September 15, 2026 | WASHINGTON: As Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares for his planned visit to Washington on September 24, a US congressional shadow hearing has brought the human-rights situation in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong into focus, with witnesses urging Washington not to allow human rights concerns to disappear from its China policy.
The hearing was jointly convened by Rep. Ro Khanna, Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Rep. Jim McGovern, Ranking Member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Titled “The Void in China Policy: Why Human Rights Must Be on Trump’s Agenda with Xi at the White House,” the hearing examined the state of human rights in China and sought recommendations for US policy ahead of Xi’s visit.
The witnesses brought perspectives from across China’s contested regions and communities. Palden Gyal, President of the International Tibet Media Organization, testified on Tibet; Tahir Imin, founder and director of Uyghur Post, addressed the Uyghur experience; Jonathan Stivers, US Director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and a Commissioner of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, represented concerns surrounding Hong Kong; and Yaqiu Wang, a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations, provided a broader China-policy perspective.
Tibet: “A deliberate effort to erase identity”
For Tibet, the central testimony came from Palden Gyal, who spent decades reporting on Tibet, including 27 years with Radio Free Asia in Washington and five years with the Tibet Information Network in London.
Gyal described what he sees as a decades-long effort by the Chinese Communist Party to weaken Tibetan identity through restrictions on language, religion, culture and access to information.
He placed particular emphasis on China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, which came into force on July 1, 2026. Chinese authorities describe the legislation as a framework for promoting ethnic unity and development among China’s ethnic groups. Gyal, however, argued that the law could further institutionalize assimilationist policies in Tibet.
He specifically pointed to education and language, arguing that Tibetan children are increasingly separated from their linguistic and cultural environment through the state boarding-school system and Mandarin-dominated education.
His testimony also highlighted the information restrictions surrounding Tibet. According to Gyal, China’s restrictions on independent journalism and access to Tibet make it difficult for the outside world to independently document what is happening inside the region.
A grandmother and her grandchildren
One of the most striking elements of Gyal’s testimony was a story about an 87-year-old Tibetan grandmother who told him that she was grateful the Dalai Lama remained alive but saddened that her grandchildren spoke to her only in Chinese.
The story illustrated the concern at the heart of his testimony: that the consequences of language and education policies are being felt not only politically, but within Tibetan families themselves.
For Gyal, the issue is ultimately about whether Tibetan children will retain the language, religious traditions and cultural connections that have historically linked generations.
He urged Congress to support the Assuring the Future of Tibet Act, legislation introduced in 2026 that addresses US policy toward Tibet and the future of Tibetan political representation.
Gyal also called on President Donald Trump to raise Tibet directly with Xi during their September 24 meeting, including Tibetan human rights and religious freedom, and to press for renewed dialogue between Beijing and representatives of the Dalai Lama.
The Uyghur question
The hearing also brought the situation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang into the same congressional discussion.
Tahir Imin, founder and director of Uyghur Post, testified alongside Gyal, placing Uyghur concerns directly before lawmakers as Washington prepares for Xi’s visit. The inclusion of a Uyghur witness reflects the broader scope of the hearing: China’s treatment of ethnic and religious minorities was considered as part of a wider assessment of Beijing’s human-rights policies.
Human Rights Watch has separately documented what it describes as systematic restrictions on freedom of expression, association, assembly and religion in China, as well as forced assimilation affecting Tibetans and Uyghurs and repression under Hong Kong’s national-security regime.
Hong Kong also part of the testimony
Hong Kong was another major part of the hearing.
Jonathan Stivers, US Director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and a Commissioner of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, testified on Hong Kong alongside the witnesses addressing Tibet and Xinjiang.
His participation placed Hong Kong’s political freedoms and the consequences of Beijing’s expanding national-security framework within the same congressional examination of China’s human-rights record.
Together, the testimony from Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong presented lawmakers with three different cases of how Beijing’s policies have affected communities with distinct political, cultural and religious identities.
A debate over the direction of US China policy
The hearing came amid a broader debate in Washington about the place of human rights in US-China relations.
In announcing the hearing on September 10, Khanna and McGovern said human-rights abuses in China had traditionally attracted bipartisan concern in Congress. They argued that recent US policy had put that bipartisan approach under strain and said the hearing would provide an assessment and recommendations for US human-rights policy.
That debate now takes on added significance with Xi’s scheduled visit to Washington.
The hearing did not address China solely through the lens of trade, technology, security or geopolitical competition. Instead, it brought testimony from people directly focused on communities affected by Chinese government policies.
For Tibet, Palden Gyal’s message was that the issue cannot be separated from the future of Tibetan identity itself. For Uyghurs and Hong Kong, the testimony similarly ensured that their respective human-rights concerns remained part of the congressional conversation.
As Xi prepares to meet Trump, the September 15 hearing has placed a simple question before Washington: what place will human rights have when the United States sits down with China’s leader?
