Washington (CNN) Rep. Steve King, whose history of incendiary and racially insensitive comments has led to calls for his resignation from Congress, appeared to make light of China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims by suggesting force-feeding them pork -- a violation of their religious beliefs -- was a good idea.

The Iowa Republican on Tuesday was criticizing China for detaining millions of Uyghur Muslims when he made the comments.

"They take out all of their religious artifacts out and then they want them to put on Chinese clothing and eat Chinese diet, which includes trying to force the Muslims to eat pork," King said at a town hall Tuesday morning, according to video of the event posted to Facebook

"That's actually the only part of that that I agree with, is everybody ought to eat pork," he added.

"If you have a shortage of bacon, you can't be happy," he said, with a small laugh.