110 HRES 610 IH: Expressing the sense of the House of
U.S. House of Representatives
2007-08-03
text/xml
EN
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Whereas the Games of the XI Olympiad in Berlin in 1936
showed that the integrity of the host country is of the utmost importance so as
not to stain the participating athletes or the character of the Games;
Whereas the Chinese regime regularly denies the right to
freedom of conscience, expression, religion, and association;
Whereas the Chinese regime also holds thousands of
political prisoners without charge or trial, including democracy activists,
lawyers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, journalists, trade
unionists, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighurs, unregistered church members, Falun Gong
practitioners, and political dissidents;
Whereas the Chinese regime has long-standing economic and
military ties with Sudan and continues to strengthen these ties, including
providing military assistance, in spite of the ongoing human rights abuses
amounting to genocide in Darfur, Sudan;
Whereas China reportedly purchases as much as 70 percent
of Sudan’s oil, currently has at least $3 billion invested in the Sudanese
energy sector, for a total of $10 billion since the 1990s; is building
infrastructure in Sudan and provided funds for a presidential palace in Sudan
at a reported cost of approximately $20 million; and has reportedly cancelled
approximately $100 million in debt owed by the Sudanese Government;
Whereas the Chinese regime has long-standing political,
economic, and military ties with Burma and continues to strengthen these ties
in spite of serious human rights abuses and house arrest of Noble Peace Price
winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi;
Whereas in May 2007, the military junta in Rangoon
extended for one year the house arrest order against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
continues to deny access to her by United States Government officials and
others in the international community, including representatives of human
rights organizations;
Whereas China is one of the largest importers of Burma’s
natural resources, extraction of which has led to destruction of villages,
increased human rights abuses against civilians, particularly ethnic
minorities, and the rampant use of forced labor;
Whereas China has sold Burma’s military regime over $2
billion worth of arms and military equipment since 1989, which have been used
to commit grave human rights violations and mass atrocities against Burma’s
ethnic minority civilians resulting in the destruction of over 3,000
villages;
Whereas China’s steadfast support for Burma’s military
regime in the United Nations Security Council, including by vetoing a United
Nations Security Council resolution on Burma, and other international fora is
emboldening the regime to further perpetrate economic mismanagement,
crackdowns, and attacks on civilians that harm the stability of the
region;
Whereas according to Amnesty International, China holds
more than a quarter of a million people under the Re-Education through
Labor
detention system in labor camps, without benefit of charge or
trial;
Whereas local police officers in China are empowered to
imprison people under this detention system;
Whereas in the face of a serious food shortage and
political repression, thousands of North Koreans have fled across the border to
China;
Whereas hundreds, possibly thousands, of North Koreans
have been detained by the Chinese authorities and forcibly returned across the
border where they face arbitrary detention, torture, and even summary
execution;
Whereas in 2004, Mr. Vitit Muntarbhorn, the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea, concluded that because North
Korea considers fleeing the country a criminal offense punishable by death,
North Koreans who have fled to other countries should be considered
refugees sur place
, and therefore China, as a signatory to 1951
United Nations Convention on Refugees and its 1969 Protocol, should not
repatriate refugees to North Korea;
Whereas the Chinese regime continues to violate its
commitments under the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees and its 1969
Protocol by repatriating North Korean refugees against their will to North
Korea, where such refugees face imprisonment, torture, and at times execution,
for the crime of leaving their country, rather than allowing them safe passage
to countries like the Republic of Korea where such refugees would have
automatic citizenship, and the United States which has offered them
resettlement;
Whereas Chinese security officials, rather than working
with the humanitarian community to help these refugees, hunt down and jail
humanitarian workers who try to feed and shelter refugees, including United
States citizen Steve Kim of Huntington, New York, and South Korean, Japanese,
and Chinese citizens;
Whereas the Chinese regime refuses to allow the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the internationally-recognized
organization whose sole function is to help refugees, access to the North
Korean refugees in China and denies the refugees access to the UNHCR and
therefore to much needed assistance;
Whereas China continues to hold the 11th Panchen Lama, who
was selected by the Dalai Lama;
Whereas the Panchen Lama was only 6 years old when he was
taken away by the Chinese authorities and is held in a secret location;
Whereas according to Amnesty International, China
continues to execute political prisoners and nonviolent offenders, and accounts
for over 80 percent of all executions documented in the world;
Whereas Chinese authorities have engaged in removing
organs from executed prisoners as well as Falun Gong practitioners held in
detention, frequently without the consent of the prisoners, the Falun Gong
practitioners, or the families of both;
Whereas China continues to allow forced abortion and
sterilization to enforce its One Child
policy, as per family
population control measures;
Whereas according to United States Department of State’s
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the Chinese regime’s birth
planning policies retain harshly coercive elements in law and practice;
Whereas the laws restrict the rights of families to choose
the number of children they have and the period of time between births;
Whereas the penalties for violating these laws are strict,
leaving some women little choice but to abort pregnancies;
Whereas in addition, the implementation of these laws by
local officials has resulted in serious violations of human rights;
Whereas reports of forced sterilization and abortions, in
violation of the national law, continue to be documented in rural areas;
Whereas in 2007, officials in Chongqing municipality and
in Fujian Province reportedly forcibly sterilized women;
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the Chinese regime consistently
blocked access to Internet sites it deemed controversial, such as sites
discussing Tibetan independence, underground religious and spiritual
organizations, democracy activists, and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre;
Whereas the Chinese regime at times blocked access to
selected Internet sites operated by major foreign news outlets, health
organizations, and educational institutions;
Whereas China’s Internet control system reportedly employs
tens of thousands of persons;
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, sexual and physical abuse and
extortion were reported in some detention centers;
Whereas Falun Gong activists reported that police raped
female practitioners, including an incident in November 2005 at the
Dongchengfang police station in Tunzhou City, Hebei Province, in which two
women were raped while in detention;
Whereas according to Amnesty International, China executes
political prisoners from the Uighur ethnic minority in the Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region;
Whereas there are concerns that abuses committed against
the Uighur ethnic minority could amount to genocide;
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the Chinese regime has not provided
a comprehensive, credible account of all those killed, missing, or detained in
connection with the violent suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen
demonstrations;
Whereas there are nongovernmental organization reports of
hundreds, if not thousands, who died during the crackdown against the Tiananmen
demonstrations;
Whereas according the Department of State’s Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, since the crackdown on Falun Gong
began in 1999, estimates of the numbers of Falun Gong adherents who have died
in custody because of torture, abuse, and neglect range from several hundred to
a few thousand;
Whereas in March 2006, United Nations Special Rapporteur
Manfred Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent
of victims of alleged torture while in custody by the Chinese regime;
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, regulations for committing a person
into the psychiatric facility at Ankang, China, were not clear;
Whereas credible reports indicate that a number of
political and trade union activists, underground religious believers, persons
who repeatedly petitioned the Chinese regime, members of the banned China
Democratic Party, and Falun Gong adherents were incarcerated in such
psychiatric facilities during 2006;
Whereas China is preparing to host the Summer Olympic
Games in August 2008, the most honorable, venerated, and prestigious
international sporting event, and China has selected One World, One
Dream
as a slogan for those games;
Whereas China should act consistently with the Olympic
standard of preserving human dignity for its citizens and for the people of the
Darfur region of Sudan, Burma, and North Korea;
Whereas the spirit of the Olympics, which is to bring
together nations and people from all over the world in peace, is incompatible
with Chinese actions; and
Whereas China continues to seriously abuse the rights of
its citizens and continues to assist Sudan, Burma, and North Korea in
committing human rights abuses against their citizens: Now, therefore, be
it
That—
(1)it is the duty and responsibility of the
United States to take effective steps to stop serious human rights abuses by
the Chinese regime against its citizens and to stop the Chinese regime from
supporting serious human rights abuses by Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against
their citizens; and
(2)it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that the United States Government should take immediate steps
to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008 unless the
Chinese regime stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its
citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the Governments of
Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against their citizens.