[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 326 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 326

 Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the arbitrary detention of 
Dr. Wang Bingzhang by the Government of the People's Republic of China 
                   and urging his immediate release.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 18, 2003

Mrs. Napolitano (for herself, Mr. Farr, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. McNulty, Ms. 
  Ros-Lehtinen, Mrs. Tauscher, and Mr. Wolf) submitted the following 
     concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the arbitrary detention of 
Dr. Wang Bingzhang by the Government of the People's Republic of China 
                   and urging his immediate release.

Whereas Dr. Wang Bingzhang is a permanent resident of the United States and his 
        sister and daughter are United States citizens;
Whereas Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. at McGill University in Canada in coronary-
        arterial research and is a well-respected leader of the overseas Chinese 
        pro-democracy movement and the founder of China Spring magazine;
Whereas Dr. Wang is currently serving a life sentence in prison in the People's 
        Republic of China and is suffering from gastritis, varicose veins, 
        phlebitis, and depression;
Whereas Dr. Wang was abducted in northern Vietnam in June 2002 after meeting 
        with a Chinese labor activist;
Whereas Dr. Wang was driven to the border between Vietnam and the People's 
        Republic of China and forced back to China by boat;
Whereas Dr. Wang was blindfolded and bound and held in various places in Guangxi 
        Province and his captors demanded a $10,000,000 ransom, which Dr. Wang 
        was unable to pay;
Whereas Dr. Wang although provided his captors with the names and telephone 
        numbers of his relatives, they were never contacted;
Whereas Dr. Wang was finally taken to a Buddhist temple in Fangchenggang City in 
        southern Guangxi Province where his abductors unexpectedly left and 
        moments later he was ``rescued'' by the Chinese police;
Whereas Dr. Wang was detained by the Chinese police and then transported to 
        Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province;
Whereas Dr. Wang was held incommunicado for six months, during which time the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China denied any knowledge of his 
        whereabouts;
Whereas on December 4, 2002, the Chinese Government reversed itself, admitting 
        that Dr. Wang had been in its custody since July 3, 2002;
Whereas on December 5, 2002, Dr. Wang was charged with ``offenses of espionage'' 
        and ``the conduct of terrorist activities'';
Whereas on January 22, 2003, Dr. Wang was tried by the Intermediate People's 
        Court in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province;
Whereas Dr. Wang's trial lasted only half a day and was closed to the public 
        because the Chinese Government indicated that ``state secrets'' might be 
        revealed, thereby precluding family members, supporters, and reporters 
        from attending;
Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang declared himself innocent of all charges;
Whereas at the trial, the Chinese Government refused to release any evidence of 
        Dr. Wang's wrongdoing;
Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang was denied the right to due process, specifically 
        the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to adequate time 
        and facilities to prepare for his own defense, the right to a fair trial 
        before an independent and impartial tribunal, the right to call 
        witnesses on his own behalf, the right to cross-examine witnesses 
        testifying against him, and in general, the lack of other due process 
        guarantees that would ensure his adequate defense and a full hearing;
Whereas Dr. Wang's trial represented the first time the Chinese Government had 
        brought charges against a pro-democracy dissident under its new 
        terrorism laws;
Whereas although Dr. Wang was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on 
        February 10, 2003, Dr.Wang's lawyers stated that there was insufficient 
        evidence to convict him;
Whereas Dr. Wang's lawyers immediately appealed the court's verdict, but the 
        appeal was rejected on February 28, 2003;
Whereas a human rights petition was submitted on Dr. Wang's behalf to the United 
        Nations Arbitrary Working Group of the Office of the United Nations High 
        Commissioner for Human Rights;
Whereas the petition claimed that Dr. Wang was being arbitrarily detained and 
        that the judicial standards employed in his trial fell far short of 
        internationally recognized standards for judicial proceedings under 
        provisions of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group noted that Dr. Wang is 
        an internationally recognized pro-democracy activist as opposed to the 
        Chinese Government's characterization of Dr. Wang as an individual who 
        advocates violence and suggests the use of methods such as kidnapping 
        and bombings to achieve his goals, and that Dr. Wang had boasted of 
        carrying out many violent terrorist activities;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group further noted that the 
        Chinese Government offered ``no evidence of any specific occasion on 
        which Wang made the alleged calls to violence'' and that ``[o]ther than 
        the kidnapping of which Wang himself was a victim, as the Government 
        itself acknowledges, no information has been given about other 
        kidnappings or acts of violence initiated by Wang'';
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group further stated that 
        ``Wang, during his first five months in detention, did not have 
        knowledge of the charges, the right to legal counsel, or the right to 
        judicial review of the arrest and detention; and that, after that date, 
        he did not benefit from the right to the presumption of innocence, the 
        right to adequate time and facilities for defense, the right to a fair 
        trial before an independent and impartial tribunal, the right to a 
        speedy trial and the right to cross-examine witnesses'';
Whereas in conclusion, the United Nations Working Group declared that ``the 
        detention of Wang Bingzhang is arbitrary, being in contravention of 
        articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' and 
        requested ``the [Chinese] Government to take the necessary steps to 
        remedy the situation of Wang Bingzhang and bring it into conformity with 
        the standards and principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of 
        Human Rights'';
Whereas the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China made the 
        following recommendation in its 2003 annual report: ``The President and 
        the Congress should increase diplomatic efforts to hold the Chinese 
        government to [its commitments on human rights matters during the 
        December 2002 U.S.-China human rights dialogue], particularly the 
        release of those arbitrarily detained'';
Whereas the report also stated the following: ``The Chinese [G]overnment has 
        also taken advantage of the global war on terrorism to persecute . . . 
        political dissidents. In February 2003, Wang Bingzhang, a U.S. permanent 
        resident and veteran pro-democracy activist, was convicted of `leading a 
        terrorism organization' and `spying' and sentenced to life 
        imprisonment''; and
Whereas the report finally noted that ``[i]n July 2003, the UN Working Group on 
        Arbitrary Detention declared that Wang's arrest and imprisonment 
        violated international law'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a permanent resident of the United 
        States, is being arbitrarily detained in the People's Republic 
        of China in violation of international law;
            (2) the United States Government should request the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China to release Dr. 
        Wang, permitting him to immediately return to the United 
        States; and
            (3) the President should make the immediate release of Dr. 
        Wang by the Government of the People's Republic of China a top 
        priority of United States foreign policy.
                                 <all>