Activist. Uighur human rights activist. Good morning, everybody. Please take your seats. Were going to start our program. L welcome to the hasnt visited. I am nina shea, i directed the center for religious freedom here at hudson, and i went to wish everyone a happy holidays. And im also, what to draw your attention to the crisis in china against the uighur Muslim Population there. It is one of the worst human rights and religious persecution situationsth of our day. In fact, of our age. It is both a crisis of religious persecution and of Human Rights Violations of epic proportions. In we will be hearing more about that through the session today. All people should be concerned for china as a rising power, aims to make this a model not only for other groups within its borders but is exporting this model. It is of deep concern to me as someone who monitors religious freedom around the world, and i knowio it is to you hear here s room in the audience. And it is my deep privilege to introduce ambassador at large for religious freedom of the u. S. State Department Sam brownback. He is going to be giving our keynote address in just a moment. I have known ambassador brownback for about 25 years when he was in the senate and we working together on other human rights crises, including sudan which today is actually a source of hope in the world. Im very pleased to see him now in this position as the religious freedom ambassador. Someone who has been empowered under thiS Administration, and congress, and he isation, and really the institutional face of religious freedom as a priority and u. S. Foreign policy. His ministerial that he has organized, innovative have brought hundreds, in fact, thousands of people from all over the world who are deeply vested in religious freedom. These are survivors of religious persecution, advocates, World Leaders from across the globe. And please join me in welcoming Sam Brownback. [applause] thanks, nina. I appreciate that really. Its a pleasure to be back at hudson. You would find this interesting, i was on the phone with the high minutes of sudan which was not a normal thing for me 25 years ago were fighting the regime and they were statesponsored terrorism that the United States experienced unfortunately firsthand, but i think it does show it to keep after an issue and you on the right side you can win and you will win. Im very hopeful it is one of the sources of great hope in the world today. We hope things continue to move forward in the right direction. Also want to thank Hudson Institute for hosting the Vice President and secretary of state mike pompeo at different times to speak in hudson regarding china. Those have been wonderful speeches. Ive looked at both of those and they offer a template on issues of china, the u. S. Policy towards china. ThiS Administration has been the first in decades to take on china and the repressive regime and have done an absolutely i think brilliant, tough, good job in confronting china and its importants we do that. Im pleased to join the discussion now and it is a key priority for thiS Administration. The peoples republic of china, the government, their Brutal Campaign of repression currently going on against uighurs, and other muslims. My thanks to Hudson Institute and the distinguished experts that are here today for keeping the conversation in washington going. ThiS Administration is recognized as important analyze and respond toze these abuses fm all angles so i appreciate the discussion and the insights at todays events. I have said before and i will keep saying it, hopefully one day it is no longer true. China is i at war with faith but it is a war they will not win. In the meantime, while it continues, Chinese Government continues to engage in a highstakes game of subterfuge, attempting to cloak the truth and misdirection and deception about its two intentions and activities but we will not be fooled. The Chinese Government can refer to Inhumane Treatment of religious and ethnic minority groups as war on terror as counted religious extremism, it can label its internment camps as socalled Vocational Training centers and even claim that detainees have graduated, but the evidence is clear. Clearly this is not just a war on faith but a war on truth and international o norms. And we know the facts. Earlier this year ambassador of sales and iye coauthored an opd plainly stating the repressive coping Action Campaign is not counterterrorism. Its one more chapter in beijings long history of oppression, oppressing tibetan buddhist, christians, and others. Terrorism is a very real threat in many parts of the world including in the United States and in china, conflating peaceful religious practices and identity with terrorism is beyond disingenuous. Itsis unconscionable. Also unconscionable is imposing pervasive hightech surveillance and monitoring throughout the region. This unfortunately i believe is the future of what much oppression is going to look like. I think you are saying the front wave of it in sin john. That also from them prevent muscle subduing the regular prayers or share the risk of printing chill from attending mosque are studying the quran. Removing them from held in place them in orphanages. The Chinese Government is destroying mosques, symmetries and other sites and, of course, detaining more than 1 million members of Muslim Minority groups and internment camps since april 2017. And our current they world in 2019, 1 million muslim people are in internment camps. Thats really almost unthinkable in this day and age and yet it exists right now. These are the abuses that the prc government is trying to hide and deny. So i believe it was a game changer when the china cables recently came to light. As secretary pompeo said about these reports are consistent with an overwhelming and growing body of evidence that the Chinese Communist party is committing Human Rights Violations and abuses against individuals in mass detention. And in newspapers you saw the background and the thinking of it. These document reveal the ccp is orchestration, that is orchestrated and this is not random. Its intentional. Those who have been inclined to believe the prc government or who were bullied into believing it can now read these documents and see for themselves the depth whats happeningelves the depth in sin john. It really think about china, you also know that the prc governments campaign of repression is not unique to send john in part because the ccp first installed the Regions Party secretary in the bet where he tested at a massive grid of physical and technological surveillance, cameras, police stations, databases, police and security forces, life in tibet including religious life was forever i transformed. Considered a success. He took his playbook to xinjian xinjiang, apple ever find his s on an unfathomable scale. Earlier this week the economist magazine noted the parallels between the bet and xinjiang and his role in replicating repression. My fear and i think of the Hudson Institute as well is that these sorts of replications of repression are going to continue and increase around the world. They need to be stopped now. So the document strength, what we know about these abuses and thiS Administrations ongoing resolve is to respond to them. Importantly, we continue to promote accountability for those who commit human rights abuses around the world. That is why the department of state has prepas previously dd china as a country of particular concern under the International Religious freedom act of 1998 for engaging in or tolerating particular severe violations of religious freedom. Such religious Freedom Violations are hardly the only human right abuses that the prc government is perpetrating in xinjiang and elsewhere. But when a country doesnt respect the right to freely practice ones faith and belief, and everything that that entails, we often see other rights significantly imperiled, these include the freedom of association, assembly, speech and the freedom of movement. In addition to the country of particular concern designation that is specific to religious Freedom Violations, we have seen a multifaceted u. S. Response. The crisis in xinjiang featured prominently at both ministerial that nina mentioned as well is at the president s global call for religious freedom event at the u. N. , the first ever by head of state to call the topic of religious freedom at the u. N. General assembly. There was resulting powerful testimony from uighur survivors and Family Members, a tunic consecutive statements of concern c under scorn the prc government escalating repression underscoring against religious groups in china. I want to stop in just a moment and note as welcome last week there was anotherer testimony on xinjiang on capitol hill and i ranmi into three young people fm xinjiang who testified, two of them told the Family Members convicted of seven to nine years and put in jail for seven to nine years, for them, the younger Family Member out speaking. God bless the people from xinjiang that are willing to speak out. This comes at a significant cost to them personally, to their families. A number of agencies have executed as well targeted actions. The department of state the postvisa sanctions on chinese officials for the role in the campaign of repression in sentient. The departmentct of commerce add 28 Chinese Governmental and commercial entities to its entity list which prevents them from bike use products are importing used technology that could be used to suppress religious and ethnic minorities in sentient. The u. S. Customs and Border Patrol issued a withhold release order to ensure that products made by chinese r company in end up ininese r company in american to stores. We welcomed the role that a growing number of International Actors play in calling out these abuses. We want to see more of this in the months ahead and will continue to encourage stakeholders to take upe this mantle. Andhe multilateral response is similarly vital. The United States and four of the countries cohosted a Panel Discussion on the margins of u. N. General assembly onis the humann rights crisis in xinjian. More than 30 u. N. Member states attended along with eu representatives and oic delegation and 20 ngos ultimately it was standing room only. A truly remarkable turnout importantly several uighur survivors and Family Members addressed the roommth were ableo share their harrowing stories. They provide an eyewitness they provide an eyewitness this is factual testimony that they provide. This is no longer allegations. These are eyewitnesses. The United States is among 23 signatories to a joint statement on Human Rights Violations and abuses in xinjiang delivered at the u. N. Third committee in october. Im also working withct a groupo launch a priority announced at this years of ministerial. Its called the International Religious freedom alliance. Once launched it will be the first ever International Body devoted to freedom of religion or belief. Bringing together likeminded countries to confront religious freedom challenges and this will be the first new International HumanRights Organization in a generation. Te its focused again just on the issues of International Religious freedom. We hope to have stood up and launched the first part of this next year. Im excited i this opportunity and currently reaching out to a number of countries to bring them on board. As i i close, i want to humanie the repression in xinjiang and elsewhere in china. These are innocent civilians, peacefully practicing their faith as their conscious leads youre dreaming of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. They do not need their way of thinking reprogrammed. They do not need their government controlling and monitoring every aspect of their lives. They need, they deserve freedom. Freedom of religion to practice their faith peacefully as they see fit. Thats what i i and others in S Administration are working towards. I want to say thank you again to the Hudson Institute for hosting this discussion today and inviting me, for previously hosting the Vice President and for hosting the secretary of state to discuss human rights abuses inin china. The expertise you bring to the discussion is tremendously helpful to thiS Administration, continues to employ, that we continue to play a variety of tools as we call on peoples republic of china, the Chinese Communist party, to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained andim to end this kryptonian policies that for more than two years have terrorized its religious and ethnic minority groups in xinjiang. We will continue tos push back n chinas war on faith and i hope youll continue to join us in that endeavor. Thank you very much. God bless you all. [applause] welcome, everyone. Take you, very much ambassador brownback, and nina for introducing. Thank you to all of you and you are cspan viewers for being with us here today at hudson for this afternoon Panel Discussion on xinjiang and u. S. Policy response. The institute launched this program of seminars not xinjiang in early 2017 to help challenge i think what can be best described as the u. S. Post9 11 political complacency over what the Chinese Communist party claim is its own war on terrorism in the vast northwestern territory of the prc empire known as xinjiang. That u. S. Reappraisal was urgently needed then and, in fact, its been long overdue for decades the uighur muslim people that suffer from institutionalized oppression and discrimination in their own homeland which they call east turkestan. In august 2016 the installation of01 the wall make clear that beijing would be wrapping up its efforts to subjugate the uighur and of the peoples of east turkestan. Secretary jim was already known for his harsh policies in tibet and that his command over the last three years xinjiang has been transferred into the most heavily surveilled and oppressive garrison state that the world has arguably ever seen. Communist party has since gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress information and propagandized about what it is doing in xinjiang both inside china and around the world including here in the United States. Should say back in september of 2018, a longtime uighur human rights activist and also an american citizen spoke your on the panel atme Hudson Institute. Six days later two of her Family Members and xinjiang, her aunt and her sister vanished. Their whereabouts are still unknown today. But what we do note thanks to the vital work of three of her petals and countless others many who have risked their lives is thatat upwards of 1 million uighurs, over 10 of the population, has been forced into mass internment camps for i ideological reeducation. The prc is clear intent and its war on uighurs fits the very original definition of decimation. Chinese commies rose have dismissed reports about the internment camps and the abuses inside them as fake news spread by western journalists and think tanks. They have i instead tried at persuading a large part of the world until now that the camps are, in fact,e Vocational Training centers, which uighurs voluntarily attend. Last month the leak of classified party documents obtained by the International Consortium of investigative journalists revealed that the parties story about xinjiang like so much else is a lie. The china cables exposed in chilling detail how the party has planned and implemented the Largest Scale persecution of a h distinct ethnic religiousus grop since the end of world war ii. In short, the papers provide us a clips into the parties blueprint for the destruction of the people. Here with us today to discuss all this and what it should mean for theit u. S. Policy are three leading u. S. Based experts. Im happy to welcome back bethany a premium who is now with axios and anybody who would region think about china these days knows her byline both from axios and internationalin consortium for Investigative Journalism and also from the daily beast and Foreign Policy. Second will have a dream sense is that a fellow at the victims of communism memorial foundation. His research as many of you know has been key in establishing the existence of the camps in the first place and in documenting the buildup of the prc police state