[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 967 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 H.R. 967

     To prohibit the use of United States funds to provide for the 
      participation of certain Chinese officials in international 
   conferences, programs, and activities and to provide that certain 
  Chinese officials shall be ineligible to receive visas and excluded 
                  from admission to the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 6, 1997

Mr. Gilman (for himself, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Cox of California, 
 Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. 
    Payne, and Mr. Lantos) introduced the following bill; which was 
 referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition 
  to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To prohibit the use of United States funds to provide for the 
      participation of certain Chinese officials in international 
   conferences, programs, and activities and to provide that certain 
  Chinese officials shall be ineligible to receive visas and excluded 
                  from admission to the United States.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Despite public assurances by the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China that it would abide by the 
        principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 
        despite the United Nations Charter requirement that all members 
        promote respect for and observance of basic human rights, 
        including freedom of religion, the Chinese Government continues 
        to place severe restrictions on religious expression and 
        practice.
            (2) It has been reported that at an internal Central 
        Communist Party meeting in 1994, President Jiang Zemin asserted 
        that religion is one of the biggest threats to Communist Party 
        rule in China and Tibet.
            (3) On January 31, 1994, Premier Li Peng signed decrees 
        number 144 and 145 which restrict worship, religious education, 
        distribution of Bibles and other religious literature, and 
        contact with foreign coreligionists.
            (4) The Chinese Government has created official religious 
        organizations that control all religious worship, activity, and 
        association in China and Tibet and supplant the independent 
        authority of the Roman Catholic Church, independent Protestant 
        churches, and independent Buddhist, Taoist, and Islamic 
        associations.
            (5) In July 1995, Ye Xiaowen, a rigid communist hostile to 
        religion, was appointed to head the Bureau of Religious 
        Affairs, a Chinese Government agency controlled by the United 
        Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party. The 
        Bureau of Religious Affairs has administrative control over all 
        religious worship and activity in China and Tibet through a 
        system of granting or denying rights through an official 
        registration system. Those who fail to or are not allowed to 
        register are subject to punitive measures.
            (6) In the past year, the Chinese Government has expressed 
        great concern over the spread of Christianity and particularly 
        over the rapid growth of Christian religious institutions other 
        than those controlled by the Chinese Government, including the 
        Roman Catholic Church and the evangelical Christian ``house 
        churches''.
            (7) Soon after the establishment of the People's Republic 
        of China in 1949, the Chinese Government imprisoned Christians 
        who refused to relinquish their faith to become servants of 
        communism, charging them as ``counter-revolutionaries'' and 
        sentencing them to 20 years or more in ``reeducation through 
        labor camps''.
            (8) Hundreds of Chinese Protestants and Catholics are among 
        those now imprisoned, detained, or continuously harassed 
because of their religious beliefs or activities.
            (9) The prisons and labor camps which hold these religious 
        prisoners are run by the Ministry of Public Security and the 
        Ministry of Justice of the Chinese Government.
            (10) Although some negotiations have taken place, the 
        Chinese Government refuses to permit the appointment by the 
        Vatican of Catholic bishops and the ordination of priests not 
        approved by the Government and insists on appointing its own 
        ``Catholic bishops''.
            (11) The Tenth Panchen Lama died in January 1989 at 
        Tashilhunpo Monastery, his traditional spiritual seat in 
        Shigatze, Tibet's second largest city.
            (12) It has always been the right and the role of the Dalai 
        Lama to recognize the successor to the Panchen Lama. On May 14, 
        1995, His Holiness the Dalai Lama announced recognition of a 
        six-year-old boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the Eleventh Panchen 
        Lama, according to Tibetan tradition.
            (13) The young boy recognized by the Dalai Lama and his 
        family have been brought to Beijing by Chinese authorities and 
        have not been seen for months. The Chinese authorities 
        announced publicly in June 1996 that they are holding Gedhun 
        Choekyi Nyima.
            (14) Chadrel Rimpoche, abbot of Tashilhunpo Monastery and 
        head of the original search committee for the Eleventh Panchen 
        Lama, and his assistant, Champa Chung, are believed to have 
        been seized and detained by Chinese authorities in May of 1995.
            (15) Chinese Government authorities subsequently detained 
        other Tibetan Buddhists in connection with the selection of the 
        Eleventh Panchen Lama, including Gyatrol Rimposhe, Shepa 
        Kelsang, Lhakpa Tsering, and Ringkar Ngawang.
            (16) The Chinese Government convened a conference in 
        Beijing where Tibetan monks were coerced to select a rival 
        candidate to the child recognized by the Dalai Lama as the 
        Eleventh Panchen Lama.
            (17) On November 29, 1995, officials of the Chinese 
        Government orchestrated an elaborate ceremony designating a 
        six-year-old boy selected by the Chinese Government as the 
        Eleventh Panchen Lama and on December 8, 1995, a Government-
        sponsored ceremony was held in Shigatze, Tibet, where the boy 
        selected by the Government was enthroned as the Eleventh 
        Panchen Lama.
            (18) By seeking to impose its own candidate as the Eleventh 
        Panchen Lama and detaining the six-year-old boy recognized for 
        that position in accordance with Tibetan tradition, the Chinese 
        Government is infringing on a purely Tibetan religious matter, 
        in blatant violation of the fundamental human rights of the 
        Tibetan people.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the sense of the Congress that the President should make 
freedom of religion one of the major objectives of United States 
foreign policy with respect to China. As part of this policy, the 
Department of State should raise in every relevant bilateral and 
multilateral forum the issue of individuals imprisoned, detained, 
confined, or otherwise harassed by the Chinese Government on religious 
grounds. In its communications with the Chinese Government, the 
Department of State should provide specific names of individuals of 
concern and request a complete and timely response from the Chinese 
Government regarding the individuals' whereabouts and condition, the 
charges against them, and sentence imposed. The goal of these official 
communications should be the expeditious release of all religious 
prisoners in China and Tibet and the end of the Chinese Government's 
policy and practice of harassing and repressing religious believers.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF CERTAIN 
              CHINESE OFFICIALS IN CONFERENCES, EXCHANGES, PROGRAMS, 
              AND ACTIVITIES.

    (a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for 
fiscal years after fiscal year 1997, no funds appropriated or otherwise 
made available for the Department of State, the United States 
Information Agency, and the United States Agency for International 
Development may be used for the purpose of providing travel expenses 
and per diem for the participation of nationals of the People's 
Republic of China described in paragraphs (1) and (2) in conferences, 
exchanges, programs, and activities:
            (1) The head or political secretary of any of the following 
        Chinese Government-created or approved organizations:
                    (A) The Chinese Buddhist Association.
                    (B) The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
                    (C) The National Congress of Catholic 
                Representatives.
                    (D) The Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference.
                    (E) The Chinese Protestant ``Three Self'' Patriotic 
                Movement.
                    (F) The China Christian Council.
                    (G) The Chinese Taoist Association.
                    (H) The Chinese Islamic Association.
            (2) Any military or civilian official or employee of the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China who is directly 
        involved in any of the following policies or practices or who 
        was responsible for the supervision of persons directly 
        involved in such policies or practices:
                    (A) Formulating, drafting, or implementing 
                repressive religious policies.
                    (B) Imprisoning, detaining, or harassing 
                individuals on religious grounds.
                    (C) Promoting or participating in policies or 
                practices which hinder religious activities or the free 
                expression of religious beliefs.
    (b) Certification.--
            (1) Each Federal agency subject to the prohibition of 
        subsection (a) shall certify in writing to the appropriate 
        congressional committees no later than 120 days after the date 
        of enactment of this Act, and every 90 days thereafter, that it 
        did not pay, either directly or through a contractor or 
        grantee, for travel expenses or per diem of any national of the 
        People's Republic of China described in subsection (a).
            (2) Each certification under paragraph (1) shall be 
        supported by the following information:
                    (A) The name of each employee of any agency of the 
                Government of the People's Republic of China whose 
                travel expenses or per diem were paid by funds of the 
                reporting agency of the United States Government.
                    (B) The procedures employed by the reporting agency 
                of the United States Government to ascertain whether 
                each individual under subparagraph (A) did or did not 
                participate in activities described in subsection 
                (a)(2).
                    (C) The reporting agency's basis for concluding 
                that each individual under subparagraph (A) did not 
                participate in such activities.
    (c) Definition of Appropriate Congressional Committees.--For 
purposes of this section the term ``appropriate congressional 
committees'' means the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and 
the Committee on International Relations of the House of 
Representatives.

SEC. 4. CERTAIN OFFICIALS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA INELIGIBLE 
              TO RECEIVE VISAS AND EXCLUDED FROM ADMISSION.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any national of the 
People's Republic of China described in paragraphs (1) or (2) of 
section 3(a) shall be ineligible to receive visas and shall be excluded 
from admission into the United States.

SEC. 5. SUNSET PROVISION.

    Sections 3 and 4 shall cease to have effect 4 years after the date 
of the enactment of this Act.
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