[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CHINESE OCCUPATION OF TIBET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week we had a rally on the 
Capitol talking about freedom in Tibet, and there were a lot of people 
talking about the need to pray for the people in Tibet. I believe, 
though, that we need to worry about the people of America and America 
losing its way, turning its back on the very things that Thomas 
Jefferson and our founders believed in regarding freedom in this 
country and in this world, for the country that has been called the 
last great hope for a dying world has turned its back on freedom loving 
friends across the globe for 30 pieces of silver.
  It seems Americans are confused by facts or more concerned about 
9,000 points on the Dow Jones than what is going on. Nine thousand is a 
number that has mesmerized politicians in Washington. Nine thousand is 
a number that has mesmerized the wizards of Wall Street and those on 
Madison Avenue.
  But when we are talking about Tibet, I think we need to talk about 
some numbers that at least, to me, and at least to the freedom-loving 
people of this country should be more important than the 9,000 number 
when talking about the Dow.
  I am concerned about the number 50. That is the number of years Tibet 
will have illegally been occupied by China in the next few years. I am 
concerned about the number 1.2 million. That is how many Tibetans, one-
fifth of the country's population, have died since 1959 because of the 
Chinese occupation.
  I am concerned with the number 2,000. There are more than 2,000 
political prisoners right now in Tibet. I am concerned about the number 
130,000. That is how many Tibetans are in exile.
  Right now, there are 250,000 Chinese troops occupying Tibet. At least 
6,000 people were sentenced to death in 1997. Right now, 60, the count 
is 60 million for the number of people that this brutal regime has 
killed since its inception in 1949.

                              {time}  1945

  And yet we have politician after politician and corporate leader 
after corporate leader falling all over themselves to embrace China 
and, in doing so, crushing the human rights of those people in Tibet.
  Freedom is what I believe America is about. Thomas Jefferson's view 
of America was an America with a free marketplace of ideas, where 
people could come together and talk about and debate and export liberty 
and freedom across the globe. And yet in America today we remain 
strangely silent because of our preoccupation with the Dow Jones over 
9,000 points and our preoccupation over China as the next exporting 
market. And, meanwhile, we import from China and other places in east 
Asia, basically getting cheap consumer goods based on little more than 
what we in America would term slave labor.
  It is very frightening. It does not remind me of the America that 
Thomas Jefferson and the founders talked about when they wrote,

       We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are 
     endowed with certain inalienable rights by their creator, and 
     among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

  Now, if our founders believed that God gave those rights to all men, 
are those rights that Jefferson wrote about, that the creator endowed 
us with, are those rights exclusive only to those people that are not 
good trading partners? Or if we have a good trading partner, do we turn 
our back on Jefferson's vision and our founders' vision of America in 
this world? Regrettably, over the last few years, I am afraid the 
answer is, yes, we have turned our backs. It is not the America that 
Jefferson believed in, it is not the America that leaders have believed 
in, it is not the America that I believe in.
  So many people at the rally seemed concerned that they could not make 
a difference; that there was nothing they could do to break down the 
walls of resistance from the White House or from this Congress or from 
Wall Street or from Madison Avenue. But I am reminded of a quote that 
Bobby Kennedy made some 32, 33 years ago. And, of course, Senator 
Robert Kennedy was shot down about 30 years ago last week. But he 
believed that one person could make a difference. Just like he said in 
Johannesburg, one person could make a difference in breaking down the 
walls of oppression. I believe that to be the case in Tibet.

                          ____________________