[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 116 (Friday, September 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H6957-H6959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[[Page H6957]]
TIBET--A FIRST-HAND LOOK
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to have this
time.
I recently returned from a journey to Tibet where I visited during
the period of August 9-13 this summer, accompanied by a member of my
staff and another Western man who was fluent in Tibetan and steeped in
the culture. At no time while I was there did I tell the Tibetan and
Chinese Government that I was a Member of Congress. I wanted to just
kind of bring the body up to date on some of the things that we had an
opportunity to see.
At the outset, one of the first things I would show the Members is a
picture of a monastery in ruins. The Chinese Government has ruined
several thousand monasteries and is trying to eradicate the Buddhist
faith.
The second picture is a picture of an individual who was showing us a
picture of the Dalai Lama. It is against the law to have a picture of
the Dalai Lama and to show a picture of the Dalai Lama.
The next picture is a picture of the Potala and then the marketplace.
Around the marketplace, the Chinese are bulldozing a lot of the
buildings and turning what was a Tibetan culture into a Chinese
culture.
This next picture is of a guard tower. If there is one growth
industry in Tibet, it is prisons. It is a guard tower of the Sangyip
prison complex. We went out and visited a number of prisons outside to
take pictures.
The last picture is the main gate of the Drapchi prison, which is a
particularly brutal place that we heard stories of terrible, terrible
punishment and types of torture that are really almost beyond the
imagination.
An approved delegation would have been very difficult to have been
there because the Chinese have a history of denying Members of Congress
who want to visit, visit Tibet. I cannot think of any other place in
the world where a tighter lid is kept on open discussion. Government
agents and spies and video cameras guard against personal outside
contact. Offenders and even suspected offenders are dealt with quickly
and brutally.
In Tibet, humane progress is not even inching along and the repressed
people live under unspeakably brutal conditions in the dim shadows of
international awareness. One of the purposes of the trip is so that the
world will know and will have to face and have to address, and the
Clinton administration, which will be meeting with the President of
China at the end of next month, will have to confront and address the
horrible situation that is taking place in Tibet. We hope that when the
American people know and when the Clinton administration knows that
they will demand that China change its policy of boot-heel subjugation
and end what one monk I met termed ``cultural genocide.''
What they mean by cultural genocide is the Chinese are coming in and
stripping the Tibetan society of its culture and trying to turn it into
a Chinese society. The fact is Lhasa, the capital, is really no longer
a Tibetan city. It is more a Chinese city than it is a city from Tibet.
We found that the People's Republic of China has a near perfect
record of vicious, immediate, and unrelenting reprisal against the
merest whisper of Tibetan dissent. We met with monks and men and women
on the streets and others who I may say risked their personal safety
and well-being to just give us a few minutes alone to tell us how bad
the conditions are in Tibet and to petition and urge that there be
support from the West.
Tibet is about the geographic size of Western Europe with a Tibetan
population of around 6 million. It has been estimated that in the past
2 decades, nearly 1 million Tibetans have been killed, starved, or
tortured. That is 1 million out of roughly 6 million have been killed
under the occupation of the People's Republic of China, of the Chinese
Government. Let me just say that the Clinton administration ought to
make it perfectly clear that 5 million Tibetans are of no danger to 1.2
billion Chinese. Tibet is about the geographic size of Western Europe
with a population, as I said, anywhere from 5 to 6 million. The
People's Republic of China has undertaken a program of mass infusion of
Chinese people who probably now outnumber Tibetans in their own
country. There are no valid census data, but some estimate that in the
capital of Lhasa there are about 160,000 Chinese and only 100,000
Tibetans.
In this market, many places would be Tibetan merchants but
interspersed would be Chinese merchants. But yet when we went into the
parts of town that were Chinese, there would be almost no Tibetans and
the stores and the karaoke bars and different things like that would be
all over the place. We have seen that change, the startling change that
is taking place by the stripping away of the culture. Stores, hotels
and bazaars and businesses and tradesmen are largely Chinese.
Storefront signs bear large Chinese writings beneath much smaller
Tibetan inscriptions. Driving out from Lhasa, one encounters as many
Chinese villagers, shepherds, farmers, construction workers, and
travelers as Tibetan. In short, Tibetan culture is rapidly
disappearing.
What do the Tibetan people say? Before my trip, I was told that
individuals would seek me out, an obvious Westerner, visitor, to hear
their story. I might say at no time did I ever tell anyone in Tibet
that spoke to me or anyone else that I was a Member of Congress. I was
told that it would be very dangerous for them, that informers were
everywhere and being caught talking to a Westerner was a guaranteed
ticket to prison and more. Frankly I was skeptical that anyone would
approach us and yet I was wrong. Someone took advantage at almost every
opportunity for a guarded word or two.
During our first encounter with a Tibetan who realized we were
Westerners and one of us was fluent in Tibetan, we found that he could
not contain himself. He said, ``Many are in jail, most for political
reasons.'' We saw the Drapchi prison which is off the beaten path in a
slum area. Guards in pairs were ever present as we showed in the photo.
We saw the Sangyip prison complex, which I also put in the photo and
then Gusta prison.
As I said, prisons certainly appear to be a growth industry in that
area. We were told that Tibetans would not take chances, and yet they
did take chances. The man went on to tell us that it was important that
we see these places. He did not care and he wanted us to see what a
nightmare tour this was going to be. We passed the main security
bureau, the intelligence headquarters, and then the prison bureau, each
heavily guarded. All the while, we heard about monks and nuns and
common men and women who were dragged away to prison and tortured. He
said to us, ``Don't worry about me at all,'' and continued to tell
about the torture that was taking place of Tibetan monks and nuns and
the Tibetan people.
{time} 1515
They are routinely beaten with sticks, kicked and poked with electric
sticks, cattle prods with huge electric charge. Political prisoners are
isolated from the general prison population and kept in unlighted and
unheated areas with no sanitary or medical facilities, almost no food
or water at times. He added that the people have no rights. They cannot
talk freely.
Even though Tibetans view the Dalai Lama as their spiritual and
political leader, they are forbidden to show their affection and love
for him, and possessing a picture of the Dalai Lama could be an offense
which could draw harsh and brutal punishment and imprisonment.
He went on to say, ``We Tibetans must have permission from the
Chinese to do everything, and we can do nothing on our own.'' So when
Clinton gets the opportunity to meet their President, when our
President meets their President, he should make the issue of the
Tibetan people a priority issue, not privately, but publicly; not
behind the scenes, but in front of the scenes.
Strangely enough, strangely enough, the Chinese Government officials
have gotten to visit the White House to meet with the President, and
yet when the Dalai Lama came, they had what they called a ``drop-by,''
where the President dropped by another office,
[[Page H6958]]
but would not see him in the Oval Office, as he did some of the people
from China.
Why should the Tibetan people have to go through and suffer under
this type of oppression? The Dalai Lama has asked for help. They have
asked a number of Western countries for help, and a number of Western
countries are helping.
All of this story that I was telling came from one man. The agony,
the agony of his people, the agony of his family. Yet he ended by
saying, ``I am not afraid. Some day the sun will again shine in
Tibet.'' And throughout we found overwhelming support for the Dalai
Lama by every single Tibetan that we talked to.
Yet, if you read the Chinese newspapers, they give the impression
that the Dalai Lama is not supported. Quite frankly, the PRC Government
is wrong, and the people of Tibet support the Dalai Lama.
On the issue of religious persecution, next week this body will hold
hearings on a piece of legislation introduced by about 115 members of
this body, Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals,
Independents, across the board, which will set up a special office in
the White House to look at the religious persecution.
As many people know, there are perhaps more Christians being
persecuted today than at maybe any other time in the history of this
country in so many other countries, and last year this Congress proudly
put the Congress on record to deal with the issue of the persecution of
people of faith of whatever faith. And one of the faiths that we
discussed in the last Congress, and we will deal with in this
legislation, will be those of the Buddhists in Tibet.
We visited numerous monasteries where monks and nuns would talk to
us. Their stories amplified what we had already learned. Every
monastery we visited was tightly controlled by a small group of Chinese
overseers, who have a cadre to report. And how would you like to have a
cadre at your church, a cadre at your synagogue, a cadre at your
mosque? Why does the Chinese Government have to put cadres at all the
monasteries in Tibet?
I call on the government to demonstrate that they should withdraw and
pull these people out, whereby these Buddhist monks and nuns can
worship without having Chinese overseers watching everything that they
do.
Every report we heard told of a dramatic reduction in the number of
monks at the monasteries. Many were imprisoned for not turning their
backs on the Dalai Lama. It would almost be like somebody asking you to
deny something, to deny your family, to deny your mother, to deny your
father; and they refuse to deny them, and thereby they are taken away
to prison.
Many are in prison for not turning their backs on the Dalai Lama, or
even refusing to give up the pictures of him.
Young monks, some under 15, are turned out, and since the Cultural
Revolution, many monasteries have been destroyed. Rebuilding, although
there is some rebuilding, rebuilding has been painfully, painfully
slow.
We were told on several occasions that the monks are afraid. When
asked what message they would like me to take back to America, I was
told that they are not allowed in many cases to practice their religion
and that their people are suffering. Their biggest hope is to be free,
free to practice their faith, free to travel, free to teach their
children their culture.
My goodness, how does that harm China? Under the Chinese
constitution, under their constitution that they sometimes will refer
to, Tibet ought to have the freedom whereby they can do these things.
They want the opportunity to be free.
At one place we met a woman at worship. When she realized we were
Americans, she burst forth. She started to talk and then began to sob
and tears poured down her face as she told us of the conditions.
She said ``Lhasa may be beautiful on the outside, but inside it is
ugly. We are not allowed to practice what we want to practice. Senior
monks are gone, and there are no replacements, and they are our
teachers.''
Asked for a message to America, she said, ``Please help us, please
help the Dalai Lama. When there is pressure from the West,'' and I
would urge this administration that has not put pressure, and she said,
``Many times when there is pressure from the West, things loosen up a
bit before returning to as before. Please have America help us.''
Every single person with whom we spoke had very positive feelings
with regard to America and with regard to the American people. We were
always given a thumbs-up or a smile with a comment, ``America is
great.''
The people would not stop talking to us, even when their safety could
have been potentially threatened. But when they knew that we were from
America, they were pleased, they smiled, because they have great
respect. They listen to Radio Free Asia and they know about America,
and they were pleased to see that somebody was going to go back and
take the word back.
The Chinese stranglehold, the Chinese assault is on the cities, the
countryside, the environment. It has been no less harsh than its
assault on the people.
What they are doing to the environment of Tibet is terrible. Tibet
areas in Lhasa are being demolished and replaced with smaller and more
confined structures, with remaining space being given over to Chinese
users. The area in front of the Potala Palace has been bulldozed and
leveled and turned into sort of a minimum or small Tiananmen Square,
with a MiG, a Chinese MiG, in the middle, like it is something that
people want to see, some MiG on stilts. All of the Tibetan buildings in
front of the Potala have been destroyed or demolished.
This is not a pretty picture. The glowing reports of progress from
Beijing or Shanghai, where business is booming and skyscrapers may be
rising and industry and education perhaps is increasing, have certainly
not reached Tibet. It has not reached Tibet.
I am not connecting this to the issue of MFN and everything else, but
I have heard Members say that conditions were improving in China, and
they actually had laptop computers and things were wonderful. Those
conditions, if they exist, have not reached Tibet.
America and the rest of the free world should help and urge China to
back off from its clear goal to plunder Tibet. The true story of Tibet
is not being told, aside from a few courageous journalists. Many times
people in the political process can complain about the press.
I say, as Thomas Jefferson said, ``God bless the free press, because
if the press were not going in and covering many of these cases, the
world would not know about it.''
So the press, whenever they can get in, are attempting to tell the
story, but the Chinese Government will not allow the press in.
The U.S. Government's policy seems many times to be based on
economics, to open more and more markets with China and to ignore every
other aspect of responsible behavior. Men cannot live by bread alone,
and economic growth, while it is important, is not the main thing in
life. Also, the spiritual aspects and the opportunity for faith are
important, and the United States Government and President Clinton, when
he meets with the Chinese, should raise this issue.
The clock is ticking. The clock is ticking for Tibet. If nothing is
done, a country, its people, its religion, its culture, will continue
to grow fainter and fainter and could one day disappear. That would
indeed be a tragedy.
Based on the observations, I will submit a complete copy of the
report for the Record at the summation of these comments, here are some
of the observations and recommendations.
First, the administration must appoint a special representative for
Tibet who will both understand the conditions there and who will
aggressively pursue improvements. The person that they should appoint
for Tibet should be someone like Richard Holbrook, somebody who is
strong and knows the issue, somebody who speaks out, somebody like
that, and not somebody who will just go along and get along and not do
anything.
Second, the administration should raise with the People's Republic of
China the issue of Tibet, both before and during the forthcoming visit
by Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Washington. Efforts to obtain the
release of political prisoners must be part of that initiative. We know
of approximately 700 political prisoners that
[[Page H6959]]
are rotting away in the jails of Tibet, and these political prisoners,
their cases should be raised.
Third, efforts to open Tibet to the international press and human
rights groups must go forward. As long as the Chinese continue to
exercise power away from the public scrutiny, brutal excesses will
continue.
Asia Watch should go in. The American Red Cross, the ICRC, the Swiss
Red Cross, religious groups, different people should all ask for the
opportunity to go and visit Tibet, see if the people in Beijing are
being true when they say that Tibet is open and you can travel.
You should ask to travel. You should ask for a visa. You should ask
for a permit and see if you are able to go.
Fourth, I urge my colleagues in the House and in the Senate to make
every effort to travel to Tibet. Congressional delegations traveling
into Tibet could very well make a difference. Even though they may have
a Chinese handler with them, the very nature of an American Member of
Congress or a Western member of the parliament coming in, being there,
walking through the markets, walking through the town, being seen,
sends a message to the Tibetan people that the people of the West and
the people of the United States care.
I urge my colleagues in the House and in the Senate to adopt a
prisoner of conscience and contact the People's Republic of China time
and time again on his or her behalf.
When Perm Camp 35 in the Soviet Union existed during the dark days of
communism, we went in and met with the prisoners. The prisoners told us
they knew when a family in the United States or the West adopted them
and wrote to them. They knew about it. Sometimes the letters got to
them, sometimes they just got to the warden. If the warden knew that 10
or 20 letters a week or a day were coming in for prisoner X or Y, the
warden was careful how they treated that prisoner. If it never got to
the Perm Camp, but it got to Moscow, then the word came forth from the
Communist official, be careful what you do to prisoner X or Y.
So we in the Congress and the American people should adopt prisoners
of conscience and write to them and send them messages and try to visit
them, send them magazines, write to the Chinese Government, write to
the Chinese Embassy here in Washington, because we have to let the
world know.
If you can imagine you are in the darkest, most dingy place almost on
the Earth and nobody cares, you wonder, does anybody care? So by
adopting these prisoners of conscience, as we did in the Soviet Union
in the 1970's and 1980's, we make a difference.
Just talk to Natan Scharanski, who was so courageous, in Perm Camp
35. He knew the West was thinking of him, was praying for him, was
remembering him. He was so proud and so bold and encouraged that when
he got out of Perm Camp 35, on the bridge in Berlin going from East to
West Berlin, the Communist officials told him to walk straight across
the bridge. What did Scharanski do? He walked this way and then that
way, and he zigged and zagged, because he was a free man, and he
remembered that the people of the West stood with him, and we should
stand with the prisoners of conscience in Tibet.
Sixth, we urge a strong effort that officials from the International
Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC, and the American Bureau of
Prisons visit the Tibetan prisons to observe the condition and
treatment of prisoners and urge and push for improvements.
{time} 1530
If the Chinese want to come into our prisons, fine, let them come
into ours, and we will go into theirs.
Seventh, I urge the administration and the press for representatives
from the free world to attend the trials of Tibetans accused of
political crimes, as has been done in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
During the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe we would send an American
representative of the American Embassy who would go and sit in the
courtroom, be at the trial, which would put some restraint on the
Communist officials.
Eigth, I urge religious leaders of all denominations around the world
to pressure the Peoples Republic of China for permission to visit
Tibet.
Last, I urge the administration and others to press the Chinese
Government to engage in negotiations and in dialogue with the Dalai
Lama concerning the future of Tibet, and to give the people of Tibet
their freedom.
I close by saying to the Chinese Government, 5\1/2\ million Tibetans
are of absolutely no threat to 1.2 billion Chinese.
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