[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 238 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 238

Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding human rights conditions in 
                            China and Tibet.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 1, 1998

 Mr. Wellstone (for himself, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Leahy) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding human rights conditions in 
                            China and Tibet.

Whereas President Clinton will be the first United States head of state to visit 
        China since the 1989 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement at 
        Tiananmen Square;
Whereas according to the State Department's China Country Report on Human Rights 
        Practices for 1996, ``The Government continues 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.'';
Whereas the symbolism of the official arrival ceremony which will take place in 
        Tiananmen Square could be interpreted as a message to the Chinese people 
        that will override anything the President might say about human rights 
        and the rule of law;
Whereas specific human rights preconditions should have been set forth before 
        setting the date for the President's visit; and
Whereas the President can still make important human rights points during his 
        visit to Beijing: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) at the upcoming United States-China summit the 
        President should--
                    (A) secure from China's leaders a pledge to remove 
                by a certain date the names on an official reentry 
                blacklist, which now contains the names of more than 
                fifty Chinese citizens living in the United States who 
                cannot return to China because of their peaceful 
                advocacy of greater rights and freedom; and
                    (B) visit family members of victims of the 1989 
                massacre, many of whom still suffer from political 
                harassment, discrimination or persecution; and
            (2) in the context of the upcoming United States-China 
        summit, the President should urge the Chinese leaders to--
                    (A) engage in a meaningful dialogue with the Dalai 
                Lama with the aim of establishing genuine cultural and 
                religious autonomy in Tibet;
                    (B) revise China's vague, draconian security laws, 
                including the provisions on ``endangering state 
                security'' added to the criminal code in March 1997;
                    (C) release unconditionally all imprisoned 
                political, religious, and labor activists detained for 
                their peaceful, nonviolent involvement in public 
                protests;
                    (D) review the sentences of more than 2,000 
                convicted so-called ``counterrevolutionaries'' with a 
                view towards granting full amnesty and releasing those 
                convicted solely for exercising their internationally 
                recognized rights of free speech and association, 
                especially since the crime of ``counterrevolution'' has 
                itself been abolished;
                    (E) encourage greater cooperation by the Chinese 
                government with the United Nation's human rights 
                mechanisms and greater transparency in China's legal 
                and detention system;
                    (F) ease religious repression by abolishing the 
                requirement that all religious sites register with the 
                official Religious Affairs Bureau and implementing the 
                1994 recommendations of the United Nations Special 
                Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance;
                    (G) lift government mandated quotas on the number 
                of monks and nuns in monasteries and nunneries, end the 
                government's current ``reeducation'' campaign, and 
                immediately reinstate all monks and nuns expelled from 
                their monasteries and nunneries for failing to denounce 
                the Dalai Lama;
                    (H) allow access by credible, independent human 
                rights or humanitarian organizations to the nine-year-
                old boy recognized by the Dalai Lama in 1995 as the 
                reincarnation of the Panchen Lama; and
                    (I) allow regular, unmonitored access to Tibet and 
                Xinjiiang province of China by independent human rights 
                monitors.
                                 <all>