[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E539-E540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE CURRENT HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CHINA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 8, 2008

   Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I would like to call to the attention of 
the House the following publication in the Washington Post of a letter 
penned by human rights activist Hu Jia, who was recently charged with 
subverting state authority and sentenced by a Beijing court to 3\1/2\ 
years in prison for his human rights advocacy activities.
   As we approach the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and China continues to 
grow as an economic and political powerhouse, we must remind ourselves 
of China's abusive and oppressive treatment of innocent civilians, and 
fight against the tyranny of the communist regime in Beijing.

               [From the Washington Post, April 5, 2008]

                    The Real China and the Olympics

                        (By Hu Jia and Teng Biao)

        This week, a Beijing court sentenced human rights activist 
     Hu Jia to 3\1/2\ years in prison for subverting authority and 
     to one additional year's loss of his ``political rights.'' He 
     was arrested in part for co-authoring, with Teng Biao, an 
     open letter on human rights. Below, The Post prints Human 
     Rights Watch's translation of the Sept. 10, 2007, letter.
        On July 13. 2001, when Beijing won the right to host the 
     2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese government promised the world 
     it would improve China's human rights record. In June 2004, 
     Beijing announced its Olympic Games slogan, ``One World, One 
     Dream.'' From their inception in 1896, the modern Olympic 
     Games have always had as their mission the promotion of human 
     dignity and world peace. China and the world expected to see 
     the Olympic Games bring political progress to the country. Is 
     Beijing keeping its promises? Is China improving its human 
     rights record?
        When you come to the Olympic Games in Beijing, you will 
     see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and 
     enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the 
     whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg. You 
     may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity 
     are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, 
     torture and blood.
        We are going to tell you the truth about China. We believe 
     that for anyone who wishes to avoid a disgraceful Olympics, 
     knowing the truth is the first step. Fang Zheng, an excellent 
     athlete who holds two national records for the discus throw 
     at China's Special Sport Games, has been deprived of the 
     opportunity to participate in the 2008 Paralympics because he 
     has become a living testimony to the June 4, 1989[,] 
     massacre. That morning, in Tiananmen Square, his legs were 
     crushed by a tank while he was rescuing a fellow student. In 
     April 2007, the Ministry of Public Security issued an 
     internal document secretly strengthening a political 
     investigation which resulted in forbidding Olympics 
     participation by 43 types of people from 11 different 
     categories, including dissidents, human rights defenders, 
     media workers, and religious participants. The Chinese police 
     never made the document known to either the Chinese public or 
     the international community.
        Huge investment in Olympic projects and a total lack of 
     transparency have facilitated serious corruption and 
     widespread bribery. Taxpayers are not allowed to supervise 
     the use of investment amounting to more than $40 billion. Liu 
     Zhihua, formerly in charge of Olympic construction and former 
     deputy mayor of Beijing, was arrested for massive 
     embezzlement.
        To clear space for Olympic-related construction, thousands 
     of civilian houses have been destroyed without their former 
     owners being properly compensated. Brothers Ye Guozhu and Ye 
     Guogiang were imprisoned for a legal appeal after their house 
     was forcibly demolished. Ye Guozhu has been repeatedly 
     handcuffed and shackled, tied to a bed and beaten with 
     electric batons. During the countdown to the Olympic Games he 
     will continue to suffer from torture in Chaobei Prison in 
     Tianjin.
        It has been reported that over 1.25 million people have 
     been forced to move because of Olympic construction; it was 
     estimated that the figure would reach 1.5 million by the end 
     of 2007. No formal resettlement scheme is in place for the 
     over 400,000 migrants who have had their dwelling places 
     demolished. Twenty percent of the demolished households are 
     expected to experience poverty or extreme poverty. In 
     Qingdao, the Olympic sailing city, hundreds of households 
     have been demolished and many human rights activists as well 
     as ``civilians'' have been imprisoned. Similar stories come 
     from other Olympic cities such as Shenyang, Shanghai and 
     Qinhuangdao.
        In order to establish the image of civilized cities, the 
     government has intensified the ban against--and detention and 
     forced repatriation of--petitioners, beggars and the 
     homeless. Some of them have been kept in extended detention 
     in so-called shelters or have even been sent directly to 
     labor camps. Street vendors have suffered brutal confiscation 
     of their goods by municipal agents.
        On July 20, 2005, Lin Hongying, a 56-year-old woman farmer 
     and vegetable dealer, was beaten to death by city patrols in 
     Jiangsu. On November 19, 2005, city patrols in Wuxi beat 54-
     year-old bicycle repairman Wu Shouging to death. In January 
     2007, petitioner Duan Huimin was killed by Shanghai police. 
     On July 1, 2007, Chen Xiaoming, a Shanghai petitioner and 
     human rights activist, died of an untreated illness during a 
     lengthy detention period. On August 5, 2007, right before 
     the one-year Olympics countdown, 200 petitioners were 
     arrested in Beijing.
        China has consistently persecuted human rights activists, 
     political dissidents and freelance writers and journalists. 
     The blind activist Chen Guangcheng, recipient of the 2007 
     Ramon Magsaysay Award and named in 2006 by Time Magazine as 
     one of the most influential 100 people shaping our world, is 
     still serving his sentence of four years and three months for 
     exposing the truth of forced abortion and sterilization. The 
     government refused to give him the Braille books and the 
     radio that his relatives and friends brought to Linyi prison 
     in Shandong. Chen has been beaten while serving his sentence. 
     On August 24, 2007, Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, was kidnapped 
     by police at the Beijing airport while waiting to fly to the 
     Philippines to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award on behalf of 
     her husband. On August 13, 2007, activist Yang Chunlin was 
     arrested in Heilongjiang and charged with subversion of state 
     power ``for initiating the petition `Human Rights before 
     Olympics.' ''
        China still practices literary inquisition and holds the 
     world record for detaining journalists and writers, as many 
     as several hundred since 1989, according to incomplete 
     statistics. As of this writing, 35 Chinese journalists and 51 
     writers are still in prison. Over 90 percent were arrested or 
     tried after Beijing's successful bid for the Olympics in July 
     2001. For example, Shi Tao, a journalist and a poet, was 
     sentenced to ten years in prison because of an e-mail sent to 
     an overseas website. Dr. Xu Zerong, a scholar from Oxford 
     University who researched the Korean War, was sentenced to 13 
     years' imprisonment for ``illegally providing information 
     abroad.'' Qingshuijun If [Huang Jinqiu], a freelance writer, 
     was sentenced to a 12-year term for his online publications. 
     Some writers and dissidents are prohibited from going abroad; 
     others from returning to China.
        Every year in mainland China, countless websites are 
     closed, blogs deleted, sensitive words filtered. Many 
     websites hosted abroad are blocked. Overseas radio and 
     television programs are interfered with or strictly 
     prohibited. Although the Chinese government has promised 
     media freedom for foreign journalists for 22 months, before, 
     during, and after the Beijing Olympics, and ending on October 
     17, 2008, an FCCC [Foreign Correspondents Club in China] 
     survey showed that 40 percent of foreign correspondents have 
     experienced harassment, detention or an official warning 
     during news gathering in Beijing and other areas. Some 
     reporters have complained about repeated violent police 
     interference at the time they were speaking with 
     interviewees. Most seriously, Chinese interviewees usually 
     become vulnerable as a result. In June 2006, Fu Xiancai was 
     beaten and paralyzed after being interviewed by German media. 
     In March 2007, Zheng Dajing was beaten and arrested after 
     being interviewed by a British TV station.
        Religious freedom is still under repression. In 2005, a 
     Beijing pastor, Cai Zhuohua, was sentenced to three years for 
     printing Bibles. Zhou Heng, a house church pastor in 
     Xinjiang, was charged with running an ``illegal operation'' 
     for receiving dozens of boxes of Bibles. From April to June 
     2007, China expelled over 100 suspected U.S., South Korean, 
     Canadian, Australian, and other missionaries. Among them were 
     humanitarian workers and language educators who had been 
     teaching English in China for 15 years. During this so-called 
     Typhoon 5 campaign, authorities took aim at missionary 
     activities so as to prevent their recurrence during the 
     Olympics.
       On September 30, 2006, Chinese soldiers opened fire on 71 
     Tibetans who were escaping to Nepal. A 17-year-old nun died 
     and a 20-year-old man was severely injured. Despite numerous 
     international witnesses, the Chinese police insisted that the 
     shooting was in self-defense. One year later, China tightened 
     its control over Tibetan Buddhism. A September 1, 2007, 
     regulation requires all reincarnated lamas to be approved by 
     Chinese authorities, a requirement that flagrantly interferes 
     with the tradition of reincarnation of living Buddhas as 
     practiced in Tibet for thousands of years. In addition, 
     Chinese authorities still ban the Dalai Lama, the spiritual 
     leader of Tibet and a world-renowned pacifist, from returning 
     to Tibet.
       Since 1999, the government has banned many religious 
     beliefs such as Falungong and the Three Servants. Their 
     followers have experienced extremely cruel and planned 
     persecutions. Many died from abuse, suffered torture, 
     brainwashing, imprisonment and

[[Page E540]]

     labor camp internment for persisting in their faith, 
     possessing religious books, making DVDs and writing articles 
     to expose the truth of the persecution.
       China has the highest death penalty rate in the world. 
     Execution statistics are treated as ``state secrets.'' 
     However, experts estimate that 8,000-10,000 people are 
     sentenced to death in China every year, among them not only 
     criminals and economic convicts, but totally innocent 
     citizens, such as Nie Shubin, Teng Xingshan, Cao Haixin and 
     Hugejiletu, whose innocence was proven only after they were 
     already dead.
       Another eight innocent farmers, Chen Guoqing, He Guoqiang, 
     Yang Shiliang, Zhu Yanqiang, Huang Zhixiang, Fang Chunping, 
     Cheng Fagen and Cheng Lihe, who confessed their ``crimes'' 
     after being cruelly tortured by the police, have been 
     sentenced to death and are currently held in prisons in Hebei 
     [province] and in Jingdezhen [in Jiangxi province].
       Torture is very common in China's detention centers, labor 
     camps and prisons. Torture methods include electric shock, 
     burning, use of electric needles, beating and hanging, sleep 
     deprivation, forced chemical injection causing nerve damage, 
     and piercing the fingers with needles. Every year, there are 
     reported cases of Chinese citizens being disabled or killed 
     by police torture.
       Labor camps are still retained as a convenient Chinese 
     system which allows the police to lock up citizens without 
     trial for up to four years. The detention system is another 
     practice that the police favor, freeing them to detain 
     citizens for six months to two years. Dissidents and human 
     rights activists are particularly vulnerable targets and are 
     often sent to labor camps, detention centers or even mental 
     hospitals by authorities who want to simplify legal 
     procedures and mislead the media.
       China has the world's largest secret police system, the 
     Ministry of National Security (guo an) and the Internal 
     Security Bureau (guo bao) of the Ministry of Public Security, 
     which exercise power beyond the law. They can easily tap 
     telephones, follow citizens, place them under house arrest, 
     detain them and impose torture. On June 3, 2004, the Chinese 
     secret police planted drugs on Chongqing dissident Xu Wanping 
     and later sentenced him to 12 years' imprisonment for 
     ``subversion of state power.''
       Chinese citizens have no right to elect state leaders, 
     local government officials or representatives. In fact, there 
     has never been free exercise of election rights in township-
     level elections. Wuhan resident Sun Bu'er, a member of the 
     banned political party the Pan-Blue Alliance, was brutally 
     beaten in September 2006 for participating as an independent 
     candidate during an election of county-level people's 
     congress representatives. Mr. Sun disappeared on March 23, 
     2007.
       China continues to cruelly discriminate against its rural 
     population. According to the Chinese election law, a farmer's 
     right to vote is worth one quarter of that of an urban 
     resident. In June 2007, the Shanxi kiln scandal was exposed 
     by the media. Thousands of 8- [to-] 13[-]year-old trafficked 
     children had been forced to labor in illegal kilns, almost 
     all with local government connections. Many of the children 
     were beaten, tortured and even buried alive.
       The Chinese judiciary still illegally forbids any HIV/AIDS 
     lawsuits against government officials responsible for the 
     tragedy. AIDS sufferers and activists have been constantly 
     harassed by the secret police.
       The Chinese government has been selling arms and weapons to 
     Darfur and other African regions to support ethnic cleansing 
     and crimes against humanity. The Chinese authorities have 
     forcibly repatriated North Korean refugees, knowing that they 
     would be sent to labor camps or executed once back home. This 
     significantly contravenes China's accession to the 
     ``Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees'' and the 
     ``Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.''
       Please be aware that the Olympic Games will be held in a 
     country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion, 
     no independent courts, no independent trade unions; where 
     demonstrations and strikes are prohibited; where torture and 
     discrimination are supported by a sophisticated system of 
     secret police; where the government encourages the violation 
     of human rights and dignity, and is not willing to undertake 
     any of its international obligations.
       Please consider whether the Olympic Games should coexist 
     with religious persecution[,] labor camps, modern slavery, 
     identity discrimination, secret police and crimes against 
     humanity. As the Beijing Olympics slogan says, we live in 
     ``one world'' with ``one dream.'' We hope that one day the 
     Chinese people will be able to share universal human rights, 
     democracy and peace with people from all around the world. 
     However, we can see that the Chinese government obviously is 
     not yet prepared to honor its promise. As a matter of fact, 
     the preparations for the Olympics have provided the perfect 
     excuse for the Chinese government to restrict civil liberties 
     and suppress human rights!
       We do not want China to be contained or isolated from the 
     rest of the world. We believe that only by adhering to the 
     principles of human rights and through open dialogue can the 
     world community pressure the Chinese government to change. 
     Ignoring these realities and tolerating barbaric atrocities 
     in [the] name of the Beijing Olympics will disgrace the 
     Olympic Charter and shake the foundations of humanity. Human 
     rights improvement requires time, but we should at least stop 
     China's human rights situation from deteriorating. Having the 
     Olympics hosted in a country where human dignity is trampled 
     on will not honor its people or the Olympic Games. We 
     sincerely hope that the Olympic Games will bring the values 
     of peace, equality, freedom and justice to 1.3 billion 
     Chinese citizens. We pray that the Olympics will be held in a 
     free China.
       We must push for the 2008 Olympics to live up to the 
     Olympic Charter[,] and we must advocate for the realization 
     of ``one world'' with ``one human rights dream.'' We believe 
     that only an Olympic Games true to the Olympic Charter can 
     promote China's democratic progress, world peace and 
     development.
       We firmly hold to the belief that there can be no true 
     Olympic Games without human rights and dignity. For China and 
     for the Olympics, human rights must be upheld!

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