[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 221 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 221
Recognizing the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and
condemning the intensifying repression and human rights violations by
the Chinese Communist Party and the use of surveillance by Chinese
authorities, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 23 (legislative day, May 22), 2019
Mr. Gardner (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Risch, Mr. Menendez, Mr.
Toomey, and Mr. Rubio) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and
condemning the intensifying repression and human rights violations by
the Chinese Communist Party and the use of surveillance by Chinese
authorities, and for other purposes.
Whereas the United States was founded on the principle that all persons are
endowed with certain unalienable rights;
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, enshrined the rights of
freedom of expression, assembly, and association;
Whereas, after the death on April 15, 1989, of former General Secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party Hu Yaobang, who was compelled to resign in 1987
for expressing support of students demanding political reform, thousands
of people gathered to mourn him and demonstrate peacefully in Beijing;
Whereas, throughout April and May 1989, peaceful demonstrations continued in
Tiananmen Square and in an estimated 400 other cities across China, with
total numbers of demonstrators reaching into the millions;
Whereas, on May 9, 1989, prompted by discontent over censorship of the coverage
of protests, more than 1,000 Chinese journalists signed a petition
calling for freedom of the press;
Whereas, by May 18, 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 Chinese citizens from all walks
of life, including students, teachers, workers, writers and other
individuals, gathered peacefully in Tiananmen Square to call for
political and economic reforms;
Whereas several Chinese individuals in positions of authority, including the
presidents of 8 Chinese universities and the central committees of the
Communist Youth League of China, called for the Government of the
People's Republic of China to accept the demands of the Tiananmen Square
protestors;
Whereas Chinese students abroad, including in the United States, organized
rallies in support of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations;
Whereas, on May 20, 1989, the Government of the People's Republic of China
declared martial law in Beijing and deployed troops of the People's
Liberation Army within the city;
Whereas, on June 4, 1989, troops of the People's Liberation Army, at the behest
of Chinese Communist Party leadership, attacked Tiananmen Square to
repress demonstrators, crushing defenseless protestors with tanks and
firing on them indiscriminately, killing hundreds or possibly thousands
of individuals;
Whereas troops of the People's Liberation Army also suppressed protests in other
cities in China;
Whereas protestors braved the brutal repression ordered by the Government of the
People's Republic of China, including by facing down a column of tanks
sent to intimidate unarmed civilians;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China dishonestly portrayed
the individuals gathered as rioters;
Whereas, in 2019, the Government of the People's Republic of China censors any
mention of Tiananmen Square and imprisons its own citizens who attempt
to discuss Tiananmen Square;
Whereas, in recent years, Chinese Communist Party leadership, especially under
President Xi Jinping, has tightened its control over the lives of
Chinese citizens and suppressed beliefs and activities it views as
threatening to its rule, including through--
(1) the ``709 Crackdown'', in which the Government of the People's
Republic of China, on July 9, 2015, detained and imprisoned hundreds of
lawyers working to uphold the rule of law;
(2) the imprisonment of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace
Prize winner and outspoken advocate for political reform, until his death
in 2017; and
(3) the internment of 800,000 to possibly more than 2,000,000 Uyghurs,
ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims in internment camps in Xinjiang;
Whereas the 2018 Department of State annual Country Report on Human Rights
Practices for the People's Republic of China detailed the continued
violations of fundamental freedoms, including the freedoms of speech,
the press, religion, association, and assembly, by the Government of the
People's Republic of China;
Whereas Congress has passed numerous measures articulating the longstanding and
bipartisan commitment to support for human rights in China, including--
(1) the sanctions imposed in response to the Tiananmen Square massacre
under section 902 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years
1990 and 1991 (Public Law 101-246; 22 U.S.C. 2151 note);
(2) the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-383;
22 U.S.C. 5701 et seq.);
(3) the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-
292; 22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.);
(4) the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 (division B of Public Law 106-
286; 22 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.);
(5) the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (subtitle B of title VI of Public
Law 107-228; 22 U.S.C. 6901 note);
(6) the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Congressional Gold Medal Act (Public Law
109-287; 31 U.S.C. 5111 note);
(7) the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-333; 22
U.S.C. 7801 et seq.);
(8) the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008 (Public
Law 110-346);
(9) the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of
title XII of Public Law 114-328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note);
(10) the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017 (Public
Law 115-198); and
(11) the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-330);
Whereas, on December 31, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the
Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-409), which
condemned the ``forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, invasive
and omnipresent surveillance, and lack of due process in judicial
proceedings'' in China and authorized funding to promote democracy,
human rights, and the rule of law in China;
Whereas the full, complete, and timely implementation of all relevant laws of
the United States that address democracy, human rights, and the rule of
law in China, including the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018
(Public Law 115-409), is critical to demonstrating the unwavering
support of the United States for the fundamental rights and freedoms of
the Chinese people and to providing full support for human rights
defenders in China;
Whereas the Chinese Communist Party has passed and implemented sweeping laws
that provide the Government of the People's Republic of China with broad
authority to suppress the legitimate freedoms and activities of Chinese
citizens, civil society, and international entities operating inside
China, including--
(1) the 2014 Counterespionage Law;
(2) the 2015 National Security Law;
(3) the 2015 Counterterrorism Law;
(4) the 2016 Charity Law;
(5) the 2017 Law of the People's Republic of China on Administration of
Activities of Overseas Nongovernmental Organizations in the Mainland of
China; and
(6) the 2017 Cybersecurity Law;
Whereas the Chinese Communist Party has used surveillance since the founding of
the People's Republic of China in 1949 to maintain tight political and
social control;
Whereas the ability of the Government of the People's Republic of China to
monitor its citizens and otherwise violate their fundamental rights and
liberties has been accelerated by the proliferation of closed-circuit
security cameras, the adoption of new technologies such as facial
recognition, and the use of big data and artificial intelligence;
Whereas the Chinese Communist Party has turned Xinjiang into a testing ground
for these intrusive, Orwellian surveillance measures;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is promoting a state-
controlled model of internet governance that is used to justify
government repression of expression online;
Whereas Chinese companies are exporting surveillance technologies to other
countries with poor human rights records, and the Government of the
People's Republic of China is providing training to officials in these
countries; and
Whereas, despite this long and intensifying record of oppression by the
Government of the People's Republic of China, selfless Chinese human
rights defenders continue their work and advocacy because, in the words
of Liu Xiaobo, there is ``no force that can put an end to the human
quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by
law, where human rights reign supreme'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) expresses its deepest sympathy with the family,
friends, colleagues, and classmates of the victims of the
Tiananmen Square massacre;
(2) condemns the use of violence as a means to repress the
legitimate aspirations of the Chinese people to speak and
associate freely, including to petition the government and
challenge the policies and ideology of the Chinese Communist
Party;
(3) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to invite full and independent investigations into the
Tiananmen Square massacre by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights;
(4) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to release all political prisoners, including prisoners
held because of their participation in the Tiananmen Square
protest or actions pursuing reforms called for by the
individuals gathered in Tiananmen Square;
(5) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to refrain from intimidating protest participants who
fled China and allow them to return to China without fear of
detention or other repercussions;
(6) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to cease its current repression of the Chinese people,
including of lawyers and activists who stand up for the rights
of their fellow citizens;
(7) urges the Government of the People's Republic of China
to cease the use of emerging technologies as tools of
oppression;
(8) calls on the United States Government and Members of
Congress to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
protests, including by--
(A) meeting with participants of the Tiananmen
Square protests who now live outside of China;
(B) meeting with others outside of China who have
been blacklisted by the Government of the People's
Republic of China as a result of their peaceful protest
activities;
(C) supporting calls for accountability for the
officials who ordered the Tiananmen Square massacre;
and
(D) supporting individuals who continue to call for
reforms in China to further the freedom of speech,
freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom to
petition the government, and freedom of religion; and
(9) calls on the international community to cooperate in
addressing the Government of the People's Republic of China's
continued persecution of its own citizens, including the use of
intrusive mass surveillance.
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