[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 106 (Tuesday, September 12, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8369-S8370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TO AUTHORIZE EXTENSION OF NONDISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT TO THE PEOPLE'S 
                      REPUBLIC OF CHINA--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under a previous order, the Senator from North 
Carolina, Mr. Helms, is recognized to offer an amendment.
  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask that it be in order to deliver my 
remarks seated at my desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                           Amendment No. 4125

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 4125.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Helms] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 4125.

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

    (To require the President certify to Congress that the People's 
 Republic of China has taken certain actions with respect to ensuring 
                        human rights protection)

       On page 2, line 4, before the end period, insert the 
     following: ``; FINDINGS''.
       On page 4, before line 1, insert the following:
       (c) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The People's Republic of China has not yet ratified the 
     United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which 
     it signed in October of 1998.
       (2) The 1999 State Department Country Reports on Human 
     Rights Practices found that--
       (A) the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     continues to commit widespread and well-documented human 
     rights abuses in violation of internationally accepted norms;
       (B) the Government of the People's Republic of China's poor 
     human rights record deteriorated markedly throughout the 
     year, as the Government intensified efforts to suppress 
     dissent;
       (C) abuses by Chinese authorities exist, including 
     instances of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment 
     of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrests and 
     detentions, lengthy incommunicado detentions, and denial of 
     due process;
       (D) violence against women exists in the People's Republic 
     of China, including coercive family planning practices such 
     as forced abortion and forced sterilization, prostitution, 
     discrimination against women, trafficking in women and 
     children, abuse of children, and discrimination against the 
     disabled and minorities; and
       (E) tens of thousands of members of the Falun Gong 
     spiritual movement were detained after the movement was 
     banned in July 1999, several leaders of the movement were 
     sentenced to long prison terms in late December, hundreds 
     were sentenced administratively to reeducation through labor, 
     and according to some reports, the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China started confining some Falun Gong adherents 
     to psychiatric hospitals.
       (3) The Department of State's 2000 Annual Report on 
     International Religious Freedom states that during 1999 and 
     2000--
       (A) ``the Chinese government's respect for religious 
     freedom deteriorated markedly'';
       (B) the Chinese police closed many ``underground'' mosques, 
     temples, seminaries, Catholic churches, and Protestant 
     ``house churches'';
       (C) leaders of unauthorized groups are often the targets of 
     harassment, interrogations, detention, and physical abuse in 
     the People's Republic of China;
       (D) in some areas, Chinese security authorities used 
     threats, demolition of unregistered property, extortion of 
     ``fines'', interrogation, detention, and at times physical 
     abuse to harass religious figures and followers; and
       (E) the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     continued its ``patriotic education'' campaign aimed at 
     enforcing compliance with government regulations and either 
     cowing or weeding out monks and nuns

[[Page S8370]]

     who refuse to adopt the Party line and remain sympathetic to 
     the Dalai Lama.
       (4) The report of the United States Commission on 
     International Religious Freedom--
       (A) found that the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China and the Communist Party of China discriminates, 
     harasses, incarcerates, and tortures people on the basis of 
     their religion and beliefs, and that Chinese law criminalizes 
     collective religious activity by members of religious groups 
     that are not registered with the State;
       (B) noted that the Chinese authorities exercise tight 
     control over Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, select and train 
     important religious figures, and wage an invasive ideological 
     campaign both in religious institutions and among the Tibetan 
     people generally;
       (C) documented the tight control exercised over the Uighur 
     Muslims in Xinjiang in northwest China, and cited credible 
     reports of thousands of arbitrary arrests, the widespread use 
     of torture, and extrajudicial executions; and
       (D) stated that the Commission believes that Congress 
     should not approve permanent normal trade relations treatment 
     for China until China makes substantial improvements with 
     respect to religious freedom, as measured by certain 
     objective standards.
       (5) On March 4, 2000, four days before the President 
     forwarded to Congress legislation to grant permanent normal 
     trade relations treatment to the People's Republic of China, 
     the Government of the People's Republic of China arrested 
     four American citizens for practicing Falun Gong in Beijing.
       On page 4, line 22, beginning with ``Prior'', strike all 
     through page 5, line 6, and insert the following:

     Prior to making the determination provided for in subsection 
     (a)(1), the President shall transmit a report to Congress 
     certifying that--
       (1) pursuant to the provisions of section 122 of the 
     Uruguay Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. 3532), the terms and 
     conditions for the accession of the People's Republic of 
     China to the World Trade Organization are at least equivalent 
     to those agreed between the United States and the People's 
     Republic of China on November 15, 1999;
       (2) the People's Republic of China has ratified the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and 
     that the Covenant has entered into force and effect with 
     respect to the People's Republic of China;
       (3) the People's Republic of China has begun to dismantle 
     its system of reeducation through labor, which allows 
     officials of the People's Republic of China to sentence 
     thousands of citizens to labor camps each year without 
     judicial review;
       (4) the People's Republic of China has opened up Tibet and 
     Xinjiang to regular, unhindered access by United Nations 
     human rights and humanitarian agencies;
       (5) the People's Republic of China has reviewed the 
     sentences of those people it has incarcerated as 
     counterrevolutionaries under the provisions of a law that was 
     repealed in March 1997 and the People's Republic of China 
     intends to release those people;
       (6) the People's Republic of China has agreed to establish 
     a high-level and on-going dialogue with the United States on 
     religious freedom;
       (7) the People's Republic of China has agreed to permit 
     unhindered access to religious leaders by the United States 
     Commission on International Religious Freedom and recognized 
     international human rights organizations, including access to 
     religious leaders who are imprisoned, detained, or under 
     house arrest;
       (8) the People's Republic of China has provided a detailed 
     response to inquiries regarding the number of persons who are 
     imprisoned, detained, or under house arrest because of 
     religious beliefs or whose whereabouts are not known but who 
     were seen in the custody of officials of the People's 
     Republic of China;
       (9) the People's Republic of China intends to release from 
     prison all persons incarcerated because of their religious 
     beliefs;
       (10) the People's Republic of China has provided a detailed 
     response to inquiries regarding the number of persons who are 
     imprisoned, detained, or under house arrest for reasons of 
     union organizing; and
       (11) the People's Republic of China intends to release from 
     prison all persons incarcerated for organizing independent 
     trade unions.
       On page 5, line 10, strike ``section 101(a)'' and insert 
     ``section 101''.

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask it be in order that I yield several 
minutes to the distinguished Senator from Iowa, Mr. Grassley. Following 
that period, I will take the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

                          ____________________