i represent plymouth massachusetts which is america's hometown and almost four hundred years ago a small vessel called the mayflower made landfall there and forever changed the history of the world the men and women and children on that vessel were seeking religious liberty and freedom from persecution and over the span of american history many minions from many lands have followed those pilgrims to our actual as and have sought refuge george washington once wrote that he hoped america and these are his words might become a safe in agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind in whatever nation they might belong and for most of our history we have on it president washington's help for that part of mankind the virtuous and the persecuted and that's why we're here today to receive testimony concerning the late two thousand and one and seventeen are still detained at guantanamo bay while five were previously resettled guantanamo to use washington's words part of the virtuous and persecuted although as one of our colleagues has seemed to conclude are terrorists in other words the we get this freedom fight is worthy of our support in assistance are they a threat to our national security now it's important to note that in june of two thousand and seven the house passed a resolution for ninety seven that acknowledged that china had in was using the war on terror to oppress the weaker us the resolution states that the chinese communists had and this is the language of the resolution manipulated the strategic objectives of the international war on terror to increase their cultural and religious oppression of the the strategic objectives of the international war on terror to increase their cultural and religious oppression of the weaker minority what ts to achieve their goal now we hear the term cherish applied to the twenty two weaker men who either are or are currently detained at my question and my concern is this have some of us been duped by the communist chinese regime well today we begin an effort to find answers to that and many other questions will undertake this committee also has within its jurisdiction the responsibility to review human rights conditions worldwide would submit that the american concept of due process is also a human right and it would appear that no due process has been afforded the weak years at guantanamo until recently and should be noted for the record that the bush administration concluded that those that are currently there those seventeen we goes were not a threat to the united states that's the previous administration and a federal court audited these week was released in a seminal opinion finding the men to be non enemy combatants and not a risk to the united states national security that some would seem to deny these men redress and continue to detain them no other country would accept them that was be a position we even had a former speaker of the house of representatives mr gingrich who said we should send them back to china i would submit that that would be an act that would undoubtedly violate our domestic laws and treaty obligations against the convention against torture because it's indisputable that the league is have been a persecuted minority in china and if they were returned they would have undoubt faced torture and possibly death that would be a stain on our national law in a particularly in the like of those words of george washington as well as i indicated today is the first in a series of hearings we plan to hold in which we'll make an effort to find out what's true and learn more about the treatment of the week is in china and the circumstances surrounding their arrival in their detention now they have been some reports today unconfirmed that the week is may be resettled all seventeen in the nation of apollo may be their president their president johnson toribiong maybe he read those words of george washington and is giving refuge to the virtuous and the persecuted we will make an effort to find out but as i said we plan to this because we should learn whatever lessons they're asked for the detention and the treatment of the weekends it's important for us as we move forward because the president has announced that he intends to close guantanamo we want to do is ensure fairness and revealing truth rather than opinion to our colleagues in to the american people well as to the treatment of the weavers in china which is what we'd gone to do here today elica we eloquently stated before and i'm quoting from him that the list of serious human rights abuses committed by the chinese government is long it includes a persuasive genocide of trying to destroy an entire race and ethnic group of people because of who they are the imprisonment of democratic just dissidents and religious believes believers remain a pervasive problem in china congressman smith went on to say that if a we got or anyone is arrested the way they get a conviction is that they torture you eventually you sign on the bottom line and admit your so called crimes again there is abuse after abuse after use and the we get be at the brunt of it i'm magic sending them back to china as a solution to the conundrum in which we find ourselves today the two thousand and eight when write a report published by our own department of state confirms what congressman smith and others have publicly stated going to read just a few excerpts for the record during the year the chinese government increased its via cultural and religious persecution of the ethnic minorities in the tibetan areas and in the we got autonomy as a region executions of leaguers separatism but which some observers claim were politically motivated were reported during prior reporting periods regulations restricting muslims religious activity teaching in places of worship continue to be implemented forcefully in the week autonomy as region measures to tighten control over religion in the week autonomy this region included increasing surveillance of mosques religious leaders and practitioners detaining and arresting persons engaged in  the government in the week autonomy as region took measures to dilute expressions of weaker identity including measures to reduce education in essen the minority languages during the year authorities increased repression in the we got autonomy this region and targeted the region's ethnic wego population the chinese government continued to repress we group is expressing peaceful political dissent an independent muslim religious leader is often citing as the reason for taking action the excuse of terror is to suppress and all press a religious minority and here we are today many americans just discovering that there is a group of people who are called the weekends and today we will learn something about i proponents of democracy will learn about their treatment in communist china and they'll likely face if they should be sent back to china well now let me return let me turn to my friend and colleague the ranking member of this committee on oversight and human rights the gentleman from california dana and i would note that last weekend i was out in the ocean doing what i love to do which is surfing at sunset the beautiful horizon there the west and i thought of words that ronald reagan once told me and has repeated many times i don't want to compete with you mr chairman in terms of  talking about your beautiful coastline but ronald reagan did mention that had the pilgrims landed in california instead of on plymouth rock the east coast would still be uninhabit but i appreciate your remarks today we have so much to be grateful for and i realize when i'm sitting there in my surfboard i'm looking to the west and looking into the sunset that there are people who live on the other side of that lake and we are grateful for the freedom that we have here but we must remain in solidarity with human beings who share our values whether here or there or their fact is that america is a dream as you pointed out of a place where we had dental with those people throughout the world who are struggling for their freedom and their liberty and if we ever lose that we have lost the essence of what america was supposed to be all about i have always felt that that's wh t my particular party was all about and i am more than disturbed that some of my fellow republicans have been defending the guantanamo  prison prisoner situation with the worst possible arguments by focusing on the potential release of seventeen we are rather than emphasizing th guantanamo has been a perfect location to imprison bloodthirsty murderers who would murder our families terrorists  but the line of attack on this effort what i've seen in terms of focusing on the release of the weavers when trying to discuss the guantanamo issue has been a political attack and i would say a very despicable political attack which is trying to frighten the american people at the expense of seventeen helpless human beings and the fact are the facts are that the wiggers are not enemy combatants and i happen to support and have always supported guantanamo being used as a location for us to imprison terrorists who threaten to kill our families who hate america that as well if you believe that which i told my fellow republicans believe that we should be the ones who are the in the forefront of trying to make sure that when mistakes are made that they are admitted and corrected as soon as possible other what kind of people are we if we don't for the prison we know we're in a terrible fight with terrorists with who have already slaughtered three thousand of our of our fellow citizens well we're going to you know when you find those kind of battles and you have to have situations like one time it behooves us to go out of our way and to be as and to put as much energy as we can  ensuring that there aren't mistakes made so that the ability of our battle is under scored and as we say the weavers are not enemy combatants they are friends and admirers of the united states as i've said on many occasions long before this their enemies are the dictators in beijing who rule over the people's republic of china and invaded and now occupy the weaker country east turkistan the bush administration that held the weavers in one town tomorrow labeled them as terrorists to appease the chinese dictatorship many if not all the negative allegations against the weavers can be traced back to chinese intelligence whose purpose is to sn and independence movement that challenges the communist bosses in beijing no patriot certainly no republican should fall for this manipulation which has us doing beijing's bidding it is a travesty former speaker newt gingrich has been in the forefront of defending this merry miscarriage of justice and unfortunately at the service of the communist party dictatorship of china as early as two thousand and three for ten and continuing through two thousand and eight for others the united states military conclude good that the weavers should be released as early as two thousand and three these determinations were predicated on finding that each weaver does not pose a continuing threat to the united states or its allies in our ongoing conflict with al two judges on this dusty on the d c federal panel that reviewed the weaver's case two of them were appointed by republicans the court found that the weavers had been turned in by pakistani villagers not caught on the battlefield and also acknowledged that no source document evidence was introduced to indicate that the weavers had actually joined the east turkistan islamic movement that's e t i out or that they had personally committed any hostile acts against the united states or it coalition partners of course this is moot however because the court also recognised that there was a failure to establish the e t i haram as being associated leaders were also recommended for release because there is quote substantial support and a quote for the claim that the source of evidence against them was communist china and the judges determined that the case quote maintains that china these reporting on the subject of the week cannot be regarded as objective and offers substantial support for that proposition as well and quote an f b i agent reported that the wiggers quote the wiggers are moderate muslims who occupied the east turkistan which was taken over by the chinese gather themselves together for in their personal opposition to chinese oppression we consider themselves to be fighting for democracy and they idolize the united states although this is all from the f b i determination they idolize the united states although the leaders are muslim their agenda did not appear to include islamic radicalism and quote many conservatives knowledgeable about the facts have also come out in opposition to holding the weavers and i am very proud of these people and i think that these people have been holding true to the values that my party was supposed to be about it is unfortunate that some other political leaders in my party have not see member of congress and a former cochairman of the republican national committee bruce fein former associate deputy so shit attorney general to ronald reagan david keene chairman of the american conservative union william sessions former director of the f b i and former chief judge of u s district court for the western district of texas john whitehead president of the river institute is an accomplice to china's discrimination against the wigger people and the illegal occupation of east turkistan and we should all recognize this and f b i report noted that communist chinese agents were allowed into guantanamo in two thousand and two to interrogate torture and threaten these wiggers even though the united states has condemned china's human rights abuses of the the gentleman you know from i certainly will i ask the gentleman if he has a memory of the requests that you and i made myself as chair of this committee and you as the ranking member of our government the executive branch to you and myself to have access to the we get detainees you have a memory of that i certainly do and while it would appear that communist chinese intelligence agents were granted access the response to you and to me was deafening silence i find that totally unacceptable and offensive is the type of well as a comment on our current reality we live with our government feels so subservient to communist chinese bosses that their agents are able to interrogate people who are being held up an american military base in custody but that members of the united states congress are not granted that same privilege amnesty international minority we're women to undergo forced abortions and sterilizations and to quote how could we not see that by detaining these men we are only participant disciplines in china's hateful and and discriminatory policies toward the weak years china's attempt to suppress these people the republican party should not be in the business of supporting the chinese communist party self serving vision of what is right and what is wrong we americans should stand for a different principle in the us we should stand above this rather than momentary deals made with dictators if any country should stand for principle it should be ours because there is no hope in the world not just for the weavers but for anybody who believes in liberty and justice unless we americans hold firm to our standards and our principles most important in this case we need to be truthful i happen to have always supported guantanamo bay as a prison and i have supported enhanced interrogation during a time when our country is a war with a radical islam assist who would murder our people and didn't murder our people when they slaughtered three thousand of our citizens on nine eleven i have three children and all my neighbors have children it's our job to protect the children and the lives of our people all over the united states of america but if we hold that to be true and we are committed to that this war and that guantanamo i believe has been playing an important part of that we must have the courage to admit our mistakes when we make mistakes whatever human endeavor is made by the united states or anyone else mistakes will be made and if we don't admit our mistakes and we don't try to correct them we are actually not we are adding on to what was a mistake we are making then making it as simple decision we need to admit  mistake was made when we held waivers in the first place they were taken they were sent to us as a to collect a bounty that was the motive of people some of them to us we should have realized and been honest enough to realize this looks needs much further looking in to that in a case where in most of the people are now being held in guantanamo if not all of them most of the people being held there were not turned in for people on the  instead were picked up on the battlefield and had much evidence that they were actually come from other countries to join the al qaeda foreign legion and to basically serve as facts behind this case this very murky episode in the war against radical islam again let me just note while we move forward to try to do justice to the  mistakes i do not believe that that means that we in some way in this war against radical islam which was declared on us that we are in a morally inferior position we should be proud the fact that we're protecting ourselves and trying to defend the world and the decent people of this world against this force that does you know that actually holes all of our values whether  religious freedom or how we treat women that holds them in contempt and would declare us their enemies so with that said let's get down and try to get the facts out and do our duty and that's what this is about thank you  germany well thank you dana and never let it be said that you were not an individual of strong convictions and profound courage we agree on very little i would close guantanamo i am opposed to i'll use the euphemism enhanced interrogation techniques but one thing that i share with my friend and he is my for that is where whatever the are we will go that we will search for the truth and this particular episode of the week is deserves the kind of transparency that the president has referred to and where ever the seventeen men and up and hopefully they're on their way to that island in in the pacific which i understand has great surfing whatever happens it's important for us to learn from this and i've always respected anyone who can acknowledge mistakes and learn from those mistakes and you clearly are an extraordinary example of that kind of individual i have a lot of work to do if you will ever and some other issues that we'll discuss that in a private  mr chairman and ranking member just briefly you know as we are working to reengage our allies and partners around the world as important i believe that we work with all countries on human rights and equality and religious freedom last week in cairo president obama spoke about religious freedom he said that freedom of religion is central to the ability of people to live together and that faith should bring us together i'll be interested to hear what the witness had to say about how this applies to leader people and this care organizations recent report was mentioned in the article in the economist last week suggested the u s needs to actively support religious freedom as part of our foreign policy and be very interested in hearing your views and to hear you expand about that again just wanted to thank all the witnesses for being here today with i'll be very brief let me just commend you for calling this hearing i think that it is very important and it's amazing that we have such positive relations with the people's republic of china that  a country that says we will execute these people if they come home we ought to have higher standards i agree with the chairman too that this so called  wrong if we bring ourselves down to where everyone where the worst of the world is that we're simply wallowing and in the gutter and the sad part is that perhaps some of these weeker s were enhanced only interrogated innocent people should not be subjected to the brutality of  torture however and now we are finding that they will be released and so that's why it's wrong that our nation will debate whether as mr cheney that some of these innocent people were brutalized and so i can understand how some of us can say we we embrace it it's right it's it's the way to go when innocent people are brutalized and anyone as brutal i just returned from an african country where a person was water boarded and geez i heard about it from time to time but to hear him talk payne and i just wanted to be clear there would appear to be no allegations that i'm aware that the treatment of the week is by the americans implicated any enhanced interrogation techniques obviously will make that in however what i am unaware of is how they were treated when those communist chinese intelligence agents were allowed access to those there is some reports that they were not only untag in targeted but intimidated and threatened in guantanamo not fire americans but by communist chinese intelligence life and is currently the democratic that's a small d democratic leader of the we get people world wide she is the mother of eleven children and is a former a successful business person she spent nearly six years in a chinese prison for criticizing china's human rights violations to discuss human rights issues for her actions she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in march of two thousand following a secret trial during her imprisonment witness the beating and torture of other prisoners and was forced to spend two years in solitary confinement since arriving in the united states miska dia has actively campaigned for the rights of the we your people she was nominated for the nobel peace prize in two thousand and six two thousand and seven and two thousand and two thousand and five she founded the international legal human rights and democracy foundation here in washington d c which again where is to promote human rights for we get children and women living in the autonomous region in two thousand and six she became the president the weak american association and president of the world we are congress which represents the retaliation for her advocacy her children have been persecuted in spring two thousand and six three of her sons were detained and beat and other family members including her brother her daughter and several grandchildren were placed under house arrest currently two over sons are in a communist chinese prison for tax evasion in one case and the other for instigating and engaging in secessionist activities president bush whose sons have been jailed on what we believe is an act of retaliation for her human rights activities the talent of man and woman like misguided is the greatest resource for their nations family valuable than the weapons of their me well oiled under their ground this could be a it's a non a for all of us to have you here today and hear your story next we welcome institute for the advancement of human rights of the american jewish committee which conducts research and advocacy to strengthen international human rights protection and institutions she's also the first american to serve as an independent expert on the un committee against torture nominated by the clinton administration and renominated by the bush administration she has served on the committee since the year two thousand including as vice chair general rapid and as year round rapid on follow up country conclusions she's also a member on the council of foreign relations and on the advisory committee of human rights watch in europe and central asia and is vice president of the international league on human rights she's also a graduate of wellesley college which is right outside of boston massachusetts which is near plymouth massachusetts america's hometown and she has advanced degrees from columbia university in the welcome i'm also pleased to to welcome caro abraham son she is an addict director at the congressional executive commission on china which she focuses on ethnic minority rights and religious freedom in china she received her bachelor's degree from princeton and her a j d degree from harvard law school which she focused on international human rights law in addition she has studied and researched the chinese legal system as a fulbright fellow in china she has published she has been published on numerous topics including the we've got autonomy as a region in chinese legal education as we speak finally so i might be distracted during the course of this year finally i'm also happy that my friend nuri turkel can join us  today he is a washington based attorney whose practice focuses on commercial and regulatory measures including antitrust issues aviation matters and international agreements among other things in addition to his law practice nori has been and continues to be an active weaker advocate and has testified not only before the united states congress but also spoken to the united states military academy the national defense university and columbia university the old balls a law and master's degree from american university here in washington nori welcome so always good  you and let's proceed i think what we should do is begin because it's such an honor to have you here mrs could do with your testimony thank you for inviting me to speak on the persecution of the weaker people by the government of the people's republic of china so much interest in the plight of the weaker people at the highest levels of levels of the u s government shines a light on the darkest corners of the chinese government repression and gives hope to millions of the weaker people across the world this year china will enter it is sixty of the year under the rule of commerce china chinese communist party the pace of economic development in the rights campaign of the late fifty's to the starvation exile and destruction of the cultural revolution between one hundred sixty six until nine hundred seventy six waiters along with millions of other victims were forced to leave our home and to relocate far from our friends and relations as is apparent documenting the history of the weaker persecution by the chinese authorities is a long and detailed on their taking which is full of personal stories most likely lost due to the silencing of sen throughout the years however in the past money i would like to focus on the present day persecution of the leaders and use this opportunity to opt line the suffering of the valuable natural resources namely oil natural gas and is strategically important due to its proximity to russia soft asia and central asia the chinese government's thirst for energy to drive its economy downs and second we do sweeps as part of the global war on terror the chinese authorities have also heavily promoted the notion that a coordinated and organized we are terror network exists under the  organization called the easter eggs islamic movement or something called terrorists on islamic party it's not certain who are the actual members of e t a i am or to independent observers are not even sure if using the terror threat as a pretext in the pre olympics period the chinese authorities were able to detain arrest and even ask your wigglers for their a peaceful opposition to the chinese rule in turkestan because of time i'll skip some of the details and i'm going to come back to my personal story traveling all over my homeland as a business woman and the  was once a political prisoner of the chinese government i spent twenty five years in inhumane conditions for the price of my advocacy on behalf of the weaker people in prison in prison i fell for my soul's torture and the cruelty  act on my people by the chinese authorities even in exile and among free people in the united states i am aware that i am subject to harassment from chinese authorities including surveillance of my activities at work and even at home severely beaten by chinese police on june first two thousand and six it was our reign on monday june tenth two thousand and six on charges of attempting to at the state on june thirteenth two thousand and six he was charged with tax evasion to criminal and a political charge against him as a direct consequence of being tortured by the chinese authorities in november two thousand and six allen was sentenced to seven years in prison and was fine sixty two thousand five hundred u dollars on charges of tax evasion my second son al became was detained on may thirty two thousand and six as well he also was severely beaten by chinese police on june first and he was later hospitalized in d the other signs say that he had to do have you prison labor and suffer tremendously as a result of poor quality of prison food he had to look quite skinny prison authorities only a lot of family members to give him one hundred chinese rent which is equivalent to fifteen us dollars monthly to pay for his food on him also state that he suffered severe stomach problems for which the authorities not provide any kind of medical care the waiter people had hoped that the chinese government w know it's real and big promises so the international community for greater respect for human rights instead we have seen and in penn station of the long term persecution it has suffered at the hands of the p r c authorities this is a critical time for the weaker people so in conclusion i will offer it in the context of the longstanding support shown by the us so the weaker people by recommendations of policy makers on addressing the systematic and  arise abuses that prevail in these targets on i ask that the committee encourage the establishment of independent body to investigate china's systematic human rights violations of the weaker people and evaluate the consequence of china's six decade long repressive policies in eastern just on so i can i ask that the committee work with the u s state department to establish a consulate in the original accountable to monitor and document harry rating human rights situation in the region third i would like to ask that the us embassy in beijing send officials to visit my children in prison and find out they are a situation there worth oversee at a senior level that you validation of chinese government's performance on improving human rights conditions in eastern and the launch of the on a solution to the legitimate grievances and aspirations of the weaker people thank you very much thank you so much mrs dear next we'll start with abramson and then we'll go to ms care and we'll end up with  china it occupies one sixth of china's total territory is a resource rich area and borders eight countries its population today is roughly twenty one million according to official chinese statistics  main indigenous ethnic group in the region they are a turk ethnic group the chair cultural ties with backs cause ox and other central asian populations as well as with the turks of turkey the weavers are sunni muslim and speak a language related to turkish as these facts suggest that the weavers have a distinct culture and history that is different from the chinese the weaker is home what is today designated as russians on we are a time in this region by the chinese and simplifies the region's history to justify its current control over the area the chinese government today says that the region has been an inseparable part of china for millennia the reality is far different ruling powers in china before the p r c had varying degrees of action with and in some periods a degree of control over the region for much of their history wego has experienced their own patterns of political rule apart from china the chain dynasty rulers of china conquered the region in the mid eighties century and later designated it seems on province an eight hundred eighty four but controlled by the ching and its successors with often five the p r c government designated the region as a hinge on autonomous region this designation means changing is like a chinese province but in addition is entitled to special legislative powers to allow in theory for more autonomy and governance and special protections for ethnic minority populations in reality there are strong limits to this autonomy system to the extent that we see something that looks like the exact opposite of changing since the p r c took control of it has left a strong imprint in the region as a result of state migration policies on chinese the ethnic the main ethnic group in china now constitute at least forty percent of the region population up from around six percent in the one nine hundred fifty s we girls who are seventy five percent of the population in the fifty's are now around forty five percent based on official chinese statistics  addition to engineering demographic shifts we have other longstanding policies to promote assimilation to remake aspects of rigor of ethnic and religious identity to conform with state goals and to punish people forms of dissent and other forms of expression after the cultural revolution there was some leeway to develop an express weaker identity in the one nine hundred eighty s but repression in the region has worsened since the one nine hundred ninety s and the p r c gain momentum to further tighten control after nine eleven two and let me discuss a few of the reasons why we see this level of repression first it's important to remember that this is a region that is historically and culturally culturally quite distinct from china as the weavers themselves are distinct from behind chinese that the region is today a part of china reflects among other factors the brain of the of the chinese communist in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine rather than the democratic will of the weaker people given the circumstances the chinese government sees the region and certain assertions of ethnic and religious identity as a potential source for separatist movements that could challenge chinese control or lead to instability as china watched central asian republics emerge in the one nine hundred ninety s these years became particularly acute and addition as i noted changing is a resource rich area for this and many other reasons china wants to hold onto it as for the nature of the separatist movement shin junk specialist who looked at available information have questioned the presence of a real and vigorous separatist movement inside china but the chinese government nonetheless perceives a threat of course with the chinese government's track record track record of manipulating data on terrorist attacks conflating peaceful expressions of religious act activity with separatist acts and imposing barriers to freedom of press it can be quite difficult to get an accurate picture of the separatist about claims by the chinese government what is clear however is the nature and scope of chinese government repression in the region thank you thank you very much and next we'll go to t hank you very much chairman delahunt and thank you to the other members for you being here and holding this hearing it is certainly a timely hearing last week we commemorated the brutal crackdown in tenement square chinamen has been a vivid symbol of the chinese communist party's abuse of its own citizens right to speak out to assemble make demands on their government and we've rightly commemorated the many students and activists who protested for freedom and paid a steep price we also have the timeliness of this morning's newspapers about the league or muslim detainees being likely to be released and possibly sent abroad today we're here to examine another kind of abuse which is china's egregious repression of the weak or muslim singeing autonomy's region the u s commission on international religious freedom is a federal bipartisan commission and we have studied and written about china for some time the commissions existed for ten years and we've been writing about china for ten years in two thousand and five we traveled there we also went to the we go region we visited or him she and we visited  r we've just issued our annual report a month ago and have an extensive chapter dealing with the entire situation in china which i commend to y just summarize the fact that religious freedom abuses are widespread in china every religious group experiences some type of harassment restriction or control but we believe we should pay close attention to the human rights situation and send young problems agent with an estimated eight million wheat growers the vast majority of whom are muslim and we think we should do so because of enduring restrictions on the weaker religion and culture and growing ethnic tensions between the indigenous we got population and newly arrived from chinese migrants as well as the repression that we've described singeing is sometimes called china's other tibet chinese government authorities themselves commonly equate the peaceful religious practices of wego or muslims with religious extremism and with separatism and they use the global war on terror as an alleged reason to crack down on a wide variety of peaceful forms of religious activity and expression since nine eleven china has beefed up military and police units in the region it has so called suspected separatists and it has severely restricted religious freedoms which are protected under international law and frankly under china's own constitution there have been bombings there have been other incidents since injuring province over the past two decades but the vast majority of who igor's seeking to enjoy their religious civil cultural and economic rights do so peacefully china's wide ranging the repression of the region's historic week or muslim religion language and culture has been widely criticized in fact as being counterproductive the commission has recommended that the united states should press china to provide transparent information on terrorist activity and singe on to open trials of these so called religious extremists and to allow international observers and lawyers access to current prisoners chinese restrictions on peaceful religious activity and expression in sin john are particularly egregious and they are in fact draconian in scope the government continues to limit access to mosques including the participation of women of persons under the age of eighteen of government officials and of course of communist party members themselves teachers professors university students and other government employees are simply prohibited from engaging in any religious activities such as reciting daily prayers distribute distributing literature literature that's religious syngenta required to attend annual political training seminars to retain their licenses and local security forces monitor in mom's and other religious leaders there continue to be an unknown number  of gore's imprisoned for reasons related to peaceful religious activity or religious freedom advocacy the commission on international religious freedom as well as the u s department of state and chinese sources themselves have reported thirteen hundred arrests and detentions in the last year a sharp increase from about seven hundred forty last year those are their numbers the details of these cases are simply  not now in the year leading up to the beijing olympics government officials and soon junk standard measures to strengthen control over we go to religious activity some of the new measures undertaken include campaigns to weaken religious consciousness that's a quote of the phrase used by the chinese leaders so campaigns to weaken religious consciousness among women and among young people rules to religious leaders for missing required political indoctrination courses requirements to monitor students in schools particularly and also to monitor them during their school vacations and also campaigns to confiscate so called illegal religious publications and to close illegal so called illegal religious centers now the congressional executive commission on china that we american foundation and our commission had many more examples of such restrictions and abuses targeting the recourse i have limited time so i wanted to concentrate the remaining time on a few recommendations first of all prisoners the commission believes it's important for members of congress to repeatedly raise individual prisoner cases with chinese officials and to seek to meet imprisoned we go as during official visits to china we also wish you luck on getting to visit the prisoners in guantanamo it's important to have such visits because they raise the profile of the of these prisoners they demonstrate in terms of the visits in china they would demonstrate the fact that the united states advocates for religious freedom of muslims just as much as it does for christians jews besides and buddhists and since we do why not show it this is could years children including of the came during him need those visits that information about the visit may is extraordinarily important and moving and it should create a sense of urgency if we can get the consulate to go out there great if we can maybe it's time for the congress to try again secondly we believe that the u s china human rights dialogue which has been reestablished should be strengthened the recently renewed dialogue will include a working group on human rights we are told will it be phone just on achieving measurable and concrete results or will it only be a talk shop commission thinks the congress can play an important role in suggesting to other parts of the government that this dialogue be successful and the way you can do that is to ask the state department to submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees detailing the extent to which china has made progress on a series of benchmarks and issues pesticide by the congress congress has done this in the case of vietnam no reason you couldn't do the same thing with regard to china third recommendation razing chinese human rights issues at the united nations us has recently rejoined the human rights council been elected as a member  president and of and a presence at the general assembly and other bodies as well commission believes the u s should raise publicly concerns about human rights abuses against the inappropriate multilateral and international fora including the general assembly on the human rights council and that it's important to ensure that preparations for such action are made at appropriately high levels working year round with these bodies the united states can help produce the type of multinational attention that can command attention in china and improve compliance with human rights standards by its government fourth the commission urges the obama administration to take targeted action under the international religious freedom act of nineteen ninety eight but the congress created this act our commission exists because of it under it the united states government identifies the systematic and egregious violators of freedom of religion on an annual basis and a country is so designated as china has been for many years now that country also that will be a dental side with certain presidential actions unfortunately previous administrations have used preexisting sanctions only sanctions that were first put in place after chanakya there have been no unique sanctions with regard to china the deal with religious freedom such a practice provides little incentive for china to and to address the religious freedom violations including those that are insane john province the commission recommends a break with the past on these practices that there should be new presidential actions or sanctions that would focus either on state agencies or officials in the area where the problems are those who are responsible for egre religious freedom conditions singeing and its officials could be the target of such sanctions as one of the worst offenders of religious freedom in china we hope that members of congress can help the commission make the strongest case for such action directly with the white house and the department of state finally we echo the recommendation made by mrs about opening a consulate in it would be a dramatic  addition and finally we believe that there should be a transparent mechanism created in china for reviewing cases of persons detained under suspicion of offenses related to such state security or participating in so called illegal gatherings or religious activities they have been barely afford any due process there's a need to look again there we hope you can help with that as well thank you very much thank to thank you for holding this hearing i am extremely grateful for your interest and leadership in examining the critical issues affecting the future of the weaver people including the problem of economic social cultural discrimination denial latest freedom the impact of so called war on terror in china's version and china's misuse of its global influence and finally to fate of the seventeen we are prisoners in guantanamo that we are people greatly appreciate any efforts that could help promoting and protecting their freedoms including the rights to be muslim like tibetans we could have endured they create some discrimination and brutal oppression under communist chinese rule according to various human rights organizations are almost without exception the only ethnic group in china to be regularly executed for nonviolent political offenses since nine eleven in particular beijing has taken advantage of anti terrorism sentiment using the u s led war on terror as an excuse to oppress weekers with impunity including many who have peacefully protest at their treatment ironically china regularly portrays weaker historians poets writers as intellectual terrorists and jail them for expressing their ideas in the written and spoken words today we face not just daily humiliation and discrimination but harsh persecution and even threat of cultural and religious extinction a few years ago china's communist party chief will almost chance that quote she will always keep up the intensity of its crackdown on ethnic separate this forces and deal them devastating blows without showing any mercy and court as promised over the past several years chinese leaders really want to punish weakness who even peaceful face on the chinese communist rule in greater detail china's cultural repression of the weakest is not reactive it is a deliberate policy to control monitor and weaker culture so it cannot be a call for terror self rule and even challenge of the communist state a key component of this effort is to eliminate literary academic and professional use of the weaker language since two thousand to the bilingual education policy has mandated to use of mandarin chinese as a primary language of instruction but we are students throughout the education system this is a precision attack approved missile if you like if you will improve the quality of ethnic minorities because indigenous language are out of the step with the twenty first century mr chairman weavers where the stewards of the central asian silk road and the weaker cultural background makes them well so that to promote trade and keep up with the pace of the globalization the beauty of the we go culture does not mean while most young or other communist leaders improvements by china's plan for continue just last week china daily quoted a chairman of shin general regional government nor becky as saying that quote terrorists from neighboring countries mainly target that are really relatively isolated from mainstream society as they cannot speak mandarin they are there are then tricked into terrorist activities and quote mr chairman these troubling comments imply that those weak those who can speak only their native language are in here with a terrorist suspect and therefore government must force the chinese language upon them in other words the parlance of china's communist double speak mr begley is attempting to justify a language planning policy aimed at eliminating the weaker language in the education system on security grounds clearly this is another attempted label peaceful weavers as terrorist suspect and indication in and indicates in the intensification in the chinese authorities campaign against that we language chinese government does not stop at the weaker language it also openly attack we've a culture and history the current communist leadership in beijing taking chairman miles at vice to use the past to serve the president has engage in an open and concerted efforts to revise weaker nations history to fit their will fit their world view that we are home and has been part of china since ancient times as a result cultural promotion and research of plainly frona upon the communist authorities with historians cultural leaders researchers activists detain and subjected to law and prisons even the writers of fiction ha and punished for advocating so called split this thinking for instance in two thousand and five a young intellectual never met justin was sentenced to a decade in prison for writing illegal rickles short story comparing the plight of weaker people to that of a cage pigeon they all sold on the weaker identity has recently escalated to include the demolition of traditional weaker buildings and caused our homes ancient bazaars and destroyed as a result of china's political motivated policies will be in measurable loss for the weaker people it also be a loss for the citizen of the world as a as true of a throw of the of the global cultural heritage sites continues before the plant's complete i word you to attempt to visit if chinese will let you to see my home one last time before they destroyed completely a l talk about how the chinese government has systematically used religious identity to for their policies that china's constitution and law and propaganda all insist that ethnic minorities enjoy enjoy religious freedom but the week has given significantly less braiding braving space then other muslim minorities reason for this is that china sees national ethno national identity as disloyal to the communist state and islam is perceived as feeding this week ethnic identity apparently even in the united states or in the west the weaker religious identity also made them an easy target for slander is deeply perplexing and equally warning that some western media have helped the for this perception and with reports that include no examination of chinese propaganda claims that this is that the weavers are not religious extremist the weaker cases proper probably secular and democratic was guarantees of religious freedom and for peaceful enjoyment of this and other fundamental human rights mr chairman the wiggers domestic and international travel has been restricted as well specifically in two forms racial profiling and confiscation of passports chinese government propaganda campaigns against the weaker weaker people have made them subject to racial profiling in chinese cities we could have been easily identified and targeted because of their parents and ethnic origin basic services such as lodging transportation even public bath houses are not available for we girls in chinese cities for example in two thousand weakest have been confiscated since early two thousand and seven and that is making it impossible for weakness to travel abroad for business or educational purposes or to visit family family members abroad as part of family reunification or for family and community events such as wedding funerals what to go to religious pilgrimage and including the hodge all citizens of china there's a fundamental difference with the exception of tibetans and the weavers can generally obtain passports through a fairly simple process in the in the foreign countries for the specifically for the we group who managed to flee communist china by crossing into neighboring central asian and south asian countries for example are extremely well noble for being deported back to china had report deported several week was suspected of being involved in a weaker political movement in conclusion let me say this mr chairman this rumination and restriction of movement and denial of services at hotels makes weakest feel second class citizen within china communist china is using policy which in my view are being used to marginalize if not might wipe out weaker identity weaker culture have adopted and thrive thrive for centuries and the weak is the not seek isolation but we must be allowed to work ship worship speak right and think without fear of reprisal that we are people of my american american ideals of life liberty and pursuit of happiness many we use we view the united states as a beacon of hope that will assist them in their quest for the same fundamental freedom and basic human dignity that we grew people are fully in agreement with american believes that and that to end the tearing the in the world and the constant consequence spread of true democracy and respect for human rights our best defense against radical extremism extremism of any kind  and also a senior state department official preferably the new ambassador should visit the region the weaker region ideally to meet with this event and family members of political prisoners and finally united states should allow seventeen weeks languishing in guantanamo in the united states of the human face out the mistakes made in guantanamo there is no better way to fix those mistakes other than  ring the weakest into the united states and let them restart their lives and be part of this problem we've got american community that's country thank you thank you nouri i'm going to ask the vice chair to take the chair for a moment as i have some calls to make but let me call on the ranking member for his question mr robot pursuing information from you and ask you questions based on charges that i certainly do not agree with but i think they need to be answered in the public so the public will be able to have that information and that they are radical islamic who are tied to al qaida after all that is why they were in afghanistan and thus in the face of it today as well i believe that that tradition continues because the vast majority that the weavers believe the best way to run a healthy society a healthy government is to separate religion from the politics may believe in the secular views that they have i suppose when they get to be released whether it's in palau or elsewhere we have an opportunity to ask those questions but as far as we go muslims and that we culture and religious expression we have a population here that's trying to express islam as they know it in a situation which is very hostile to it when you go into mosques and see signs that say who can who can and who can't be there displayed visibly when you see schools being read retreaded by communist officials who have little sympathy for religion at all you understand that they're struggling for certain basic rights as religious people not as not there was no discussion whatsoever of sharia law m but in my more than sixty years of life the only time i realize about the existence of such terrorism is because after nine eleven and the things happened on that tragic  the wagers went to afghanistan then we learned about the so called organization called the east turkestan islamic movement and recently we also saw some of the video footage put out by another organization purporting to represent the was like a lot of the what is shocking to us is we're not aware of who these people are and also they appear on you tube at the critical juncture especially when there is a serious discussion about really potentially releasing the jolly happy people they love music they love singing and we are hearing this kind of negative propaganda only because of the chinese government's role in damaging the weaker people than we see in some of the western media portraying us as fundamentalist been so vigorous and as extreme as people who engage in illegal activity so i think it's useful for just a second to take a look at what that means and basically that can mean anything outside of the tightly controlled narrow and so that people can get a better sense of what this means i just like to everyone here in the room to the congressional executive commission on china political prisoner database which contains cases in prison for exercising their gentleman from texas mr paul we'll give you your opportunity now to inquire of the panel thank you mr chairman it seems to me that our foreign policy treats different folks different ways chinese government is our are our economic buddies so because they're our buddies we don't criticize them as much as we will you know the koreans are the rainy and for god's sake because they control our debt and who would have thought they're now going to be making hummers we we treat them different as a nation and so personally i'm  skeptical about what the government says about what's taking place in china our government and i don't trust anything the chinese government says about the way they treat their own people so my concern is we've got to cut through the chase and figure out exactly what's taking place the wiggers that are in guantanamo bay prison  it bothers me that since that's supposedly our prison we let any foreign country come in there and talk to what now they claim are their nationals whether it's china or any other nation  so the president's announced guantanamo bay prison is going to close what do we do with the weavers who want to tell me what to do with them with the gentleman certainly i don't know if you're aware but there was an announcement very early this morning that the nation of palau and i know you have visited there and nearly texas it's it's west of texas let me just leave it like that it has agreed to take the seventeen years that i detained there i've had an opportunity to discuss with my ranking  member where do we go from here and i think you know both of us and i think you know that we have very divergent views but at the same time i believe it's important to proceed to investigate the housing how those who are currently and those that were they had previously arrived there how they were screened and what information did the united states rely on in terms of detaining them and i've acknowledge that the bush administration did clia them declared them to be noncombatants and not a threat to the united states and that was obviously a decision that was rendered recently by a federal district court but i think that i am accurate when i say that the ranking member and myself are concerned that our government has relied on intelligence coming from the chinese to make decisions some of our colleagues have expressed grave concerns about releasing the weak into the united states well that's not going to happen but i hope that their statements are not based upon information coming from the chinese intelligence service i'm concerned that some of us have been duped by the chinese communists and i think it's very important that we take the case of the week years and now that it's moot in terms of what we're going to do with them that we find out what happened i don't know if you're aware tad but both myself and  to go to go tyler moore interview the week your detainees we had secured get the consent of their attorneys their attorneys felt very comfortable and having their clients release them so that mr rohrabacher and myself and our staff could go and interview them we were denied but we've discovered that and i think it was the year two thousand three that chinese communist intelligence agents were sent were allowed access to the we could detainees there was also some evidence that would that indicated that not only were they interrogated but they were threatened and that simply cannot stand we should learn if if that is accurate we should take lessons as we move forward on the issue of guantanamo and i yield back i think the gentleman for giving me some of his time thank you mr chairman as you said and you may recall that in one of our foreign affairs committees i volunteered to accompany you down to guantanamo bay prison to visit them as well and it's unfortunate that our own government denies members of congress access to those prisoners when they will let foreign governments come in and interview those prisoners the generally for the year i guess i'm willing to go in apollo with and have a conversation with with with the wiggers somewhere in the south pacific give the gentleman wants to  accompany myself and mr rubb aka i think that we can get the truth out because i've had a conversation with their attorneys in the version that is being echoed here in the united states right in  congress i have i suspect is acting is is absolutely flawless and is reflective of intelligence that you have been provided to the united states government by the chinese by the communist chinese not by independent sources now you know but you claim in my time that's really my biggest concern is that we're basing american foreign policy decisions about what the chinese government tells us and that should be highly suspect but because they are our trading partners we you know will accept their word when other people who don't have an economic ties to the united states we reject what they say and the only way we're going to get to the truth about all of this is i think congress has an obligation to find out exactly what's taken place  and china's history of human rights is somewhat it's a problem when there are now young people deny that even tenement square took place twenty years ago because their own country is telling them that never happened i think human rights if we're for human rights we ought to be concerned about human rights even with our economic bodies so i will yield back to ranger my time there has been a reference to a purported act by one of the one time demo detainees that that individual smashed a t v set because the presentation on the television now i give you that because that appears to be some evidence that's being offered by some here in washington that the represent an extreme version of islam i put the question to the panel let me start with  by the weaker community would find it so repugnant that an individual would throw a t v set against the wall con appreciate that question first of all that incident is not what it is being described in the l a times that is almost three years old and so then it has nothing to do with as far as i know with a woman bare arm i wasn't in guantanamo when that story broke out three years ago and the thing about the weaker person not being taller and for a woman  modern attire is absurd at best that we grew very secular and then modern people that we can woman plays a dominant role in the we go society and family and business even politics we have the answer but i think it's worth repeating because there's so much misinformation that exists because it gets repeated again and again and again it gets amplified it's the technique if you will of the big lie but i will start with you and ask everyone else again the question and you mention it in your in your statement that the we get people do not seek to create a state based on shari'a law is that accurate in is that to to fighting for that goal we want to be treated like a human being we struggle as one for national existence and national survival and has nothing to do with setting up understanding is that the basic aim of most muslims is to try to practice religion peacefully and normally now we don't know the particulars of this  television case or anything else like that i don't think people should be destroying government property or even threatening to do that but we don't know the particulars of that case or not individual what a particular individual does or does spouse doesn't necessarily mean a whole people a spouse it so whether or not there's anything to it to make the claim from that that always there for some form of radical islam seems to me to be a gross leap at a minimum logical and factual in that context however there's been a lot of discussion among experts about the fact that repression breeds radicalization and that chinese repression of of of religion to the degree that we have described to you where everyone is watched where where you can pray what you can say where you can go and when  is so carefully monitored that in a situation like that repression breeds radicalization that's one of the worries we have to be watching for that's one of the strongest reasons for the chinese to ease up name's rose smile on january eighteenth two thousand and eight he declared one of the judicial conferences that during the previous five years the local of the already actual arrest more than fifteen thousand people were late on them so as a result so many leaders suffering in fact many of us here our relatives are languishing in chinese prisons or suffering in many ways and this kind of suffering so we just happened to be people who believe in islam unlike other groups we saw for under the same authoritarian regime in beijing but it's just because of a religious affiliation where all were peaceful struggle legitimate aspirations ha chinese dictatorship is having on american policy and i think that may be there too elements coming out of this hearing that i think are of great concern to moral people and number witnesses that was called hearing and that we would hope would have appeared bowed out of the agreement to come here to testify for fear of retribution to recognize today to america and developing our own policy can be felt right here in this hearing room today as we give our foreign policy about korea over to the communist chinese as we make sure that we don't say anything about tibet and repression of their people in tibet and we had state to do that because of fear of alienating the regime in  not sure again that it's been confirmed fully by our own government but the difficulty that the united states had in terms of finding a suitable venue for the resettlement of the we get those who according to our system of justice are free to go was extremely difficult because other nations including western democracies were profoundly concerned about the reaction of the communist chinese government i think what we have are learning is the influence on the power that goes far beyond just a simple issue mr rohrabacher and it's way and the seventeen we had been returned to china what would their fate have been  your opinion reports the only region in china where people face would face pullup death penalty for political fact and the guantanamo we openly stated that they have a full of self animosity towards communism that itself is a crime it's a punishable crime and second thing i in relation to that guantanamo saga that we've been working last several years like i like to say this on the right that we grew up in guantanamo not for the danger that they posing against americans but for the danger china poses that the bush administration state department publicly stated that it reached to over one hundred countries and asked them for help and most of them from what we know refuse a decline to help because of possible damage to its relationship with communist china  american experts who specialize in weavers i've been disturbed and very disappointed by our government's apparent action or science not protecting american academics who specialize in  issued a few years ago there was a book published by johns hopkins high school and more than ten american scholars authored that book and most of them categor blacklisted by communist china and they cannot travel to china exception to tourism and any time they want to they were invited to speak at any event whether it's related to weavers or china they got a phone call from a white what i know from the chinese embassy you know they are academics they need to continue their academic life and then the u s government should step up and protect american academics freedom of research and ironically united states government does not apparently apparently bother chinese communist academics coming through here and sitting in a classroom writing and criticizing the government and apparently the chinese government another way been very successful harassing and bullying around our academics i don't think that be sent back to china what do you believe there would have been them into that i believe that i was spared from physical torture by the chinese authorities because of international intervention and involvement of my case but i did see  the united nations to prove that those so i would like to thank the u s government and international human rights groups for saving my life otherwise i'd be along dad you know chinese prison myself thank you i'd like to pose and i don't want to go too far astray from the focus of this hearing because as i said there will be other hearings but we're talking about the seventeen that have and are currently detained i'd like to if any of you have any information in terms of the five that were previously released and were resettled in albania have it would be interesting to hear from them via video link from albania so that the american people not just pundits and commentators  and people who have a particular political agenda but unfiltered can hear from them in terms of their experience and why they fled to begin with and why they were apprehended i think we ought to explore the the issue of the program that i call the bounty program where there is evidence indicating that they were not captured as the ranking member indicated by on the battlefield by rikan military but were bought from pakistanis and afghanis that receive five thousand dollars in cash that would be a princely sum i d s and that part of the world but does anyone have any information regarding those five that went to albania and by the way i understand that again chinese communist government exercised considerable pressure on the albanians because of that and i think the albanian government ought to be acknowledged for a courageous act and as i indicated i think it would be very very informative for the american people for members of congress to interview those individuals let the sunshine in let's find out what the facts are what pursue the truth norrie i personally have met with all  five weeklies were released in two both in guantanamo and albania i was at them several times in prison and when to help them with the settlement matters in albania while they went to present their strikingly support of the american government and expressed their support and continued to talk about their admiration in fact one of them of a backer cause them in two thousand and them for the new york times and expressed his admiration for american government and american ideals and democracy particularly for this this institution the united states congress  pictures with a group of young ladies our bare arm holding them at our stating that i'd like him john was no security threat to society and thereby his application asylum application and accepted those these stories speaks volume incarceration there and just in car conservation there of course they are very frustrated by the once they are released i will explain to them how because of the united states that we our lives are saved or we're not we were not returned to china so that  we can explain to them you know what is a situation that now we are live and working in of them cannot defend their charges many of them are being taken out and executed by the chinese authorities but for them is you know their incarceration is illegal and i'm just and of course they are not happy nobody is going to be happy if that person is on justly imprisoned by any government but if it was not the united states name a law be sent back to china for execution and they would prefer to be in guantanamo than in  un committee against torture and it's follow up rapporteur in a case where individuals are not sent back to a country that's taking them for prosecution and another country sends them to a third country it's quite common for the committee to expect the government concerned to do its own follow up monitoring so while you said that you'd like to go in and see what the situation is in albania and that would be a good thing to do i would submit that the united states government has an obligation to do its own follow up and to be prepared to be reporting on that because for sure they will be asked that the next time they're at the u n on this issue thank you i think it was nuri turkel that indicated the maybe it was ms could do but just recently pakistan which has been a practice actually by the way by pakistani authorities because of pressure by the communist chinese that they have their intimate cooperation and working relationship when it comes to we wonder if the chinese are providing billions and billions of countries that just say horrible things about the united states of america and here we have an example that the prisoners would rather stay in prison in guantanamo then go back to china but these other countries that criticize possible harshly criticize united states don't speak up against the brutal repression that's going on in china even to the point where these people would rather  are who are physically and financially capable of doing so that is very significant thank you for bring you believe that as a result of internal concerns because clearly saudi arabia has influence that of china of communist china yes pakistan we communicated with them all the time and they basically told us like with regard to the girls recently deported to china by the pakistani authorities it was more like a trade off and that is  demands you're pouring all this week as a bag thank you thank you for that and so i think mr roboto that we should invite the pakistani ambassador to our office to have a discussion about  this particular practice region we have found in many cases people have been returned rather casually when it could be it was clear the individual would be in the hands of the security  police in prison and likely to be subjected to torture these countries have been followed up so if you're going to have a conversation with the pakistanis i could give you a few other names to add to that l mr roebuck on our part of a congressional delegation going to moscow at the end of this month we will raise that issue with the russian authorities and asked them to  review their own practices as well as to communicate with other governments in in the region miska day you talked about and we will have a hearing in front of this committee on the e t a i am the so called terrorist group we find it interesting that all of a sudden they appear out of thin t i m until till just recently within the past six or seven years can you tell us something about the i am because we have colleagues that are convinced and there are scholars alleged scholars maybe they get their information from the chinese intelligence services as well who speak about the e t i  at the first time i heard about e t i was after my release into the united states making outrageous claims don't really want to investigate who these people are why they are saying or doing what they are saying but because we don't have the capacity on a man power to find out but who i'm really interested in finding out who those people that  though we have some fifty one organization as you know in the d s m for a we know all of them we have close working relationship with them and all of those organizations and none of them knew who these people are what is that you do i am  with a lot of them and we are aware of that it seems the chinese government link although we are dissidents overseas you know peacefully a sentence with e t i and to put their names on the interpol list so that these people cannot travel in different countries then they mechanism to defame and in particular the detainees at guantanamo mr chairman in the late late summer two thousand and two i received an e mail from a friend who is a senior official at the u s embassy in beijing asking me what do i make up this designation and my response was a shock and i said i never heard of this organization and my friend did not believe me if you think that i know every single that we organizations around the world and that shows not i'm not signifying my knowledge of the week or organization but that the response was pretty c made a terrorist organization and i cannot say that that organization is fictional or created by the chinese government but but it's existence it's called as is questionable doubt china's government ability to create something like that for that on purpose and that purpose i'm going to just go my colleague is going to leave us he wants to i that we have criticized certain people who have been on the other side of this issue both of us have criticized them for example former speaker gingrich i would recommend and i believe the  be supportive of perhaps having some of those critics who we criticize here to go live to have an exchange of views and putting them on the record on this issue so with that said  and certainly with that kind of leadership as a mother that we go to people i i want to say that i have nothing but admiration and respect for all that she's trying to do on behalf of our people i know we have a vote to do but i do want to say for the record mr chairman i look forward to working with you closely and see what we can do to be of assistance to the we've got people that my capacity as chairman of the asia pacific subcomm e which also covers i think we're both members of that dealing with the officials in the government of china i do want to say for the record that i look forward to working with you and also with the leaders and members of the we for your presence here for informing us for educating us and i suspect that we will be inviting you each of you back on different occasions because this is something that should not just be dismissed be because hopefully the reap early reports are accurate and we get detainees will leave guantanamo but i believe there's a lot to learn and i think it's important for the american people to understand fully the story of the week is in the way we get and i'm very dear friends with the president of palau by the way and hopefully mr chairman that maybe sometime in the future we could have a joint hearing i think we should i think we can do a field trip and that fact i would fact we're going to be quick comment we're running out of time it was on your question mr chairman about whether there was a conspiracy whether it team existed or didn't when we visited china i asked that question i asked of the state department officials and i asked it of the communist party leadership in the same junk province that we met with i would suggest and the answer from the state department well you can ask the state department i think it would be very valuable if there was a formal request to the state department can reveal to us what they said to you they said this is a serious problem with bombings and terrorism in china specific organizations  they were not in a position to comment on i think organizations i think they might comment on specific organs well thank you and again thank you all and it's been an excellent hearing