US lawmakers and the members of the US House Select Committee on Chinese Communist Party (SCCCP) on Thursday organized a meeting highlighting China's shady tactics to suppress dissent and critique in the country.
The session witnessed the participation of Jamil Jaffer, Founder and Executive Director of the National Security Institute (NSI), Anna Puglisi a visiting Fellow of Stanford University Hoover Institution, and Jill Goldenziel, Professor at National Defense University's College of Information and Cyberspace. The US lawmaker representing Michigan's Second Congressional District and SCCCP John Moolenaar in his statement during the session said, "In China, there is no justice. There are no rights. There is no free speech. There is no rule of law. Anything said or done that goes against the wishes of the Chinese Communist Party, whether that be a mention of Tiananmen Square or an ethnic minority simply trying to survive, can be squashed by the CCP with no due process". Moolenaar also added that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping has said that the judicial and law enforcement departments should "uphold the absolute leadership" of the CCP. Suspected criminals who end up in court are found guilty 99 per cent of the time. China is an authoritarian country with an authoritarian judicial system to match. The US lawmaker further claimed that the CCP has already squashed freedom at home and now seeks to export its authoritarian model of control across the globe. It is now trying to exploit the American legal system. According to Molenaar, "Over the last year, the Select Committee has noticed an alarming trend. Researchers, business owners, and academics who expose the truth about a Chinese company--whether it be the Party's theft of genomic data, forced labour, or malign trade practices--have suddenly found themselves slapped with frivolous lawsuits". "Whether the charge is defamation or libel- it's all the same. American citizens and institutions are suddenly faced with the enormous burden of fending off large Chinese companies, their sham complaints, and their army of attorneys funded by seemingly unlimited budgets. All mobilized in an attempt to intimidate the authors into silence," he added. An official statement of Jamil N Jaffer issued on the sidelines of the session titled 'How the CCP Uses the Law to Silence Critics and Enforce its Rule' mentioned, "The threat of a rising China, under the leadership of the CCP, is the defining national security challenge facing the United States and our allies today. The PRC, under the direction and control of the CCP, is a nation that not only oppresses its people, but pushes that repression well beyond its borders, not just in the Indo-Pacific region, but across the globe as well. The genocide and crimes against humanity currently underway against Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region are but one example of the type of repressive activities that take place within the borders of CCP-controlled China, activities that also include the brutal repression of dissent and political, economic, and religious freedom in Hong Kong and Tibet. To get an even better sense of the global scale of the CCP's repression, one needs only look at the PRC's near-constant drumbeat of military and economic threats against Taiwan, its hostile actions and active threats towards other US allies and partners globally". (ANI)
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