[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 22, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S694-S695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RELEASE OF SONG YONGYI

 Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate the 
safe return of Song Yongyi to his home and family in Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania. Mr. Song, Librarian at Dickinson College, was recently 
freed from a Chinese detention center after a detainment of 172 days.
  Mr. Song was born on December 15, 1949 in Shanghai where he attended 
elementary and middle school. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 
his education was interrupted and Mr. Song became a dockworker. In 1971 
he was detained and labeled a ``counter-revolutionary'' for organizing 
a book club with four other young people interested in discussing 
political ideas. Mr. Song spent five years in detention under harsh 
conditions, where he was severely beaten, resulting in permanent damage 
to his health. After the Cultural Revolution, he was completely 
exonerated of all criminal charges.
  In 1977 Mr. Song was part of an elite group of students who entered 
university as a result of a competitive, nationwide examination. He 
graduated from Shanghai Normal University in 1981. He taught Chinese 
literature for Shanghai educational television until 1987, at which 
time he became a full-time literary critic and widely recognized 
researcher. Mr. Song moved to the United States in 1989 and enrolled in 
graduate school at the University of Colorado, where his wife Helen 
(Xiaohua) and daughter Michelle (Xiaoxiao) joined him in 1990. After 
obtaining a second masters degree in library information science from 
Indiana University, the Song family moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 
where Song Yongyi is employed as Librarian at Dickinson College.
  Mr. Song's deep interest in the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution and 
growing prominence as an expert in the field led him to make research 
trips to China in the summers of 1998 and 1999. As part of his 
research, Mr. Song collected documents concerning the Cultural 
Revolution, which are widely available in markets and curio shops. It 
was during this most recent visit to China that state security 
officials detained Mr. and Mrs. Song in Beijing on August 7. For about 
one month, Yongyi and

[[Page S695]]

Helen were held in a detention center in Beijing and interrogated. They 
were not allowed to see each other or communicate with the outside 
world. Later they were moved to a facility where conditions were less 
harsh and were finally permitted to speak with each other. Helen was 
released from custody on November 16 and allowed to return home to 
Carlisle, but Yongyi remained in detention. On December 24, Song Yongyi 
was arrested and charged with the ``purchase and illegal provision of 
intelligence to foreign people.''
  Mr. Song's arrest generated an outpouring of support from scholars in 
the United States and abroad, as well as from politicians. As of result 
of the vigorous campaign to secure Mr. Song's release, the Chinese 
government announced their decision to free Song Yongyi.
  On behalf of the many Pennsylvanians who diligently kept the Song 
family in their thoughts and prayers, I would like to extend my 
heartfelt congratulations and warmest wishes on the safe return of Song 
Yongyi.

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