[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H10080-H10094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PROVIDING FOR CERTAIN MEASURES TO INCREASE MONITORING OF PRODUCTS OF 
           PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA MADE WITH FORCED LABOR

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 302, I call up 
the bill (H.R. 2195) to provide for certain measures to increase 
monitoring of products of the People's Republic of China that are made 
with forced labor, and ask for its immediate consideration in the 
House.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hastings). The bill is considered read 
for amendment.
  The text of H.R. 2195 is as follows:

                               H.R. 2195

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Laogai Slave Labor Products 
     Act of 1997''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       The Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The People's Republic of China operates and maintains 
     an extensive forced labor camp system--the Laogai.
       (2) The Laogai is made up of more than 1,100 forced labor 
     camps, with an estimated population of 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 
     prisoners.
       (3) In one part of the Laogai system, known as laojiao, or 
     reeducation-through-labor, Chinese citizens can be detained 
     for up to 3 years without any judicial review or formal 
     appearance in the judicial system.
       (4) The Laogai is an integral sector of the export economy 
     of the People's Republic of China and is engaged in the 
     export to the United States of the goods made by forced 
     labor.
       (5) The Government of the People's Republic of China 
     actively promotes the forced labor camps by employing a 
     system of dual names for the camps to deceive the 
     international community.
       (6) The United States Customs Service has taken formal 
     administrative action banning the importation of 27 different 
     products found to have been made in the Laogai.
       (7) Despite the fact that the People's Republic of China 
     has entered into binding agreements with the United States 
     (the 1992 Memorandum of Understanding on Prison Labor, and 
     the 1994 Statement of Cooperation on the Implementation of 
     the Memorandum of Understanding on Prison Labor) to allow 
     inspections of its forced labor camps to determine the 
     origins of suspected Laogai imports to the United States, the 
     People's Republic of China has frustrated the implementation 
     of these agreements.
       (8) The State Department's Human Rights Country Reports in 
     1995 and 1996 each stated, ``Repeated delays in arranging 
     prison labor site visits called into question Chinese 
     intentions regarding the implementation of'' the two 
     agreements referred to in paragraph (7).
       (9) Concerning the ability of the United States Customs 
     Service to identify Communist Chinese products that originate 
     in the Laogai, Commissioner of Customs George J. Weise stated 
     in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 
     May 22, 1997: ``We simply do not have the tools within our 
     present arsenal at Customs to gain the timely and in-depth 
     verification that we need.''.

     SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL CUSTOMS AND STATE 
                   DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL TO MONITOR EXPORTATION OF 
                   SLAVE LABOR PRODUCTS BY THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC 
                   OF CHINA.

       There are authorized to be appropriated for monitoring by 
     the United States Customs Service and the Department of State 
     of the exportation by the People's Republic of China to the 
     United States of products made with slave labor, the 
     importation of which violates section 307 of the Tariff Act 
     of 1930 or section 1761 of title 18, United States Code, 
     $2,000,000 for fiscal year 1998 and $2,000,000 for fiscal 
     year 1999.

     SEC. 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENT ON EXPORTATION OF SLAVE LABOR 
                   PRODUCTS BY THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

       (a) Report to Congress.--Not later than 1 year after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, 
     the Commissioner of Customs and the Secretary of State shall 
     each prepare and transmit to the Congress reports on the 
     manufacturing and exportation of products made with slave 
     labor in the People's Republic of China.
       (b) Contents of Report.--Each report under subsection (a) 
     shall include information concerning the following:
       (1) The extent of the use of slave labor in manufacturing 
     products for exportation by the People's Republic of China, 
     as well as the volume of exports of such slave labor products 
     by that country.
       (2) The progress of the United States Government in 
     identifying products made with slave labor in the People's 
     Republic of China that are destined for the United States 
     market in violation of section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 
     or section 1761 of title 18, United States Code, and in 
     stemming the importation of those products.

[[Page H10081]]

     SEC. 5. RENEGOTIATION OF THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON 
                   PRISON LABOR WITH THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 
                   CHINA.

       It is the sense of the Congress that, since the People's 
     Republic of China has substantially frustrated the purposes 
     of the 1992 Memorandum of Understanding with the United 
     States on Prison Labor, the President should immediately 
     commence negotiations to replace the current Memorandum of 
     Understanding on Prison Labor with one providing for 
     effective monitoring of forced labor in the People's Republic 
     of China, without restrictions on which prison labor camps 
     international monitors may visit.
                                 
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 302, the 
committee amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the bill 
is adopted.
  The text of the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute is 
as follows:

                               H.R. 2195

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

       The Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The United States Customs Service has identified goods, 
     wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or 
     manufactured under conditions of convict labor, forced labor, 
     and indentured labor in several countries.
       (2) The United States Customs Service has actively pursued 
     attempts to import products made with forced labor, resulting 
     in seizures, detention orders, fines, and criminal 
     prosecutions.
       (3) The United States Customs Service has taken 21 formal 
     administrative actions in the form of detention orders 
     against different products destined for the United States 
     market, found to have been made with forced labor, including 
     products from the People's Republic of China.
       (4) The United States Customs Service does not currently 
     have the tools to obtain the timely and in-depth verification 
     necessary to identify and interdict products made with forced 
     labor that are destined for the United States market.

     SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL CUSTOMS PERSONNEL TO 
                   MONITOR THE IMPORTATION OF PRODUCTS MADE WITH 
                   FORCED LABOR.

       There are authorized to be appropriated for monitoring by 
     the United States Customs Service of the importation into the 
     United States of products made with forced labor, the 
     importation of which violates section 307 of the Tariff Act 
     of 1930 or section 1761 of title 18, United States Code, 
     $2,000,000 for fiscal year 1999.

     SEC. 3. REPORTING REQUIREMENT ON FORCED LABOR PRODUCTS 
                   DESTINED FOR THE UNITED STATES MARKET.

       (a) Report to Congress.--Not later than 1 year after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of 
     Customs shall prepare and transmit to the Congress a report 
     on products made with forced labor that are destined for the 
     United States market.
       (b) Contents of Report.--The report under subsection (a) 
     shall include information concerning the following:
       (1) The extent of the use of forced labor in manufacturing 
     products destined for the United States market.
       (2) The volume of products made with forced labor, destined 
     for the United States market, that is in violation of section 
     307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 or section 1761 of the title 
     18, United States Code, and is seized by the United States 
     Customs Service.
       (3) The progress of the United States Customs Service in 
     identifying and interdicting products made with forced labor 
     that are destined for the United States market.

     SEC. 4. RENEGOTIATING MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING ON FORCED 
                   LABOR.

       It is the sense of the Congress that the President should 
     determine whether any country with which the United States 
     has a memorandum of understanding with respect to reciprocal 
     trade which involves goods made with forced labor is 
     frustrating implementation of the memorandum. Should an 
     affirmative determination be made, the President should 
     immediately commence negotiations to replace the current 
     memorandum of understanding with one providing for effective 
     procedures for the monitoring of forced labor, including 
     improved procedures to request investigations of suspected 
     prison labor facilities by international monitors.

     SEC. 5. DEFINITION OF FORCED LABOR.

       As used in this Act, the term ``forced labor'' means 
     convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor, as such 
     terms are used in section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
       Amend the title so as to read: ``A bill to provide for 
     certain measures to increase monitoring of products that are 
     made with forced labor.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 302, the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Crane] and the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Matsui] each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Crane].


                             General Leave

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to 
include extraneous material on H.R. 2195.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2195, a bill to authorize $2 
million of appropriations for fiscal year 1999 for the U.S. Customs 
Service to increase the monitoring and interdiction of products made 
with forced labor.
  The funds authorized by H.R. 2195 will allow the Customs Service to 
enforce two important provisions in the law regarding forced labor 
products. The Tariff Act of 1930 prohibits the importation of goods, 
wares, articles, and merchandise which are produced, mined, or 
manufactured with the use of forced, convict, or indentured labor. 
Title 18 provides criminal penalties for those who willfully violate 
these prohibitions.
  It has been long-standing U.S. policy to prohibit the importation of 
merchandise made under conditions of forced labor. To show that there 
is no doubt about our resolve to enforce this prohibition, H.R. 2195, 
as amended, would reemphasize U.S. policy by authorizing additional 
resources for the U.S. Customs Service to identify and interdict 
products made with forced labor by providing a new mechanism for 
monitoring compliance with the law and by enhancing enforcement of 
international agreements.
  Customs already has in place teams of special agents on our borders 
working actively to prohibit the importation of forced labor products. 
Customs also has 76 special agents and 26 embassies and consular 
offices abroad, including three attaches assigned to the U.S. embassy 
in Beijing. The investigations conducted by these teams have led to 
criminal proceedings, more than 20 detention orders, and 6 findings of 
prohibited forced labor importations relating to chain hoists, tea, 
electric fans, machine presses, zinc-coated wire, artificial flowers, 
and malleable iron pipe.
  H.R. 2195 will authorize additional resources for Customs to conduct 
these investigations and is consistent with our country's historically 
strong position on this issue. This approach is consistent with 
historical U.S. trade policy objectives. And on that basis, I urge my 
colleagues to support the bill, as amended.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2195, as amended and reported 
by the Committee on Ways and Means by voice vote. I was a cosponsor of 
the amendment proposed by the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer] to 
authorize an additional appropriation of $2 million in fiscal year 1999 
for the Customs Service to monitor importation of products made with 
forced, indentured, or convict labor.
  The bill, as amended, also requires Customs to report to Congress 
within 1 year on products made with forced labor destined for the U.S. 
market and on the efforts by Customs to prevent their importation. 
Importation of products made by convict, forced, or indentured labor in 
any country is prohibited under trade law in effect since 1980. The 
issue is not whether the United States permits importation of products 
made with forced labor. Customs has actively pursued and taken actions 
against attempted importation of products made with forced labor, 
including products from China. However, identification, verification, 
and interdiction of products made with forced labor is not an easy 
task.
  H.R. 2195, as amended, addresses concerns that Customs has 
insufficient resources to enforce the import prohibition adequately. 
The bill treats this problem in a balanced, generic way by applying the 
additional resources through enforcement of existing laws against 
imports made by forced labor wherever they may originate rather than 
targeting one country as in the bill as introduced.
  Finally, this bill, as amended, expresses the sense of the Congress 
that the President should determine whether any country with which we 
have a memorandum of understanding regarding trade involving goods made 
with

[[Page H10082]]

forced labor is frustrating the implementation of that memorandum of 
understanding. If that is the case, the President should negotiate a 
new MOU that provides effective monitoring procedures.
  H.R. 2195, as amended, is very worthwhile, Mr. Speaker, and it 
addresses a very serious problem. I urge its passage.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New 
York [Mr. Gilman].
  (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of this 
important measure introduced by our colleague the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Smith], as modified and reported out of the Committee on 
Ways and Means.
  For the past half century, the import of convict made goods has been 
banned under our laws, yet products made in China's vast network of 
slave labor camps, the infamous Laogai, continue to flow into our 
country. This measure authorizes $2 million in additional funds for 
Customs Service personnel to monitor the import of slave labor products 
from these camps and strengthen our monitoring procedures for 
international visits to these camps.
  Laogai survivor, Harry Wu, has estimated that some 50 million Chinese 
men and women have passed through these camps, of whom some 15 million 
are thought to have perished. Today, between 6 to 8 million people are 
captive in 1,100 camps of the Laogai, forced to work under degrading 
and inhuman conditions.
  Mr. Speaker, according to Mr. Wu, this slave labor system operates 
some 140 export enterprises selling to over 70 nations, including our 
own Nation. These camps produce a wide range of key commodities as well 
as a huge array of consumers goods, including toys, flowers, and yes, 
even Christmas lights.
  Despite several binding agreements entered into with China in 1992 
and 1994, international monitors have been denied access to these camps 
and their exports have been disguised using false names and invoices. 
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 22, 
1997, Customs Commissioner George Weise stated that, ``We simply do not 
have the tools within our present arsenal of Customs to gain the timely 
and in-depth verification that we need of these camps.''
  Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support this measure and give 
the Customs Service the tools and resources it needs to police and 
monitor the imports of goods for this Chinese gulag and slave labor 
camps.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Massachusetts [Mr. Neal].
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Matsui] for yielding me the time.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2195, legislation to provide 
for the increased monitoring of products made with forced labor. The 
Committee on Ways and Means has made several improvements to the bill. 
This legislation provides certain measures to increase the ability of 
the U.S. Customs Service to identify, monitor, and interdict products 
made with forced labor that are headed for the United States market. It 
authorizes $2 million of appropriations for fiscal year 1999 for 
Customs to monitor and interdict products made with forced labor.
  This legislation also requires Customs to report within 1 year after 
the date of enactment on the extent of the use of forced labor in 
products destined for the U.S., the volume of products, and the 
progress made by Customs in identifying these products.
  Also, this legislation includes a sense of Congress that the 
President should determine whether any country with whom the United 
States has a memorandum of understanding on forced labor is frustrating 
implementation of the memorandum of understanding. If the President 
determines that the memorandum of understanding is not being 
implemented, it is the sense of Congress that the President should 
renegotiate a new memorandum of understanding.
  This legislation addresses all prison labor in China. The United 
States should not allow goods made by prison labor to be available in 
the United States market. This legislation also would provide Customs 
with the resources to detect and interdict prison goods. The United 
States should continue to be a leader on human rights issues. And by 
adopting this legislation, we are sending a strong message that 
products made by forced labor are not acceptable for sale in the United 
States.
  I realize the original focus of this bill and other bills that we 
will be debating today remain on China. However, it is important to let 
all countries know that we will not tolerate prison labor. We should 
not just enforce this standard for China.
  I urge support for this bill in order to eliminate products made by 
forced labor that are imported into the United States.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to our distinguished 
colleague the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton].
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Illinois [Mr. Crane] for yielding me the time.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by congratulating my good friend the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith] for all of his efforts in the 
area of human rights. He is one of the finest Members we have in this 
body, and he really cares about his fellow man.
  Mr. Speaker, Laogai, or ``reform through labor,'' as it translates 
from Chinese, should not be a practice by nations that surprises this 
Congress. But it should be shocking. We have seen it throughout 
history, signs on the front of Nazi prison camps that, when translated 
read ``labor makes you free.'' And now Chinese slogans in their camps 
read ``labor makes a new life.''
  The same gulags that Stalin was so proud of inspired Chairman Mao to 
launch the oppression of generations of innocent Chinese citizens, 
through a system of what we know now to be 1,100 labor camps, slave 
labor camps. As the world at one time turned its back on the victims of 
the Holocaust, so have they looked away from the prisoners of 
conscience, political dissidents, and religious believers in China. 
They are subjected to routine brainwashing, torture, and are forced to 
work for nothing in factories by the communist elite.

                              {time}  2000

  Look around at the rubber-soled shoes that we buy, the boots, the 
kitchenware, toys and sporting goods in this country. These are 
products Americans use every day, and they are produced in the Chinese 
gulags by slave laborers.
  If it were not for a great man named Harry Wu, who knows how long 
this cruel injustice would have gone unexposed. Mr. Wu knows firsthand 
what it is like to be a prisoner in these gulags. He spent 19 years in 
the system and has devoted his life to exposing the slave labor camps.
  In Mr. Wu's book Troublemaker, he gives us a glimpse of his life 
during the darkest days:
  ``I knew things were bad when they first transferred me to Camp 585, 
reserved for the most unhealthy inmates. The unmarked burying field of 
586 was adjacent so they would not have to carry us far when we died. 
When prisoners at 585 grew too weak to go out to the fields and work, 
they would lie on the floor, a pail on one side for food, a pail on the 
other side for human waste. The cook would come by with a large pail of 
something resembling soup and would dole it out with a ladle, being 
careful not to spill a drop.''
  Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Subcommittee on International 
Operations Human Rights, I believe that the United States should link 
trade and economic cooperation with human rights. The United States is 
the world's preeminent superpower, arguably the only Nation on Earth 
with both the economic might and the moral legitimacy to make the 
observance of human rights a pillar of its foreign policy. The 
unfortunate peoples of the world whose basic human rights are 
suppressed either by tyrants or failed economic experiments turn to the 
United States for hope and not cheap imports. From China to India, the 
people who suffer under such regimes understand that if America joins 
their struggle by sacrificing short-term economic gain for long-term 
justice and freedom, these regimes will die.

[[Page H10083]]

  This administration chose again this year to grant China MFN trading 
status and would rather, quote, engage China, believing that human 
rights follows trade. Every year since 1980, when President Carter 
first extended MFN to China, his supporters have been saying the same 
thing.
  Mr. Speaker, it has failed. A Clinton administration official has 
even confessed recently that, quote, frankly, on the human rights 
front, the situation has deteriorated. They are rounding up more 
dissidents and harassing them more.
  Add to this the recent revelation by Harry Wu and the ABC 
newsmagazine PrimeTime Live on the harvest and sale of human organs 
from executed prisoners, forced abortions and persecution of religious 
believers, and we must ask ourselves how could anyone morally conduct 
business with a partner like that.
  And if the morality does not strike you, what about China's sale of 
nuclear material to Iran or the purchase of American-made 
supercomputers which could design nuclear warheads for missiles capable 
of reaching the United States, or possible attempts to influence our 
1996 Presidential election?
  Some estimate our trade deficit with China to be about $60 billion on 
an annual basis. I would submit that is due to China's slave labor 
camps. It is difficult to compete against cheaper products produced by 
slaves of the Chinese dictatorship so that these goods we import from 
China become a threat to the free and fair trade of our own country.
  This administration has chosen to stand up to China only on one issue 
in the past 3 years, intellectual property rights. When the Chinese 
were faced with trading sanctions over this issue, they backed down. If 
this type of muscle from the administration is justified for the music 
industry, then it is justified for persecuted Christians, political 
dissidents, murdered infants and nuclear proliferation.
  The President's policy is not just one of engagement, it is a ``see 
no evil'' strategy. Mr. Speaker, it is time to put away the carrots and 
break out the sticks.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from 
Mississippi [Mr. Taylor].
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I made an 
analogy between the measures that are going on tonight dealing with the 
People's Republic of China and a chapter of a book entitled 365 Days, 
written by Dr. Glasser, who was a surgeon in a burn ward dealing with 
Vietnam veterans. In one of those chapters he refers to the medics of 
Vietnam who, on their own, discovered that for those soldiers who were 
so horribly wounded that they were not going to live, and there was not 
anything that the medics could do for them, they started giving them 
SweeTarts. They told them it was for the pain. The amazing thing was 
that it seemed to lessen their pain. It did not save their lives, it 
did not make them any better, but it seemed to lessen their pain.
  That is kind of what we are doing tonight. The world's greatest 
Nation is doing business with the world's greatest totalitarian regime. 
That totalitarian regime has a $40 billion trade surplus with our 
Nation. Our Nation, because we gave them most-favored-nation status, 
allows their goods, many of which are made with the slave labor 
described by the previous speakers, to come into our Nation either 
totally tariff-free or at a 2 percent tariff. One of the places they 
compete with is a glove factory in south Mississippi. That is not fair. 
In turn, when we try to sell products in their Nation, they either do 
not allow them in, or they charge anywhere from a 20 to 40 percent 
tariff on American goods. That is not fair.
  All the things we are doing tonight are very much like those 
SweeTarts. They do not save the persons we are trying to save and in 
reality do not even make them feel better. It just makes them think 
that they feel better.
  Mr. Speaker, I intend to support the bill of the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Cox] because at least it does make us feel a little bit 
better, and I intend to offer at the proper time a motion to recommit 
to include portions of a bill that I have introduced, H.R. 2814, which 
would on a quarterly basis require our Secretary of the Treasury to 
review what the People's Republic of China is charging Americans who 
seek to do business in China as far as tariffs, and on a quarterly 
basis change that amount so that we charge them what they charge us.
  If Members truly believe in free trade, like some members of both 
parties espouse, then there is only one way to get the Chinese 
attention, and that is to say we will do unto others as you do unto us, 
because the present situation of letting them have a $40 billion trade 
surplus with our Nation, unlimited access to our markets, unlimited 
access to our enemies, and let me remind the American people that the 
Silkworm missile that came within 100 yards of hitting one of our 
battleships in the Gulf War was made in China, the only way we are ever 
going to get their attention is to start hitting them in the 
pocketbook, where it will make a difference.
  Mr. Speaker, I am not given a whole lot of time to talk about this. I 
am sorry to say that many of my colleagues for one reason or another 
are not on the floor. They are probably being moved to say, well, that 
is not germane to the bill, but guess what. One of the ways you get on 
the Committee on Ways and Means is you sign some sort of a blood oath 
to be a free trader. It means you do not believe in tariffs. It means 
that other people can abuse us as much as they want to.
  This is the only opportunity the 435 Members of this House are going 
to have this year to address this horrible trade inequity and horrible 
unfairness. We all beat our brains out to get here. I do not think the 
people on the Committee on Ways and Means should have a monopoly on 
deciding trade issues. As long as we say to them that only those things 
that you think are right will come to this floor, then we will continue 
to be given limited opportunities to adjust the gross inequities in 
America's trade laws.
  Members will have that chance tonight. I hope for once we will stand 
up for the world's greatest Nation, for the voice of democracy and 
against this voice of totalitarianism.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  What I see in his bill is essentially what I offered, I think, with 
respect to Japan back in 1982, which is a two-way street bill, that we 
let the other side control the level of tariffs, and if they want to 
raise the wall, they raise it; if they want to lower it, they lower it. 
So they are motivated to be free traders or to be open traders with the 
United States and develop a two-way street with a Nation that enjoys a 
$30 billion trade surplus over the United States and that rather 
arrogantly insists on their 30 percent barriers while we pull our 
barriers down to zero. I support the gentleman's initiative.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I want to thank the chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Military Procurement of the Committee on National 
Security, someone who is more aware than most of the threat that the 
Chinese pose to our Nation, of the threatening remarks they have made 
about their missiles being able to land in our country, and all we are 
asking is for some sense of fairness in America's trade laws.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Smith].
  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2195, which has now 27 cosponsors from both sides 
of the aisle, represents a modest but important first step toward 
enforcing already existing U.S. law regarding slave-made products. 
First it authorizes $2 million in fiscal year 1999 for additional 
monitoring by the United States Customs Service for products made with 
slave labor. Second, it requires the Commissioner of Customs to report 
to Congress on the manufacture and export of products made with slave 
labor. Finally, it expresses the sense of Congress that the President 
should determine whether China is frustrating implementation of the 
memorandum of

[[Page H10084]]

understanding, and if the answer is affirmative, then he should begin 
negotiations for a new MOU with effective monitoring procedures.
  I can say parenthetically, that cannot start a moment too soon, 
because I have been watching this as chairman of the Subcommittee on 
International Operations and Human Rights for a number of years, and we 
know that despite some action that has been taken, the MOU and its 
follow-on document was flawed.
  Mr. Speaker, the bill is directed, as we know, primarily toward 
China. This is not because we are unfairly singling out China, but 
because China is far and away the biggest source of slave-made goods. 
In the words of George Weise, the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs 
Service, ``China is currently by far the country most frequently 
associated with the export of prison labor-made goods to the United 
States.''
  As a matter of fact, in the first 60 years of the existence of 
section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as amended, which provides U.S. 
Customs with its primary authority concerning the importation of 
convict or forced labor, the United States took action twice against 
products produced in a Soviet gulag and in a Mexican prison. Since 
September 1991, however, the U.S. Customs Service has banned nearly 2 
dozen Chinese products. These just represent the tip of the iceberg. 
For the Record I will submit those couple of dozen at the appropriate 
time, Mr. Speaker.
  Let me just also point out, Mr. Speaker, we have had a number of 
hearings in the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human 
Rights. As a matter of fact, back in 1995, April 3, we had the first 
hearing ever on survivors of the Laogai. We heard from Harry Wu, 
Catherine Ho; we heard from Tang Boiqiao, who was one of the protesters 
at Tiananmen Square, and they describe in absolutely riveting and 
nauseating detail what actually goes on day in and day out in the 
Laogai. It is horrific.
  They talked about using cattle prods. As a matter of fact, the 
Tibetan monk who testified before our committee, Palden Gyatso, could 
not get through Rayburn security when he came in with a cattle prod, 
and then he told us what they do with the cattle prod. We had to go 
down and escort him through. He said, this is commonplace. His teeth 
are ruined. The genitals often get inflicted with this terrible and 
hideous device, and they do that on women and on men.
  Catherine Ho talked about as a Catholic how she had been mistreated, 
and to read the words are to make you sick. That this goes on day in 
and day out, and they make products that do end up on our shelves.
  There are those who may disagree, who think this is hyperbole. Look 
at the list, and the list will grow if we demand enhanced enforcement. 
This legislation is just a modest step in demanding some additional 
enforcement.
  The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] and I have been in gulags. We 
were in a Beijing prison camp where we saw jelly shoes and socks being 
made for export. Yes, the Chinese authorities shut down that one, but 
for every one that is shut down, there are another thousand plus that 
are operating and littering the countryside of China where these things 
are made.

                              {time}  2015

  We saw 40 Tiananmen Square activists, men and women, these were men 
in this case, who put their lives on the line for democracy, who were 
slaving away for these products that were going to be sent overseas to 
the United States.
  Let me also point out, Mr. Speaker, that the lack of vigorous 
enforcement of U.S. laws against slave-made goods does not merely 
support repression within China, it also hurts American manufacturers.
  For example, at a May 22, 1997, hearing of my subcommittee, we 
received testimony from a man by the name of Peter Levy, an American 
manufacturer of office supplies. Mr. Levy, who was curious about how 
one of his competitors was able to sell certain products at such low 
prices, launched his own investigation. It led him to a prison compound 
in Nanjing, China, where his competitor's products were being assembled 
by prisoners at a Chinese gulag in Laogai, and I understand because of 
what Mr. Levy did, the United States Customs Service has now taken that 
case and is investigating that case for, hopefully, some prompt action.
  This legislation is modest, I hope everyone can support it, and I 
thank the gentleman from California [Mr. Matsui] and my good friend 
from Illinois [Mr. Crane] for their support as well.

           Chinese Convict Labor Issuances as of May 31, 1996


                            Detention Orders

       Date, products and producers:
       1. 10-03-91--Wrenches--(Shanghai Laodong Machine Works).
       2. 10-03-91--Steel Pipe--(Shanghai Laodong Steel Pipe 
     Works).
       3. 10-25-91--Hand Tools--(Shanghai Laodong Machine Works).
       4. 10-29-91--Socks--(Beijing Qinghe Knitting Mill). 
     Cancelled 12-13-93.
       5. 11-06-91--Planing Machines--(Xiangyang Machine Tool 
     Works).
       6. 11-14-91--Diesel Engines--(Yunnan Jinma Diesel Engine 
     General Works).
       7. 12-02-91--Machine Presses--(Xuzhou Forging and Pressing 
     Machinery Plant).
       8. 01-07-92--Diesel Engines & Textile Machines--(Dezhou 
     Shengjian Machine Works).
       9. 02-25-92--Galvanized Pipes--(Shandong Laiyang Heavy 
     Machine Works).
       10. 02-25-92--Tea--(Guangdong Red Star Tea Farm). Cancelled 
     09-30-94.
       11. 05-22-92--Grapes--(Beijing Qinghe Farm). Cancelled 01-
     07-94.
       12. 05-22-92--Sheepskin & Leather--(Qinghai Hide & Garment 
     Factory).
       13. 06-24-92--Hand Tools--(amends #1 and #2).
       14. 06-26-92--Cast Iron Items--(Wang Tsang Coal & Iron 
     Works).
       15. 06-26-92--Tea--(Miao Chi Tea Farm).
       16. 07-15-92--Auto Parts--(Sichuan Yaan Auto Parts Works).
       17. 07-15-92--Drilling Machines--(Sichuan Zi Gong Machine 
     Works).
       18. 07-17-92--Sulfuric (Sulphuric) Acid--(Dawei Chemical 
     Factory).
       19. 08-03-92--Electric Fans & Zinc-Coated Wire--(Sichuan 
     Xinsheng Laodong Tool Works).
       20. 08-14-92--Asbestos--(Sichuan Hsinkang Asbestos Mine).
       21. 07-08-93--Hoists--(Hangzhou Wulin Machine Works).
       22. 08-06-93--Hoists--(Wuyi Machine Works).
       23. 09-01-93--Surgical Gloves, Condoms, Rain Coats, Rubber 
     Boots--(Shenyang Xinsheng Rubber Factory).
       24. 09-03-93--Rubber Vulcanizing Accelerators--(Shenyang 
     Xinsheng Chemical Works).
       25. 12-24-94--Artificial Flowers--(Guangdong No. 1 Laojiao 
     Camp).
       26. 04-27-95--Tea--(Nanhu Laogai Camp-Nanhu Tree Farm).
       27. 10-06-95--Malleable Iron Products--(Tianjin Malleable 
     Iron Plant).
       28. 03-06-96--Iron Pipe Fitting--(Tianjin Tongbao Fitting 
     Company).
                                                                    ____


               Hearing Testimony on Chinese Prison System


  statement of tang boiqiao, former student leader of 1989 democracy 
                                movement

       Mr. Tang. My name is Tang Boiqiao and I am a former student 
     of Hunan Teachers' College. In July 1989, I was arrested by 
     the Communists because of my organizing and participating in 
     the Hunan student movement. I was held until July 1990 before 
     finally being sentenced to 3 years' detention. My crime was 
     called counterrevolutionary propagandizing and incitement.
       In October of that year, I was transferred to the Hunan 
     Province Longxi Prison for reform through labor. In January 
     1991, I was unexpectedly released from prison.
       After my release, I was again arrested because of my 
     continued involvement in the popular movements and human 
     rights activities. Following the summer of 1991, I fled 
     China. In April 1992, I entered the United States and sought 
     political asylum.
       My reason for coming here today is to share with you my 
     experiences while in the Laogai.
       I was first arrested in July 1969 in Guangdong Province, 
     after which I was held in three different detention centers 
     where I was forced to labor with my fellow prisoners. While 
     at Guangdong No. 1 Detention Center, I made toys which had 
     the words ``Made in China'' in English written on them. I was 
     allowed to eat only twice a day.
       Next, I was transferred to Changsha in Hunan and spent more 
     than a year at the Changsha No. 1 Detention Center. During 
     this time I suffered through the darkest and most hopeless 
     existence. For more than 4 months straight, I was questioned 
     about my case an average 10 hours a day in what the 
     Communists call exhaustive tactics. This Laogai forced its 
     prisoners to produce match boxes. There were no labor rewards 
     but every month the cellmates, which had the highest 
     production numbers, were given one cheap cigarette a day. The 
     police or officials forced the prisoners to work day and 
     night so that they could report increased production output 
     and receive cash incentives. We would work for at least 12 
     hours per day. The longest day was one when we worked 23\1/2\ 
     hours with a half-hour food break.
       Because I would refuse to work, the public security police 
     would often arrange for the other prisoners to abuse and beat 
     me. One day I was beaten three different times by seven or 
     eight young prisoners, two of which were convicted murderers. 
     The first time, because I was unwilling to be forced to 
     labor,

[[Page H10085]]

     they beat me until I bled from the eyes, ears, nose, and 
     mouth. The second time, because I resisted when they tried to 
     force me to kneel down, they used anything they could find in 
     the cell to beat me, including a wooden stool, heavy wooden 
     sticks and metal cups and bowls. The last time they beat me 
     while I could not move and lay on the floor hunched over.
       At this, the public security police were still not 
     satisfied, so that evening they held a struggle session and 
     ordered every prisoner in the Laogai to viciously beat me. 
     That night I developed a fever of 104 degrees, which 
     persisted for more than a week. I was unable to even sit 
     upright.
       While there were many methods used in torturing people at 
     this Laogai, the most often used tools were the electric 
     police baton and shackles. There were more than 10 kinds of 
     shackles, including thumb shackles, so-called earth shackles, 
     all kind of wrist shackles, chain shackles, chain-link 
     shackles, door frame shackles, heavy shackles and others. The 
     most simple method was to conduct a political study class 
     where the prisoners needed to attend for long periods of time 
     while shackled. I personally experienced electric shocks and 
     many kinds of shackles.
       The Laogai prisons used different types of abuse and 
     control than those of the detention centers. After I was 
     transferred to the prison, when I was first assigned to a 
     prison brigade, we were shown the three unforgettable phrases 
     that were written on the wall of the prison entrance. ``Where 
     are you? What are you? What are you to do here?''
       Later in the daily political study classes, we needed to 
     follow these questions with the responses, ``This is a 
     prison. I am a criminal. I am here to receive reform through 
     labor.'' We also had to sing three songs at the beginning of 
     every political study class. The songs were ``Socialism is 
     Good,'' ``Without the Communist Party There Would be no New 
     China'' and ``Emulate Lei Feng.'' Lei Feng was a 1950's 
     Chinese Communist martyr.
       The kind of billboard you see above the prison there has 
     these three slogans that the prisoners see when they enter 
     the prison, ``Where are you? What are you? And what are you 
     doing here?'' And the other sign there says, has the slogans, 
     ``Labor production is the way, reform is the main goal.''
       The words ``Socialism is good'' begins ``Socialism is good. 
     Socialism is good. Everyone in a socialist society is 
     improved.'' The lyrics of ``Without the Communist Party, 
     there would be no new China'' are ``Without the Communist 
     Party, There Would be no New China, the Communist Party is 
     united for the people. The Communist Party is united to save 
     China.''
       The meaning of the last song is that we should all be like 
     the Communist hero Lei Feng. That is, ``Loyal to the 
     revolution, loyal to the party, standing in the field erect 
     and unwavering, Communist thinking emits knowledge.'' I 
     realized that this was how they would force us to reform our 
     thinking, so I refused to sing the three songs.
       The police used many methods to try to intimidate and 
     coerce me into cooperating, and in the end, I was sent to the 
     prison of prisons, solitary confinement. Its length and 
     height are barely enough to hold a man, and it has solid 
     walls with only a tiny slit in the door. It very easily makes 
     men think like animals in a cage.
       These are only some of the stories of my time in the 
     Laogai, yet all of the mistreatment and abuse I suffered in 
     the Laogai is just a drop of water in a great river. When you 
     think of all the abuses of the millions of Chinese citizens 
     still condemned in the Laogai, my story is just the tip of 
     the iceberg.
       Thank you very much.
       Mr. Smith. I want to thank you for your very eloquent 
     testimony and for bringing the horrors, however succinctly 
     you described them, to the attention of this subcommittee. I 
     know that many of the members will be reading this transcript 
     and will be reading your description of what you went through 
     personally and what others have gone through with a great 
     deal of empathy and the sense of horror. And I think we lose 
     that sometimes in Congress when we are so far removed from it 
     and we make policy in some-what of a vacuum and, again, to 
     know what we are a part of and complicit in when we are 
     dealing with the Chinese economic system and products 
     manufactured in Laogai like what you made could be well 
     finding our ways onto to our own shores, makes us--should 
     make us act more responsibly and to bend over backwards not 
     to be complicit in that kind of horror.
       So I thank you.
       What I thought we might do in the subcommittee is ask all 
     of our witnesses to testify first and then to ask members of 
     the subcommittee to pose questions at that time.
       I would like to call to the witness chair Catherine Ho. 
     Mrs. Ho is a Catholic who was accused of counterrevolutionary 
     crimes. She spent 21 years in the Chinese Gulag system.
       And I would ask you to proceed however you may wish. Your 
     full statement will be made a part of the record.


                statement of catherine ho, catholic nun

       Ms. Ho. My name is Catherine Ho.
       One of the goals of the Laogai camps is to break the human 
     spirit through torture of the body. But even worse than the 
     bodily abuses is the unceasing assault of the prisoner's 
     thoughts and individual will. This is especially true of the 
     suffering endured by the millions of women condemned to the 
     Laogai.
       I was born into a well-educated family in Shanghai. My good 
     parents sent me to an excellent Catholic high school. There I 
     became a Catholic. I studied very hard and should have had a 
     bright future. Instead, I was arrested and imprisoned by the 
     Communist government before I was even 18 years old. I was 
     arrested on September 8, 1955, as was our bishop in Shanghai, 
     Cardinal Kung. Kung is now in the United States receiving 
     medical care.
       Between 1953 and 1955, the church-run schools and hospitals 
     in Shanghai were taken over by the Communists. The church's 
     charitable institutions were simply closed. The foreign 
     missionaries had already been expelled as imperialists. The 
     Chinese priests and the bishops were all targets of the 
     Communists and were either killed or arrested one after 
     another.
       Most of the Christians were forced to go through 
     brainwashing. They faced losing their jobs or educational 
     opportunities. And they also faced being sent to the Laogai 
     camps or prisons to suffer because of their faith. Religious 
     people were continuously persecuted by Communists.
       We did not oppose the government. We only wanted to 
     practice our religion but the Communists said it was a crime 
     against China. The only reason I was put in jail was because 
     I was an active Christian. I was a member of the Legion of 
     Mary, which is a devout missionary organization. And I did 
     missionary works. I refused to renounce our church and did 
     not want to be a part of the Communist-controlled church.
       Because of my faith, they put me in jail. They isolated me 
     from the outside world. They tried to confuse me with all 
     their propaganda. But I knew they told lies. I could not go 
     against my conscience. I could not deny my faith. I could not 
     give up my faith, which is such a precious gift that many 
     Christians were willing to die for it.
       At first they sentenced me to 7 years in the Laogai Prison 
     in the labor camp as a counterrevolutionary. I was not 
     allowed legal representation. I did not even have a trial. 
     When they found out that I had still not changed my mind 
     after my 7 years, they would not let me go. They kept me in 
     the Laogai camp for 21 years.
       The Chinese Communists cannot tolerate religion, especially 
     the Christian religion. They have a hatred for everything 
     which involves believing any god above or beyond human kind. 
     To this day, they are still persecuting and imprisoning 
     religious believers.
       I would like to now give you some examples of the 
     systematic abuse and the persecution of the Laogai camps. 
     These Laogai camps are in no way like the prisons we know of 
     in this country. No way. Words are not enough to convey the 
     horrible day-to-day realities of the prisoners in the Laogai.
       Physically we were always hungry, tired, and filthy. The 
     women were forced to do heavy labor, like plowing the desert, 
     raising cattle, or running a tea farm. The physical torture 
     of our body was so extreme that many women's menstruation 
     ceased in many of the women in the Laogai camp. This put 
     great strain on both a women's body and her mind. There were 
     never any medical treatments of this or other sicknesses.
       Despite these exhaustive and grueling conditions, we were 
     forced to produce high-level products. For example, I was in 
     a Laogai camp tea farm for about 10 years. This is the Laogai 
     tea farm.
       The women prisoners were forced to plant the trees, take 
     care of the plants, and then process the tea leaves into red 
     or green tea. I spent another 4 years weaving silk and cloth 
     in Laogai factory. On the surface, it was a textile factory 
     in Hangzhou, but the workers were all women prisoners doing 
     forced labor. In the factory, there were two constant 
     pressures upon us. First was the physical fatigue. I was 
     forced to work very hard for 14 hours a day. I had to fight 
     exhaustion just to keep from falling into the machines. 
     Second was the constant supervision. Since we were told that 
     the products we made were for export to foreign countries, 
     they watched our every move to be sure we made no mistakes. 
     If there were mistakes or someone did not appear to be 
     working hard, we were severely punished. They used ankle 
     fetters, handcuffs, solitary confinement, and other means to 
     punish us.
       Today I often wonder if the tea I drink or the silk I wear 
     comes from Laogai camps and is made by all those poor Laogai 
     slaves still suffering in China.
       Daily we were assaulted mentally. We were continually 
     brainwashed. We were not allowed to say our prayers or to 
     read bibles. I remember clearly my first day in the detention 
     center. I kneeled down on the muddy ground, bowed my head, 
     and begged for the Lord to give me the strength. The warden 
     immediately scolded me, ``Who told you to kneel down? Even at 
     the door of death, you keep up your superstitions. This is a 
     counterrevolutionary activity.''
       In the Laogai, we were not allowed to hear and read 
     anything but the Communist propaganda. We had to spend 2 
     hours everyday reading Mao's book and reciting the prison 
     regulations. I remember one 60-year-old sister who made a set 
     of small rosary beads out of thread so it will not be 
     discovered and confiscated by the guards.
       The continuous brainwashing helped destroy all human love 
     and was a denial of all basic human rights.
       Spiritually, it was a constant struggle. We faced constant 
     despair and always heard the

[[Page H10086]]

     discouraging and threatening comments of the authorities. A 
     prisoner had to confess her crime everyday, which meant 
     scolding oneself and accusing oneself of being guilty of the 
     greatest of crimes against the people and the government.
       Every prisoner was degraded. They minimized their own value 
     of being human. They were separated from their families and 
     society. They were tortured in a dark hell that had no 
     foreseeable end. They fought the despair and hopelessness of 
     thinking that they were to spend the rest of their lives as 
     slaves in the Laogai.
       One woman refused to work on Sundays. She would say prayers 
     instead of singing revolutionary songs in front of Mao's 
     portrait. One day she was dragged out to the field where we 
     were working and beaten to death in front of all of us.
       I said the Communists' aim is to torture the body and break 
     the human spirit in every possible way and at every possible 
     opportunity. When the warden told me my beloved sister had 
     died, he simply said, ``The People's Government acted 
     humanely. It is all over now. You should not cry because that 
     is against the rules. And it would have a bad effect on the 
     feelings of the others about thought reform.'' They did not 
     let us laugh. They even did not let us cry.
       They succeeded to the point where to many it looked like 
     there was no future, no hope. The prisoners in the Laogai 
     camp were always in a deep depression. I myself prayed to God 
     to let me die. I wanted to die more than I wanted to live 
     because the circumstances were too horrible. Even if you did 
     not want to continue living under this condition, they would 
     not let you die. There was a constant suicide watch.
       God sustained us nevertheless. My faith preserved me. God's 
     grace helped me live through this nightmarish journey. 
     Finally my prayers were answered. After my parents had 
     written many, many letters to the Government from Hong Kong, 
     my husband, my son and I were allowed to leave the Laogai in 
     December 1978.
       Today, I sit before you, which I had never dreamed 20 years 
     ago. I sit before you to take this opportunity to tell you 
     the truth, to tell you the facts as I have myself 
     experienced. But I speak not for myself but for the thousands 
     of brothers and sisters who are still living this terrible 
     existence.
       Thank you for listening to me tell my story. I hope that 
     you may better understand the realities of the Laogai through 
     my account of it. Thank you.
       Mr. Smith. Mrs. Ho, I want to thank you for your very 
     moving testimony and just observe that there is a conference 
     on women slated for Beijing in the fall of this year and the 
     voice and the testimony, the witness that you have made today 
     is something that needs to be heard at that conference.
       Unfortunately, it is most likely going to be a conference 
     that has more of a Western-oriented focus and issues of the 
     abuse of women in the Laogai probably will not get mentioned 
     at all. But I think it behooves us, and I know from my 
     position as chairman of this subcommittee I will push hard to 
     try to ensure that you and people who have the kinds of 
     experiences that you have had at the hands of your jailers 
     get an opportunity to make your voice known at that very 
     important conference.
       And I do want to thank you for your witness and certainly 
     your courage under such extreme pressure and your witness for 
     faith and the grace that surely had to have been within you 
     to preserve you during that very difficult time. It is very, 
     very inspiring indeed. So I thank you for that testimony.
       I would like to--and again at the conclusion of our 
     witnesses, I would ask my subcommittee colleagues and myself 
     to--we will pose questions to our fine witnesses.
       I would like to ask Father Cai if he would come to the 
     witness table at this time.
       Father Cai is a Catholic priest. He was accused of 
     counterrevolutionary crimes and for that spent 35 years in 
     the Chinese Laogai. A remarkable man who has persevered and 
     who has had perseverance under such extreme situation, and 
     who is here to give us an account of what went on.
       And I would ask, Father, if you would proceed as you would 
     like. Your full statement will be made a part of the record.


              STATEMENT OF CAI ZHONGXIAN, CATHOLIC PRIEST

       Mr. Cai. My testimony of my Laogai is that of a labor-camp 
     life. My name is Cai Zhongxian. I am a Catholic priest of the 
     Society of Jesus.
       I was ordained in 1940. I was arrested and charged as a 
     counterrevolutionary in 1953 because of my refusal to 
     cooperate with the Communist authority and denounce the Roman 
     Catholic Church.
       I was unexpectedly released without explanation in 1956. It 
     turned out that the Communist hoped that the leniency showed 
     to me would convince me to collaborate with the Party to 
     persuade other Catholics to become members of the officially 
     sanctioned Patriotic Catholic Church. This Patriotic Catholic 
     Church is nothing more than a Communist puppet organization. 
     When I refused to cooperate, I was once again arrested. So I 
     was detained twice for a total of 7 years at the Shanghai 
     Detention Center without charge or trial until I was finally 
     sentenced to a 15-year term in 1960.
       I was then sent to a Laogai camp in Jiangxi Province, which 
     served as a brick factory. A lot of people avoided dying of 
     starvation mostly because they supplemented the rationed food 
     by eating frogs, snakes, and rats.
       In 1962, four other priests and I were confined in a 6 by 
     12 foot windowless room that was filled with an inch of 
     standing water. Despite this ill treatment and the other 
     inhumane conditions, I continued my services as a Catholic 
     priest. I even successfully converted some of the guards who 
     were charged to watch us.
       At the completion of my sentence, I was 62 years old. But I 
     was not fully released at that time. The Government forced me 
     to accept forced job replacement in the Laogai labor camp 
     because I was originally charged with the 
     counterrevolutionary crime.
       I knew that a forced-job replacement assignment means a 
     life sentence laboring at the Laogai labor camp. I labored at 
     the Nanchang No. 4 prison for 11 years as a forced-job 
     replacement worker.
       In 1981, at the age of 74, I was again arrested for my 
     continued activity as a Catholic priest. I was sentenced to 
     serve another 10-year term as a Laogai slave.
       In 1988, I was released fully and unexpectedly. I was 81 
     years old at the time of my release. I served a total of 35 
     years in the labor camp. I cannot begin to tell you how many 
     people, among them many of my friends and my disciples 
     disappeared completely for every one that survived.
       Thank you for inviting me here. I hope I have helped you 
     gain an understanding of the Communist government's 
     willingness to use the Laogai to destroy its citizens' human 
     rights. There are still priests in the Laogai camp.
       Thank you.
       Mr. Smith. Thank you, Father, very much for that moving 
     testimony as well. I am 42 years old, and when I think that 
     you have spent 35 of your years in the Laogai simply because 
     of your faith in Christ, it is truly moving and I know every 
     member of this subcommittee will take and remember your 
     testimony.
       The Chinese Communists obviously do not discriminate when 
     they repress, and all people of faith who follow the lead of 
     God as they believe it is leading, are equally repressed. And 
     to give a unique perspective as it relates to the suffering 
     of the people of Tibet, we are very pleased to welcome Palden 
     Gyatso, a Tibetan monk, who spent, like Father, 32 years of 
     his life in the Chinese Laogai, and will give the insights 
     that he got from that and will recount and give witness to 
     the suffering and cruelty that was imposed upon him.
       Please proceed.


                statement of palden gyatso, tibetan monk

       Mr. Gyatso. My name is Palden Gyatso.
       Mr. Kelsang. I am Kelsang, who will be the translator for 
     him today.
       Mr. Gyatso. I have longed for this moment most of the last 
     36 years and it is like a dream come true, and I would like 
     to thank the chairman and the other members of the committee 
     for giving me this opportunity to be here today. And consider 
     it not only as an honor but also a responsibility to inform 
     the U.S. Congress about the abuses that Tibetans are 
     suffering today in Tibet.
       I have been in prison for 24 years and for 8 years I was in 
     a Chinese labor camp and during my days in prison, the 
     Chinese never fed us enough and we were forced to rummage 
     through the food that was meant for the pigs. And we were 
     also driven to eat things like leather, bones, and grass, and 
     it could be any bones, human as well as animal.
       So since food was not enough, we were forced to eat leather 
     that we wore, and we also had to resort to eating things like 
     worms and, as I said, grasses.
       And a lot of people died due to starvation, and I was 
     around 30 years old then, and some of the other things that 
     went on during my stay in prison, along with not getting 
     enough food, we were also made to work in the fields. We were 
     substituted for cows in plowing the field.
       The reason why the Chinese put me in prison was because I 
     had called for more freedom and I had demanded more rights, 
     and the Chinese considered that to be engaging in 
     revolutionary activities, and these instruments that you see 
     before me today are some of the tools that were used to carry 
     out the torture on me.
       Now, this is a piece of the electric baton that was used 
     and forced through my mouth and what happened was since this 
     had electric shocks, it totally damaged my teeth.
       And I also saw Chinese prison officials inserting this into 
     a woman's vagina, and even today I know of women who have 
     difficulty in going to the bathroom because of the damage 
     that they suffered.
       And I still bear today on my body some of the marks that 
     were inflicted because of this torture. For instance, because 
     of the self-tightening handcuff here, even today I have scars 
     on both my hands and they do not function properly. And some 
     of the other things that the Chinese did was keeping me 
     suspended in the air, and then beating with rifle butts and 
     piercing me with bayonets and pouring hot water over my body. 
     And as a result, I have injury marks on my head and on my 
     hands.
       And I was even a witness to a couple of people who were 
     sentenced to death. As soon as the Chinese announced that 
     someone was to be sentenced to death, what they did was they 
     would force that political person of engage in singing songs 
     and dancing. The bullets that were used to kill someone, as 
     well as the ropes that were used to hang someone, even the 
     expenses involved for that would be deducted from the 
     convicted person.

[[Page H10087]]

       These practices that go on in Chinese prisons and labor 
     camps in Tibet reflect the overall abuses going on today. And 
     in this regard, I would sort of especially like to mention 
     the trip by Ambassador Lilley in April 1991.
       And I have kept this diary to this day, and this is a diary 
     that I kept while I was in prison.
       Mr. Gyatso. And I have a slide of the day and the month 
     when then Ambassador Lilley visited Drapchi Prison in Lhasa. 
     That is the site of the Utritu prison in Lhasa where I spent 
     9 years.
       That is a shot of Sangyip prison where I spent 10 years.
       That is a shot of Drapchi prison where I spent 7 years.
       And that is a map of Lhasa and the ones in red, they show 
     the detention facilities in Lhasa and they number about eight 
     today. And the ones in yellow and orange are military and 
     police complexes. And the ones in green are really what is 
     left of the traditional Tibetan area in Lhasa today.
       In April 1991, then ambassador James Lilley, along with two 
     American officials, visited the Drapchi prison. And what 
     Palden Gyatso and his other friends in prison did was they 
     tried to present to Ambassador Lilley a petition detailing 
     the Chinese abuses in prison. But what happened was 
     ambassador Lilley--he was shaking his hands with one of the 
     prisoners and on his other hand he had the petition, but then 
     one of the Chinese guards just snatched away the petition and 
     after Ambassador Lilley left, the petition was given to the 
     warden of the prison, and because after he left, the Chinese 
     officials called in the Army. They had to go through a really 
     hard time.
       And the other aspect of the visit was that every time when 
     such a delegation does visit any Tibetan prisons, the Chinese 
     put on a very different show. The prisons are cleaned up and 
     more food is provided. Just to give the impression that the 
     prisoners are healthy and that there is nothing wrong with 
     them.
       And two of the individuals connected with presenting the 
     petition to Ambassador Lilley, Lobsang Tenzin and Tenpa 
     Wangdak, were detained in solitary confinement because of the 
     action.
       The prisoners were then transferred to Nepal Tramo labor 
     camp close to Lhasa. After that the army came in and then 
     they started beating us up and started torturing us.
       These are only a few instances of the various atrocities 
     committed by the Chinese on the Tibetans, and whatever I have 
     told you today is true and I am really glad that I have had a 
     chance to come here today and inform you all about this. And 
     please remember that there are still people inside Tibet 
     today who are going through similar experiences that I 
     have gone through.
       Thank you very much.
       Mr. Smith. Mr. Gyatso, I thank you for your, again, very 
     moving testimony and by actually visually displaying the 
     implements used to repress people and to torture them. You 
     bring an additional dimension to our understanding, feeble as 
     it is, to what it must be like to live under the horrors of 
     this terrible Gulag system.
       And, you know, what we have been hearing so far, and I know 
     my colleagues and I all feel this, and that is you are 
     witness, and Father Cai, you as well, to unspeakable horrors. 
     And to think that this Government, the U.S. Government, and 
     many other Western governments, continue to trade and to do 
     business with the dictatorship in Beijing as if none of this 
     is going on, or as if it can be put in a compartment and all 
     other trade and commerce and diplomatic niceties can occur 
     with all of these unspeakable horrors going on baffles me and 
     angers me, and I think it does you as well.
       Again, I think on this committee and among Members on both 
     sides of the aisle who care so deeply, our hope is to raise 
     human rights to the level that it deserves. It ought to be 
     central in our relationship with the Peoples Republic of 
     China and any other country of the world, not a sub-issue. 
     Regrettably it is a subissue at the current time.
       I would like to ask Mr. Frank Wolf, Congressman Wolf, if he 
     would like to join us. Mr. Wolf is a leader in human rights 
     and has been very active, particularly on the issue of China 
     and the use of Gulag labor and the importation of those 
     products, and religious freedom as well.
       I would like to call our final panel before going to 
     questions to appear before the subcommittee. And the first to 
     speak will be Mr. Liu, who is the son of a 
     counterrevolutionary, a man who was first imprisoned at the 
     age of 13. A man who, because of the affiliations of his 
     father, who was in the prior government, was targeted for 
     this mistreatment, and then spent a total of 25 years in the 
     Chinese Laogai.
       Mr. Liu, if you could present your testimony, and your full 
     statement will be made a part of the record, and you may 
     proceed as you care to.


               statement of liu xinhu, juvenile prisoner

       Mr. Liu. My name is Liu Xinhu. My father was an official in 
     the former government. The Communist Party, on the pretext 
     that he would disrupt labor discipline, arrested him and sent 
     him to a reeducation-through-labor prison camp in 1958. He 
     was sent to the Baimaoling Farm to serve his sentence.
       In 1958, I was 13 years old. Because I was the eldest son 
     in the family of a counterrevolutionary, the Communist 
     government found an excuse, which had no legal precedent, and 
     sent me to live at the same Laogai prison farm as my father.
       After being released from the Laogai sentence at the farm 
     in 1966, I was ordered to continue forced labor at the farm 
     as a forced-job placement worker.
       In 1974, I was once again labeled a counterrevolutionary 
     element because of my political attitudes. I was placed under 
     even stricter controls. I was detained until my release in 
     1983. During the 25 years I spent in the Laogai, I suffered 
     innumerable beatings and torments.
       The Baimaoling farm is internally known as the Shanghai No. 
     2 Laogai general brigade. It is located in the southeast area 
     of Anhui Province. Its scale is enormous and it holds an 
     average 50,000 Laogai prisoners, Laojiao prisoners, and jiuye 
     personnel. It produces tea, rice, valves and toys, as well as 
     other goods.
       Besides the farming that I did at the Laogai prison, I was 
     also part of a so-called corpse brigade. At that time there 
     was massive starvation in China and people were dying by the 
     scores. And so they needed people to bury the bodies, and I 
     was a part of that corpse brigade.
       My father and I were detained in different sections of the 
     farm and we were not permitted to see each other. The public 
     security police only told me in 1993 that he had died and 
     that I had to go and claim the corpse. Once at the 
     crematorium, I saw his cold and pale body. I was given these 
     clothes that he was wearing and I cried bitterly. I felt that 
     my father was braver than I was because he dared to determine 
     his own end to his difficult life and gain his freedom.
       Mr. Liu. The first pair of clothes that you saw were the 
     clothes that I took off my father's body in 1993.
       These clothes are the clothes that I wore. And these are 
     also clothes that I wore.
       I now live in the United States and I have a family of my 
     own. I deeply hope that my children and all other children, 
     as well as future generations, do not have to suffer these 
     kinds of tortures and difficulties.
       Thank you all very much for your concern about the Chinese 
     Laogai system.
       Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. Mr. Liu, for your testimony 
     and, again, by showing us the prison garb. You remind us 
     again that this is a reality that has to be dealt with. It is 
     not something that is in the past. It is current. It is as 
     current as today. And unfortunately our policies vis-a-vis 
     the PRC act as if the rogue government that has the power in 
     Beijing somehow should be treated with respect. And when you 
     so disrespect your own citizenry to use torture and to impose 
     so much pain and cruelty, it behooves this Congress I think 
     to up the ante and be much more concerned about human rights 
     than we are with profits.
       So I thank you for your very strong statement.
       Our last witness will be Harry Wu. Harry Wu is someone who 
     many of us have come to know and greatly admire because of 
     his tremendous courage. Not only did he spend 19 years in the 
     Chinese Laogai, but he also has gone back risking his own 
     life, possible imprisonment and death, to bring more 
     information out to bear further witness to the continued 
     repression by the Peoples Republic of China.
       And, Harry, we are indebted to you for providing this 
     information. Anyone anywhere in the world who cares about 
     human rights has to look up to you as one of the great giants 
     and leaders in the cause of human rights.
       I would ask you to, if you would, present your testimony at 
     this point.


                         statement of harry wu

       Mr. Wu. Ladies, gentlemen, my name is Wu Hongda and English 
     name is Harry Wu.
       I was born in Shanghai in 1937. During my second year of 
     college, in 1957, the students were encouraged by the 
     Communist Party to express their opinions and concerns about 
     the direction of the country. Although I initially kept 
     quiet, in the end I offered a few criticisms, including my 
     opinion that the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 was in 
     violation of international law, and I stated my feelings that 
     the Communists were treating the common people as second-
     class citizens. Because of these comments, I was denounced as 
     a capitalist counterrevolutionary rightist.
       I was arrested and, without a trial, sentenced to life in 
     the reeducation labor camp in 1960. I was told this was 
     because of my poor political attitude. My life sentence was 
     mostly a result of my family's political background because 
     my father was a banker. While I was held in the Laogai, my 
     mother died. I found out 15 years later she committed suicide 
     by taking sleeping pills shortly after she was told of my 
     arrest. I discovered this only after returning to Shanghai 
     years later to collect her ashes.
       In December 1969 I was released from my Laogai sentence. 
     That did not mean I was freed from the camp and allowed to 
     return to my home. Instead, I was forced to resettle 
     permanently at the Laogai coal mine and serve as a forced-job 
     placement personnel. In other words, I was not released at 
     all and forced to continue as forced labor until my final 
     release from the Laogai system in 1979.
       I spent 19 years in the Laogai at 12 different forced labor 
     camps. I was forced to do slave labor at agricultural farms, 
     a chemical factory, a steel plant, and a coal mine. I was 
     regularly denied food and during one period nearly starved to 
     death. Torture permanently damaged my back. I had my arm 
     broken during a beating. I was nearly killed in a coal mine 
     accident.

[[Page H10088]]

       I had to become a beast to survive day-to-day life in the 
     Laogai. Today, all over the so-called new China there are 
     millions still fighting to survive the Laogai.
       Mr. Chairman, the subcommittee has heard today short 
     descriptions of the experiences of six Laogai survivors. I 
     would like to now present a brief overview of the origins, 
     structures, and scope of the system.
       With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I will submit a more 
     detailed statement of this for the record.
       Every totalitarian regime must have means to control and 
     suppress opposition. The Nazis in Germany had their 
     concentration camp systems throughout Europe, which housed 
     millions of people whose religion, race, or political views 
     made them targets of persecution. The vast Gulag in the 
     former Soviet Union was first created to remove the White 
     Russians from society soon after the revolution which brought 
     the Communists to power. Throughout its history, the Gulag 
     served as a destination, often final, for both penal 
     criminals and those who opposed Stalin and other Soviet 
     leaders.
       The Chinese Laogai, in its origins, was quite similar to 
     the Gulag. But Mao adapted the Soviet model to the Chinese 
     context. The Laogai became a tool of the people's democratic 
     dictatorship in fighting dissent within an ongoing class 
     struggle.
       The official function of the Laogai is to remove counter-
     revolutionaries and other criminal offenders from the 
     population and to place them under state supervision. In the 
     Laogai, prisoners undergo thought reform and reform through 
     labor and are reshaped into new socialist persons. Arrests 
     and sentences, even for common criminals, are based as much 
     on class background and political standing as on criminal 
     activity and only reinforce the true nature of the system: 
     absolute political control.
       The term ``laogaidui'' is used as shorthand by the Chinese 
     people in much of the same way Gulag was used in the Soviet 
     Union. It instills fear in the average person. The existence 
     of the Laogai remains the central human rights issue in China 
     and Tibet today.
       As a system, its scope, numbers of the camps and prisoners, 
     degree of cruelty, and a fundamental inhumanity long 
     surpassed the Soviet Gulag.
       Today I want to focus on the Laodong gaizao, laojiao, and 
     jiuye components. One thing, all of them were mixed together 
     into one idea to use the so-called thought reform and forced 
     labor.
       Official Communist Party documents from the 1950's say that 
     the Laogai is, ``The process of labor reform of criminals 
     which essentially is an effective method of purging and 
     eliminating all criminals and counterrevolutionaries.''
       In 1988, the Ministry of Justice published a criminal 
     reform handbook which summed up the purpose of the Laogai as 
     follows: ``The primary task of our Laogai facility is 
     punishing and reforming criminals. To define their functions 
     concretely, they fulfill the tasks in the following three 
     fields: punishing criminals and putting them under 
     surveillance; reforming criminals; and, organizing criminals 
     in labor and production, thus creating wealth for the 
     society.''
       This is clear acknowledgement of the state-run slave labor 
     of the Laogai system.
       Laojiao, or reeducation-through-labor, plays a unique role 
     within the Laogai system. It was created as a last resort, 
     extreme alternative to the existing reform through labor 
     policy. It was established in the 1950's after the Communists 
     had nearly eliminated all of the remaining enemies of the 
     revolution from the capitalist classes.
       The Communist labeled this the highest level administering 
     of discipline. To this day, the Chinese Government maintains 
     that reeducation-through-labor is not part of the judiciary 
     system. In fact, as in its early days, the Government 
     intentionally used the reeducation-through-labor policy to 
     imprison people in force labor camps, without even a trace, 
     for periods of 2 to 3 years.
       Evidence exists indicating that reeducation-through-labor 
     is more widely used today than ever. And a large number of 
     the students, intellectuals, workers, and religious believers 
     and dissidents are currently locked in the reeducation camps 
     for their criminal activities. These camps are fundamentally 
     no different from the other forced labor camps in the 
     system.
       Thought reform and reform-through-labor are both the 
     principal methods of the Laogai camp. There is a saying in 
     the Laogai camps that goes, ``There is an end to Laogai and 
     laojiao, but jiuye is forever.''
       Before 1980, almost 90 percent of the Laogai prisoners and 
     laojiao prisoners were never fully released from the system. 
     They were simply transferred into a forced-job placement 
     personnel or what we call jiuye. Personnel, within the camps.
       The official explanation of the forced-job placement is, 
     ``To fully implement labor reform policies and ensure public 
     safety.'' This practice continues today on a large scale, but 
     not as much as prior to 1980. Part of the reason for forced-
     job placement is that the Communists realize they cannot 
     trust Laogai prisoners or laojiao prisoners; the people who 
     have suffered greatly and seen the true nature of the 
     Communist system. Also these prisoners are necessary to 
     maintain production in the camps considering the constant 
     flow of the new prisoners. In other words, their experience 
     in the operation of the Laogai is necessary to keep the 
     system working.
       All Laogai prisoners are forced to labor to compel reform 
     and become new socialist persons. New arrivals are subject to 
     immediate, daily, lengthy integration sessions and forced to 
     admit their crimes. These sessions may last days, weeks, or 
     months. In some cases, they last years.
       The official Laogai policy is reform first, production 
     second. The prisoners of the Laogai face constant 
     brainwashing. The value system of the society as a whole has 
     not place in the Laogai. The prisoner is stripped of his 
     morals, his beliefs, his religions, his individual will, his 
     sense of right or wrong. They are encouraged to stand 
     together with the Government and denounce their crimes. They 
     are completely retrained to follow the moral order of the 
     Communist Party and its society.
       If a prisoner resists, he or she is tortured. There is much 
     evidence coming to light that thought reform is less and less 
     successful. This apparently persuaded the Laogai officials to 
     rely more and more on physical torture. This situation is 
     understandable as it becomes clear that even the Communists 
     no longer believe their own ideology.
       But struggle meetings are still held. Mao Tse Tung's 
     teachings are still used and those that show a poor political 
     attitude are beaten.
       Laogai prisoners reform progress is judged in part by their 
     productive output. Prisoners have a work quota and punished 
     if it is not met. Food is withheld. Beatings are given. 
     Solitary confinement is common and already limited family 
     visits and contacts are eliminated.
       In adding this as summary, Mr. Chairman, I would like to 
     address the number of the people who have gone through the 
     Laogai system and how many are still there in China and Tibet 
     today.
       The Chinese Government 2 years ago stated that 10 million 
     people had been sent to the camps since they came to power. 
     And at this point, 2 million are still in some 685 camps. 
     This is a ridiculous figure. Who can believe that in a 
     country of 1.2 billion people, over the 45-year history, only 
     10 million people have been in prison.
       One should never, of course, believe any number they give 
     to the public. In fact, no one will probably ever know the 
     true number of the people they executed and sent to the 
     camps.
       I am submitting for the record my detailed analysis.\1\ I 
     estimate that since 1949 more than 50 million people have 
     been Laogai or laojiao prisoners. Remember, laojiao or 
     reeducation-through-labor is not considered by the Communists 
     to be imprisonment. Therefore, they do not count these people 
     in either their 10 million figure or in the current two 
     million figure.
       Neither do they today count those in the province, county 
     or village detention centers, military prisons or secret 
     prisons.
       We at the Laogai Research Foundation have documented nearly 
     1,100 camps, a list of which I am submitting for the record. 
     Our list does not include detention centers or military or 
     secret prisons, nor is it a complete list of labor camps. We 
     are learning of others every month.
       Mr. Chairman, if we consider reform through labor, 
     reeducation-through-labor, and forced-job placement personnel 
     prisoners alone, I believe the Chinese Government has between 
     8 to 10 million people in the Laogai today.
       Mr. Chairman, thank you for offering us, survivors of the 
     Laogai, from China and from Tibet, the opportunity to improve 
     your understanding of the world's most extensive forced-labor 
     camp system. A system which is a human rights abuse of 
     momentous proportions.
       This is the first hearing on the Laogai ever conducted by 
     any democratic legislative body in the world. We are very 
     grateful. Thank you.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
Maryland [Mr. Hoyer].
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from California [Mr. 
Matsui] for yielding this time to me, and, Mr. Speaker, I rise in very 
strong support of H.R. 2195 and applaud its author, my friend, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith], for his work and his commitment 
to promoting human rights not only in China but around the world. He is 
sitting next to at this point in time the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. 
Wolf].
  Mr. Wolf and I serve on the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, 
and General Government, and Mr. Wolf for over a decade has been a 
strong proponent of urging the Treasury Department to fully enforce 
existing law as it relates to slave labor.
  So I want to congratulate both the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. 
Smith] and the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf], my colleagues on the 
Helsinki Commission, for their leadership over long periods of time. 
More generally, I would like to applaud the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Cox] as well and the other Members who worked to provide vehicles 
other than the MFN debate for this body to address the range of policy 
issues which form our complex relationship with China.

[[Page H10089]]

  I have opposed, Mr. Speaker, MFN for China because I believe we have 
been too tolerant for too long. Clearly, a strong, prosperous, and 
democratic China will not come about without U.S. engagement. But a 
policy of constructive engagement, Mr. Speaker, must not amount to a 
practice of reaping the economic benefits of trade and exchange with 
China while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses.
  Eight years after China's brutal demonstration of military repression 
of basic freedoms of speech and association at Tiananmen Square, 
reports persist of widespread and egregious human rights abuses, 
including the Chinese Government's maintenance of slave labor camps 
with which this particular amendment specifically deals.
  H.R. 2195 speaks to this area of human rights abuse by saying 
properly that if we are going to have free trade with China, then let 
us be sure that we are not directly or indirectly promoting the 
practice of slave labor by allowing its fruits to enter our markets.
  Mr. Speaker, the promotion of democratic reforms which will afford 
the Chinese people the basic freedoms they now lack must not, let me 
repeat, must not, be a peripheral element of American foreign policy 
towards China. It was not with respect to our relations with the Soviet 
Union when it existed, and it must not be with respect to our relations 
with China.
  The mantle, ``leader of the free world,'' is not earned through mere 
lip service. If the United States is going to engage China in trade, it 
must also engage China directly on the matter of human rights. 
Political and religious persecution, enforcement of population control 
through coerced abortion and sterilization, and organ harvesting from 
death row prisoners are not modes of conduct which ought to be 
consistent with friendship with the United States of America.
  We must adopt policies, Mr. Speaker, which put action behind our 
outrage. It is not enough to talk about the abuses, it is not enough to 
rhetorically oppose those abuses, we must act on our conviction and on 
our principles. H.R. 2195 is an appropriate and constructive step in 
this direction, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
Virginia [Mr. Wolf].
  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill. I want to thank 
the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox] and the gentleman from New York 
[Mr. Gilman] and the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith) and the 
gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] and the others for this.
  Before I begin, let me just say outright, I am worried that this 
administration and this Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are 
becoming an economic-driven party that cares very little with regard to 
some of these fundamental values. And I know there are good people on 
both sides, but I worry every time I hear about things, it is economic, 
economic, economic, economic, and very little about the passion and the 
compassion and what is going on with regard to that.
  So this is a good bill, but will the administration enforce it? Will 
they do anything about it? I just do not know.
  Now I want to say what the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith) 
said. I happened to be with the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith) 
in Beijing Prison No. 1. We have socks in my office that I picked up 
off the line and we had analyzed. They were for export to the United 
States. They had golfers on the sides of the socks. They do not play 
golf in China. Certainly they did not play golf in 1991.
  Secondly, we have got to know that there are more gulags in China 
today than there were when Solzhenitsyn wrote the book that was a 
profound book, ``Gulag Archipelago.'' There are more gulags in China 
today than there were during his time. Fifty million people have been 
through them; 6 to 8 million people are going through them today. And 
what items? Toys, artificial flowers, Christmas decorations, and the 
birth of Christ, the birth of Christ, Jesus at Christmastime, and more 
of the Christmas decorations are made with regard to slave labor.
  In fact, as I will tell my colleagues, there are Members in this body 
and there are Members that are watching that have goods. Some of my 
colleagues are wearing goods; they do not know it; many of my 
colleagues have it at home, with regard to artificial flowers, with 
regard to cotton goods that are made in slave labor camps. Two million 
dollars; it is good.
  I want to thank the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox], the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith), the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. 
Crane], the gentleman from California [Mr. Matsui].
  I doubt, though, whether this administration, and let me just say the 
Bush administration was no better, the Bush administration was no 
better in enforcing these, and the Customs officials at the 
administration were no better, and this administration has been a 
disaster. In fact, it took them 2 years to go into Beijing Prison No. 
1, and finally, when they went in, they had removed all the evidence. 
There are gulags, there are goods coming over.
  This will be a good first step. I just hope and pray, after we pass 
it with an overwhelming vote, that it will go over to the Senate with 
such a majority vote, such a lead vote, that Mr. Lott and others will 
pick it up and pass it whereby we can take the whole package and then 
do something whereby the people that are in the camps know that the 
United States Congress has spoken out and has done something 
constructive.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to our colleague, the 
gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Hutchinson].
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding this 
time to me. I want to express my appreciation for the work of the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith], the author of this legislation. 
It is very, very important, and I rise in strong support of H.R. 2195.
  I think an appropriate question could be asked, do the people of the 
United States care about what happens in the Chinese forced labor 
camps? And I can tell my colleagues that the common-sense people of 
Arkansas, where I live and work and who I represent, care about what 
happens to the 6 to 8 million people in the forced labor camps. I get 
asked about it in town meetings; they express their concern about it. 
And why do they do this? Because they know what is happening there and 
they have learned the lessons of history that if we do not care, evil 
triumphs.
  And so we do not want to repeat the lessons of history, we want to do 
something where we have an opportunity, and we have that opportunity 
now. They do not want, because they know history, they do not want to 
give aid to the enemy by purchasing products that are made with slave 
labor. The problem is, we do not always know.
  This legislation gives $2 million to the Customs Service to properly 
monitor what happens and try to determine where those slave labor camps 
are and the products that come from them, requires reports to Congress. 
Right now, the Customs Service do not have the resources. This gives 
them the resources they need to track what is made in those slave labor 
camps, from uranium to toys to Chinese tea.
  Scripture tells us that we should not give speed to evil doers, and I 
think in our country we have inadvertently done that. We must put an 
end to that. This bill addresses that problem. We will send a strong 
signal to the Chinese Government that is very, very necessary right 
now, that trade is important, but it is not all important, and what 
happens in those forced labor camps is important, and we do not want to 
buy those products, and we want that to stop in that land.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to our colleague, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Johnson].
  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it is high time to stop 
products produced by slave labor in China from entering the United 
States of America. For more than 50 years, we have banned products 
produced by slave labor in China, but they continue to flood our 
markets every day. I think it is appalling. We should not support 
products that are produced by a nation that endorses or uses slave 
labor.
  My question is, where is the administration? The President promised 
he

[[Page H10090]]

would no longer tolerate these practices from China, but these products 
still enter this country, and the administration refuses to enforce 
current law. President Clinton is unable or unwilling to stand up to 
the Chinese and say this will no longer be tolerated.
  This bill goes a long way toward making up for the administration 
failings. It gives the Customs office the tools to hire more inspectors 
to track and stop these tainted goods from entering the United States. 
It also gives the American Embassy the equipment they need to monitor 
goods produced in these inhumane slave camps throughout China. I have 
to wonder, if the President spent as much time and effort improving 
human rights in China as he has on State parties and fancy dinners for 
President Jiang, maybe China would change its ways.
  Mr. President, the prisoners stuck in these slave camps depend on our 
actions speaking louder than our words. Let us vote for this bill.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to our distinguished 
colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox].
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 2195.
  As Americans, we must stand up in opposition to slave-made goods. As 
a member of the Human Rights Caucus, I want to commend the gentleman 
from New Jersey [Mr. Smith], chairman of the subcommittee, and the 
House Committee on International Relations for introducing this 
forward-thinking legislation which calls for the U.S. Commissioner of 
Customs to report, after a period of inspection, the extent of the use 
of forced labor in China and manufactured products destined to the 
United States market, the volume of products made with forced labor 
destined to the United States market, the progress of the United States 
Customs Service in identifying and interdicting products made with 
forced labor.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a bipartisan bill. It is a matter of fairness, 
it is a matter of human rights, and we here in the Congress and the 
House of Representatives tonight have an opportunity to vote for a bill 
that is going to make a positive change in China. After we receive the 
report from the Commissioner, the action can be taken to make sure that 
the appropriate changes will be made in China.
  And I thank the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith] for introducing 
this legislation and would like to add my name as a cosponsor to the 
bill.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  2030

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Cox].
  Mr. COX of California. Mr. Speaker, slavery is an ugly institution, 
and its most hideous and virulent form is prison slave labor. Slavery 
was not officially abolished in imperial China until the end of the 
Manchu dynasty in 1908, and even then, the law permitted families in 
time of famine to indenture their children for over 20 years.
  But even though slavery was not officially abolished in China until 
earlier in this century, it was the ignominious achievement of Chinese 
communism to reinstate it in the form of the notorious Laogai slave 
labor camps. The Laogai, or reform through labor, camps have been an 
integral part of Chinese totalitarianism since the inception of the 
People's Republic of China in 1949. They are designed for the dual 
purposes of political control and forced development modeled on 
Stalin's Soviet gulag.
  An estimated 50 million Chinese men and women have passed through 
these camps, of whom 15 million have perished. Today, anywhere from 6 
to 8 million people are captive in the 1,100 camps of the Laogai, held 
and forced to work under grossly inhumane conditions.
  The People's Republic of China tells us that this does not go on at 
all, but today the United States does not impose punitive tariffs on 
these products, we ban them. Mr. Speaker, 27 specified products of the 
Laogai camps are already kept out by our Customs agents and yet the 
Customs authorities tell us they just do not have the resources to do 
the job and this bill gives them those resources.
  The United States has two agreements with the People's Republic of 
China, binding agreements executed in 1992 and 1994, that not only bar 
trade on prison-made slave labor products, but also allow the United 
States to inspect those forced labor camps. But the Chinese Government, 
in 1996, allowed us access to just one of those.
  This bill requires the President to renegotiate that MOU and rectify 
the situation.
  I congratulate the author, and I urge support of the gentleman's bill 
on slave labor products.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to our colleague, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith].
  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Illinois [Mr. Crane], my good friend, for yielding.
  Let me just say, and to pick up on what the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Cox] just pointed out about the number of detention orders, the 
number exceeds 27 and is growing. But there is a real problem, and this 
is addressed in the bill, asking the President to look at it very 
carefully, to renegotiate the memorandum of understanding that we 
currently have in existence.
  Most people would find it almost ridiculous that we have to give 
specific information first, and remember, this is a closed country. We 
do not have access to the Laogai, we do not have access to these prison 
camps, but we have to almost find some way to ascertain whether or not 
there is a violation going on with specific information. The Chinese 
then, under the MOU, investigated themselves and gave us their 
findings. So we have the alleged perpetrator investigating themselves 
and then they come back to us. Then, we have 60 days that we have to 
wait to actually make a site visit and very often it far exceeds 60 
days.
  Let me give one example that was cited very recently by our 
Commissioner of Customs, George Weise. He pointed out in his testimony 
on March 21, 1997, that on March 11, 1996, the Chinese Ministry of 
Justice notified the custom attache that she be allowed to visit the 
Changsha Laogai machinery factory. He points out in his testimony that 
the request to go to that factory began in 1992. Four years to finally 
have site access to a prison camp that is not unlike the one that is to 
my left that was found to be in violation of our code and thankfully, 
there is a detention order on the pipes coming out of that detention 
camp.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to renegotiate that MOU. I have been over there, 
I have talked to the customs people. They cannot get access. They run 
into roadblocks, they run into bureaucratic snafus over and over again, 
and then somehow, the administration comes up, and my friend the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] said the Bush administration was 
just like this.
  My good friend from Virginia said a moment ago, we do not have access 
to these prison camps. The Bush administration were the ones who 
actually negotiated the MOU, and then they come up to our hearings and 
they say, look at this. We had this fine statement of principles, 
memorandum of understanding and that defies all kinds of good will as 
if the Chinese dictatorship is cooperating with us.
  Nothing could be further from the truth. They are not. It is a sham. 
We try to make the sham work. That is why we get a few detention 
orders, but it is about time we enhanced our access, hopefully 
unfettered access. But I do not think that is going to happen any time 
soon. We need to tighten this MOU.
  This resolution calls on the President to look into that, and 
hopefully he will realize it is bad business and certainly a violation 
of human rights to allow slave-made goods to come to our shores, 
especially when we are talking about religious prisoners and human 
rights activists who are being tortured and used in ways that none of 
us would see as civilized.
  So I hope my colleagues support this legislation.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Quinn). The Chair would inform the 
Members that the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Crane], has 5 minutes 
remaining, and the gentleman from California [Mr. Matsui] has 16 \1/2\ 
minutes remaining.

[[Page H10091]]

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this excellent measure 
introduced by Mr. Smith of New Jersey. It is badly needed. Our laws 
supposedly ban the importation of slave-made goods, yet we know that we 
continue to be flooded with goods from China's vast gulag, the Laogai. 
Obviously, our laws are not being enforced the way they should be. This 
bill will help give our customs inspectors the tools they need to keep 
out these ugly goods.
  Mr. Speaker, the use of slave labor is only one of many disgusting 
practices of the Communist Chinese government, but it is certainly one 
of the worst.
  Estimates of those languishing in China's gulag run well into the 
millions. It is for them that we are here on the floor today. It is 
their silenced voices that we can hear as we wade through the piles of 
Communist Chinese goods in our stores.
  Short of a revolution in China, and one is surely coming, the only 
way we can battle slave labor in that country is to refrain from buying 
slave-made goods, which provides the financial lifeline to the wardens 
of that vast prison, the Communists.
  This bill gets us in that direction and I urge an ``aye'' vote.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time has expired.
  Pursuant to House Resolution 302, the previous question is ordered on 
the bill, as amended.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was 
read the third time.


        Motion to Recommit Offered by Mr. Taylor of Mississippi

  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to recommit.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. At this time I am, Mr. Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to 
recommit.
  The Clerk read as follows:

  Mr. Taylor of Mississippi moves to recommit the bill, H.R. 2195, to 
the Committee on Ways and Means with instructions to report the bill 
back to the House forthwith with the following amendment: At the end of 
the bill insert the following:

     SECTION 6. QUARTERLY ADJUSTMENT OF TARIFFS ON PRODUCTS OF THE 
                   PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

       (a) Quarterly Determinations by Secretary of the 
     Treasury.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall determine, at 
     the end of each calendar quarter--
       (1) the dollar amount of tariffs paid to the People's 
     Republic of China during that quarter by persons for 
     exporting goods and services from the United States to the 
     People's Republic of China; and
       (2) the dollar amount of tariffs paid to the United States 
     during that quarter by persons for importing goods and 
     services from the People's Republic of China into the United 
     States.
       (b) Adjustment of Tariffs.--Notwithstanding any other 
     provision of law, the Secretary of the Treasury shall adjust 
     the tariffs on all products of the People's Republic of China 
     so that an amount is collected on imports of products of the 
     People's Republic of China, during the 3-month period 
     beginning 30 days after the end of the calendar quarter for 
     which a determination is made under subsection (a), equal to 
     the amount by which the dollar amount computed under 
     paragraph (1) of subjection (a) exceeds the dollar amount 
     computed under paragraph (2) of subsection (a).

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. For what purpose does the gentleman from 
Illinois [Mr. Crane] rise?
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve all points of order against the 
motion to recommit with instructions.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Mississippi [Mr. Taylor] is recognized for 5 minutes in support of his 
motion.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman 
from Illinois [Mr. Crane] for reserving the point of order and not 
trying to cut off debate.
  Mr. Speaker, the efforts of the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox], 
though well-intentioned, are little more than giving a sweet talk to a 
dying man. It does not really change things. We spend a little bit more 
money to find out what we already know, that the People's Republic of 
China is using slave labor, making goods, and sending goods to the 
United States of America to be sold here and put Americans out of work. 
There is nothing new about that.
  There is nothing new about the fact that they have a $40 billion 
trade surplus with our country. There is nothing new about the fact 
that it is a totalitarian communist regime that is doing this, and our 
money feeds their military. There is nothing new about the fact that 
they charge us 20 to 40 percent on our products that we try to sell 
there, while we only charge them, because of the Most-Favored-Nation 
Status agreement, about 2 percent on their products that they sell 
here.
  What is new tonight is that we can have a chance to really address 
that, not just spend a couple more million dollars finding out what we 
already know, that they are making things with slave labor, but to tell 
the Chinese that we will expect some basic level of fairness from them 
in return for having access to our markets, and we will expect you, 
China, to treat its people better if they want to have access to our 
markets.
  The people from the Committee on Ways and Means are going to object 
to this. The people from the Committee on Ways and Means by and large 
are free traders. They think that however horrible the Chinese 
Government is, however horrible they are and how many weapons they sell 
to our opponents they ought to have total access to our market, because 
doggone it, that is what free trade is all about.
  I say to my colleagues, they are wrong, they are dead wrong. Not only 
are they wrong, but they block any effort by any average Member of this 
body to address that inequity. We cannot get a bill through that 
committee, and one never will. We have one chance this legislative 
session to address that. We have one chance this legislative session to 
say, we are going to treat the Chinese the way they treat us, and if 
they want to charge us 2 percent, as we charge them, we will do the 
same. But if they want to charge us 40 percent, if they want to 
continue to have a $40 billion a year trade surplus out of our money 
and use that money to sell weapons or give weapons to the enemy of 
America, then we are going to do something about it.
  The Democratic leadership and the Republican leadership will come to 
the floor in the next couple of minutes and say, let us do not do this, 
let us do not act hasty. There is nothing hasty about this. This has 
been going on for decades.
  What is different is that in the 2 years that each of us is given to 
serve this Nation in the elections that are held every other year, this 
is the one chance we are probably going to get to do something about 
it. They are going to say, do not vote against the ruling of the Chair 
because somehow the Chair is almighty, the Chair knows better.
  Well, the Chair is wrong. The Chair will not give us a chance to vote 
on this. This is the one chance we are going to get. We are going to 
get one chance to decide if we are going to have a basic sense of 
fairness between how the Chinese and the Americans trade with each 
other, whether we are going to continue to allow goods that are made 
with slave labor to compete against the goods that are made in North 
Carolina and Mississippi and New York and California. We are going to 
continue to say whether or not we are going to turn a blind eye to the 
most totalitarian regime in the world that sells weapons to our 
opponents. But I say to my colleagues, it is OK, because the Committee 
on Ways and Means does not want to hear the idea that maybe there ought 
to be a basic fairness between what they charge us in tariffs and what 
we charge them.
  This is our chance. We are going to have to work against your 
leadership, I am going to have to vote against mine, but we were not 
sent here to listen to the leadership, we were sent here to listen to 
the people of our congressional districts and the people of this 
Nation, and they want us to make things right. They want us to be fair 
with them. They want us to change things that are wrong. They want us 
to do what is right.
  I am almost reminded of the song, The Impossible Dream. This is your 
chance to fight for what is right, without question or pause, because 
as your leadership is concerned, you are clearly walking into hell for 
a heavenly cause.
  I am asking you to do what is right for America.

[[Page H10092]]

  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                              {time}  2045


                             Point of Order

  The SPEAKER pro tempore [Mr. Quinn]. Does the gentleman from Illinois 
[Mr. Crane] insist on his point of order?
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I make a point of order against the motion to 
recommit with instructions.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman wish to be heard on his 
point of order?
  Mr. CRANE. I do, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, the motion to recommit with instructions is not germane 
to the underlying bill. The fundamental purpose or common thread of the 
bill is very narrow, and only concerns the monitoring of products made 
with forced labor. The range of methods employed in the bill is 
similarly narrow.
  The motion, however, deals with the reciprocal tariff treatments of 
the products of China. This is clearly not within the very narrow 
purpose of this bill. The issue of tariffs is also outside the range of 
methods employed in the bill. Therefore, the motion to recommit with 
instructions is not germane, and I urge the Chair to sustain the point 
of order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. 
Taylor] wish to be heard on the point of order?
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Yes, Mr. Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Mississippi is 
recognized.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, the 
Committee on Ways and Means has an opportunity every year to consider 
this measure and measures just like it. They choose not to.
  I am appealing to the House because I have heard on too many 
occasions from too many Members of this body that we are not given the 
chance to do what is right. At every town meeting we attend, when 
people ask, how do these unfair things continue to happen, do Members 
know what we have to say? We have to say, it is the committee system, 
the Speaker, the Committee on Ways and Means committee. They will not 
let us do that.
  They do not understand that. They cannot find in the Constitution of 
the United States where it somehow makes some Members of Congress 
better than other Members of Congress; where just a few Members of 
Congress can decide whether or not 435 Members, who were each elected 
by over half a million American citizens, that they cannot even decide 
on basic questions of right and wrong when it comes to trade issues.
  I am asking the Members of this body to step up to the plate. I am 
asking them to do tonight what they tell their constituents at their 
town meetings. That is, do what is right, regardless of what the 
Committee on Ways and Means wants, regardless of what the Speaker 
wants, regardless of what the Democratic leadership wants or the 
Republican leadership wants. For once, let us do what America wants. 
Tonight is the Members' chance.
  I am asking for that opportunity. I hope Members will vote against 
tabling this motion. I hope we will bring it to the floor. I hope we 
will vote as a Nation to tell the people of China we are sick and tired 
of being their chumps.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair is prepared to rule at this time.
  The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Crane] makes the point of order that 
the amendment proposed in the motion to recommit is not germane. The 
test of germaneness in this situation is the relationship of the 
amendment proposed in the motion to recommit to the provisions of the 
bill as a whole.
  The bill as perfected authorizes funding for monitoring the 
importation into the United States of goods produced by forced labor. 
It also requires the reporting of certain information on that topic, 
and also expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should 
review reciprocal trade relationships on that topic.
  The amendment proposed in the motion to recommit would amend the 
tariff schedules of the United States to achieve reciprocity between 
the aggregate amount of Chinese tariffs on the American products and 
the aggregate amount of American tariffs on Chinese products. The bill 
confines its attention to products of forced labor.
  The amendment, although addressing only products of China, extends 
its attention to all products, not just those made by forced labor, and 
directly imposes tariff treatment, a matter not part of the bill.
  The Chair therefore finds that the amendment is a ``proposition on a 
subject different from that under consideration'' within the meaning of 
clause 7 of rule XVI. That is, the amendment is not germane. The point 
of order is sustained. The motion to recommit is not in order.


                         Parliamentary Inquiry

  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will state his parliamentary 
inquiry.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, what is the proper mechanism 
to question the ruling of the Chair and to make that available to the 
Members to make that decision?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman may appeal the ruling of the 
Chair.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I appeal the ruling of the 
Chair.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Taylor] 
appeals the ruling of the Chair.
  The question is, shall the decision of the Chair stand as the 
judgment of the House?


                  Motion to Table Offered by Mr Crane

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I move to lay on the table the appeal of the 
ruling of the Chair.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table 
offered by the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Crane].
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the 
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a 
quorum is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  Without objection, the vote on final passage will be reduced to a 
five-minute vote.
  There was no objection.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 217, 
nays 202, not voting 14, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 581]

                               YEAS--217

     Aderholt
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brady
     Bryant
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cannon
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins
     Combest
     Cook
     Cooksey
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cunningham
     Deal
     DeLay
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fossella
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Granger
     Greenwood
     Gutknecht
     Hamilton
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Herger
     Hill
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hulshof
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Jenkins
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kim
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Moakley
     Moran (KS)
     Morella
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oxley
     Packard
     Pappas
     Parker
     Paul
     Paxon
     Pease
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Pryce (OH)
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Redmond
     Regula
     Riggs
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roukema
     Royce
     Ryun
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer, Dan
     Schaffer, Bob
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw

[[Page H10093]]


     Shays
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Skaggs
     Skeen
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (OR)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith, Linda
     Snowbarger
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stump
     Sununu
     Talent
     Tauzin
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Thune
     Tiahrt
     Upton
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watkins
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (FL)

                               NAYS--202

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Allen
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Bartlett
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Berry
     Bilbray
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Blumenauer
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Cardin
     Carson
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Cummings
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Filner
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Goode
     Gordon
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Holden
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Hunter
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     John
     Johnson (WI)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind (WI)
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     Lampson
     Lantos
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Manton
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHale
     McIntyre
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Menendez
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (CA)
     Minge
     Mink
     Mollohan
     Moran (VA)
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Neal
     Neumann
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Poshard
     Price (NC)
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Reyes
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Rohrabacher
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanchez
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sawyer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Sherman
     Sisisky
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (MI)
     Smith, Adam
     Snyder
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor (MS)
     Thompson
     Thurman
     Tierney
     Torres
     Towns
     Traficant
     Turner
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Wexler
     Weygand
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wynn

                             NOT VOTING--14

     Cubin
     Davis (VA)
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Ford
     Gonzalez
     McKinney
     Riley
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Stearns
     Weldon (PA)
     Yates
     Young (AK)

                              {time}  2110

  Mr. BOSWELL, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. BILBRAY, and Mr. ROHRABACHER changed 
their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Mr. BACHUS changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
  So the motion lay on the table the appeal of the ruling of the Chair 
was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kingston). The question is on the 
passage of the bill.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.


                             Recorded Vote

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
  A recorded vote was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 419, 
noes 2, answered ``present'' 1, not voting 11, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 582]

                               AYES--419

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Aderholt
     Allen
     Andrews
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baesler
     Baker
     Baldacci
     Ballenger
     Barcia
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Barrett (WI)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Bereuter
     Berman
     Berry
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Bliley
     Blumenauer
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bonior
     Bono
     Borski
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brady
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Bryant
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cannon
     Cardin
     Carson
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins
     Combest
     Condit
     Conyers
     Cook
     Cooksey
     Costello
     Cox
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cummings
     Cunningham
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     Davis (VA)
     Deal
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     DeLay
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doolittle
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Edwards
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     Engel
     English
     Ensign
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Everett
     Ewing
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fawell
     Fazio
     Filner
     Foley
     Forbes
     Ford
     Fossella
     Fowler
     Fox
     Frank (MA)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frost
     Furse
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gejdenson
     Gekas
     Gephardt
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goode
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Gordon
     Goss
     Graham
     Granger
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Gutknecht
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Hansen
     Harman
     Hastert
     Hastings (FL)
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Hefner
     Herger
     Hill
     Hilleary
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Holden
     Hooley
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hoyer
     Hulshof
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     Jenkins
     John
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (WI)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kim
     Kind (WI)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     LaHood
     Lampson
     Lantos
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Levin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (GA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Lipinski
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Lucas
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Manton
     Manzullo
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHale
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McIntyre
     McKeon
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Menendez
     Metcalf
     Mica
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (CA)
     Miller (FL)
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Moran (KS)
     Moran (VA)
     Morella
     Murtha
     Myrick
     Nadler
     Neal
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Oxley
     Packard
     Pallone
     Pappas
     Parker
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Paxon
     Payne
     Pease
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Portman
     Poshard
     Price (NC)
     Pryce (OH)
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Redmond
     Regula
     Reyes
     Riggs
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Rothman
     Roukema
     Roybal-Allard
     Royce
     Rush
     Ryun
     Sabo
     Salmon
     Sanchez
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sanford
     Sawyer
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer, Dan
     Schaffer, Bob
     Scott
     Sensenbrenner
     Serrano
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Sherman
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (OR)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith, Adam
     Smith, Linda
     Snowbarger
     Snyder
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stearns
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Strickland
     Stump
     Stupak
     Sununu
     Talent
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thornberry
     Thune
     Thurman
     Tiahrt
     Tierney
     Torres
     Towns
     Traficant
     Turner
     Upton
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Waters
     Watkins
     Watt (NC)
     Watts (OK)
     Waxman
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     Wexler
     Weygand
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wise
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Young (FL)

                                NOES--2

     Brown (CA)
     Pickett
       

                        ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1

       
     Paul
       

                             NOT VOTING--11

     Cubin
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Gonzalez
     Greenwood
     McKinney
     Riley
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Yates
     Young (AK)

                              {time}  2127

  So the bill was passed.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to provide 
for certain measures to increase monitoring of products that are made 
with forced labor.''

[[Page H10094]]

  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________