[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2358 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2358

 To provide for improved monitoring of human rights violations in the 
                      People's Republic of China.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 31, 1997

    Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself, Mr. King, Mr. Royce, Mr. Cox of 
  California, Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Gilman, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Sam Johnson of 
  Texas, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Shadegg, Mr. Smith of New 
  Jersey, Mr. Solomon, and Mr. Spence) introduced the following bill; 
     which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for improved monitoring of human rights violations in the 
                      People's Republic of China.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Political Freedom in China Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Congress concurs in the following conclusions of 
        the United States State Department on human rights in the 
        People's Republic of China in 1996:
                    (A) The People's Republic of China is ``an 
                authoritarian state'' in which ``citizens lack the 
                freedom to peacefully express opposition to the party-
                led political system and the right to change their 
                national leaders or form of government''.
                    (B) The Government of the People's Republic of 
                China has ``continued to commit widespread and well 
                documented human rights abuses, in violation of 
                internationally accepted norms, stemming from the 
                authorities' intolerance of dissent, fear of unrest, 
                and the absence or inadequacy of laws protecting basic 
                freedoms''.
                    (C) ``[a]buses include torture and mistreatment of 
                prisoners, forced confessions, and arbitrary and 
                incommunicado detention''.
                    (D) ``[p]rison conditions remained harsh [and] 
                [t]he Government continued severe restrictions on 
                freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, 
                religion, privacy, and worker rights''.
                    (E) ``[a]lthough the Government denies that it 
                holds political prisoners, the number of persons 
                detained or serving sentences for `counterrevolutionary 
                crimes' or `crimes against the state' and for peaceful 
                political or religious activities are believed to 
                number in the thousands''.
                    (F) ``[n]on-approved religious groups, including 
                Protestant and Catholic groups . . . experienced 
                intensified repression''.
                    (G) ``[s]erious human rights abuses persist in 
                minority areas, including Tibet, Zinjiang, and Inner 
                Mongolia[, and] [c]ontrols on religion and other 
                fundamental freedoms in these areas have also 
                intensified''.
                    (H) ``[o]verall in 1996, the authorities stepped up 
                efforts to cut off expressions of protest or criticism. 
                All public dissent against the party and government was 
                effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, the 
                imposition of prison terms, administrative detention, 
                or house arrest. No residents were known to be active 
                at year's end.''.
            (2) In addition to the State Department, credible 
        independent human rights organizations have documented an 
        increase in repression in China during 1996, and effective 
        destruction of the dissident movement through the arrest and 
        sentencing of the few remaining pro-democracy and human rights 
        activists not already in prison or exile.
            (3) Among those were Wang Dan, a student leader of the 1989 
        pro-democracy protests, sentenced on October 30, 1996, to 11 
        years in prison on charges of conspiring to subvert the 
        Government; Li Hai, sentenced to 9 years in prison on December 
        18, 1996, for gathering information on the victims of the 1989 
        crackdown, which according to the court's verdict constituted 
        ``state secrets''; and Liu Nianchun, an independent labor 
        organizer, sentenced to 3 years of ``re-education through 
        labor'' on July 4, 1996, due to his activities in connection 
        with a petition campaign calling for human rights reforms.
            (4) Many political prisoners are suffering from poor 
        conditions and ill-treatment leading to serious medical and 
        health problems, including--
                    (A) Wei Jingsheng, sentenced to 14 years in prison 
                on December 13, 1996, for conspiring to subvert the 
                government and for ``communication with hostile foreign 
                organizations and individuals, amassing funds in 
                preparation for overthrowing the government and 
                publishing anti-government articles abroad,'' is 
                currently held in Jile No. 1 Prison (formerly the Nanpu 
                New Life Salt Farm) in Hebei province, where he 
                reportedly suffers from severe high blood pressure and 
                a heart condition, worsened by poor conditions of 
                confinement;
                    (B) Gao Yu, a journalist sentenced to 6 years in 
                prison on November 1994 and honored by UNESCO in May 
                1997, has a heart condition; and
                    (C) Chen Longde, a leading human rights advocate 
                now serving a 3-year reeducation through labor sentence 
                imposed without trial in August 1995, has reportedly 
                been subject to repeated beatings and electric shocks 
                at a labor camp for refusing to confess his guilt.
            (5) In 1997, only 1 official in the United States Embassy 
        in Beijing is assigned to human monitoring human rights in the 
        People's Republic of China, and no officials are assigned to 
        monitor human rights in United States consulates in the 
        People's Republic of China.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL AT 
              DIPLOMATIC POSTS TO MONITOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PEOPLE'S 
              REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to support personnel to 
monitor political repression in the People's Republic of China in the 
United States Embassy in Beijing, as well as the American consulates in 
Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu, and Hong Kong, $2,200,000 for 
fiscal year 1998 and $2,200,000 for fiscal year 1999.
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