Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Beijing should immediately guarantee the safety and freedom of tennis star Peng Shuai.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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. 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

Science, Space, and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Research and Technology and also the Republican coauthor of this bill.

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

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.

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. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.