[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 212 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 212

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that at the upcoming United States-
  China summit the President should demand the release of all persons 
  remaining imprisoned in China and Tibet for political or religious 
                    reasons, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 22, 1998

 Mr. Hutchinson (for himself, Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Brownback, 
    and Mr. Feingold) submitted the following resolution; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that at the upcoming United States-
  China summit the President should demand the release of all persons 
  remaining imprisoned in China and Tibet for political or religious 
                    reasons, and for other purposes.

Whereas Chinese dissident Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 pro-democracy 
        demonstrations that were crushed at Tiananmen Square in 1989 was 
        released on April 18, 1998, from a Chinese jail;
Whereas China's ``most famous dissident'' Wei Jingsheng was released on November 
        16, 1997, from a Chinese jail;
Whereas Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan were released from prison ostensibly for 
        medical reasons, it is clear that their release into exile was intended 
        as a political gesture to diminish public U.S. criticism of China's 
        human rights practices;
Whereas, in addition to Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan, thousands of other 
        political, religious, and labor dissidents are imprisoned in China and 
        Tibet for peacefully expressing their beliefs and exercising their 
        internationally recognized rights of free association and expression, 
        including--

    (1) Gao Yu, a journalist sentenced to 6 years in prison in November 
1994 and honored by UNESCO in May 1997, who has a heart condition;

    (2) Chen Longde, a leading human rights advocate now serving a 3-year 
reeducation through labor sentence imposed without trial in August 1996, 
who has reportedly been subject to repeated beatings and electric shocks at 
a labor camp for refusing to confess his guilt;

    (3) Li Hai, sentenced to 9 years in prison on December 18, 1996, for 
collecting information on those imprisoned after the 1989 crackdown; he was 
convicted of ``prying into and gathering information about persons 
sentenced for criminal activity during the June 4, 1989, period'';

    (4) Yang Qinheng, apprehended February 26, 1998, and assigned to 3 
years' ``reeducation through labor'' in March for ``disturbing social 
order'', who had called for independent trade unions;

    (5) Shen Liangqing, former public prosecutor and petitioner, who was 
apprehended on February 25, 1998, and assigned to 2 years' labor on April 
4, 1998, for ``unauthorized contact with foreign journalists'';

    (6) Tu Guangwen, an organizer of a street protest, who was sentenced by 
the Jiangxia district court on February 19, 1998, to 3 years' imprisonment 
after being convicted of ``gathering a crowd to disrupt orderly traffic'' 
during a demonstration by laid-off workers; and

    (7) Ngawang Choephel, a Tibet Fulbright scholar sentenced to 18 years 
in prison by Chinese authorities in December 1996 on charges of 
``espionage'';

Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China, as detailed in 
        successive annual reports on human rights by the United States 
        Department of State, routinely, systematically, and massively violates 
        the human rights of its citizens, including freedom of speech, assembly, 
        worship, and peaceful political dissent;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China restricts the ability 
        of religious adherents, including Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and 
        others, to practice outside of state-approved religious organizations, 
        and detains worshipers and clergy who participate in religious services 
        conducted outside state-approved religious organizations, as well as 
        those who refuse to register with the authorities, as required;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China routinely, 
        systematically, and massively continues to commit widespread human 
        rights abuses in Tibet, including instances of death in detention, 
        torture, arbitrary arrest, detention without public trial, long 
        detention of Tibetan nationalists for peacefully expressing their 
        religious and political views, and intensified controls on religion and 
        on freedom of speech and the press, particularly for ethnic Tibetans; 
        and
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China engages in 
        reprehensible, brutal, and coercive family planning practices, including 
        forced abortions and forced sterilization, resulting in widespread 
        infanticide, particularly of female infants: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) in the upcoming, proposed summit between President 
        Clinton and President Jiang Zemin of China, President Clinton 
        should demand the immediate and unconditional release, 
        consistent with established international principles of human 
        rights, of all persons remaining imprisoned in China and Tibet 
        for political or religious reasons;
            (2) the President should submit a report to Congress as 
        soon as possible after the proposed summit in China concerning 
        his progress in securing the release of persons remaining 
        imprisoned in China and Tibet, as described in paragraph (1);
            (3) the release of one prisoner into exile does not change 
        the fundamental flaws within the Chinese judicial and penal 
        system;
            (4) the United States policy of granting concessions to the 
        Chinese government in exchange for the release of high profile 
        prisoners is an offense to the thousands of dissidents 
        remaining in prison; and
            (5) the President should not offer to lift the sanctions 
        imposed on China after the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
                                 <all>