[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE IN CHINA: HAO FUYUAN AND NGAWANG OESER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 27, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to call to the attention of 
my colleagues Mr. Hao Fuyuan, a Chinese Prisoner of Conscience adopted 
by my office as part of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus` Adopt-a-
Political Prisoner campaign. Mr. Hao is a peasant from the province of 
Shandong who, inspired by the Tiananmen Square disturbances he saw on 
television, joined some students making their way to join the fray.
  Upon returning from Tiananmen Square, Mr. Hao purchased a blank tape 
and recorded such messages as ``Li's words deceive the masses; You must 
not believe him''; ``You should listen to Voice of America''; and 
``Students and workers all over the country, strike!'' Mr. Hao played 
this tape in seven peasant homes in his village.
  Arrested during the aftermath of the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen 
Square, June 4-5, 1989, Mr. Hao was tried and found hostile to the 
socialist system and sentenced to ten years imprisonment and three 
years loss of political rights for ``broadcasting dissent to the 
masses.'' He has currently served eight of those ten years in Shandong 
Prison 3 in Weifang, punished simply for exercising his right of free 
speech, a right recognized by most governments throughout the world as 
a fundamental human right.
  Mr. Speaker, in March, 1997, the category of ``counterrevolutionary 
crimes'', under which Mr. Hao was charged, was eliminated by the 
Chinese legislature. Even more suggestive, four men charged with 
counterrevolutionary crimes for their involvement in the 1989 protests 
were recently released. This suggests that the Chinese government, 
under its new leadership, may be rethinking the Tiananmen Square 
incident. The time is right, Mr. Speaker, for the release of Hao 
Fuyuan, and I invite my colleagues to join me in urging the Chinese 
government to release him from prison.
  My office has also adopted Mr. Ngawang Oeser, a monk from the Drepung 
Monastery currently jailed in Drapchi. Mr. Ngawang was arrested for 
``spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda'', such as a translation of 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which China itself signed 
fifty years ago. For this ``egregious crime'', Mr. Ngawang received the 
outrageous sentence of seventeen years in jail with loss of political 
rights for an additional five years. He has so far served nine years of 
that sentence.
  Mr. Speaker, Amnesty International rightfully considers Hao Fuyuan 
and Ngawang Oeser Prisoners of Conscience, those imprisoned solely for 
the non-violent expression of their beliefs, who have not used or 
advocated violence. In cooperation with Amnesty International, the 
Congressional Human Rights Caucus in October of last year sponsored a 
campaign urging congressional offices to adopt a Tibetan or Chinese 
Prisoner of Conscience. Many of my colleagues in Congress have 
participated in this project, joining the Congressional Human Rights 
Caucus in the belief that a violation of human rights anywhere is a 
violation of human rights everywhere.
  All Prisoners of Conscience, insofar as they have defended human 
rights without resorting to violence, are eminently deserving of our 
assistance. Mr. Hao is especially significant, however, because like 
most of the more than 2,500 political prisoners in China, he is not a 
well-known intellectual or activist. Hao Fuyuan is a simple man who was 
dissatisfied with his country's leaders and who communicated that 
dissatisfaction to his neighbors. He did nothing more. He is a 
testament to the truth that, though occasionally perceived as the 
property and passion of an educated elite, human rights are universal . 
. . and they must be universally recognized.

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