[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 212 (Wednesday, December 8, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H7504-H7507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THAT THE
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE FAILED TO ADHERE TO ITS OWN HUMAN
RIGHTS COMMITMENTS
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 837) expressing the sense of the House of
Representatives that the International Olympic Committee failed to
adhere to its own human rights commitments, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
[[Page H7505]]
H. Res. 837
Whereas, on November 2, 2021, 3-time Olympian Peng Shuai
went missing after she said in a since-deleted post on
Chinese social media site Weibo that she had been sexually
assaulted and forced into a sexual relationship with Zhang
Gaoli, who was the senior Vice Premier of the State Council
of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2013 to 2018;
Whereas PRC authorities have imposed a media and internet
blackout of discussions of Peng's case, and the words
``tennis'' and the surname ``Peng'' have been censored online
within China;
Whereas, on November 14, 2021, after Peng had not been seen
or heard from for 12 days, Women's Tennis Association (WTA)
CEO Steve Simon requested a ``full and transparent''
investigation into Peng's allegations;
Whereas the hashtag ``#WhereIsPengShuai'' trended across
social media worldwide, with the exception of the PRC where
it is censored;
Whereas, on November 17, 2021, the WTA received a statement
purporting to be from Peng, recanting her abuse claim and
saying ``everything is fine'';
Whereas in response, WTA CEO Steve Simon said the response
``released today by Chinese state media concerning Peng Shuai
only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts'';
Whereas in response, the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) said in a statement that it was ``encouraged by
assurance that she is safe'';
Whereas, on November 19 and 20, 2021, photos and videos of
Peng appearing in her home, in a restaurant, and at a youth
tennis event in Beijing emerged on Twitter accounts
affiliated with government-run media, and at the same time,
Peng has not spoken directly with the media or the WTA;
Whereas, on November 19, 2021, White House Press Secretary
Jen Psaki said the White House is ``deeply concerned'' over
Peng's disappearance and seeks ``independent and verifiable
proof'' of her location and condition;
Whereas, on November 19, 2021, Liz Throssell, the
spokesperson of the United Nations Human Rights office, told
reporters ``. . .it would be important to have proof of her
whereabouts and wellbeing, and we would urge that there be an
investigation with full transparency into her allegations of
sexual assault'';
Whereas, on November 21, 2021, the IOC said in a statement
that its President, Thomas Bach, had a 30-minute video call
with 3-time Olympian Peng Shuai, joined by a Chinese sports
official and an IOC official;
Whereas the statement said that, during the call, Peng
appeared to be ``doing fine'' and ``relaxed'', and said she
``would like to have her privacy respected'';
Whereas the IOC did not explain how the video call with
Peng had been organized, given the difficulties other
concerned parties have had reaching her;
Whereas, on November 30, 2021, IOC official Dick Pound in
an interview with CNN defended the Chinese Government's
handling of the situation and said the ``unanimous
conclusion'' by IOC officials on the call is that Peng Shuai
is ``fine'';
Whereas the annual report of the Congressional-Executive
Commission on China for 2020 finds that gender-based violence
in China remains a serious issue, and highly publicized cases
of sexual assault continue to surface;
Whereas, on December 1, 2021, the WTA suspended all WTA
tournaments in China and Hong Kong;
Whereas WTA chairman Steve Simon stated, ``In good
conscience, I don't see how I can ask our athletes to compete
there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely
and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation
of sexual assault. Given the current state of affairs, I am
also greatly concerned about the risks that all of our
players and staff could face if we were to hold events in
China in 2022.'';
Whereas the PRC has repeatedly detained ``#MeToo''
activists in China and censored online and public discussion
around sexual assault and harassment; and
Whereas athletes from the around the world are headed to
Beijing for the Olympic games starting in February 2022: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that--
(1) the case of Peng Shuai is directly related to broader
international concerns around the freedom of speech and
safety of athletes participating in the 2022 Olympics in
Beijing;
(2) the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) role in
legitimizing the People's Republic of China's (PRC) claims
about Peng's safety raise questions about the organization's
ability and willingness to protect the rights of athletes
participating in the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic games in
Beijing;
(3) the PRC would help reduce concerns about athlete safety
at the Beijing Olympics by assuring Peng's freedom and safety
and investigating her allegations in a fair and transparent
manner;
(4) the PRC should immediately take steps to--
(A) provide independent and verifiable proof of Peng's
whereabouts and that she is safe;
(B) allow Peng to engage directly with the WTA and the
United Nations to independently verify her safety and explain
her absence from public life since making her allegation;
(C) open an independent and transparent investigation into
Peng's allegations against former senior Vice Premier Zhang
Gaoli;
(D) publicly commit to hold sexual violence abusers
accountable;
(E) cease all censorship of reporting and discussions of
Peng's case; and
(F) allow Peng to leave China if she so desires, and
prevent any retaliation against family members remaining
there;
(5) by acquiescing to the Chinese Communist Party's
narrative, the IOC failed to adhere to its own human rights
commitments and protect the safety and free speech of Olympic
athletes;
(6) the IOC's conduct has undermined the efforts by the
United States Government, human rights organizations, the
Women's Tennis Association, and other international bodies
and individuals to secure Peng's safety; and
(7) in an effort to regain lost public confidence, the IOC
should publicly call on the Government of the PRC to
undertake the actions called for in paragraph (4).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Meeks) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
General Leave
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H. Res. 837.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in support of H. Res. 837, as amended, expressing the
sense of the House of Representatives that Beijing should immediately
guarantee the safety and the freedom of tennis star Peng Shuai,
introduced by the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Wexton).
Last month, former Wimbledon women's doubles champion and three-time
Olympian Peng Shuai accused former Vice Premier of the State Council
Zhang Gaoli of committing sexual assault and forcing her into a sexual
relationship.
After these groundbreaking allegations were made, the first sexual
assault allegation to implicate a high-ranking Chinese official, Peng
seemingly vanished into thin air, and China's great firewall went into
overdrive, deleting the original post, censoring any mention of Peng's
name or discussion of her allegations online.
We know that here in America, sexual assault and gender-based
violence are serious problems, and it took a movement of brave women
and their allies to start changing the conversation around our
workplaces and our homes and in our schools and communities.
Due to the action of journalists, the tennis community, activists,
and social media users across the globe who started to ask about Peng's
whereabouts, there has been tremendous attention given to her case.
However, I, like many of my colleagues, remain deeply concerned about
Peng's whereabouts and well-being. It is vital that we get assurances
that Peng is safe and her ability to speak out is not constrained.
This important, bipartisan resolution calls for independent and
verifiable proof that she is safe and free to make decisions and take
actions of her own free will.
The accusations of sexual abuse by a former senior official are very
serious, and this resolution calls for the Government of the People's
Republic of China to immediately conduct a formal, transparent, and
independent investigation.
At a time when we are preparing to send hundreds of American athletes
to compete in Beijing's Winter Olympics, this resolution calls on the
International Olympic Committee to do more to ensure athlete safety and
hold the PRC Government accountable for its actions against Peng.
This is timely and is also an urgent resolution. I support it, and I
urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz), a member of the Committee on Armed
Services and ranking member of the
[[Page H7506]]
Science, Space, and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Research and
Technology and also the Republican coauthor of this bill.
Mr. WALTZ. Mr. Speaker, as my colleague, Mr. Meeks, eloquently
mentioned, it is worth repeating again that Peng Shuai on November 2
posted on her social media account a detailed allegation of sexual
abuse against a former Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China,
a very senior official.
In her post, she said: ``I couldn't describe how disgusted I was and
how many times I asked myself, am I still a human? I feel like a
walking corpse.''
It shouldn't surprise anybody that the CCP, the Chinese Communist
Party, immediately censored her post and any mention of these
allegations and basically wiped it off the face of the Earth. She has
since been absent and unresponsive to friends except for a clearly
fabricated statement and video in a clearly coerced session, shamefully
with International Olympic Committee officials.
This would be like if a U.S. tennis star made an accusation, a
credible one, of sexual abuse against a Vice President of the United
States, and then she disappeared. That is what essentially has
happened.
On November 21, the IOC said in a statement that its president,
Thomas Bach, had a 30-minute video call but yet wouldn't release the
video afterward. The IOC's participation in this charade is a disgrace.
After the call, IOC official Dick Pound said it is the IOC's
unanimous conclusion by IOC officials that Peng is fine.
This is the definition of perpetuating CCP propaganda. It is exactly
the opposite of what we should expect in the world.
The Women's Tennis Association has demanded accountability, demanded
that her whereabouts be disclosed, that she be able to talk to
colleagues and friends, and that her sexual assault allegation be taken
seriously and fully investigated.
Importantly, unlike the National Basketball Association, the
Olympics, and so many others, the WTA has said they are going to forgo
any future tournaments in China, which is a significant, significant
portion of their revenue. In short, they are putting their money where
their mouth is. They are walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
This is exactly why we cannot send our athletes to the Beijing
Olympics. We cannot guarantee their safety. We cannot turn a blind eye
to the ongoing genocide. We cannot allow American companies that want
to preach social justice here in the United States because it helps
their balance sheet to then ignore basic human rights when it comes to
China to also pad their balance sheet.
I would ask any of my colleagues, when it comes to the Winter
Olympics, did they agree with the IOC stepping into politics when it
comes to apartheid? The IOC not only banned the Olympics from happening
in South Africa under apartheid, but they banned the South African
Olympic Committee from participating in the Olympics for 30 years.
Yet when it comes to China, when it comes to the abuses of the
Chinese Communist Party, we have a whole heck of a lot of silence. If
we won't take a stand now, what will we take a stand for?
I support the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Meeks), and the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Wexton) in
this important effort.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the
gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Wexton), the sponsor of this bill along
with the cosponsor, Mr. Waltz.
Ms. WEXTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Meeks for bringing this
bill to the floor and to Speaker Pelosi for her steadfast commitment to
holding the PRC accountable for its human rights abuses. Thank you also
to my colead on the resolution, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz).
It has been a pleasure to work with him in such a bipartisan way.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my resolution calling on the
People's Republic of China to immediately guarantee the safety and
freedom of Peng Shuai and condemning the International Olympic
Committee for its shameful handling of the situation and failure to
uphold its own human rights standards.
Over 1 month has passed since tennis superstar and three-time
Olympian Peng Shuai was censored and disappeared after alleging her
rape by a senior member of China's Communist Party.
Within minutes of posting the allegations on Chinese social media
site Weibo, the post disappeared, and shortly thereafter all mentions
of Peng on social media did, too.
Since then, Peng has not been seen or heard from in public and has
only been seen in videos released by the Chinese state media, raising
serious questions about her safety and freedom and leaving the world to
ask: Where is Peng Shuai?
Her case has drawn support from all over the world, including from
tennis stars Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, and Novak Djokovic. The
hashtag ``Where is Peng Shuai'' has trended globally on Twitter.
Women's Tennis Association CEO Steve Simon called for a full and
transparent investigation into Peng's allegations and eventually
suspended all WTA tournaments in China, citing concerns about the risks
players could face at the hands of the PRC.
The WTA's actions and Peng's bravery in coming forward stand in stark
contrast to the IOC, which is undermining efforts to secure Peng's
safety by working hand-in-hand with Beijing to cover up her allegations
and disappearance.
Instead of prioritizing the safety of an Olympian who may be in
danger, the IOC is once again putting its bottom line over athletes'
safety and allowing itself to be used as a tool by the world's worst
human rights abuser.
In a matter of weeks, our athletes will be in Beijing for the opening
ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Games, and the IOC's complicity in this
coverup raises serious questions about the organization's ability or
even their willingness to protect our athletes.
Today, we are calling on the PRC to provide independent and
verifiable proof of Peng's whereabouts and that she is safe and to
allow Peng to communicate directly with the WTA and the United Nations.
The IOC must call on the PRC to undertake these actions immediately,
stop legitimizing Beijing's coverup, and uphold its own human rights
commitments to protect the safety and speech of Olympic athletes. The
world is watching.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, when international institutions become unaccountable to
the democratic world and are co-opted by dictators, they undermine
American interests and values. That has become even clearer over the
last few years.
When the COVID-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, the World Health
Organization's complicity and the CCP's coverup helped turn what could
have been a local outbreak into a global pandemic. We are still feeling
the effects of the WHO repeating the CCP's lies without scrutiny, with
them covering for Xi Jinping and with them legitimizing sham
investigations into the origination of the virus.
The International Olympic Committee has a similar track record toward
the CCP's human rights abuses. No human rights conditions were ever
imposed by the IOC as a condition for China to host the 2008 Summer
Olympics, and the CCP used it as propaganda to whitewash their brutal
oppression. They allowed Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, once
again turning a blind eye to the gross human rights violations and
genocide currently being committed.
Over the last several weeks, we have seen the IOC change from
passively validating the CCP's abuses to actively enabling them. The
most troubling example is the ongoing abuse of Chinese Olympian Peng
Shuai. She was disappeared by the CCP after coming forward with serious
sexual abuse allegations against a senior party member.
After the world began speaking up for Peng, the CCP propaganda
machine published false statements in her name. Rather than standing up
for her, the IOC immediately issued public statements to validate this
obvious disinformation and propaganda.
Even more shocking, IOC president, Thomas Bach, participated in and
publicized a staged conversation with Peng
[[Page H7507]]
that was supervised by a senior CCP member.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Peng is neither free nor safe. Since
the 2008 games, the Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive
at home, more aggressive abroad, and has begun a genocide against
China's most vulnerable minorities.
When Olympians from all over the world travel to Beijing in February,
they are trusting the IOC to keep them safe, but the IOC's recent
actions have shown that they are not worthy of this trust. I commend
this resolution for holding them accountable.
In closing, I want to offer a heartfelt thanks to the Women's Tennis
Association and its chairman, Steve Simon. Mr. Simon and the WTA have
fought for Peng bravely in an inspiring display of moral clarity and
support for our democratic values. Unfortunately, this is all too rare
among those with financial ties to the CCP.
Mr. Speaker, I support this measure, and I yield back the balance of
my time.
{time} 1430
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
H. Res. 837, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives
that Beijing should immediately guarantee the safety and freedom of
tennis star Peng Shuai is a timely and urgent resolution.
Peng's whereabouts and safety in China have been in question now for
several weeks, and in just over 8 weeks, the Beijing Olympic Games are
set to begin. There will be athletes from all over the world in
attendance. This body owes it not to just to Peng, but to all the
athletes participating in the Olympic Games to demonstrate that we do
not take their safety and freedom for granted.
The PRC must understand that its diplomatic and economic heft will
not allow it to get away scot-free when it silences and erases
individuals.
While this resolution is about a single athlete, it is really about
the innate dignity and freedom of every sexual assault survivor, human
rights activist, environmental advocate, artist, journalist, and
entrepreneur that has ever been beaten and broken by the Chinese
Communist Party. We owe them our voice and our support.
Let me, again, thank Congresswoman Wexton and Congressman Waltz for
their work on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I hope all of my colleagues will join us in supporting
this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 837, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution
8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion
are postponed.
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