The Republican chairman of a congressional panel examining human rights abuses by China is requesting a visa from Beijing to visit the region where U.S. officials say the Chinese government is carrying genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
Rep. Chris Smith, who heads the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, says he formally requested the visa to assess a Chinese diplomat’s assertions in a late-night email to his office that Beijing “fully protects the rights and interests of all ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs in Xinjiang.”
The New Jersey Republican and longtime China hawk says Chinese Embassy Minister-Counselor for Congressional Affairs Zhou Zheng made the assertion in the email sent in late March, a day after the House passed Mr. Smith’s Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023.
If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would open the way for U.S. sanctions against Chinese Communist Party officials accused of stealing internal organs from political prisoners, including those the State Department says are wrapped up in Beijing’s campaign against Uyghurs.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to repeated requests by The Washington Times for comment.
A spokesman for Mr. Smith told The Times that the congressman got confirmation the embassy received his request but said, “We haven’t got an official response whether they would grant the visa or not.”
If it’s granted, Mr. Smith intends to make a fact-finding trip to Xinjiang “as long as there are no conditions,” the spokesman said. “He wants full access to be able to visit Xinjiang.”
Journalists have reported being harassed by Chinese authorities while trying to cover government “re-education camps” in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, where activists say many thousands of Uyghur Muslims are detained.
Reuters reported in 2018 that award-winning independent Chinese photographer Lu Gang was arrested in Xinjiang after being invited to the region to participate in a photo event there. Voice of America later reported that Mr. Lu was released after nearly a year of detention in China.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in 2021 that U.S. investigators determined the Chinese government, “under the control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.”
Current Secretary of State Atony Blinken echoed the assertion in 2022, saying the genocide was “ongoing.”
Mr. Smith has sought to draw attention to the situation as chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which was created by Congress in 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China.
On Capitol Hill, the commission’s work is seen as a complement to the newly created Select Committee on China, which is headed by Rep. Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican.
Mr. Smith drew the ire of Beijing last month when the House voted 413-2 in favor of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, which will require the U.S. government to produce reports on forced organ harvesting and trafficking overseas, particularly in China.
The New Jersey Republican made headlines by asserting on the House floor ahead of the vote that 60,000 to 100,000 young adults are killed annually by Chinese authorities for their organs.
China denies such assertions. Following the passage of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, Mr. Smith’s chief of staff received the late-night email from Mr. Zhou stating that “China firmly rejects this absurd bill.”
The email separately included a rant about the Falun Gong religious movement, widely seen to be persecuted by the Chinese government. “Falun Gong is a completely anti-human, anti-science and anti-social cult organization,” wrote Mr. Zhou.
“China fully protects the rights and interests of all ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the living standards and human rights protection of all ethnic groups continue to improve,” he wrote. “The so-called ’genocide’ and ’forced organ harvesting’ are lies that will eventually shatter into pieces in front of facts and truth.”
At the end of the email, Mr. Zhou added: “Look forward to any argument Congressman Smith … may have.”
Mr. Smith responded by penning a letter directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping and submitting it to the Chinese Embassy. In the letter, the congressman formally requested a visa for himself and for Congressional-Executive Commission on China Staff Director Piero Tozzi, stating they would “like to visit sites where mass detention and forced labor are generally believed to occur” in Xinjiang.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.