[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            RADIO FREE ASIA

 Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I would like to commend Senators 
Biden and Feingold on their amendment to create a cost-effective and 
potent Radio Free Asia. I understand that there have been a number of 
discussions about the amount of funding for this project as well as its 
status within the Department of State. The compromise represented in 
this amendment effectively resolves these issues, allowing us to 
proceed with a project that will become an important part of our 
Nation's policy toward the People's Republic of China, Cambodia, Laos, 
North Korea, Vietnam, and Burma.
  I am particularly pleased that the Radio Free Asia created by this 
amendment will be given the same corporate ``grantee'' status that 
allowed Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty to broadcast independently 
of the Department of State. With this designation, Radio Free Asia will 
act much as a radio station in the target country would if its media 
were not suppressed. Broadcasts will include extensive, controversial 
information on events within the country, responses to the state-
controlled media, and information on dissident movements--all of which 
the Voice of America can include, but never to the extent that it might 
exacerbate diplomatic ties or jeopardize our leases on transmitters.
  Radio Free Europe included the readings of Vaclav Havel at a time 
when his books were difficult to obtain. Stations aggressively 
researched stories, tracked political and artistic dissent, and 
successfully circumvented Soviet jamming. Broadcasts solidified 
underground movements, and told listeners of sentiments similar to 
their own. It fed the passions that overthrew communism, and when 
complete, was lauded and defended by Vaclav Havel, Boris Yeltsin, and 
Lech Walesa.
  After the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chinese state-run television ran 
a Disney movie. In 1991, Liu Binyan, a Chinese dissident now living in 
the United States, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that 
after Tiananmen Square there were 1,500 strikes, but that a vast 
majority of Chinese knew nothing of them. The media in Vietnam, Burma, 
Cambodia, North Korea and Laos are just as repressed, and more often 
than not used as instruments of their governments' policies.
  With this legislation we are ensuring that the Radio Free Asia we 
pursue follows the model of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. We are 
creating a station which can unite and inform the millions in repressed 
East Asian countries who want democracy, while enlightening those who 
have known only state-run media. It can deliver insightful 
investigative reporting, respond promptly to false governmental 
reports, travel on strong signals, and carry the necessary number of 
dialects. If it is successful, it will shorten the path for freedom in 
some of these countries, while merely keeping alive democratic 
movements in others.
  Some have argued that the United States should not pursue the funding 
for a Radio Free Asia. Indeed, our State Department budget is 
shrinking, while our foreign aid budget is literally strapped. But the 
threat and possibilities posed by the repressed nations of East Asia 
made this project worth the effort. The People's Republic of China--the 
world's most populous nation, and most powerful nondemocratic state--is 
developing a mighty economy while its political reform lags. As turn-
of-the-century Japan proved, political liberalization need not follow 
economic growth. For the United States, a wealthy but repressed China 
would be a bane at nearly every turn: it could learn to dominate East 
Asia, just as the United States seeks to lower its overseas presence; 
it would hinder our multilateral efforts; and it could exacerbate our 
already troubled trade relationship. For the countries of Southeast 
Asia, communism would retain a powerful patron to it north.
  Conversely, on East Asia whose Communist countries embrace democracy 
presents staggering possibilities. Their neighbors--Japan, and the 
newly industrialized nations of East Asia--have enjoyed a miraculous 
economic growth that has literally changed the world. If freedom takes 
hold in Laos, Vietnam, South Korea, and Burma, the wealthy community of 
trading nations in Asia will almost certainly expand again. For China, 
its economic growth will gain security alongside a healthy, stable 
government that respects the freedom of its citizens.
  A Radio Free Asia might not single-handedly change the face of Asia's 
repressive governments, but it will show our commitment to these 
countries' citizens, and, as in Eastern Europe, it will strengthen and 
preserve democratic movements. For governments that have stringently 
fought our policies, but whose people yearn for freedom, it's an effort 
we are obliged to make.

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