[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 26 (Thursday, March 9, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1425-S1427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 271--REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN THE 
                       PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  By Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself, Mr. Torricelli, Mr. Leahy, Mr. 
Feingold, and Mr. Brownback) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

[[Page S1426]]

                              S. Res. 271

       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 in 1999, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 45 
     urging the United States to introduce and make all necessary 
     efforts to pass a resolution condemning human rights 
     practices of the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on 
     Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland;
       Whereas the United States thereafter introduced a 
     resolution condemning human rights practices of the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China at the annual 
     meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 
     Geneva, Switzerland;
       Whereas this resolution was kept off the agenda of the full 
     Commission by a ``no-action'' motion of the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China, had no cosponsors, and received 
     little support from European and other industrialized nations 
     and did not pass;
       Whereas, according to the Department of State and 
     international human rights organizations, the human rights 
     record of the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     has deteriorated sharply over the past year and authorities 
     of the People's Republic of China continue to commit 
     widespread and well-documented human rights abuses in China;
       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 has signed the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has 
     yet to take the necessary steps to make it legally binding;
       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, academics, and 
     members of minority groups;
       Whereas these efforts underscore that the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China continues to commit serious human 
     rights abuses that must be condemned; and
       Whereas the United States will again introduce a resolution 
     condemning human rights practices of the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China at the annual meeting of the 
     United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, 
     Switzerland, on March 20, 2000: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That (a) the Senate supports the decision of the 
     Administration to introduce a resolution at the 56th Session 
     of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, 
     Switzerland, calling upon the People's Republic of China to 
     end its human rights abuses.
       (b) It is the sense of the Senate that the United States 
     should make every effort necessary to pass such a resolution, 
     including through initiating high level contact between the 
     Administration and representatives of the European Union and 
     other governments, and ensuring that the resolution be placed 
     on the full United Nations Human Rights Commission's agenda 
     by aggressively enlisting support for the resolution and 
     soliciting cosponsorship of it by other governments.

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, today I am offering a resolution in 
support of the President's decision to introduce a China resolution at 
the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on March 
20th and urging the President to make every effort necessary to pass 
it. This important resolution calls on China to end its human rights 
abuses.
  The President must ensure that this resolution be placed on the 
agenda of the full Human Rights Commission. He must enlist support for 
this resolution by other governments, especially by the European Union, 
and get them to cosponsor it. Year after year China has used a 
parliamentary tactic known as a ``no-action'' motion so that 
resolutions condemning its human rights abuses are struck down before 
they are even placed on the agenda of the full Commission. We must not 
allow this to happen this year.
  Last year the Senate passed a resolution urging the United States to 
introduce a resolution condemning China's human rights practices at the 
1999 Geneva meeting. Although the administration introduced a 
resolution, it was kept off the agenda of the full Commission by a 
``no-action'' motion of China. It had no co-sponsors and received 
little support from European and other industrialized nations. The 
resolution did not pass because it didn't even come up.
  This year the President announced in January his decision to again 
introduce a resolution in Geneva condemning China's human rights 
practices. According to the Administration the goal of the resolution 
is to ``shine an international spotlight directly on China's human 
rights practices'' through ``international action.'' But, as of today, 
there has been little international action. The resolution still has no 
co-sponsors.
  When President Clinton formally delinked trade and human rights in 
1994, he pledged, on the record, that the US would ``step up its 
efforts, in cooperation with other states, to insist that the United 
Nations Human Rights Commission pass a resolution dealing with the 
serious human rights abuses in China.'' While the U.S. has claimed an 
intention at least to speak out on human rights, the substance of US-
China relations--trade, military contacts, high level summits--go 
foward while Chinese leaders continue to crack down on dissidents 
throughout the country of over one billion.
  The Chinese government continues to commit widespread abuses and has 
taken actions that flagrantly violate the commitment it has made to 
respect internationally-recognized human rights. Just this week Mary 
Richardson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced that 
she is deeply concerned about the deterioration in China's human rights 
practices. Mr. Shen Guofang, China's Deputy Representative at the 
United Nations said, ``China now has the best human rights situation in 
its history.'' This is unbelievable. Is the current system the best 
China has to offer its own citizens? If this is so, this issue will 
remain a point of contention between China and the international 
community.
  In January, China convicted two of the last leaders of the Chinese 
Democracy Party. These disgraceful arrests were part of a further 
crackdown by the government on efforts to form the country's first 
opposition party. The arrests worked--they effectively obliterated the 
Party. But those fighting for democracy in China have not forgotten 
those they have lost, and they continue to fight.
  Chinese authorities blocked the delivery of foreign donations to help 
the families of people killed in the crackdown on the Tiananmen student 
democracy movement. Mr. Lu Wenhe, a Chinese citizen who has lived in 
the US for twenty years, was detained in Beijing on his way to meet a 
woman whose 17-year-old son was shot dead by soldiers in 1989. Mr. Lu 
was forced to sign over his check to an officer of the Shanghai State 
Security Bureau. Donors stopped payment on the check but Chinese 
authorities continued to harass Mr. Lu's parents in Shanghai to come up 
with the money or risk losing their apartment and car.
  And China continues to limit freedom of information. In January 
Chinese authorities arrested a scholar from Pennsylvania. Mr. Song, a 
librarian at Dickinson College and a scholar of China's cultural 
revolution, was formally charged with ``the purchase and illegal 
provision of intelligence to foreigners.'' He was held for over four 
months. The ``intelligence'' that he is charged with possessing were 
documents that were already published as part of a collection of 
historical materials relating to the Cultural Revolution. Nothing could 
better illustrate the Chinese authorities' determination to suppress 
history or thought than the arrest of a scholar engaged in historical 
research.
  Since September, Beijing has arrested thousands of practitioners of 
Falun Gong and Zhong Gong, both popular spiritual movements, whose 
threats to the regime are that they are not under the Party's control. 
President Zemin announced in January that crushing the Falum Gong 
movement was one of the ``three major political struggles'' of 1999.
  The Department of State's 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights 
Practices details an extraordinary amount of human rights violations. 
In October a Falum Gong practitioner in Shandong died from being beaten 
while in police custody. The official media reported she had died from 
a heart attack. According to Chinese authorities, two others who died 
in police custody jumped from a moving train. In March the Western 
press reported a 1997 case in which police executed four farmers in 
rural China over a monetary dispute.

[[Page S1427]]

  The arrested dissidents and their courageous supporters deserve our 
full backing, and the administration's, in their historic struggle to 
bring democracy to China. In light of China's still deteriorating human 
rights record, I urge the administration to make all efforts necessary 
to pass its resolution in Geneva. Past experience has demonstrated 
that, when the United States has applied sustained pressure, the 
Chinese authorities have responded in ways that signal their 
willingness to engage on the issue of human rights. This pressure needs 
to be exercised now.
  By ensuring that this resolution be placed on the agenda of the full 
Human Rights Commission, and enlisting support of the resolution and 
soliciting cosponsors of it by other governments, the United States can 
truly ``shine an international spotlight directly on China's human 
rights practices'' through ``international action,'' and not just pay 
it lip service. The US must demonstrate its true commitment to securing 
China's adherence to human rights standards.
  It is time for the United States to provide the leadership on which 
the people of China depend. We must take action to get this important 
resolution passed. The UN Human Rights Commission is the major 
international body which oversees the human rights conditions of all 
states. Getting this resolution placed on the agenda of the full Human 
Rights Commission will foster substantive debate on human rights in 
China and Tibet.
  As Americans, we must take action and lead the international effort 
to condemn the human rights situation in China and Tibet. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in passing this resolution.

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