[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 23 (Monday, March 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1547-S1548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I want to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues a matter before we go back to the ISTEA, or the 
transportation bill. It concerns a resolution that I think is extremely 
important. This will be a sense-of-the-Senate resolution that we will 
have a vote on this week, an up-or-down vote, which says that the 
Senate strongly urges the President, acting through the current 
representatives of the United States, to make all efforts necessary to 
pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its 
human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the 
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which convenes March 16.
  Mr. President, last week, on Friday, I was able to discuss this with 
the majority leader, and he made a commitment--and his word is good, I 
know that--that on this resolution we will have a separate up-or-down 
vote. I believe we will have a very strong vote for this.
  Mr. President, I started out working with Senator Mack from Florida. 
The resolution was a Mack-Wellstone resolution. I know he will be a 
very strong supporter, as well as Senator Hutchinson from Arkansas, 
Senator Feingold from Wisconsin, and I think this resolution will 
receive broad bipartisan support.
  I come to the floor of the Senate to speak for two reasons. One, to 
again thank the majority leader for his commitment that we will have an 
up-or-down vote on this specific resolution, and second of all, to make 
an all-out appeal to the administration, to the President, to the 
Secretary of State, to Sandy Berger and others.
  The Washington Post had an editorial last week, and I will read 
relevant paragraphs.

       The immediate issue is whether to sponsor a resolution at 
     the United Nations Commission . . . in Geneva next month 
     [actually this week.] You wouldn't think this would be a 
     tough call. Such a resolution would moderately criticize 
     China's record and call for improvements; it would impose no 
     penalty beyond well-deserved embarrassment. Democracy 
     advocate Wei Jingsheng nevertheless calls the resolution ``a 
     matter of life and death'' for reform in China. President 
     Clinton explicitly promised, back when he delinked trade and 
     human rights in 1994, that the administration ``would step up 
     its efforts'' to get such a resolution approved. China's 
     regime remains as oppressive today as it was then.

  Mr. President, I come to the floor to make an appeal to the 
President, to make an appeal to the administration. I think when we 
have an up-or-down vote on this resolution, which calls on our country 
to be a part of an effort to introduce a resolution at this Human 
Rights Commission meeting on human rights dealing with abuses of human 
rights in China, we will get a strong vote on the Senate floor--
Republicans and Democrats, Democrats and Republicans. We want to work 
with the administration. I call on the President

[[Page S1548]]

today to please make a commitment for the United States to play a 
critically important role.
  I consider one of the finest hours I have spent as a U.S. Senator to 
be Friday morning with Wei Jingsheng. Wei Jingsheng --I think many 
Senators and the Presiding Officer knows about Wei Jingsheng--spent 18 
years in prison in China for the courage to speak out for democracy, 
for human rights. Because of tremendous international pressure, he was 
released from prison--in poor health. But he can never go back to his 
country again or he would be imprisoned.
  Wei Jingsheng has been nominated by a number of people for the Nobel 
Peace Prize. He deserves it. He wrote a wonderful book called ``The 
Courage to Stand Alone.'' That is what he has done.
  He came to my office and met with a lot of different human rights 
organizations on Friday. I asked him to please write a letter that I 
could distribute to colleagues this week about the importance of an up-
or-down vote on this resolution specifically dealing with China--which 
the majority leader has made clear we will be able to do this week. I 
will just quote from a little bit of the letter he wrote, which has 
been translated.

       I strongly support the passage of a resolution that solely 
     condemns the human rights situation in the People's Republic 
     of China. And he lists a variety of reasons; I will read a 
     couple.
       If we want to target more than ten countries at the same 
     time, we not only dilute our force, but also strengthen the 
     solidarity of the anti-human-rights alliance and 
     simultaneously increase resistance to our effort.

  Continuing:

       Based on these considerations, I urge those in the Senate 
     who support human rights to take a strategy that stands in 
     opposition to those friends of the Chinese dictatorship. In 
     unity, we can strike against the real leader and supporter of 
     the alliance of anti-human-rights forces--the Chinese 
     Communist government.
       As long as we persist we will succeed--it is simply a 
     matter of time. I know because our endeavor is just.
       Respectfully, Your friend, Wei Jingsheng.

  It is the least we can do, I say to the President, I say to the White 
House, the least we can do. Whether or not Senators agree or disagree 
about whether human rights concerns should be linked to trade or not is 
a separate question from this question. This question is simple. The 
right place to do this is at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 
Geneva. It is the right time. The President has made a commitment to do 
so. Now we must follow through on our commitment.
  I urge Senators to please support this resolution. We will have an 
up-or-down vote on it. I also urge Senators: please, don't dilute this. 
If we want to pass a resolution calling for respect for human rights in 
all sorts of other countries--yes, I won't oppose that. As a matter of 
fact, many of those countries are already on the list and it will be 
brought up in Geneva. But we also need to have a separate resolution 
dealing with what is happening in China.
  Mr. President, the administration has already indicated that it will 
strongly support action on Colombia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nigeria, 
Iran, Iraq, Sudan and many other countries. Significantly, the 
administration has also publicly supported an international 
investigation of the situation in Algeria. But the administration has 
remained undecided on China.
  Like many of you, I support any call for greater action on all 
governments committing human rights violations. Yes, let's do that. But 
there are also compelling reasons for the Congress and the 
administration to issue a stand-alone declaration on China.
  This resolution that I will be introducing on the floor of the Senate 
with bipartisan support is a stand-alone resolution declaration on 
China. That has been the focuses of the past several meetings of the 
Human Rights Commission in Geneva. We cannot move away from that focus. 
This is a compelling moral issue. Our country ought to be there 
speaking out for human rights for people in China and other countries 
as well. But this resolution will be the key up-or-down vote.
  Finally, Mr. President, the U.N. Human Rights Commission is the only 
major international body which oversees the human rights conditions of 
all the nations. There is no dispute that the credibility of the 
commission process hinges on whether or not there will be at least a 
debate on China's human rights record. Few countries have so brazenly 
challenged the legitimacy of international human rights scrutiny or so 
openly challenged the universality of human rights as China. It would 
be shocking, I say to the President, for the United States to respond 
to this challenge with silence.
  Would it be shocking, I say to the President, the administration, and 
my colleagues, for us to respond to this challenge with silence? When I 
meet with somebody like Wei Jingsheng, who has exhibited such courage--
and he just asked us to go on record supporting this simple resolution, 
and I believe it is the very least that we can do. Colleagues, we are 
going to have a vote on it this week, and I hope that we have an 
overwhelming, strong, bipartisan voice and message to the President and 
the administration that the United States will be courageous, that we 
will live up to our own best selves as to who we are as a Nation, and 
we will take the lead in Geneva.
  If we let the U.N. Commission on Human Rights meet in Geneva and we 
are silent and there is not any discussion about religious persecution, 
the persecution of people because they had the courage to speak out, 
the crushing of the people in Tibet, and all of the rest, if there 
isn't even any discussion, it will be devastating for so many 
courageous people in China that have stood up for human rights. We 
can't let that happen. Therefore, we will have this up-or-down vote.

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