There Was No Christmas in China
This is not the Christmas most had hoped for.
Nations across the planet remain challenged by the COVID Pandemic. The perpetrator of the plague, China, remains unpunished and unrepentant. Its ruling Communist Party rapidly develops one of the world’s most powerful offensive nuclear arsenals, and has already launched the planet’s largest navy.
Beijing’s communist rulers operate concentration camps aimed at eliminating an entire culture, similar to what it has done to Tibet.
In response, the U.S. has enacted the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, underscoring the United States’ commitment to combatting forced labor, including in the context of the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang.
The State Department states that it is “…committed to working with Congress and our interagency partners to continue addressing forced labor in Xinjiang and to strengthen international action against this egregious violation of human rights. This new law gives the U.S. government new tools to prevent goods made with forced labor in Xinjiang from entering U.S. markets and to further promote accountability for persons and entities responsible for these abuses.”
Addressing forced labor must remain a priority. Concrete measures have been taken to promote accountability in Xinjiang, including visa restrictions, Global Magnitsky and other financial sanctions, export controls, Withhold Release Orders and import restrictions, and the release of a business advisory on Xinjiang. Global supply chains must be free from the use of forced labor, including from Xinjiang, where the concentration camps are located.
People of good will across the planet should demand that the Chinese Communist Party immediately end genocide and crimes against humanity.
Those crimes include the oppression of religion.
Corporations which have placed their profits ahead of their conscience should be called to task. The latest example is Intel, which, as Breitbart recently noted, “American computer chip maker Intel issued an apology in Chinese text on Thursday for a previous statement in which it urged its Chinese suppliers to not source products from Xinjiang, a region where human rights experts say nearly every manufactured product is guaranteed to have been made by slaves.”
Intel is not alone. China has moved in a massive way to influence American politicians, universities, and other centers of influence. One well-known example: when a famous basketball player criticized Beijing for its violations of human rights, the entire NBA establishment, eager to expand its presence in the People’s Republic, forced him to recount. Hollywood has changed movie scripts to please Chinese investors. In colleges across the nation, Confucius Institutes run by Beijing influence what is taught in our schools. Individual professors as well as university administrations have been on the take for this purpose. The prominent and powerful Joe Biden family has been vastly enriched by highly questionable financial dealings with China.
On this December 25, it is relevant to dwell on Beijing’s oppression of religion. In 2018, a Congressional-Executive Commission on China noted that “Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s efforts to “sinicize” religion are taking a devastating human toll. Chinese officials and others complicit in severe religious freedom violations must be held accountable and specific cases of those unjustly harassed, detained, and imprisoned must be raised at the highest levels of government. As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, China’s Christians and other faith communities are under siege and treated as enemies of the state for daring to worship and peacefully live out their faith…The Chinese Government has long imposed harsh policies against unregistered Christian churches, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other new religious movements the Chinese government has labeled as “cults.” Set against this grim backdrop, the number of Chinese religious believers has grown rapidly for several decades after the Cultural Revolution. In 2016 Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping launched a “sinicization” campaign, resulting in unprecedented efforts to manage, control, and even transform the religious practices of tens of millions of China’s citizens.”
Frank Vernuccio serves as editor-in-chief of the New York Analysis of Policy and Government
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