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Washington, DC -- Speaker Pelosi announced that Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) will sit on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). The Commission consists of members of both parties from the House and Senate as well as senior Administration appointees, and was created by Congress in 2000 to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China.

“I’m honored to be appointed by the Speaker to this prestigious commission. The Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and human rights atrocities in Tibet and Xinjiang demand a whole of government response. I look forward to working with the Biden administration as well as my colleagues in the Senate on a bipartisan strategy that will put human rights at the forefront of  U.S.-China policy,” said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. “As the Representative to many Uyghur Muslims who call Northern Virginia home, I have heard first-hand accounts of human rights abuses and I look forward to giving these stories a platform.”

“For over two decades, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China has been an indispensable pillar of the Congress’s commitment to upholding human rights and advancing the rule of law in China and around the world,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  “Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton’s strong legal acumen, firm commitment to justice and proven commitment to addressing the injustice facing the Uyghur community will be a great asset to the CECC, as it continues its work to hold Beijing accountable for its accelerating abuses and repression.  As I always say, if we do not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights any place in the world.”

Congresswoman Wexton has been a leader in Congress on shining a light on the Chinese government’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). During the 116th Congress, the House passed Wexton’s bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act to require U.S. publicly listed companies to review and actively audit supply chains for forced labor.

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