[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3443-S3444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 212--RELATIVE TO THE UPCOMING UNITED STATES-CHINA 
                                 SUMMIT

  Mr. HUTCHINSON (for himself, Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Brownback, 
and Mr. Feingold) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred

[[Page S3444]]

to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 212

       Whereas Chinese dissident Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 
     pro-democracy demonstrations that were crushed at Tiananmen 
     Square in 1989 was released on April 18, 1998, from a Chinese 
     jail;
       Whereas Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan were released from 
     prison ostensibly for medical reasons, it is clear that their 
     release into exile was intended as a political gesture to 
     diminish public U.S. criticism of China's human rights 
     practices;
       Whereas China's ``most famous dissident'' Wei Jingsheng was 
     released on November 16, 1997, from a Chinese jail;
       Whereas, in addition to Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan, 
     thousands of other political, religious, and labor dissidents 
     are imprisoned in China and Tibet for peacefully expressing 
     their beliefs and exercising their internationally recognized 
     rights of free association and expression, including--
       (1) Gao Yu, a journalist sentenced to 6 years in prison in 
     November 1994 and honored by UNESCO in May 1997, who has a 
     heart condition;
       (2) Chen Longde, a leading human rights advocate now 
     serving a 3-year reeducation through labor sentence imposed 
     without trial in August 1996, who has reportedly been subject 
     to repeated beatings and electric shocks at a labor camp for 
     refusing to confess his guilt;
       (3) Li Hai, sentenced to nine years in prison on December 
     18, 1996, for collecting information on those imprisoned 
     after the 1989 crackdown; he was convicted of ``prying into 
     and gathering . . . . information about persons sentenced for 
     criminal activity during the June 4, 1989, period;''
       (4) Yang Qinheng, apprehended February 26, 1998, and 
     assigned to 3 years' ``reeducation through labor'' in March 
     for ``disturbing social order'', who had called for 
     independent trade unions;
       (5) Shen Liangqing, former public prosecutor and 
     petitioner, who was apprehended on February 25, 1998, and 
     assigned to 2 years' labor on April 4, 1998, for 
     ``unauthorized contact with foreign journalists'';
       (6) Tu Guangwen, an organizer of a street protest, who was 
     sentenced by the Jiangxia district court on February 19, 
     1998, to 3 years' imprisonment after being convicted of 
     ``gathering a crowd to disrupt orderly traffic'' during a 
     demonstration by laid-off workers; and
       (7) Ngawang Choephel, a Tibet Fullbright scholar sentenced 
     to 18 years in prison by Chinese Authorities in December 1996 
     on charges of ``espionage;''
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China, 
     as detailed in successive annual reports on human rights by 
     the United States Department of State, routinely, 
     systematically, and massively violates the human rights of 
     its citizens, including freedom of speech, assembly, worship, 
     and peaceful political dissent;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     restricts the ability of religious adherents, including 
     Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and others, to practice 
     outside of state-approved religious organizations, and 
     detains worshipers and clergy who participate in religious 
     services conducted outside state-approved religious 
     organizations, as well as those who refuse to register with 
     the authorities, as required;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     routinely, systematically, and massively continues to commit 
     widespread human rights abuses in Tibet, including instances 
     of death in detention, torture, arbitrary arrest, detention 
     without public trial, long detention of Tibetan nationalists 
     for peacefully expressing their religious and political 
     views, and intensified controls on religion and on freedom of 
     speech and the press, particularly for ethnic Tibetans; and
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     engages in reprehensible, brutal, and coercive family 
     planning practices, including forced abortions and forced 
     sterilization, resulting in widespread infanticide, 
     particularly of female infants: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) in the upcoming, proposed summit between President 
     Clinton and President Jiang Zemin of China, President Clinton 
     should demand the immediate and unconditional release, 
     consistent with established international principles of human 
     rights, of all persons remaining imprisoned in China and 
     Tibet for political or religious reasons; and
       (2) the President should submit a report to Congress as 
     soon as possible after the proposed summit in China 
     concerning his progress in securing the release of persons 
     remaining imprisoned in China and Tibet, as described in 
     paragraph (1); and
       (3) the release of one prisoner into exile does not change 
     the fundamental flaws within the Chinese judicial and penal 
     system;
       (4) the U.S. policy of granting concessions to the Chinese 
     government in exchange for the release of high profile 
     prisoners is an offense to the thousands of dissidents 
     remaining in prison; and
       (5) the President should not offer to lift the sanctions 
     imposed on China after the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen 
     Square.

  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, yesterday's papers were replete with 
stories praising the People's Republic of China for releasing Wang Dan, 
a leader of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstration at Tiananmen Square 
which was crushed by China's military. This release follows, by less 
than six months, the release of Wei Jingshen--arguably China's best 
known human rights dissident. While these are certainly positive 
developments, it is important to note that both of these releases are 
tainted by the fact that neither dissident was allowed to stay in their 
own country, but were instead exiled to the United States for ``medical 
treatment.'' These exiles conveniently allow China to gain favor with 
the United States while simultaneously allowing them to silence two of 
their loudest critics by banishing them to the United States.
  Mr. President, the truth is that China appears to be using its 
dissidents as pawns in an international game of chess with the United 
States to gain military, technological and other favors from the 
Clinton Administration. In fact, the release of these two prisoners 
appears to be payment for the United States decision not to support a 
resolution condemning China's human rights record at the recently 
completed U.N. Conference on Human Rights and for the United States 
certification of China to join a pact on ballistic missile technology. 
It is amazing that this great country, which has long stood beside 
political prisoners around the world, is willing to be a player in 
China game of siphoning out political prisoners in return for 
international favors.
  Let us not forget that the People's Republic of China continues to 
have one of the worst human rights records in the world. A record that 
includes torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and 
detention, forced abortion and sterilization, crackdowns on independent 
Catholic and Protestant bishops and believers, brutal oppression of 
ethnic minorities and religions in Tibet and Xinjiang, absolute 
intolerance of free political speech or free press, and most recently, 
the harvesting and selling of human organs.
  Likewise, let us not forget that China continues to threaten its 
neighbors, most notably Taiwan and let us not forget that China 
continues to violate international agreements on non-proliferation, 
having recently been caught negotiating to sell chemicals to Iran which 
could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium.
  Mr. President, we must end this deadly and humiliating game with 
China, and demand the immediate release of the hundreds, if not 
thousands, of political, religious, and labor dissidents currently 
imprisoned in China for having peacefully expressed their beliefs and 
for having exercised their basic human rights. This list includes the 
likes of Gao Yu, a journalist sentenced to six years in 1994; Chen 
Longde, a leading human rights advocate serving a three year ``re-
education'' sentence which began in 1995; Li Qingxi, a unionist 
arrested in 1998, and many, many others. While I hope that the recent 
release of two of China's most notable dissidents was just the 
beginning, and that the remaining political prisoners held in the 
People's Republic of China will soon be released, I see little evidence 
that this is the case.
  Therefore, I urge my fellow Senators to support my Sense of the 
Senate Resolution calling on the President to demand that China release 
all such prisoners prior to their upcoming U.S.-China summit meeting, 
and that the President report to this body on the progress being made 
by the administration in securing the release of these prisoners 
immediately following this planned summit.
  Mr. President, this is a reasonable resolution--a resolution that 
once again puts this body on record supporting those that would give up 
their freedom in support of the freedom of their fellow countrymen. I 
can think of no more important issue. I thank my Senate colleagues for 
their support.

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