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FIRST ON FOX: Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced legislation Tuesday to create a memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and political persecution committed by the Chinese Communist Party as the Democratic Party deals with a socialist civil war in its ranks.
The bill, titled the Honoring the Victims of Communist China’s Tyranny Act, would require the State Department to establish a memorial in International Park, across from the CCP Embassy, honoring victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution. The memorial would commemorate victims from Mao Zedong’s rule, whose policies historians estimate killed tens of millions of people, to the Tiananmen Square crackdown and the genocide against Uyghurs recognized by the U.S. government.
“The people of China deserve nothing less than the God-given liberty and unalienable rights America’s founders fought for 250 years ago,” Scott said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“America should have zero tolerance for Communist China and its crimes.
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Sens. Rick Scott and Marsha Blackburn introduced a bill to memorialize victims of the CCP as Hasan Piker faces backlash for his past praise of Mao Zedong. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images ; Selcuk Acar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Scott added Xi Jinping and the CCP are “responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in history,” citing forced slave labor, torture, forced sterilizations and organ harvesting as well as several “other horrors.”
In an X post on Tuesday, Scott criticized far-left political influencer Hasan Piker, who previously praised Zedong as “one of the great leaders of this world” and “a man who changed the entire universe, the entire planet.” Piker, who has roughly 10 million followers across social media, has also drawn criticism for past inflammatory remarks, including saying the United States “deserved” 9/11, and recently campaigned with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
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Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, in the Senate Subway during a vote at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Mao Zedong’s dictatorship of the CCP resulted in the deaths of tens of MILLIONS of people,” Scott wrote.
“We know Hasan Piker shills for communists, but praising a dictator who is known for mass murder & causing one of the worst famines in human history is beyond the pale. This is the new face of the Democrat Party.”
Blackburn echoed that sentiment, telling Fox News Digital that the CCP “is guilty of the worst human rights abuses imaginable.”
“Our legislation would honor victims of Communist China’s tyranny by allocating existing funds and donations to build a memorial that will ensure America never forgets the human cost of the CCP’s oppression,” she said.
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Visitors gather to watch the flag raising in front of Mao Zedong’s portrait on Tiananmen Gate on the 30th anniversary of a bloody crackdown of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing on Tuesday, June 4, 2019. Critics say the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, which left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead, set the ruling Communist Party on its present course of ruthless suppression, summary incarceration and the frequent use of violence against opponents in the name of “stability maintenance.” (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Citing jailed Hong Kong publisher and democracy activist Jimmy Lai as an example, Scott said anyone who speaks out against the Chinese government will “pay the price.” Lai is serving a 20-year prison sentence under Hong Kong’s national security law, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called “unjust and tragic.”
By placing the memorial across from the CCP Embassy, Scott said Chinese officials would be reminded daily of the CCP’s crimes.
“As Xi’s henchmen at the embassy walk into work every day, they should have to face the litany of crimes in which they’ve been complicit,” he said.
The bill would require the memorial to express “solidarity and friendship of the people of the United States with the people of the People’s Republic of China” and “the hope and prayer that the Chinese people may one day enjoy the blessings of liberty.”
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The memorial would include exhibits documenting “the genocide of Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang,” as well as efforts to suppress the culture, religion, history and language of Tibetans and Southern Mongolians, according to the bill.
The legislation limits taxpayer funding for the memorial to $500,000 while permitting private donations to fund the remainder.
