[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H4969]]
         THREE REPORTERS BANNED FROM PRESIDENT'S CHINA TRAVELS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I am here this morning with three empty 
chairs, and I would like to talk about the President's visit to China. 
Not since Genghis Kahn led hordes of warriors across the Asian plains 
has China been invaded by a larger political entourage than President 
Clinton leads this week.
  Accompanying him, at taxpayer expense, will be hordes of aides, 
staff, military, press, and spinmasters. It is reported that more than 
1,200 individuals will accompany the President, and fleets of jumbo 
jets will transport scores of personnel and equipment across the 
Pacific.
  More than six limousines and dozens of vehicles will be shipped to 
China to add comfort and security for the President's entourage. But 
what will not be a part of the President's China visit, Mr. Speaker, 
are three journalists, three U.S. journalists. I have them symbolized 
by these three empty chairs up here at the well this morning. Three 
empty chairs.
  Three journalists from Radio Free Asia will not be going to China. 
There will be three empty seats. Three journalists from Radio Free 
China will have had their visas denied and revoked by Chinese officials 
just within the last few hours. It is an outrage on the eve of our 
President's visit that legitimate journalists covering this visit will 
be barred from reporting this event for Radio Free China.
  There will be three empty seats. As this headline today declares, 
``Beijing pulls visas of three U.S. reporters,'' we see these three 
empty seats that signify those journalists who will not be covering 
this event.
  As someone who has advocated a free trade policy towards China in an 
effort to secure a more free and open China and a free press for the 
Chinese, I and many others, again, have been betrayed.
  If these reporters were allowed to go, they would certainly cover a 
lavish banquet at the Great Hall. What they would not report, if they 
could attend, would be the unjust imprisonment of Chinese, such as 
teacher Lee Hi; and that is reported in today's Washington Post. I 
commend that to my colleagues.
  Lee Hi, a 44-year-old former teacher at a Chinese medical college is 
serving a 9-year sentence in Beijing's prison. His crime: assembling a 
list of people jailed for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations 
in Tiananmen Square in 1989 from the Beijing area alone. He documented 
more than 700 in prison. And 158 of those, mostly workers rather than 
students, received sentences of more than 9 years and are presumed 
still held. While President Clinton and the Chinese President dine on a 
sumptuous meal, Lee Hi and others will rot in Chinese prisons.
  Mr. Speaker, without a free press and without freedom for political 
dissidents, we have, in fact, empty chairs, and we have, in fact, an 
empty policy towards freedom of dissent in China.

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