[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 5, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2614-H2617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ARBITRARY DETENTION OF DR. WANG 
                               BINGZHANG

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 326) expressing the 
sense of Congress regarding the arbitrary detention of Dr. Wang 
Bingzhang by the Government of the People's Republic of China and 
urging his immediate release.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 326

       Whereas Dr. Wang Bingzhang is a permanent resident of the 
     United States and his sister and daughter are United States 
     citizens;
       Whereas Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. at McGill University in 
     Canada in coronary-arterial research and is a well-respected 
     leader

[[Page H2615]]

     of the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement and the 
     founder of China Spring magazine;
       Whereas Dr. Wang is currently serving a life sentence in 
     prison in the People's Republic of China and is suffering 
     from gastritis, varicose veins, phlebitis, and depression;
       Whereas Dr. Wang was abducted in northern Vietnam in June 
     2002 after meeting with a Chinese labor activist;
       Whereas Dr. Wang was driven to the border between Vietnam 
     and the People's Republic of China and forced back to China 
     by boat;
       Whereas Dr. Wang was blindfolded and bound and held in 
     various places in Guangxi Province and his captors demanded a 
     $10,000,000 ransom, which Dr. Wang was unable to pay;
       Whereas Dr. Wang although provided his captors with the 
     names and telephone numbers of his relatives, they were never 
     contacted;
       Whereas Dr. Wang was finally taken to a Buddhist temple in 
     Fangchenggang City in southern Guangxi Province where his 
     abductors unexpectedly left and moments later he was 
     ``rescued'' by the Chinese police;
       Whereas Dr. Wang was detained by the Chinese police and 
     then transported to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province;
       Whereas Dr. Wang was held incommunicado for six months, 
     during which time the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China denied any knowledge of his whereabouts;
       Whereas on December 4, 2002, the Chinese Government 
     reversed itself, admitting that Dr. Wang had been in its 
     custody since July 3, 2002;
       Whereas on December 5, 2002, Dr. Wang was charged with 
     ``offenses of espionage'' and ``the conduct of terrorist 
     activities'';
       Whereas on January 22, 2003, Dr. Wang was tried by the 
     Intermediate People's Court in the city of Shenzhen in 
     Guangdong Province;
       Whereas Dr. Wang's trial lasted only half a day and was 
     closed to the public because the Chinese Government indicated 
     that ``state secrets'' might be revealed, thereby precluding 
     family members, supporters, and reporters from attending;
       Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang declared himself innocent of 
     all charges;
       Whereas at the trial, the Chinese Government refused to 
     release any evidence of Dr. Wang's wrongdoing;
       Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang was denied the right to due 
     process, specifically the right to the presumption of 
     innocence, the right to adequate time and facilities to 
     prepare for his own defense, the right to a fair trial before 
     an independent and impartial tribunal, the right to call 
     witnesses on his own behalf, the right to cross-examine 
     witnesses testifying against him, and in general, the lack of 
     other due process guarantees that would ensure his adequate 
     defense and a full hearing;
       Whereas Dr. Wang's trial represented the first time the 
     Chinese Government had brought charges against a pro-
     democracy dissident under its new terrorism laws;
       Whereas although Dr. Wang was convicted and sentenced to 
     life in prison on February 10, 2003, Dr. Wang's lawyers 
     stated that there was insufficient evidence to convict him;
       Whereas Dr. Wang's lawyers immediately appealed the court's 
     verdict, but the appeal was rejected on February 28, 2003;
       Whereas a human rights petition was submitted on Dr. Wang's 
     behalf to the United Nations Arbitrary Working Group of the 
     Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
     Rights;
       Whereas the petition claimed that Dr. Wang was being 
     arbitrarily detained and that the judicial standards employed 
     in his trial fell far short of internationally recognized 
     standards for judicial proceedings under provisions of the 
     United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
       Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group 
     noted that Dr. Wang is an internationally recognized pro-
     democracy activist as opposed to the Chinese Government's 
     characterization of Dr. Wang as an individual who advocates 
     violence and suggests the use of methods such as kidnapping 
     and bombings to achieve his goals, and that Dr. Wang had 
     boasted of carrying out many violent terrorist activities;
       Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group 
     further noted that the Chinese Government offered ``no 
     evidence of any specific occasion on which Wang made the 
     alleged calls to violence'' and that ``[o]ther than the 
     kidnapping of which Wang himself was a victim, as the 
     Government itself acknowledges, no information has been given 
     about other kidnappings or acts of violence initiated by 
     Wang'';
       Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group 
     further stated that ``Wang, during his first five months in 
     detention, did not have knowledge of the charges, the right 
     to legal counsel, or the right to judicial review of the 
     arrest and detention; and that, after that date, he did not 
     benefit from the right to the presumption of innocence, the 
     right to adequate time and facilities for defense, the right 
     to a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal, 
     the right to a speedy trial and the right to cross-examine 
     witnesses'';
       Whereas in conclusion, the United Nations Working Group 
     declared that ``the detention of Wang Bingzhang is arbitrary, 
     being in contravention of articles 9, 10 and 11 of the 
     Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' and requested ``the 
     [Chinese] Government to take the necessary steps to remedy 
     the situation of Wang Bingzhang and bring it into conformity 
     with the standards and principles set forth in the Universal 
     Declaration of Human Rights'';
       Whereas the United States Congressional-Executive 
     Commission on China made the following recommendation in its 
     2003 annual report: ``The President and the Congress should 
     increase diplomatic efforts to hold the Chinese government to 
     [its commitments on human rights matters during the December 
     2002 U.S.-China human rights dialogue], particularly the 
     release of those arbitrarily detained'';
       Whereas the report also stated the following: ``The Chinese 
     [G]overnment has also taken advantage of the global war on 
     terrorism to persecute . . . political dissidents. In 
     February 2003, Wang Bingzhang, a U.S. permanent resident and 
     veteran pro-democracy activist, was convicted of `leading a 
     terrorism organization' and `spying' and sentenced to life 
     imprisonment''; and
       Whereas the report finally noted that ``[i]n July 2003, the 
     UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Wang's 
     arrest and imprisonment violated international law'': Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a permanent resident of the United 
     States, is being arbitrarily detained in the People's 
     Republic of China in violation of international law;
       (2) the United States Government should request the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China to release Dr. 
     Wang, permitting him to immediately return to the United 
     States; and
       (3) the President should make the immediate release of Dr. 
     Wang by the Government of the People's Republic of China a 
     top priority of United States foreign policy.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Burton) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).


                             General Leave

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on the concurrent 
resolution that is under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Indiana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this concurrent resolution 
sponsored by the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) 
expressing the indignation of the Congress over the continued arbitrary 
detention of Dr. Wang Bingzhang by the Government of the People's 
Republic of China. In recent years, we have all noted Beijing's pattern 
of using trumped-up charges to arrest and detain Chinese academics and 
democracy proponents who live outside China during their visits back to 
their ancestral homeland.
  In Dr. Wang's case, however, Beijing has gone one step further in its 
attempt to muzzle the overseas Chinese community through tactics of 
fear and intimidation. Dr. Wang was not detained within the borders of 
China itself. He was instead kidnapped, abducted during a visit to 
Vietnam, bound and blindfolded, and forcibly transported across the 
border between Vietnam and China in a clear violation of international 
law. This case serves to demonstrate that despite historic differences, 
the communist regimes in Hanoi and Beijing are willing to make common 
cause when it comes to suppressing the voices of the advocates of 
democratic reform. This is common among communist brotherhood.
  The People's Republic of China's legal transgressions and abuses in 
this case are so egregious that the United Nations, despite its 
sensitivity to Beijing's status as a permanent member of the Security 
Council, declared that the detention of Dr. Wang is a contravention of 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  Beijing has further attempted to manipulate heightened post-September 
11 international concerns over terrorism by charging Dr. Wang with 
``the conduct of terrorist activities'' due to his advocacy of labor 
rights in China. The Working Group of the Office of the United Nations 
High Commissioner for Human Rights, however, has rendered a finding 
that the Chinese government has offered ``no evidence of any specific 
occasion on which Dr. Wang made the alleged calls to violence,'' 
further noting that Dr. Wang himself was a victim

[[Page H2616]]

of kidnapping by the very Chinese authorities who have accused him. 
Such false labeling of a victim of abduction as a terrorist is a 
cynical maneuver which demeans the memory of the victims of genuine 
terrorist attacks throughout the world. This is a perfect example of 
some of the things that the Chinese communists do that is just 
unthinkable, and the world should condemn them for that.
  Beijing's border controls not only include cases of bringing people 
forcibly back into China, as with the case of Dr. Wang and the group of 
Tibetan refugees who were forcibly repatriated by the Chinese 
communists in Nepal last year. Beijing also seeks to forcibly keep 
people from leaving. We have heard that before. Remember the Berlin 
Wall? The People's Republic of China crossed a new line of inhumanity 
on the borders last month when, according to a reliable NGO report, 
Chinese border guards shot in the back and killed a North Korean 
refugee as he was attempting to cross into Mongolia, where he would 
have received safe haven and have been free. It reminds us of the 
Berlin Wall and the German border guards shooting to kill refugees when 
all they wanted was freedom.
  I say here today: Beijing, tear down the walls of oppression, of 
arbitrary abduction of democracy advocates, and of victimization of 
refugees on the run who cannot defend themselves.
  First, let Dr. Wang go. He is suffering in prison from serious 
medical conditions. He never had any intention of entering China's 
territory, and he needs to return to his waiting family, who misses him 
dearly here in the United States. And second, lift the bamboo curtain 
of intimidation directed at both its own citizens inside China and the 
overseas Chinese community which is calling for political as well as 
economic reform in their homeland.
  China has undergone profound change in the last 2 decades. Beijing 
has increasingly sought, through such actions as participation in 
international peacekeeping and through hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, 
to take its place among the advanced countries of the world. But China 
cannot truly be a great nation until Beijing ends its systematic 
suppression of individual human rights such as clearly demonstrated in 
the case of Dr. Wang Bingzhang.
  Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that a country that is 
economically as strong as China is would stoop to shooting a person in 
the back who wants to gain freedom just to stop them from getting out 
of their country, and it boggles my mind that China would actually go 
into Vietnam, kidnap somebody, blindfold them, and take them forcibly 
back to China when all they wanted was to see freedom and labor rights 
in China, and keeping this gentleman from his family, I think, is just 
unthinkable. So if anybody in the Chinese embassy is paying attention, 
this is something they should address very quickly and get this man 
back home to his family.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I strongly support this important resolution, and I urge all of my 
colleagues to do so as well.
  I first would like to acknowledge the excellent work on this 
resolution of the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano). I 
would also like to express my appreciation to the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Burton); the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach), subcommittee 
chairman; and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the chairman of 
our full committee for their strong support of this measure.
  Mr. Speaker, the litany of human rights abuses conducted by the 
Chinese government on its own citizens is nothing new to Members of 
this House. This resolution, however, calls our attention to a case 
where China's complete disregard for human rights and the rule of law 
has been brought to new heights.
  Having completely suppressed dissent at home, the Chinese government 
has actually begun kidnapping Chinese dissidents abroad to be brought 
to China for persecution.
  In June, 2002, Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a permanent resident of the United 
States and the leader in the overseas Chinese democracy movement, was 
in Vietnam to meet with Chinese labor leaders. Dr. Wang was kidnapped 
from Vietnam, forced over the border into China, and eventually jailed 
by the Chinese government. He was held incommunicado for 6 months while 
the Chinese authorities denied that they knew anything about his fate.

                              {time}  1815

  Dr. Wang was then charged with espionage and terrorist activities, 
though the government produced no evidence linking him to these 
charges. He was prevented from calling witnesses to support his case, 
to have sufficient time to prepare his defense and to cross-examine the 
witnesses against him.
  After this mockery of a trial, Dr. Wang was sentenced to life in 
prison in February of 2003. His appeal was denied.
  Mr. Speaker, the kidnapping, trial and conviction of Dr. Wang is an 
outrageous violation of internationally recognized human rights. A 
United Nations working group declared that the detention of Dr. Wang is 
arbitrary and contravenes the universal declaration of human rights.
  Dr. Wang is in poor health, and our resolution simply asks that he be 
released so that he may return to his family here in the United States. 
I strongly support passage of this resolution, and I urge all of my 
colleagues to do so as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to my good friend, the 
gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano).
  Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my gracious friend and 
colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking 
member on the committee, for yielding me time and thank the gentleman 
from Indiana (Mr. Burton) for allowing this resolution to be brought to 
the floor and heard.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very, very concerned about this particular 
individual. His daughter came to my office not quite a year ago asking 
for us to take some action on behalf of her family. Yes, they are very 
worried. They are very concerned. Because they cannot be in contact 
with their family member, their father, they are not able to provide 
him any kind of assistance, so they are incommunicado and are not able 
to help this individual.
  This particular case is a clear case of a violation of human rights 
by the People's Republic of China. Dr. Wang, as you have heard, was 
held for 6 months before they actually filed charges against him. He 
was sentenced to life in prison on January 22, 2003, after, as you have 
heard, a very abrupt, half-day trial where he was not allowed time to 
prepare a defense, he was not allowed to cross-examine the government's 
witnesses, he was not allowed to call any witnesses of his own, nor was 
he allowed to provide his own defense.
  To date, there has been no evidence to link him to the crimes he was 
charged with, nor have they released him. It is no surprise that the 
United Nations working group has declared this detention illegal.
  I will include for the Record two articles that were printed on Dr. 
Wang.
  Today, while we go about our business of enjoying freedom and liberty 
in the United States, it is inconceivable to us that a person such as 
Dr. Wang would sit in a prison. He has not sent any communication to 
his family, he has been allowed no visitors, and he has been denied 
access to medical care.
  Our government must continue to put international pressure on China 
and many other countries to improve their human rights efforts.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues who cosigned this resolution and 
urge this House to sign up for human rights and human decency. Please 
vote ``yes'' on H. Con. Res. 326 and call on China to end its illegal 
detention of Dr. Wang.
  Mr. Speaker, I include the articles referred to earlier for the 
Record.

                   [From Reuters News, Dec. 6, 2003]

           China Activist Plans Hunger Strike During Wen Trip

       Beijing.--A jailed Chinese dissident who spent years in the 
     United States plans to stage a hunger strike to coincide with 
     a trip by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to the United States, a 
     U.S.-based rights group said on Saturday. Wang Bingzhang, who 
     was handed a life sentence on terrorism and espionage charges 
     by a Chinese court in February, aimed to protest against his 
     solitary confinement at the Shaoguan prison in Guangdong 
     province, the Worldrights group said.

[[Page H2617]]

       ``From solitary confinement, Dr. Wang is calling on the 
     leaders of America to stand with him and to demand his 
     unconditional release,'' it is said in a statement.
       Wen is due to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush early 
     next week to discuss trade and issues related to Taiwan, 
     which Beijing views as a renegade province, among others.
       Wang, a U.S. green card holder in his mid-50s said by 
     family members to have renounced Chinese citizenship, was the 
     first democracy activist charged by China with terrorism and 
     espionage.
                                  ____


           [From the South China Morning Post, Dec. 11, 2003]

               Fears Grow for Health of Jailed Dissident

                             (By Verna Yu)

       Imprisoned dissident Wang Bingzhang is on the brink of a 
     nervous breakdown due to the ``mental torture'' he has 
     suffered in jail, and is threatening to go on a hunger 
     strike, his brother says. Wang Bingwu, who visited his older 
     brother at a prison in Shaoguan, Guangdong, last Friday, said 
     he found the solitary confinement and mandatory ``political 
     education'' imposed three times a day increasingly difficult 
     to bear.
       ``He told me to tell the world that in order to end his 
     solitary confinement and mental torture, he would go on a 
     hunger strike,'' Mr Wang said in Hong Kong yesterday.
       Critics say the so-called ``political education'' sessions 
     in mainland prisons typically include several hours of 
     brainwashing, forced self-criticism and confession of alleged 
     crimes.
       He was arrested and convicted on espionage and terrorism 
     charges and given a life sentence in February. He was found 
     guilty of providing intelligence to Taiwan between 1982 and 
     1990. He and his family deny the charges.
       Mr. Wang said his brotyher looked frail and was suffering 
     from stomach ailments and varicose ulcers. He said his 
     brother was given medicine in prison but was banned brom 
     taking other medication that his family brought from America.

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to my 
good friend, the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan).
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me 
time.
  I also want to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) for his 
leadership on this issue and a lot of other issues. Regardless of party 
and regardless of what the political pressure is, the gentleman has 
taken a stand; and being a new Member of Congress, I want to thank the 
gentleman for an opportunity to be able to witness that up close.
  Mr. Speaker, the issue of Dr. Wang is a very interesting one, for a 
variety of reasons. The one reason that strikes me, and the gentleman 
from Indiana alluded to this, is that he was meeting with a labor 
activist. I find that very interesting, and I find this particular 
situation a symptom of a larger disease that we are trying to deal 
with.
  They are saying there was a violation of three articles of the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is obviously no longer a 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights because countries like China do 
not agree to this kind of standard that we have set.
  So this man was trying to help organize labor in China and trying to 
help bring some dignity and justice to the labor industry in China. It 
is obvious that China does not want it, but I think it is becoming more 
and more apparent that the major corporations in the United States who 
do business in China do not want China to have labor standards either.
  If citizens of the regime in China try to unionize, they will be 
arrested, they will be beaten, they will be tortured. Many of the 
workers are bonded workers that come from the farms and go in to work 
in some of the factories. These people in China and the government of 
China do not enforce the minimum wage standards that they have, nor 
some of the safety rules that they have.
  Why do they not want to do this? Because if they enforce these rules, 
as the AFL-CIO has indicated to us, there would be a 10 percent to 77 
percent increase in the cost of goods coming out of China. We do not 
want to say that we want to raise prices, but I thought that this would 
bring about global competition, and I thought we were going to spread 
democracy. We want to lift the Chinese worker up. We want to lift them 
up to live, hopefully, one day, with the standards that we have here in 
the United States of America.
  But just think, if this would happen, if there would be a 10 to 77 
percent increase in the goods coming out of the Chinese market, the 
U.S. worker would finally be able to compete, Mr. Speaker, would 
finally be able to compete; and it would eliminate the problem we are 
even having dealing with the currency right now, if we would have those 
kinds of labor and human rights standards put in place.
  I want to share a quote from the President of the United States when 
he was in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 10, 2003. He said to the workers in 
Ohio, ``Ohio workers, if given a level playing field, can outproduce 
any worker anywhere on Earth,'' if we had a level playing field.
  What we need to do is ask this administration to get tough on China. 
A level playing field will not just fall out of the sky.
  Then when we saw, and the AFL-CIO petitioned for, an opportunity to 
try to fix the currency manipulation problems and some of the labor 
rights problems, four Members of this administration's cabinet said 
that the administration's efforts at diplomatic engagement with Beijing 
on these two issues, currency and labor rights, would produce more 
results than threatening punitive tariffs.
  Efforts at diplomatic engagement? This is coming from an 
administration that, when they walk the halls of the United Nations, it 
is like a bull in a china shop. They have no diplomatic touch. We have 
alienated all of our allies. Now we want to go and try to deal with 
China with diplomacy, while they are abusing workers, while they are 
abusing people, going to Vietnam to pick people up who are going to 
help workers organize in China.
  Something needs to be done, and something needs to be done now. I 
appreciate the opportunity that the gentlewoman from California has 
given me and the gentleman from California.
  I rise in support of this; but, again, I think it is a symptom of a 
larger problem that needs to be dealt with, and this administration and 
this Congress need to continue to push China to enforce the human 
rights that we have been exporting from this country for many, many 
years and want to continue to export out of this country.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for 
time, and I yield back the balance of my time as well.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cole). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 
326.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

                          ____________________