House Speaker Pelosi-led Delegation Met with Hong Kong and Uyghur Activists in London
London, United Kingdom, (Monday, February 21, 2022) - Today, House Speaker Pelosi and a delegation of US House Members met with a selected group of Hong Kong and Uyghur activists, including Angela Gui, founder of #FreeGuiMinhai and board member of the Campaign for Hong Kong, Nathan Law, founder of the new Umbrella Community in the UK, and Rahima Mahmut, UK director of the World Uyghur Congress and executive director of Stop Uyghur Genocide. The delegation heard the activists’ personal experiences of repression and abuses by the Chinese Communist Party and their efforts to protect Hong Kong’s autonomy and basic freedoms, free all political prisoners, and end the atrocities against Uyghurs and ethnic minorities that the US government has recognized as “genocide”.
From the remarks of Angela Gui:
“My father Gui Minhai is a Swedish national and one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers who were abducted and detained in mainland China in late 2015. My father has been abducted by Chinese government agents three times and is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence. He was initially disappeared from his holiday home in Pattaya, Thailand, and was then held incommunicado with no access to legal assistance. He was forced to refuse contact with Swedish consular officials, effectively bypassing international consular agreements. He was also forced to confess to ‘crimes’ on Chinese television.”
“Much about my father’s case suggests that at least prior to his sentencing, he was in a system called ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location,’ which is an expanding secret prison system where inmates are placed before their formal arrest and are routinely treated like my father has been. But in contrast to my father, their family members often have no way to advocate for their loved ones without intense intimidation and harassment from the Chinese government.”
“Since my father’s initial disappearance in 2015, I have worked to urge governments to take more decisive action in demanding his release, holding Beijing accountable for its human rights violations in my father’s case as in others, as well as in preventing similar extraterritorial abductions from happening in the future.”
“Although I am hopeful that things are changing, it’s also becoming increasingly clear that the international community has failed to demand accountability from Beijing over its human rights record. The lack of coordinated action from democratic governments in response to China’s abduction of a Swedish national from a third country back in 2015 has unfortunately enabled the horrific developments we are now witnessing. It’s not possible to have normal diplomatic relations with a state that believes it has the right to change foreign citizens’ nationalities, effectively putting anyone at risk of arbitrary detention. It most certainly isn’t possible to have normal diplomatic relations with a state that systematically erases the Uyghur and Hong Kong cultures and commits what some legal experts have called a genocide.”
“With an increasing number of political prisoners in China, countries with experience in dealing with such cases need to meet to engage in dialogue on this specific topic. This would allow for experience to be exchanged, and hopefully, a united strategy to be formulated, for preventing further cases and for demanding consular rights. My father’s case stands as a personal tragedy for my family, but it is evidence of China’s inhumane treatment not only of its own citizens but also of refugees and foreign nationals who should be protected by their citizenship.”
From Samuel Chu, President of the Campaign for Hong Kong, who attended the meeting:
“The Beijing government used the spectacle of the recently completed Winter Olympics to distract and whitewash its egregious and systematic human rights abuses and the dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms. But, as the game came to a close, Speaker Pelosi and US House leaders made clear that they will not let the spotlight fade or turn elsewhere when it comes to the lives and rights of Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, and political prisoners in China.
The personal stories of Angela, Nathan, and Rahima are gut-wrenching, but that makes their advocacy and refusal to be silenced that much more powerful. They made urgent and concrete recommendations to the delegation on how the US can expand its support and defense of human rights in China:
Convene countries with experience in dealing with Chinese political prisoners and Beijing’s ‘hostage’ diplomacy to formulate a united strategy to prevent further cases and to demand and safeguard consular rights;
Adopt Sec. 30303-Hong Kong People’s Freedom and Choice in HR 4521 the America COMPETES Act of 2022 during conference committee toward a final comprehensive ‘China bill’;
Work with the UK and other governments to pass and enforce Magnisky-style sanctions, legislation similar to the US’ ‘Uygur Forced Labor Act’, and ensure that entities like the World Bank are not complicit in forced labor through their investments.”
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