that they are highly secured prisonlike detention centers. In their own words that talks about security rigid Camp Personnel to prevent escape and prevent abnormal. Those two instructions that are given to carry those out to prove the Chinese Communist government speaking points about the camps our lives. It is not normal for a boarding school or a Vocational Institute to prevent the escapes of their students to put up high walls or demand absolute secrecy of their personnel and put up barbed wire and guards but yet all of these are explicitly spelled out in the document. Or to prevent abnormal death is even more chilling. What it shows is the entire party state knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that by putting these people in these facilities they were putting their lives at grave risk. Now, it is a barebones minimal degree of good that the command is not to cause abnormal death but what it shows to me as of november 2017 these were not intended to be mass murder camps however it is clear beyond a shadow of a doubt and the governments own words that the conditions are dire and the security level is potentially deadly. So to statements from these documents is the use of the classification and point system inside the camp that is a miniature version so detainees are awarded points based on behavior and part of those points are awarded on test scores and some are used to determine when they are to be released that determines your freedom or maybe even your life or life of a Family Member. And i will highlight once again the final commandment of the program is to maintain strict secrecy and this is very significant because as the current talk at one talking points on the efficacy of these camps to be positive way to create a peaceful and prosperous way a good policy they are proud of it and other countries however in 2017 they were ashamed of it and they knew that would be banned by the International Community if made public which is why they