During a debate on the House floor last week, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) spoke in support of DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act or H.R.1516, a bill that restricts funding to higher education institutions that have a relationship with a Confucius Institute.
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00:00Gentleman from Mississippi, you reserve says time. The distinguished gentleman from Texas is recognized.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'll just point out that this bill was actually brought up during the Biden administration.
00:12It has nothing to do with one administration or another, and it was bipartisan.
00:17And those entities of concern are named and are labeled within the DOD.
00:22And we do have a pattern of history of Confucius Institutes switching names but remaining the same for the purpose of malign influence.
00:32And at this time, I'd like to yield three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Stauber.
00:38Gentleman's recognize for three minutes.
00:41Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of the rule in the DHS restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act.
00:49Over the past decade, communist China has persecuted Uyghur population for their religious and cultural practices.
00:57Xinjiang authorities have detained Uyghurs in internment camps without formal charges, forced them into slave labor,
01:05and have committed numerous other human rights abuses against the Uyghur people.
01:10This includes severe physical abuse, as well as the forced collection of biometric data like DNA and fingerprint samples.
01:21While the Chinese Communist Party refuses to admit it, researchers believe these abuses are a part of China's, quote,
01:29second-generation ethnic policy, end quote.
01:32This policy advocates the forced assimilation of minorities to create a, quote, state race, end quote.
01:39One of the founding fathers of communist China's second-generation ethnic policy is Wu Enggan,
01:45who leads the Institute for Contemporary China Studies at Tsinghua University.
01:51Unfortunately, American universities such as Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania
01:57have engaged in partnerships with Tsinghua University.
02:02There is no reason why our universities should be complacent in religious persecutions in the 21st century.
02:11Last Congress, the House adopted my amendment to address the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the previous iteration of this legislation.
02:20I am grateful that the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Pflueger, has included the language in this year's bill text.
02:27We should all agree that higher education's willingness to look the other way is always unacceptable.
02:37For these reasons, I encourage my colleagues to support this rule,
02:40which is the first step in ending our university's appeasement of China's crimes against the Uyghur people
02:45and to countering China's malign influence and espionage at our academic institutions.
02:52Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I yield back.
02:55Thank you, Mr. Chair.