On Tuesday, September 29, 2009, The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) of the US Congress held a hearing about human rights in China on the eve of the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Two of the most outstanding human rights champions in the US Congress, Rep. Frank Wolf and Rep. Chris Smith, co-chaired the hearing.

Various experts were invited to testify at the hearing, including Wei Jingsheng of the China Labor Union, Harry Wu of the Laogai Research Foundation, Ting Shum of the League of Chinese Victims, and Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.

One of the main purposes of the hearing was about Chinese workers' rights. As the hearing announcement stated: "In its 2008 report to the Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission states "prisoners are still exposed to a physically and psychologically exhausting regimen of physical labor and propaganda sessions." Additionally, over the last several years there has been a surge in protests demanding workers' rights. According to the 2008 State Department Human Rights report, "workers and their advocates suffered harassment and intimidation by criminal elements often hired by employers." "

Mr. Wei's speech concentrated on the deteriorated condition of the Chinese workers and emphasized Chinese workers' rights, especially needs of labor unions in China. In particular, he emphasized that "various resistance activities by the Chinese people are getting stronger and stronger, yet the cooperation between the Chinese bureaucratic capitalist government and the international capitalists have made the workers and the lower class citizens in China lose confidence and hope in both the self reform by the Communist Party and in international support. Their resistance has been more and more leaning toward using violence, with more and more political elements of anti-government. Currently, we have only two choices, either help these workers and lower class citizens in China to push for a peaceful evolution from the root of the social system, or leave it to fall into an civil war which becomes unavoidable. We must understand, people cannot be satisfied for a long period of time in simply living on the edge of survival."