[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 147 (Tuesday, October 28, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H9566-H9567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CELEBRATORY ATMOSPHERE SURROUNDING VISIT OF CHINA'S MILITARY LEADERS TO 
                   THE UNITED STATES IS INAPPROPRIATE

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Clinton administration will 
roll out the red carpet for the ruler of a regime that rolled out the 
tanks in Tiananmen Square. Tomorrow the Clinton administration will 
give a 21-gun salute to the heads of the Chinese military that 
proliferates weapons of mass destruction and brutally occupies Tibet. I 
do not think that that is an appropriate welcome.
  While I agree that we must engage China, that the leaders of our two 
countries must meet to discuss issues of concern, I think it is 
completely inappropriate to have such a celebratory

[[Page H9567]]

atmosphere surrounding the visit. The more appropriate auspices would 
have been a working visit President Clinton used to welcome many other 
leaders of important countries to Washington, DC.
  Tomorrow, though, Project Democracy in China, of the Independent 
Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars and the Tiananmen Memorial 
Foundation, will hold a press conference, and I join with them in their 
aspirations when they call upon the President and the United States to 
demand that China's human rights record be condemned, its prisoners of 
conscience released, and demand political reform in China.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in Lafayette Square for a protest 
rally at 12 noon in front of the White House.

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