[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4378-S4379]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO WEI JINGSHENG

  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
urging the authorities in Beijing to provide immediate medical care to 
Wei Jingsheng and to end his prolonged incarceration in Chinese prison. 
Granting these requests would not only be an act of official compassion 
but it would also signal to others that the introduction of economic 
liberalism--and the remarkable economic advancements that it spawned--
is leading to improvements in internal freedom, human rights practices, 
and the quality of life in the People's Republic of China.
  Responding to our modest requests would be a positive sign that 
China, as it seeks to be more fully integrated into the global system, 
is increasingly self-confident about itself, about the image it 
projects to the rest of the world and about the role it intends to play 
in the world.
  Wei Jingsheng has spent the better part of his adult life in 
detention, in jail, and in labor camps. Most of his past 18 years have 
been spent in solitary confinement in unusually harsh conditions. His 
health has deteriorated badly and he is deprived of most normal 
privileges available to political prisoners. Those conditions and these 
deprivations would have broken the spirit of defiance in most human 
beings. Not so for Wei Jingsheng.
  Wei Jingsheng's remarkable prison letters to the Chinese leadership 
will be published today, May 13. His book, ``The Courage to Stand 
Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings,'' is a splendid 
testament to the yearning for democracy by a political dissident who 
has never experienced true freedom in a land and country that has never 
experienced true democracy or anything approximating an open society. 
His writings speak to us about the need for democratic reform at a time 
when China exhibits little internal visible dissent. There is now no 
visible political dissent in China because political dissidents have 
either gone into exile, are in prison, or have redirected their 
energies in new-found entrepreneurial enterprises.

  Mr. President, we are here today not only to laud the publication of 
Wei Jingsheng's book of letters or to urge Beijing to discard its harsh 
treatment of its leading political dissident, we are here to honor a 
true democrat. We should honor true democrats and democracy anywhere, 
and under any circumstances. We can and should promote human rights 
practices and democracy abroad just as we pursue other important 
national interests.
  Our foreign policy must express both our values and our interests. 
That is why we must continue to support the development of political 
and economic reforms abroad while endorsing those democracy-promoting 
programs undertaken by such non-government organizations as the 
National Endowment for Democracy [NED] and the Center for Democracy.
  Wei Jingsheng's current prison term expires in the year 2009 but his 
health is reportedly so poor that he may not survive until then. 
Keeping Wei Jingsheng in prison under such difficult conditions would 
be a permanent stain on China's claim that it is misunderstood by the 
rest of the world. To release this man and other prisoners of 
conscience would bring good will to China and assure the outside world

[[Page S4379]]

that China enjoys the self-confidence to change.
  I join with my colleagues in the hope that Wei Jingsheng will be 
released from prison in the very near future.
  Thank you.

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