USCIRF Hearing on A Religious Minority Enslaved: Addressing the Complicity of U.S. Companies in Uyghur Forced Labor

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Hearing

A Religious Minority Enslaved: Addressing the Complicity of U.S. Companies in Uyghur Forced Labor

Wednesday, March 10, 2021
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET
Virtual Hearing

Hearing Transcript
Hearing Summary

Please join the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for a virtual hearing about ways in which U.S. companies facilitate the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China through forced labor and other practices that undermine international human rights standards in that country.

Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in internment camps across the Uyghur region, also known as Xinjiang. As part of its repression of Muslim minorities, Chinese authorities have subjected them to forced labor in these camps, as well as in prisons, factories, and industrial parks. U.S. companies with supply chains in China for consumer goods—particularly those in the apparel, footwear, and other related industries—are inevitably complicit in Uyghur forced labor and therefore must take steps urgently to address this growing problem. This issue has become especially pressing following the U.S. Department of State’s determination that the atrocities in Xinjiang constitute genocide and crimes against humanity.

Witnesses will discuss the magnitude and complexity of the issues surrounding Uyghur forced labor and provide policy recommendations to the U.S. government.

Opening Remarks

• Senator Marco Rubio, R-FL
  Written Remarks
• Gayle Manchin, Chair, USCIRF
  Written Remarks
• Tony Perkins, Vice Chair, USCIRF
  Written Remarks
• Gary Bauer, Commissioner, USCIRF
  Written Remarks
• Nury Turkel, Commissioner, USCIRF
  Written Remarks

Panel

• Sophie Richardson, China Director, Human Rights Watch
  Written Testimony
• Louisa Greve, Director of Global Advocacy, Uyghur Human Rights Project
  Written Testimony
• Scott Nova, Executive Director, Worker Rights Consortium
  Written Testimony
• Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow in China Studies, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
  Written Testimony
• Olivia Enos, Senior Policy Analyst, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation
  Written Testimony