[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 137 (Tuesday, September 27, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA

                                 ______


                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 27, 1994

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I am submitting for the record this speech 
given by Harry Wu at Stanford University recently. Harry is a 19-year 
veteran of China's slave labor camps and has now committed his life to 
researching and telling the world about the atrocities still being 
committed in these camps today. I would encourage any of my colleagues 
interested in China to read it.

                 Human Rights and Development in China

       With its emergence from the shadow of the Tiananmen Square 
     Massacre, the dark cloud hanging above China since 1989 has 
     been fading and dispersing without much concern. The highly 
     charged emotionally event of June 4th is being replaced by 
     reports of economic boom in China.
       The West is very much drawn to and interested in the 
     tremendous economic growth in China these days, which is in 
     sharp contrast to stagnant economy here in the West. Its 
     ample supply of cheap labor and the potential of its vast 
     market demand are just too tempting to let such an 
     opportunity pass by. Capital and technology are what the West 
     wish to offer.
       Despite certain boycott actions in Germany and other 
     European countries, Premier Li Peng, who is directly 
     responsible for the Tiananmen Square Massacre, did not seem 
     to encounter much opposition during his visit to those 
     countries, his briefcase stuffed with profitable business 
     contracts.
       Not only did President Clinton, who had condemned despots 
     from Bagdad to Beijing, meet with the General Secretary of 
     the world's biggest communist party in Seattle, but he has 
     also delinked human rights from trade in U.S. policy. As a 
     matter of fact, the human rights issue as a card in the U.S. 
     China policy is being neglected.
       China is neither Haiti nor Rwanda, not even Iraq. China is 
     a nation with a population of 1,200 million people who are 
     tightly controlled by a totalitarian regime. Would it be 
     possible that China is to become an evil empire after the 
     former Soviet Union?
       Over the past 40 years, the Communist Party's rule 
     encountered several major crises. In particular, the 1960-62 
     famine resulted in the death of 40 million; the cultural 
     revolution inflicted immeasurable and indescribable 
     sufferings and hardships to all strata of her people. 
     Curiously, the Communist regime has escaped unscathed from 
     these crises. Partly, because of the high tolerance level 
     most Chinese held to which has to thank the Chinese culture 
     and traditions. And partly, because of their trust in the 
     myth ``Communism is China's only future''. The superstructure 
     of the communist regime is heavily damaged, but nevertheless 
     remains stable under this circumstance.
       Today, a specter is hovering over mainland China--
     ``Capitalism''. Communism is dead and no longer exists as a 
     belief, which used to be a vital force to its system, to the 
     Chinese in general and also the majority of communist party 
     members. Bubble economic boom achieved in the 
     ``capitalistic'' way made the superstructure of the communist 
     regime appear pretty on the outside, but its pillars are 
     heavily damaged. Looming in front of her is some huge crises 
     lurking beneath.
       The core of human rights issues in China is not to focus on 
     a handful of well-known dissidents. Western politicians and 
     scholars are always trying to find or create a Chinese 
     Sakharov or Solzhenitsyn. Understanding the Chinese culture 
     one would realize the number of Chinese intellectuals 
     possessing such necessary qualities is pitifully small. 
     Generally and historically speaking, the vast majority of 
     Chinese intellectuals, being an appendage to the ruling 
     class, will not identity themselves as such a figure. The 
     ruling class not only physically exterminates people who do 
     not go along with the party line in a thousand and one ways, 
     but also psychologically and spiritually crushes human beings 
     through ``thought reform'', so called brain-washing. 
     Intellectuals, confined by the limit of their education 
     system, have their thinking shaped by the ruling authority, 
     unknowingly assist the despotic rulers in crushing other 
     human beings in so doing.
       The core of human rights issues in China today is that 
     there is a fundamental machinery for crushing human beings 
     physically, psychologically and spiritually, called the 
     Laogai camp system, which comprises perhaps up to 3,000 
     Laogai camps (of which we have identified 1,100). It is also 
     an integral part of the national economy. Its importance is 
     illustrated by such facts that one third of China's tea is 
     produced in Laogai camps; 60% of China's rubber vulcanizing 
     chemicals are produced in a single Laogai camp in Shenyang; 
     the first chain hoist works in the country to receive direct 
     export authority is a Laogai camp in Zhejiang Province; one 
     of the largest and earliest exporters of handtools is a camp 
     in Shanghai; an unknown but significant amount of China's 
     cotton crop in grown by prisoners; one of the largest steel 
     pipe works in the country is a Laogai camp, and I could go on 
     and on and on. The reach of Laogai business was recently 
     brought to light again when it was revealed that auto 
     components from the Beijing Laogai were being used at the 
     Beijing Jeep joint venture involving Chrysler. We remember 
     several years ago, Chinese Laogai auto manufacturer did 
     propose to cooperate with Volvo, but was rejected by Volvo of 
     such a proposal.
       The Laogai system's fundamental policy is ``Forced Labor is 
     a means, while Thought Reform is our basic aim.'' The 
     communist party's economic theory holds that man is the most 
     fundamental productive force. Except for those who must 
     be exterminated physically out of political 
     considerations,'' human beings'' must be utilized as 
     ``productive forces'' with submissiveness as the 
     prerequisite. Submissiveness can be achieved through 
     violence, but psychological and spiritual submissiveness 
     are the best. The Laogai is not simply a prison system, it 
     is a political tool for maintaining the communist party's 
     totalitarian rule.
       Despite all the changes in China over the past decade two 
     things are still true: China is ruled by the Communist Party, 
     and it is not a nation of laws. China's basic political and 
     economical superstructure remains based on public ownership. 
     The peasants have no land of their own. Financial mechanism 
     is tightly controlled by the government. The vast majority of 
     basic industrial enterprises are state-owned. Capitalism 
     requires respect for individual rights but it does not exist 
     in China today. Private ownership, as we know it in the West, 
     does not exist on any meaningful scale, and the Communist 
     Party, has not come to grips with the issue. Until private 
     ownership is allowed on a wide scale, real and permanent 
     economic boom will not happen. Deng's economic reform really 
     has no bearing to the fundamental problem facing China today. 
     The basic issue of the economic system which is ownership, 
     remains unresolved.
       The economic boom made possible by capitalism makes profit 
     for both the West and China. In spite of the huge profits 
     earned by China's external trade, ordinary people enjoy only 
     a pitiable part. The communist government puts most of the 
     profits into purchasing Hi-tech for upgrading its weapons 
     systems, into internal and external political activities, 
     into maintaining political stability for the nation.
       The argument that capitalism brings democracy has numerous 
     problems, not the least of which is that there are no 
     historical precedents to point to.
       Today some western merchants do business with China through 
     cooperation with communist cadre and their families seems to 
     be the best insurance to them. But, the investment risk still 
     exists because the communist regime cannot last forever.
       With the advance of senility Deng Xiaoping's role as the 
     glue of the political power is failing. In the communist 
     party's 70-year history, internal power struggle has always 
     been most sanguinary. In face of changed political belief and 
     varied demands of local forces due to varied pace of 
     economical development, the next round court struggle could 
     quite possibly result in violent surges sweeping and 
     splitting the whole nation in civil war, completely crumpling 
     production order and social order. All of these factors, and 
     many more such as corruption, the social impact of millions 
     of migrant workers, and the continued repression of religious 
     believers and peaceful dissidents, combine to make China a 
     very risky climate in which to do business even without 
     Deng's death.
       The media in the United States has never been able to 
     handle an analysis of what is happening in China particularly 
     well. This is not just confined to the complexities of 
     Chinese culture and politics, but to American policy as well.
       Take for instance, the issue of forced labor. The U.S. 
     government, principally the State Department, and the Chinese 
     government have consistently referred to ``forced labor'' as 
     ``prison labor.'' Both governments in their pronouncements, 
     and in the infamous Memorandum of Understanding on Prison 
     Labor, do not use the term ``forced labor.'' The intent of 
     this is to confuse the issue for policy purposes.
       Given the problem with crime in America, and people's 
     attitudes toward criminals, the use of the term ``prison 
     labor'' when discussing China allows the average American to 
     think a Chinese prisoner slaving in the Laogai cotton fields 
     in the Xinjiang desert foothills or in a hoist factory Laogai 
     in Zhejiang is the equivalent of a prisoner making license 
     plates in Virginia.
       Never were prisoners in the Soviet Gulag considered to be 
     in the same situation as prisoners in the United States. U.S. 
     policy towards the Soviet Union, at least when considering 
     forced labor, was dealing with truth, while in China, the 
     Laogai must be officially diminished by the U.S. government.
       The media completely ignored the Memorandum of 
     Understanding during the recent China MFN debate. Not a 
     single reporter, not one, ever called the U.S. Customs 
     Service or the State Department to question them in detail 
     about China's compliance with the MOU which was a ``must do'' 
     condition of MFN renewal.
       This led Secretary of State to certify the Chinese had 
     complied when they had not. The lie, which was repeated by 
     the President, was not questioned by any member of the media. 
     Yes, they covered the press conferences we held revealing 
     forced labor products still being imported into the United 
     States, but they never dug into the reality behind the U.S. 
     government's lackluster enforcement of the MOU, a document 
     which was designed to neutralize ``forced labor'' as an issue 
     affecting U.S. policy in China.

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