[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 89 (Friday, May 26, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



[[Page E1138]]

   HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA THE CONTINUING STORY OF REPRESSION AND ABUSE

                                 ______


                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, we are only days away from the 
6th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre which was the Chinese 
Government's violent response to the peaceful prodemocracy 
demonstrations of students and other Chinese citizens in 1989.
  As the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement 
approaches, the Chinese Government now turns its attention to prominent 
dissidents who have petitioned the Government for greater tolerance of 
dissent. Wang Dan, one of the leaders of the 1989 movement, is among 
those who have been detained.
  The men and women who bravely stand up for human rights, democractic 
reform, and greater tolerance deserve our support and encouragement. 
They are the hope for the future of China. However, disturbing trends 
of abuse of human rights call us to realistic see the Chinese 
Government for what it is: butchers and despots who have no regard for 
human life and dignity.
  In the course of the last 2 years we have watched as human rights 
have continued to deteriorate in China. New laws which restrict 
religious activity for both the underground and Government-sponsored 
Christian were issued in January 1994.
  Recent reports confirm that the Chinese Government's attack on 
religious believers is increasing. During the Easter celebration the 
Public Security Bureau in Linchuan County arrested 40 pro-Vatican 
Catholics suspected of organizing a Mass attended by nearly 20,000 
worshipers. Eleven of these people are still being detained.
  A Protestant minister, Li Dexian, his wife, and several companions 
were arrested and detained in April while conducting a worship service. 
Pastor Li was beaten and kicked during this detention. This was the 
fourth time he was arrested in 4 months.
  And citizens of two predominantly Catholic villages in Liangshou 
County have been forced to flee their homes and go into hiding to 
escape the brutal torture by the population control officials because 
they refuse to follow the one-child-per-couple policy. They refuse to 
bow to the new population slogan of ``Better to have more graves than 
more than one child.'' The villagers report that they have been 
subjected to being hanged upside down and having their tongues burned 
with electric wires.
  The new law on maternal and infant health care enacted in October 
1994 is in actuality a eugenic law, reminiscent of the Nazi eugenic 
policies of an earlier era. This law prohibits marriage between people 
if one of them has ``a serious hereditary disease, which is medically 
deemed unsuitable for reproduction'' unless the couple would agree to 
take long-lasting contraceptive measures or give up child bearing by 
undergoing ligation.'' The law further states that when a woman is 
determined to be carrying a child that may carry ``serious
 hereditary diseases * * * or have a serious deformity,'' the pregnancy 
should be terminated.

  Dr. John Aird, former Chief of the China Branch at the U.S. Census 
Bureau, said ``Coercion in the Chinese family planning program has in 
the past 2 years reached its second extreme peak approaching or perhaps 
exceeding the levels of 1983.''
  Couples have no right to determine the number and spacing of their 
children. Those that choose to violate the one-child-per-couple policy 
may be hunted down like animals. Women are forced to abort their 
babies, many are sterilized. Those that do have a second or third child 
are usually subjected to loss of jobs and property, harassment, and 
fines that far exceed their income.
  Another area of concern is the extensive prison labor system which 
exists in China. No other system like it exists in the world today. It 
is the most extensive forced-labor system in the world, and this system 
has destroyed the lives of millions of people, and it continues to do 
so.
  When I was in China last year I met with several people who bear the 
permanent scars of years in Chinese prison labor camps. I heard their 
stories of beating and torture and saw for myself the broken bodies 
which these camps create.
  New, disturbing evidence that prisoners are being executed so their 
body parts can be sold for transplants is now coming to light. There 
are even reports that some prisoners are having their kidneys removed 
before they are dead. Harry Wu, himself a survivor of the prison labor 
system has documented this body trafficking practice on film. How much 
more do we need to see before we are convinced that the Chinese 
Government has no concern for human life whatsoever?
  Concern for human rights in China has been virtually ignored by the 
Clinton administration since last year's renewal of MFN. Official after 
official has traveled to China and human rights has not been on their 
agenda.
  Mr. Clinton has an opportunity to lessen the damage done by extending 
MFN at the cost of human rights when he attends the G-7 meeting in Nova 
Scotia on June 15. I join my colleagues in urging the President to 
raise the deterioration of human rights in China at this meeting.
  But should he forget the dissidents, the prisoners, the tortured, the 
abused, the murdered, we Members of Congress will not. The Subcommittee 
on Foreign Operations and Human Rights, which I chair, has held two 
hearings on human rights abuses in China. The first on the Laogai 
prison labor system, the second on the coercive population control 
policies. These were the first hearings of their kind to be held by a 
congressional committee. Future hearings will focus on other forms of 
human rights abuse in China.
  The Chinese people who value freedom, democracy, and human rights 
deserve our support.


                          ____________________