On Human Rights Day, Lawmaker Encourages Advocates to ‘Keep up Pressure on China’

Human rights are ‘non-negotiable,’ says Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.).

Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) speaks onstage during the 2023 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York in New York, on Sept. 18, 2023. John Lamparski/Getty Images for Concordia Summit

WASHINGTON—With the Chinese Communist Party among the worst abusers of human rights on earth, Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) said her biggest worry is that the world is not even paying attention.

That’s why on Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, she helped put together a human rights forum on Capitol Hill, bringing a coalition of groups who sometimes feel “there are not enough people on the Hill listening.”

“We need to keep on raising our voices,” she told The Epoch Times. “We need to be united.”

Human rights and freedom are “non-negotiable,” she said.

“It needs to be talked about around the clock, all the time,” she said.

Standing at the entrance to the event was Steven Wang, who greeted passersby and encouraged them to add their signatures to a large signboard to show support for human rights in China. A professional dancer for Shen Yun Performing Arts and a U.S. citizen, Wang worries for his mother, Liu Aihua, who is currently in a Chinese jail because she practices Falun Gong.

The meditation practice, based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, has faced a relentless eradication effort by Beijing authorities since 1999. Under the campaign, millions have suffered arrests, forced labor, and even forced organ harvesting. Liu, now in her 70s, was arrested 11 times and spent more than eight years total in detention facilities before her latest arrest in 2022, after which she was handed a four-year sentence.

The authorities, until recent months, allowed relatives little access to Liu. Even now, they can hold a call with her only once a month—their chance, Wang said, to comfort and encourage her to remain strong.

Signers of the board that day include House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.).

People sign a board supporting human rights in China during the China Human Rights Advocacy Fair at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 10, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Speaking Up for the Voiceless

At the event, many shared stories of long Chinese prison sentences imposed on people for their political or spiritual beliefs.

Information was made available on various tables about prisoners of conscience such as Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai; jailed ethnic Mongolian dissident writer Lhamjab Borjigin, who was arrested while in exile at the capital of Mongolia; and Gulnisa Imin, a Uyghur poet and literature teacher who has been in Chinese custody since 2017.

In Hong Kong, there have been about 2,000 political prisoners since 2019, when Beijing began tightening control over the once semi-autonomous region, according to the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, which estimates that hundreds still remain in prison.

With freedom to speak in the West comes an obligation to amplify the voice of the voiceless, Francis Hui, the foundation’s policy coordinator, said at the event in Washington.

Economically and politically, the perpetrators of the abuses seem powerful, Louisa Greve, director of global advocacy for the Uyghur Human Rights Project, told The Epoch Times. But “just ensuring that the dissident voices are not forgotten is already a victory.”

Years ago, a handwritten note from a Chinese labor camp prisoner found in a box of Halloween decorations bought in an Oregon Kmart made headlines worldwide and inspired a documentary called “Letter From Masanjia,” which chronicled the backstory behind products made by people such as Falun Gong practitioner Sun Yi—the writer of the note.

Right now, cheap Chinese products are still exported around the world. But thanks to the message, the West is more active in steering clear of goods tainted with forced labor, and the United States has adopted a law to bar imports from China’s Xinjiang region because of concerns about abuse targeting Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

“China cannot shut that down and cannot stop a democracy like the U.S. from having laws that say, ‘No, we refuse to have our markets open to these forced labor goods,’“ Greve said. ”That’s already a victory, considering that civil society voices are volunteers, almost no money, small staff, and no diplomatic power.”

Louisa Greve, director of Global Advocacy at Uyghur Human Rights project, speaks at the Policy Forum on Organ Procurement and Extrajudicial Execution in China on Capitol Hill on March 10, 2020. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Patterns of Abuse

Silence is a signal for Beijing to double down, and any campaign that starts in one region won’t stop there, Hui and other activists at the event told The Epoch Times.

John Neville of the International Campaign for Tibet mentioned Chinese official Chen Quanguo as an example.

Chen, sanctioned by the first Trump administration, oversaw the destruction of Falun Gong books and the ouster of government officials who practiced Falun Gong during the early 2000s while he was a senior official in his hometown province, Henan. Later in his career, he presided in Tibet and Xinjiang, both stints coinciding with escalations in repression in the regions.

This suggests that over the years, Chen developed similar persecution techniques for each set of victims, Neville told The Epoch Times. At the event, he said he was struck by the patterns that repeated from one group to the next.

Human rights abuses in China affect more than the persecuted communities, according to Jessica Russo, clinical psychologist and mental health adviser for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting.

Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting booth at the China Human Rights Advocacy Fair at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Dec. 10, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Organ transplant abuse happens on a significant scale across China, according to findings from the London-based China Tribunal, which conducted a year-long probe into the issue.

But even people living outside of China are at risk of complicity, Russo said.

“We are all involved in some way or another,” she told The Epoch Times. “We have pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. who are doing clinical trials in China, and transplant and medical supply companies that are supplying materials for China’s transplant, and then we have patients who are lured by the short wait times. So we are heavily involved in so many levels in this crime.”

The same holds true for other types of abuses, Wang said.

“If no one steps up, it’s the same as acquiescence,” he told The Epoch Times.

Steven Wang, a Shen Yun dancer, at the China Human Rights Advocacy Fair at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Dec. 10, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

And that could set the international community on a dangerous course: With no country holding it back, the regime will expand its persecution, expanding it to other parts of the world, he said.

Cynthia Sun, senior researcher at the Falun Dafa Information Center, which helped organize the event, echoed that warning.

“First, it was religious believers and ethnic minorities, then it was supporters,“ she told The Epoch Times. ”Now the CCP’s threat of silencing and intimidation is crossing the line to target anyone, including government leaders and influencers.”

Her organization has documented a series of violent threats against the Falun Gong community, including New York-based Shen Yun, where Wang dances. The intimidation campaign, which began early in 2024, has also targeted government leaders and supportive lawmakers.

Kim, the California congresswoman, said she hopes the human rights event is the first of many positive steps to come.

“Just one venue, one event, bringing all of the different organizations and individuals that are fighting for people’s freedom ... it’s just not enough,” she said.

Human rights, she said, should be a lever for the United States in any conversation with China, “especially in the trade areas.”

“We need to turn all of these stories into action, and we can always do more.”