[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 11, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1798-S1799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE 39TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIBETAN PEOPLE'S UPRISING

 Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the concerned 
citizens in Chicago and around the world who have taken part in 
activities to commemorate the 39th Anniversary of the Tibetan People's 
Uprising of 1959.
  Since China's brutal invasion of Tibet in 1949, Chinese rule has 
brought oppression and misery to a proud people whose national history 
extends back 2,000 years. Tibet functioned fully as an independent 
nation-state from 1911 until 1951, when China imposed its notorious so-
called ``17-Point Agreement on the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet,'' 
forcing the Tibetan government to acknowledge Chinese sovereignty.
  As China consolidated its power during the 1950s, refusing to permit 
even the regional autonomy permitted under the treaty, Tibetan 
resistance grew. It came to a head in the People's Uprising, which was 
suppressed by the Red Army at the cost of thousands of civilian lives. 
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's head of state and the spiritual leader of 
Tibetan Buddhists, was forced into exile in India, where he has been 
campaigning for the freedom of Tibet ever since.
  The International Campaign for Tibet estimates that, during the 20 
years following the uprising, some 1.2 million Tibetans, about one 
fifth of the country's population, perished due to China's policies. 
Many more were imprisoned, went into exile, or disappeared. More than 
6,000 monasteries, temples and other cultural and historic buildings 
were destroyed. The Chinese occupation of Tibet stands as a monument to 
the worst excesses of Communist tyranny.
  The U.S. Department of State and international human rights 
organizations continue to document acts of repression by Chinese 
authorities in Tibet even today. According to reports cited in the 
State Department's Human Rights Report for 1997, ``Chinese government 
authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses in Tibet, 
including instances of torture, arbitrary arrest, detention without 
public trial, and long detention of Tibetan nationalists for peacefully 
expressing their political views. Tight controls on religion and on 
other fundamental freedoms continued and in some cases intensified.''
  Amnesty International cited ``grossly unfair trials, widespread 
torture and ill-treatment in police cells, prisons and labor camps,'' 
and concluded that ``despite some legal changes, Chinese legislation 
still allowed more than 200,000 to be detained in 1997 without charge 
or trial for `re-education through labor.' ''
  The Chinese government's claims of success in its recent economic 
development policies in Tibet are also misleading: the favorable 
economic and tax policies have disproportionately benefitted ethnic 
Chinese residents rather than native Tibetans. Consequently, these 
policies ``have attracted growing numbers of ethnic Han and Hui 
immigrants from other parts of China, that are competing with--and in 
some cases displacing--Tibetan enterprises and labor,'' according to 
the U.S. State Department.
  The United States must not allow China to use Tibet's geographic and 
political isolation to obscure our view of the situation. The fate of 
Tibet and its people also must not be sacrificed to diplomatic 
expediency in a short-sighted effort to improve U.S. relations with 
China. If the Chinese government wishes to join the community of 
responsible nations, it must act responsibly. It must improve its human 
rights performance and resume negotiations on Tibet's future. We in 
Congress should call upon the Administration to introduce a resolution 
dealing with the serious human rights abuses in China and

[[Page S1799]]

Tibet at the March 16 meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights in Geneva.
  As the Dalai Lama has said, ``Brute force, no matter how strongly 
applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and 
dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to 
provide people with food, shelter and clothing. The deeper human nature 
needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.'' It is time the 
government of China paid heed to his wise words.

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