Congress Slams China’s Human Rights Betrayal—America’s Security in the Crosshairs!

Paul Riverbank, 12/11/2025The U.S. Congress spotlights China’s escalating human rights violations—religious persecution, forced labor, and transnational repression—urging a stronger American response to safeguard human dignity, global security, and credibility. These abuses, the report finds, impact not only China’s citizens but global trade, safety, and trust.

Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, who led the Commission, didn't mince words. This, they argued, isn’t about the occasional flouted promise. “Broken promises are not an exception; they are a feature of how the CCP deals with the world and with its own people.” For every sweeping statement, there’s a person whose life is battered by it.

Take the case of Xin Ruoyu—not a dissident, not a protest leader, merely a young mother with an idea. She coded an app so that fellow Christians could find hymns easily. It was July 2024. She vanished into China’s prison system, which swallows people whole. Few outside her family know her name, but this story is only one of well over 11,000 stitched into the Commission’s living database—a testament to vanished voices.

But Xin’s ordeal is hardly isolated. Over the years, the CECC has mapped a spider web of persecution. Christians, Tibetan monks, Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur and Hui Muslims—groups routinely promised “religious freedom” by China’s constitution—find the reality is closer to state-sanctioned erasure. If faith runs counter to Party doctrine, it receives the same fate: suppression.

American citizens don’t enjoy immunity. Anyone heading to China for a work assignment or academic stint quickly learns that the country’s opaque exit bans and security apparatus ensnare visitors almost with whimsy. Some return with chilling stories; others are abruptly cut off, detained on vaguely described charges. Even in America, the aftershocks are real: U.S. companies scramble to extricate forced labor from their supply chains, a slow-motion reckoning that brings distant horrors directly to American cashier lines, particularly in goods like apparel and seafood.

“Americans pay the price—in security, in prosperity and in credibility,” the commission leaders remind us. That might sound abstract, but when a container of t-shirts can’t be certified as slave-labor free, the price tag becomes a lot less hypothetical.

Dig deeper and the terrain is more troubling. Forced labor persists on a vast scale; last year, a shipment of cotton flagged at a U.S. port led to revelations about entire villages in Xinjiang where Uyghur families were separated and sent to distant factories—each a step in a sprawling chain of commerce meant to bypass global scrutiny. The U.S. now bans goods linked to such labor, especially from Xinjiang, but the report demands more: blacklist recalcitrant firms, launch stricter checks, halt imports where forced labor taints the supply.

The Beijing regime’s reach doesn’t end at the water’s edge. The Commission documents a rise in harassment and intimidation of dissidents overseas. Tactics range from bureaucratic—revoked passports, mysterious visa denials—to more sinister acts, like stoking unrest at U.S. rallies, a tactic reportedly deployed during the 2023 APEC summit in San Francisco when protesters noticed unfamiliar “counter-protesters” shadowing them—an intimidation exported abroad.

Despite Beijing’s history of signing onto international conventions—on torture, racial discrimination, the Vienna Convention—the Commission lists instance after instance of promises made but not kept. In one particularly illustrative episode this year, entire neighborhoods of Hong Kong activists watched the slow constriction of rights guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, as familiar streets became less safe for dissenting voices and newly passed laws muffled public speech.

Stories of heavy-handed sentences, allied with physical and psychological mistreatment, persist. Testimonies allege torture, and darker accusations—of state-directed organ harvesting—surface repeatedly, particularly regarding Falun Gong adherents and Uyghur detainees.

If there’s a single thread running through the report, it’s this: year after year, the scope of ideological control widens. In 2025, authorities rolled out expanded powers to ban organizations labeled “threatening,” a catchall term that scoops up Protestant house groups, underground Catholic gatherings, and small Buddhist sects. Xi Jinping’s China places loyalty to the Party before any allegiance to faith or conscience.

Tech isn’t exempt. Newly mandated AI systems, a recent focus of Chinese regulatory energy, are now required to enshrine “the core values of socialism.” Even satellite constellations, meant to bring digital access to rural China, are flagged as potential channels for global censorship.

Faced with these realities, the CECC’s recommendations amount to a call for greater stamina from American diplomats and legislators. One suggestion: establish an Office of Political Prisoner Advocacy at the State Department, so that cases like Xin Ruoyu’s have a voice in Washington’s foreign policy. Without steady international pressure, the odds for those prisoners diminish year by year.

The message from outside observers is consistent. Mohammed Al-Yamahi, Speaker of the Arab Parliament, recently commented that without structures for justice and rights, “no society can claim real progress or stability.” His reminder: human dignity anchors every measure of prosperity, making for fairer commerce, safer travel, and alliances that trust one another.

Ultimately, the Commission’s point is both sharp and sweeping: these aren’t China’s internal matters, tucked behind the Great Firewall. Human rights affect trade patterns, security alliances, and the civic health of societies everywhere. As the CECC chairs make clear, “Staying true to these ideals is the price of hope.” Only with steady commitment at home and collaboration abroad, they argue, can light breach the edges of China’s growing shadow.

On December 10th, Human Rights Day, Washington’s winter gray seems heavier for anyone reading the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s annual report. Far removed from the wordy officialdom often associated with such bodies, the text is rough-edged and blunt: abuses by the Chinese Communist Party, it cautions, are not distant atrocities. They reach—sometimes invisibly, sometimes all too brazenly—into American lives.Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, who led the Commission, didn't mince words. This, they argued, isn’t about the occasional flouted promise. “Broken promises are not an exception; they are a feature of how the CCP deals with the world and with its own people.” For every sweeping statement, there’s a person whose life is battered by it.Take the case of Xin Ruoyu—not a dissident, not a protest leader, merely a young mother with an idea. She coded an app so that fellow Christians could find hymns easily. It was July 2024. She vanished into China’s prison system, which swallows people whole. Few outside her family know her name, but this story is only one of well over 11,000 stitched into the Commission’s living database—a testament to vanished voices.But Xin’s ordeal is hardly isolated. Over the years, the CECC has mapped a spider web of persecution. Christians, Tibetan monks, Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur and Hui Muslims—groups routinely promised “religious freedom” by China’s constitution—find the reality is closer to state-sanctioned erasure. If faith runs counter to Party doctrine, it receives the same fate: suppression.American citizens don’t enjoy immunity. Anyone heading to China for a work assignment or academic stint quickly learns that the country’s opaque exit bans and security apparatus ensnare visitors almost with whimsy. Some return with chilling stories; others are abruptly cut off, detained on vaguely described charges. Even in America, the aftershocks are real: U.S. companies scramble to extricate forced labor from their supply chains, a slow-motion reckoning that brings distant horrors directly to American cashier lines, particularly in goods like apparel and seafood.“Americans pay the price—in security, in prosperity and in credibility,” the commission leaders remind us. That might sound abstract, but when a container of t-shirts can’t be certified as slave-labor free, the price tag becomes a lot less hypothetical.Dig deeper and the terrain is more troubling. Forced labor persists on a vast scale; last year, a shipment of cotton flagged at a U.S. port led to revelations about entire villages in Xinjiang where Uyghur families were separated and sent to distant factories—each a step in a sprawling chain of commerce meant to bypass global scrutiny. The U.S. now bans goods linked to such labor, especially from Xinjiang, but the report demands more: blacklist recalcitrant firms, launch stricter checks, halt imports where forced labor taints the supply.The Beijing regime’s reach doesn’t end at the water’s edge. The Commission documents a rise in harassment and intimidation of dissidents overseas. Tactics range from bureaucratic—revoked passports, mysterious visa denials—to more sinister acts, like stoking unrest at U.S. rallies, a tactic reportedly deployed during the 2023 APEC summit in San Francisco when protesters noticed unfamiliar “counter-protesters” shadowing them—an intimidation exported abroad.Despite Beijing’s history of signing onto international conventions—on torture, racial discrimination, the Vienna Convention—the Commission lists instance after instance of promises made but not kept. In one particularly illustrative episode this year, entire neighborhoods of Hong Kong activists watched the slow constriction of rights guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, as familiar streets became less safe for dissenting voices and newly passed laws muffled public speech.Stories of heavy-handed sentences, allied with physical and psychological mistreatment, persist. Testimonies allege torture, and darker accusations—of state-directed organ harvesting—surface repeatedly, particularly regarding Falun Gong adherents and Uyghur detainees.If there’s a single thread running through the report, it’s this: year after year, the scope of ideological control widens. In 2025, authorities rolled out expanded powers to ban organizations labeled “threatening,” a catchall term that scoops up Protestant house groups, underground Catholic gatherings, and small Buddhist sects. Xi Jinping’s China places loyalty to the Party before any allegiance to faith or conscience.Tech isn’t exempt. Newly mandated AI systems, a recent focus of Chinese regulatory energy, are now required to enshrine “the core values of socialism.” Even satellite constellations, meant to bring digital access to rural China, are flagged as potential channels for global censorship.Faced with these realities, the CECC’s recommendations amount to a call for greater stamina from American diplomats and legislators. One suggestion: establish an Office of Political Prisoner Advocacy at the State Department, so that cases like Xin Ruoyu’s have a voice in Washington’s foreign policy. Without steady international pressure, the odds for those prisoners diminish year by year.The message from outside observers is consistent. Mohammed Al-Yamahi, Speaker of the Arab Parliament, recently commented that without structures for justice and rights, “no society can claim real progress or stability.” His reminder: human dignity anchors every measure of prosperity, making for fairer commerce, safer travel, and alliances that trust one another.Ultimately, the Commission’s point is both sharp and sweeping: these aren’t China’s internal matters, tucked behind the Great Firewall. Human rights affect trade patterns, security alliances, and the civic health of societies everywhere. As the CECC chairs make clear, “Staying true to these ideals is the price of hope.” Only with steady commitment at home and collaboration abroad, they argue, can light breach the edges of China’s growing shadow.