[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S5701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 244--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE ON THE NINTH 
    ANNIVERSARY OF PRO-DEMOCRACY DEMONSTRATORS ON TIANAN-MEN SQUARE

  Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Lott, Mr. Hutchinson, and Mr. Abraham) 
submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 244

       Whereas in the spring of 1989, thousands of students 
     demonstrated in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in favor of 
     greater democracy, civil liberties, and freedom of expression 
     in the People's Republic of China (PRC);
       Whereas these students' protests against political 
     repression in their homeland were conducted peacefully and 
     posed no threat to their fellow Chinese citizens;
       Whereas on the evening of June 4, 1989, these students were 
     brutally attacked by infantry and armored vehicles of the 
     People's Liberation Army (PLA) acting under orders from the 
     highest political and military leadership of the PRC;
       Whereas hundreds of these students were killed by the PLA 
     in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 for offenses no more 
     serious than that of seeking peacefully to assert their most 
     basic human, civil, and political rights;
       Whereas many of the leaders of the student demonstrations 
     thus attacked were subsequently imprisoned, sought out for 
     arrest, or otherwise persecuted by the Government of the PRC;
       Whereas during or shortly after the brutal assault of June 
     4, 1989, at least 2,500 persons were arrested for so-called 
     ``counter-revolutionary offenses'' across China and dozens of 
     persons were executed;
       Whereas the Chinese government has never expressed grief 
     for its actions on June 4, 1989, still imprisons at least 150 
     persons in connection with the Tiananmen Square 
     demonstrations, and has continued to deny its citizens basic 
     internationally-recognized human, civil, and political 
     rights;
       Whereas the Government of the PRC, as detailed in 
     successive annual reports on human rights by the United 
     States Department of State, still routinely and 
     systematically violates the rights of its citizens, including 
     their rights to freedom of speech, assembly, worship, and 
     peaceful dissent; and
       Whereas the Tiananmen Square Massacre has become indelibly 
     etched into the political consciousness of our times as a 
     symbol both of the impossibility of forever denying a 
     determined people the right to control their own destiny and 
     of the oppressiveness and brutality of governments that seek 
     to do so: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That, in the interest of expressing support for 
     the observance of human, civil, and political rights in China 
     and around the world, it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the United States Government should remain committed to 
     honoring the memory and spirit of the brave citizens of China 
     who suffered and died in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 for 
     attempting to assert their internationally-recognized rights; 
     and
       (2) supporting the peaceful transition to democratic 
     governance and the observance of internationally-recognized 
     human, civil, and political rights and the rule of law in 
     China should be a principal goal of United States foreign 
     policy.
       Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy 
     of this resolution to the President.





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