The House Committee on Foreign Affairs will be holding a hearing tomorrow, Friday, January 15 on the impact of U.S. export controls on national security, science and technological leadership. A live webcast of the hearing can been seen on the Committee on Foreign Affairs website at 10:30AM (PST).

The Laogai Research Foundation supports efforts to regulate and prevent the export of crime crime control equipment and technology to countries with repressive governments that have proven themselves willing to violate the human rights of their citizens.

In June 2008, LRF submitted public comments to the Department of Commerce (DOC) regarding Crime Control License Requirements in the Export Administration Regulations (Download our letter to the DOC here).  In September 2009, Congressmen Frank and Congressmen Wolf, who both serve on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, commended our outreach efforts to the DOC and formally encouraged DOC to respond to LRF's comments over a year after our comments were submitted. 

There is a wide range of new technologies not included on the CCL list that are currently being used and developed by law enforcement agencies in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and other countries. (Continue reading after the jump)

The film industry and Chinese government have maintained a confusing relationship in the public eye for a considerable time.  Whether that is the result of Hollywood’s vocal attempts to stop the “ubiquitous and very cheap” nature of pirated DVD’s in mainland China, or China’s confusing and occasionally contradictory policies for filmmakers, is rather hard to say.  However, some recent actions by Chinese officials have led many to believe China is trying its hands at a new export:  censorship.  According to the BBC, before the start of this year’s Melbourne film festival, the local Chinese consulate called the executive director of the festival in an attempt to convince the director to pull the film “The 10 Conditions of Love” about exiled Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer.  When the festival decided to go ahead with the film, they were “subjected to an intense campaign of threats, intimidation and disruption” and “hackers managed to … mak[e] it appear that session tickets had been sold out.” 

Unfortunately, China’s attempts to censor international events is becoming an increasingly common occurrence.  When “The 10 Conditions of Love” was screened four times at the Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan, China threatened a tourism boycott.  And when the Frankfurt Book Fair, billed the “worldwide marketplace for ideas”, invited Chinese writers Dai Qing and Bei Ling to present at the fair, China demanded the writers be banned.

According to Dai Qing, "China is using its economic influence to threaten its trade partners in order to censor what they don't like.”