[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 49 (Thursday, April 5, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CALLING UPON THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO END ITS HUMAN RIGHTS 
                     VIOLATIONS IN CHINA AND TIBET

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOE SCARBOROUGH

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, today I call upon the govenment of the 
People's Republic of China to immediately end its continuing human 
rights violations in China and Tibet.
  I also endorse H. Res. 56, that strongly supports an American 
resolution at the 57th Session of the United Nations Human Rights 
Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, calling upon the government of the 
People's Republic of China to end its human rights abuses in China and 
Tibet. As the leader of the free world, we must always encourage the 
same basic rights we enjoy, for all people, everywhere.
  The State Department recently reported that China's human rights 
record has worsened. We know that several thousand prisoners are 
detained today for exercising freedoms of belief and expression, and 
members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and Tibetan Buddhists 
suffer increasing opposition from Beijing for their peaceful practices. 
We must not tolerate widespread violations of internationally 
recognized human rights standards, like the persecution and torture of 
people worshiping outside official churches, that occurs in China to 
this day.
  In addition, the Tibetan people are hardly better off now than they 
were forty years ago. Since 1950, the communist government of China has 
actively controlled Tibet and has repressed the Tibetan people. During 
the 1966 to 1976 Cultural Revolution, most monasteries, palaces, and 
other aspects of Tibetan Buddhism were damaged and destroyed. The Dalai 
Lama, the highest and most revered leader within Tibet's former 
government, has been exiled in India since 1959. Today, Tibet's unique 
cultural fabric is irreparably being torn by the oppressive practices 
of old guard communists in Beijing.
  Mr. Speaker, China must learn to abide by internationally accepted 
norms of freedom of association, belief, and expression. It must change 
its laws and the decrees that restrict freedom, and it must stop 
criminalizing groups it arbitrarily labels as cults or heretical 
organizations.
  Chinese authorities must hear a loud and clear message: the United 
States, the rest of the world, and the Chinese and Tibetan people 
themselves, have waited long enough. China should quit throwing 
tantrums like an unruly child; it needs to grow up, act its age, and 
learn to take its place at the table for adults.

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