[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7812-S7814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE RIGHTS OF MAN

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, last week, my friend Tim Hutchinson, the 
Senator from Arkansas, took the floor to lend his voice to a growing 
chorus of disapproval over the state of United States-China relations. 
I commend him for his actions. While his efforts to pass a sense of the 
Senate resolution against most favored nation status for China were 
unsuccessful, his actions were the very essence of what it means to be 
a leader. He set out to achieve noble aspirations, and then dedicated 
his energies to achieve those objectives. Leadership is ascertaining 
noble objectives and working hard, intently and sacrificially. Such 
efforts push us toward our highest and best. The highest and best to 
which Senator Hutchinson called us is an end to which we must all 
aspire.
  Teddy Roosevelt said it this way:

       Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious 
     triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank 
     with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer 
     much because they live in the gray twilight that knows 
     neither victory nor defeat.

  Twenty-two Members of the Senate had the courage to say that the 
tainted flow of Western currency into China must end, not because the 
exchange of goods between sovereign nations is injurious, but because 
we have in China today a ruthless regime that does not deserve 
unfettered access to United States markets, a regime whose brutal 
repression at home betrays its intentions abroad.
  America is a place that has cared always for what Thomas Paine called 
the ``rights of man.'' The United States has always been a country that 
gave no quarter to tyranny or tyrants. Teddy Roosevelt put it a bit 
differently, cautioning that America must not become ``an assemblage of 
well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond.''
  But, Mr. President, does not the vote on the Hutchinson amendment 
suggest that Teddy Roosevelt's worst fears are being realized? For the 
message being sent from China today is as unmistakable as it is 
disturbing. Beijing believes that life is cheap and cheaper still when 
that life opposes the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party.
  The State Department, in its most recent human rights report, states 
that ``all public dissent against the party and government was 
effectively silenced'' in China. ``No dissidents were known to be 
active at year's end.'' Beijing has used imprisonment, exile, and 
summary execution to quiet the voices of those who cry for freedom.
  China's 1982 Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech, the 
press, and religious belief. And yet, the hollowness of that document 
becomes more apparent with every passing day. Chinese authorities 
routinely resort to torture, the denial of due process, forced 
confessions, prison labor, and extrajudicial killings to crush Chinese 
citizens who stand up for liberty and defy Beijing.
  As Nina Shea notes in ``The Lion's Den,'' China has more Christians 
in prison because of religious activities than any other nation. This 
morning's New York Times detailed a State Department report due to be 
issued today--and I have a copy of it here--which is sharply critical 
of Beijing's efforts to suppress religious worship. The

[[Page S7813]]

report, which is entitled, ``U.S. Policy in Support of Religious 
Freedom,'' says, ``The Government of China has sought to restrict all 
actual religious practice to government-subsidized religious 
organizations and registered places of worship.''
  The report goes on to detail the story of four underground Roman 
Catholic bishops who have been imprisoned or detained. They are not 
alone. Many other Catholic priests, the Times notes, ``have been 
searched by government agents and their religious articles have been 
seized.''
  Consider the case of Bishop Su. Hung from the ceiling by his wrists, 
Su was battered time and again about the head until all but 
unconscious. He was then placed in a cell filled with water where he 
was left for days unable to sit or to sleep. His high crime? His 
treason? A fidelity to God and a desire to exercise that devotion.
  It is true that the official Catholic Church in China is registered 
with the Government and claims as many as 4 million members. However, 
the official church does not recognize the authority of the Pope, so 
all Vatican-affiliated Catholics are viewed by Beijing as unregistered. 
Moreover, as the State Department report suggests, ``Communist Party 
officials state that party membership and religious belief are 
incompatible,'' placing a serious limitation on believers.
  And who, Mr. President, will denounce the mounting persecutions of 
Christians in China? The administration has not made a sound. Well, I 
would respectfully remind them that to sin by silence when one should 
protest makes cowards out of all men.

  America must not trade civil liberty for the false idol of foreign 
commerce. We must be willing not just to sound historic, but we must 
pursue policies which are historically sound. We must be willing to 
condemn religious persecution both in China and around the world.
  The disturbing trends revealed in the State Department report due 
today are not without precedent. In June 1996, the Far Eastern Economic 
Review reported that ``Chinese police had destroyed at least 15,000 
unregistered temples, churches and tombs'' in the Zheijang province 
alone in just 5 months. Those church leaders who dared to resist were 
tortured, beaten, and killed.
  Is it any wonder then that the future of Hong Kong has been the 
subject of great concern. At the beginning of this month, all eyes were 
turned toward the British colony as it reverted to Chinese control. I 
sincerely hope that our eyes will remain focused there, for constant 
vigilance is the key to exposing and resisting Chinese encroachment on 
freedom in the former colony.
  Although China wants Hong Kong to remain a vibrant financial center 
and serve as an example for unification with Taiwan, Beijing has not 
hesitated to undermine Hong Kong's political autonomy in spite of its 
pledge in the 1984 joint declaration to honor one country, two systems.
  China has declared the elected Hong Kong Legislature invalid and has 
appointed a hand-picked provisional legislative body. China's appointed 
chief executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee-hwa, promises that new 
elections will be held in 1998 but has drawn the electoral districts to 
limit the influence of Martin Lee's Democratic Party.
  Mr. Tung has recently unveiled new measures to restrict civil 
liberties in Hong Kong. Public protests will have to receive prior 
approval and could be banned to protect so-called ``national 
security.'' Political organizations will be required to register with 
the government and prohibited from seeking or receiving funds from 
overseas sources. Under Tung's definition, international organizations 
that expose China's human rights abuses will also be banned from 
receiving foreign funds.
  Unfortunately, the administration's Hong Kong policy has been about 
self-preservation rather than promoting self-government. Political 
activist Martin Lee got a hero's welcome on Capitol Hill, but the 
administration met only reluctantly with Lee. Vice President Gore 
conveniently forgot Hong Kong on his recent trip to China, and much to 
the dismay of Martin Lee and other Hong Kong Democrats, Consul General 
Richard Boucher attended the inaugural ceremony of China's hand-picked 
legislature--the legislature which replaced the freely elected body 
that Martin Lee had worked so hard to preserve.
  Mr. President, the preservation of liberty for the 6.3 million people 
in Hong Kong is about more than the immediate fate of its residents. 
The battle for civil liberty in Hong Kong could very well be the battle 
for civil liberty in China. As George Will has written, China has just 
swallowed ``a radioactive isotope'' of Western culture in taking over 
Hong Kong. Hong Kong serves as a shining example of democracy and free 
market economics, and the effective removal of that model would set 
back the march of freedom in China.
  In a world that is increasingly open and free, there still exist 
totalitarian governments which cling to political repression and deny 
their people the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. 
Beijing claims that the Chinese people are more concerned about social 
cohesion and domestic order than the growth of civil liberty--that 
Western democracy is a Western phenomenon and not necessarily 
applicable to China, that it is somehow foreign to Far Eastern culture.
  But what does Beijing think about the growth of democracy in Taiwan, 
Japan, and South Korea? How do China's leaders explain away the deaths 
of perhaps thousands of students who were willing to risk everything 
for liberty in Tiananmen Square? How does Beijing respond to heroes 
like Wei Jingsheng and Harry Wu who continue to fight against 
oppression in spite of intimidation, imprisonment, and torture? 
Troublingly, Beijing cannot answer these questions. Tragically, these 
are questions that the West is often afraid to ask.

  Mr. President, I look forward to a U.S. foreign policy that calls the 
community of nations to their highest and best. America for her part 
must be willing to stand for freedom as she has since her first days. 
When the Chinese people eventually rid themselves of Beijing's 
tyrannical leadership and embrace democracy, just as South Korea, 
Japan, and Taiwan have done before them, let it be said that America 
stood with them, stood with them and for them in their cause for 
freedom.
  Despite the troubling revelations of the State Department report and 
the defeat of the Hutchinson amendment last week, I believe that we 
must continue to press on. Teddy Roosevelt was right; it is hard to 
fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. The right of man 
to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield is at the core of what 
individual liberty and dignity means, and it is at the core of the 
values we regard highly in America. It is a message of hope and calls 
this country to its highest and best. It is a message that America must 
proclaim if the coming century is to be defined by the growth of 
liberty and not surrendered to those who would stifle freedom.
  China has been abusive to its own citizens and signals an ominous 
cloud over the Far East, a cloud whose poison could spread well beyond 
its own borders and taint the opportunity for freedom around the world. 
China's total disregard for religious liberty, China's contempt for the 
liberty of individuals in the political system, and China's willingness 
to require the registration of religious groups whose members would 
worship God freely without subservience to the government, signals to 
us the need for America to stand up clearly--not as an enemy to the 
Chinese but as a friend of those people who seek liberty from tyrants.
  I believe the Chinese people seek liberty and will respond 
constructively to freedom just as people around the world have wherever 
the grace of freedom has been made available to them. The United States 
can no longer suggest that we might cease to be the city on a hill 
whose light is a beacon for freedom. We have a responsibility to 
maintain the commitment to freedom that those who began this Nation 
had, and I submit that it is time for us to signal our commitment to 
freedom clearly and unmistakably to those who would enter the community 
of nations. China seeks and wants to enter that community, and the 
United States must speak clearly to China about the rights of man we 
have always defended. I think it is time for the United States to have 
its voice heard and to be a contributor to the cause of liberty and 
freedom around the globe.

[[Page S7814]]

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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