U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), serving as Chair and Cochair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), have released the Commission’s 2025 Annual Report. The report, required by law, examines human rights conditions and legal developments in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The full text and an executive summary are available on the CECC website.
“This year’s report lays bare how the Chinese Communist Party keeps breaking its word—to its own people and to the world,” said CECC Chair Senator Dan Sullivan. “Beijing signs human rights conventions, promises autonomy for Hong Kong and Tibet, and pledges to play by global trade rules, then jails dissidents, runs forced-labor factories and illegal fishing fleets, and even dispatches agents to stalk and threaten people on American soil. This report doesn’t just catalogue those abuses; it gives Congress, the administration, and our allies a blueprint to stand with victims of atrocities, defend our workers and supply chains—including our fishing and seafood industries—from slave labor, and make sure the Chinese Communist Party, not American families, pays the price for Beijing’s broken promises. I am honored to work with Representative Smith on the CECC and continue the important work of Secretary of State Rubio, who served on this commission as Chair or Ranking Member for nine years while he was in the Senate.”
“Sadly, the People’s Republic of China under the Communist Party has proven time and again that it seeks hegemony in order to impose the same tyranny it afflicts its own citizens with upon the rest of the world," said CECC Cochair Representative Chris Smith. "China is not a responsible member of the community of nations, for it is run by the Communist Party for the benefit of the Communist Party—a Party State which does not honor the treaties to which it is a State Party. The PRC is thus more than simply a strategic rival to the United States and the rest of the free world, as it is a systemic rival which seeks to undo the stable international order to which the United States has been guarantor since the end of the Second World War. How can a predatory, mercantilist nation that utilizes forced labor, steals intellectual property and massively subsidizes state-owned enterprises be a member of the World Trade Organization or any rules-based order? The answer is that it cannot be, so long as the Communist Party maintains its monopoly on power.”
This year’s annual report centers around “Promises Made, Promises Broken,” highlighting how China often uses legal language but enforces laws primarily to maintain one-party rule domestically while ignoring international commitments abroad. The report details instances where China signs agreements related to human rights or trade but fails to comply with them in practice.
Key findings include continued expansion of forced labor programs in Xinjiang involving Uyghurs and other minorities; ongoing repression against religious groups through surveillance measures; arbitrary detention targeting activists such as lawyers or journalists; increased use of technology like artificial intelligence for surveillance both inside China and internationally; diminishing autonomy in Hong Kong through national security laws; as well as efforts by Chinese authorities to intimidate diaspora communities overseas.
A new chapter focuses specifically on human rights violations occurring outside China’s borders—documenting harassment campaigns against activists abroad along with attempts at political interference using disinformation or covert police operations.
The Commission also maintains a Political Prisoner Database containing over 11,000 records regarding political or religious prisoners within China.
Among several recommendations directed at Congress or executive agencies are: enforcing laws aimed at preventing goods made with forced labor from entering U.S. markets—particularly seafood linked either directly or indirectly via North Korean laborers; improving coordination among allies regarding Americans detained arbitrarily in China; expanding reporting requirements about organ trafficking; restricting collaboration with entities involved in unethical transplant practices; countering transnational repression tactics including digital harassment campaigns.
Bipartisan legislation highlighted includes bills targeting illegal fishing fleets connected with forced labor practices (FISH Act), expanding sanctions related to atrocity crimes (Uyghur Genocide Accountability Act), strengthening responses against transnational repression (Transnational Repression Policy Act), securing release tools for unjustly detained Americans (Nelson Wells Jr. Act), combating organ harvesting (Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act), imposing sanctions tied specifically to judicial actors undermining Hong Kong's rule-of-law protections (Hong Kong Judicial Sanctions Act).
Further recommendations address defending rights in Hong Kong/Tibet regions while confronting influence operations abroad or supporting open access information initiatives globally.
Senator Sullivan and Representative Smith acknowledged contributions from CECC staff members involved in preparing this latest annual review.
