The Chinese Communist Party must be trying to win a gold medal for human rights abuses. Earlier this week, a 24-year-old received a life sentence, the first given under the 2020 security law abolishing political freedom in Hong Kong. What was his crime? He rode a motorcycle into police with a banner calling for Hong Kong's liberation, which the totalitarian regime determined deserved a life sentence for "terrorism" and "inciting secession." Last year, BLM rioters got off scot-free for considerably more violence.
"Communism will always bring about suffering," remarked Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). "It will always bring about pain. People lose their freedom." That's why millions protested China's Hong Kong crackdown, why Cuban subjects are waving American flags in the streets, why Iranians are "pushing back against their authoritarian regime," said Blackburn. She emphasized the importance of American support for those seeking freedom around the world. "We are the beacon of freedom and hope and opportunity on the face of the earth," she said.
That's why Blackburn wants the U.S. to take more forceful action against Beijing's human rights abuses. It was a good start for the State Department to issue a genocide declaration for China's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. But "China is not backing down," she said, and "President Biden should be more forceful in dealing with China." China continues to escalate its aggression with military exercises and cyberattacks. "The Microsoft attack -- we know that was China-instigated," explained Blackburn. Cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure have grown so concerning that both the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committee held hearings on them Tuesday. Blackburn said the U.S. "should impose sanctions" against those committing cyberattacks.
Blackburn has taken a leading role in combating China on new fronts. Along with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), she introduced the "United Nations Transparency and Accountability Act," which would prevent China and Russia from accomplishing behind-the-scenes machinations to bend the U.N. to their will. She has also been a leading voice calling for the U.S. to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics, scheduled to be held in Beijing.
Another major front is redirecting "critical supply lines from China," said Blackburn, or at a minimum confronting global mega-corporations who moralize freely in the U.S., but who refuse to utter one word of criticism of China's human rights abuses. Many major brands, including Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola are "producing products there in Xinjiang province," right nearby China's Olympic-size detention facilities that house millions of Uyghurs. There have even been concerns raised that some of the companies manufacture their products using Uyghur slave labor.
On Tuesday, during a hearing of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) did confront executives of major corporations, most of whom dodged his questions. In his exchange with the Global Vice President for Coca-Cola, which is sponsoring the Beijing Olympics, Cotton questioned him why Coca-Cola heavily contested Georgia's election reform law but stayed silent on China's genocide. The executive immediately regurgitated his talking points. "I'm tired of hearing that," retorted Cotton. "Why is it that Coca-Cola will opine on Georgia's election laws, but not on the genocide Olympics?"
Cotton never got an answer, because the corporations are more concerned about offending China than about doing what's right. Big business is so unaccountable the only way to get their attention is to threaten their bottom line. That's where you come in. Unlike totalitarian China, in America companies are affected by the decisions of individual consumers, men and women like you who choose not to purchase brands that remain silent on China's abominable human rights abuses.
