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Hollywood star Richard Gere voiced outrage Tuesday, March 28, over the “cruelty” of Chinese policies in Tibet, as US Congress debated ways to pressure Beijing over alleged human rights violations in the Himalayan region.
Testifying before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the “Pretty Woman” actor accused Chinese authorities of separating Tibetan families, prohibiting their language, destroying religious sites and engaging in nonconsensual DNA collection.
“For decades, as we know, the Chinese Communist Party’s ethnic policies have been largely predicated on containment, denial, destruction and assimilation,” said Gere, a longtime champion of Tibet who has testified in Congress several times.
The 73-year-old accused Beijing of “cruelty, collective violence and persecution” of the Tibetan people, whom he said were repressed by a “pervasive surveillance system.
