Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Angus King, I-Maine, have introduced a resolution urging President Donald Trump to emphasize the Chinese Communist Party's record of human rights abuses ahead of his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The bipartisan pair aims to keep the "countless lives the Chinese Communist Party has destroyed and the people currently living in fear" at the forefront of the upcoming diplomatic talks.
The resolution coincides with the CCP's 105th anniversary and lists specific historical and contemporary actions attributed to the party. Lankford stated that for 105 years, the CCP has oppressed its own people, persecuted people of faith, and denied basic freedoms. He argued that as the United States engages with Beijing, it cannot forget the millions who have suffered under the CCP or those who continue to live under its repression today.
"The United States must continue to stand for religious freedom, human rights, and the dignity of every person," Lankford said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The lawmakers' resolution details several periods of violence and repression spanning the last century:
| Period | Event | Reported Casualties or Actions |
|---|---|---|
| 1942-1945 | Yan'an Rectification Movement | More than 10,000 people killed |
| 1949-1953 | Chinese Land Reform movement | Between 200,000 and 5 million slain |
| 1950-1952 | Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries | Millions of arrests and over 700,000 executions |
| Mid-20th Century | Three-Anti and Five-Anti Campaigns | Thousands of political opponents and capitalists humiliated, exiled, imprisoned, or killed |
| Recent Decades | Various | Undermining Hong Kong autonomy; targeting religions; mass detention of an estimated 1 million Uighur Muslims |
The resolution notes that during the Three-Anti and Five-Anti Campaigns, Mao Zedong and the CCP "humiliated, terrorized, exiled, imprisoned, and killed thousands of political opponents and capitalists." In more recent decades, the document cites the undermining of Hong Kong's autonomy and the use of "insidious tools of repression" against religious groups. It specifically highlights the mass detention and torture of an estimated 1 million Uighur Muslims in so-called reeducation camps.
Trump is scheduled to welcome Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday afternoon, with meetings set to continue through Friday. Lawmakers are urging Trump to leverage the summit to strike trade deals and reach an agreement on the artificial intelligence race.