[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 151 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 151


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 1, 2009

      Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress that China release democratic activist 
                     Liu Xiaobo from imprisonment.

Whereas Liu Xiaobo has inspired untold numbers of Chinese people to stare down 
        their government and demand change;
Whereas on December 9, 2008, a diverse group of more than 300 Chinese scholars, 
        writers, lawyers, and activists issued Charter 08, a manifesto calling 
        on the Chinese Communist Party to abandon authoritarian

              

 rule in favor of democracy, the guarantee of human rights, and the rule of 
law;

Whereas Liu Xiaobo was one of the original signers of Charter 08 and was taken 
        into custody shortly before the manifesto was released, has been 
        detained ever since, and now faces charges of ``inciting subversion of 
        state power'';
Whereas Charter 08 documents the widespread failings of the Chinese Communist 
        Party, calls for urgent and extensive political reforms in China, 
        enumerates and endorses the ideas and principles of freedom, human 
        rights, equality, Republicanism, democracy, and constitutional rule, and 
        enumerates 19 recommendations for political reform within Communist 
        China;
Whereas Charter 08 says that ``the most fundamental principles of democracy are 
        that the people are sovereign, and that the people select their own 
        government'';
Whereas Chinese authorities violated Chinese law in handling Liu Xiaobo's case, 
        including keeping him under ``residential surveillance'' beyond the 
        legal time limit and at an undisclosed location, denying him access to 
        his family or lawyers, and refusing to allow a fellow Charter 08 
        signatory to represent him;
Whereas the signatories of Charter 08 represent numerous strata of Chinese 
        society, including former members of the Chinese Communist Party;
Whereas the document which caused him to be confined to a windowless room, 
        without access to books or writing materials, is as simple as those in 
        the founding documents of this country which have inspired us all for 
        over 200 years;
Whereas Liu Xiaobo signed his name to those simple but powerful words despite 
        having already spent 20 months in prison for his part in the 1989 
        protests in Tiananmen Square, and three years in a re-education through 
        labor camp for challenging China's one-party rule; and
Whereas Liu Xiaobo's leadership has inspired the Chinese people and the world: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that China's Government immediately 
release Liu Xiaobo and begin making strides toward true representative 
democracy.

            Passed the House of Representatives October 1, 2009.

            Attest:

                                            LORRAINE C. MILLER,

                                                                 Clerk.