[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 30 (Thursday, February 25, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1982-S1983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION 
                   IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the resolution.

[[Page S1983]]

                                  Vote

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the resolution. 
The yeas and nays have been ordered on S. Res. 45.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. 
Torricelli) is necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 99, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 27 Leg.]

                                YEAS--99

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Allard
     Ashcroft
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bryan
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Cleland
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coverdell
     Craig
     Crapo
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Moynihan
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nickles
     Reed
     Reid
     Robb
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Torricelli
      
  The resolution (S. Res. 45) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                               S. Res. 45

       Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission 
     on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, provides a forum for 
     discussing human rights and expressing international support 
     for improved human rights performance;
       Whereas, according to the United States Department of State 
     and international human rights organizations, the Government 
     of the People's Republic of China continues to commit 
     widespread and well-documented human rights abuses in China 
     and Tibet and continues the coercive implementation of family 
     planning policies and the sale of human organs taken from 
     executed prisoners;
       Whereas such abuses stem from an intolerance of dissent and 
     fear of civil unrest on the part of authorities in the 
     People's Republic of China and from a failure to adequately 
     enforce laws in the People's Republic of China that protect 
     basic freedoms;
       Whereas such abuses violate internationally accepted norms 
     of conduct enshrined by the Universal Declaration of Human 
     Rights;
       Whereas the People's Republic of China recently signed the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has 
     yet to take the steps necessary to make the covenant legally 
     binding;
       Whereas the President decided not to sponsor a resolution 
     criticizing the People's Republic of China at the United 
     Nations Human Rights Commission in 1998 in consideration of 
     commitments by the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to sign the International Covenant on Civil and 
     Political Rights and based on a belief that progress on human 
     rights in the People's Republic of China could be achieved 
     through other means;
       Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have 
     recently escalated efforts to extinguish expressions of 
     protest or criticism and have detained scores of citizens 
     associated with attempts to organize a legal democratic 
     opposition, as well as religious leaders, writers, and others 
     who petitioned the authorities to release those arbitrarily 
     arrested; and
       Whereas these efforts underscore that the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China continues to commit serious human 
     rights abuses, despite expectations to the contrary following 
     two summit meetings between President Clinton and President 
     Jiang in which assurances were made regarding improvements in 
     the human rights record of the People's Republic of China: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that at the 
     55th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 
     Geneva, Switzerland, the United States should introduce and 
     make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution calling upon 
     the People's Republic of China to end its human rights abuses 
     in China and Tibet.

  Mr. FRIST. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

                          ____________________