[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 58 (Monday, April 14, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E595-E596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE REAL CHINA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 14, 2008

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise to express my ongoing concern about 
China. I strongly believe that America must be a country that stands up 
for basic decency and human rights. America must speak out on behalf of 
those who cannot speak for themselves--men and women who are being 
persecuted for their religious or political beliefs. Our foreign policy 
must be a policy that helps promote human rights and freedom, and not a 
policy that sides with dictators who oppress their own citizens.
  Every person on earth has certain inalienable rights. In a 1987 
Constitution Day speech, Ronald Reagan noted that the U.S. Constitution 
has been described ``as a kind of covenant. It is a covenant we've made 
not only with ourselves but with all of mankind.'' Reagan continued 
that ``It's a human covenant; yes, and beyond that, a covenant with the 
Supreme Being to whom our Founding Fathers did constantly appeal for 
assistance.'' America has a profound responsibility to keep this 
covenant and to stand up for freedom in the world's darkest corners.
  China is a perfect example of a place where these rights are not 
being protected. The China of today is worse than the China of 
yesterday, or of last year, or of the last decade. China is not 
progressing. It is regressing. It is more violent, more repressive, and 
more resistant to democratic values than ever before.
  China is actively engaged in espionage against the United States. I 
recently had the opportunity to read the U.S.-China Economic and 
Security Review Commission's 2007 Classified Report to the Congress, 
and found the report's conclusions to be very alarming. The 
unclassified version of this report is available at www.usce eov. I 
strongly urge you to read it, as it gives a clear picture of the threat 
that China poses to our national security.
  The report addresses Chinese activities in the areas of espionage, 
cyber warfare, and arms proliferation. The FBI has described Chinese 
espionage as a ``substantial threat'' and the Bureau of Customs and 
Border Patrol has reported publicly that Chinese espionage is now the 
leading threat to U.S. technology. It has also been widely reported 
that many cyber attacks against the U.S. government are suspected of 
originating in China. Furthermore, China continues to transfer weapons 
and technology to nations of concern and non-state actors, putting men 
and women in American uniform abroad in grave danger.

  You may have also seen the April 3 Washington Post article titled, 
``Chinese Spy `Slept' in U.S. for Two Decades,'' which details the 
spying activities of Chi Mak. Mak lived quietly with his family in a 
Los Angeles suburb for two decades while he built his career around 
secretly copying sensitive plans for Navy weapons, submarines and ships 
and couriering them to the Chinese government. U.S. intelligence and 
Justice Department officials believe the Mak case ``represents only a 
small facet of a [Chinese] intelligence-gathering operation that has 
long been in place and is growing in size and sophistication.'' I have 
enclosed a copy of this article for your review.

[[Page E596]]

  China also poses a deadly threat to its own citizens. Manfred Nowak, 
the UN Special Rapporteur for torture and other cruel, inhuman or 
degrading treatment or punishment, has found that Chinese officials 
specifically target house church groups. Falun Gong adherents, 
Tibetans, and Uyghur prisoners and abuse them.
  The Cardinal Kung Foundation reports that in 2007, 35 Roman Catholic 
bishops were in jail, under house arrest, or harassed and put under 
surveillance. The Chinese government has refused to acknowledge the 
Vatican as the supreme authority for Chinese Catholics in many matters 
of faith. More information on the Chinese government's persecution of 
the Catholic Church can be found at www.cardinalkungfoundation.org.
 In 2007, the Chinese government arrested 693 Christians that we know 
of. The China Aid Association reports that in 2007 the known cases in 
which Christian house churches were persecuted by the government 
covered 18 provinces and one municipality directly under the 
jurisdiction of the Central Government and there were 60 cases of 
persecution, up 30.4% from that of 2006. You can read more about 
China's persecution of Christians at http://chinaaid.org.
 Muslims and Buddhists face persecution by the Chinese government as 
well. Renowned human rights advocate and Uyghur Muslim Rebiya Kadeer 
has watched from exile as the Chinese government arrests and beats her 
family members in her homeland. In late 2006, western mountain climbers 
captured on videotape a horrifying scene: Chinese police shooting from 
their North Face tents at a group of Tibetan refugees crossing Nangpa 
Pass. A 17-year old Buddhist nun was killed and several others were 
wounded. Additional information on the persecution of Muslims, 
Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and other minorities can be found 
in the State Department's annual human rights report at http://
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100518.htm.
  According to the State Department's 2007 human rights report, China 
has 20 ankang institutions (high-security psychiatric hospitals for the 
criminally insane) directly administered by the Ministry of Public 
Security. People that are committed to these institutions have no 
mechanism for objecting to public security officials' determinations of 
mental illness.
  The Chinese government often houses dissidents in these institutions, 
beating them, giving them medicine against their will, forcibly 
subjecting them to electric shock treatment and denying them food and 
the use of toilet facilities. According to the State Department's human 
rights report, political activists, underground religious believers, 
members of the banned China Democratic Party (CDP), and Falun Gong 
practitioners are among the people incarcerated in these facilities.

  China maintains an extensive system of gulags--slave labor camps, 
also known as the ``laogai''--as large as that which existed in the 
former Soviet Union. These camps are used for brainwashing and 
``reeducation through labor,'' and are often the site of barbaric 
procedures of organ harvesting, torture, and execution. During a trip 
to China in March 1991, I visited Beijing Prison No. I and witnessed 
forced labor first-hand. In late 2005, I introduced H. Con. Res. 294, a 
resolution condemning the Laogai prison camps, which passed in the 
House by a vote of 413-1.
  China has a long history of attempts to liquidate Tibet's culture and 
presence in China, including in the recent crackdown in which scores of 
Tibetans were killed and hundreds more arrested for participating in 
the protests. My outrage at what China is doing in Tibet led me to 
visit Tibet in 1997. I have continued since then to speak out on behalf 
of the persecuted and suffering in Tibet and about the human rights 
abuses that I have witnessed first-hand there.
  I was disappointed in the State Department's decision in March to 
remove China from its list of the world's 10 worst human rights 
violators, especially given State's own admission of China's poor human 
rights record in its annual human rights report. I also remain deeply 
troubled by the President's decision to attend the 2008 Olympics in 
Beijing. It is time to send China a message that the United States is 
serious when we tell the Chinese government that it needs to end the 
human rights and religious freedom abuses in its own country.
  China poses a threat to freedom in other countries as well. China, 
which is a major business partner of Sudan, should be using its 
influence with the Sudanese government to bring an end to the genocide 
in the Darfur region. Instead, Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to 
Khartoum early in 2007 did not produce progress on this point, but 
rather a commitment by the Chinese to build Sudanese President Bashir a 
new palace. China's role in extracting oil from Sudan, selling weapons 
to the Sudanese government and maintaining close business relations 
with this genocidal regime are clearly more important to the Chinese 
government than saving human lives.
  China also cuts corners with its exports, making products that pose 
significant danger to consumers around the world. Recent Chinese 
exports to our country--and to many others--have included tainted pet 
food that has killed our pets, dried apples in cancer-causing 
chemicals, scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria, 
children's toys containing lead-based paint, and prunes tinted with 
chemical dyes, prompting U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors 
to travel across the world to investigate two suspect Chinese 
factories, only to find the factories had been cleaned out and all 
equipment dismantled.
  Chinese products also poison children in Panama, the Dominican 
Republic, and Australia, with toothpaste containing an industrial 
solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. This toothpaste was 
marketed under the brand name ``Mr. Cool.''
  Several years ago, during the debate over granting China permanent 
normal trade relations status, proponents argued that economic 
liberalization would lead to political liberalization in China, and 
that the U.S. and other industrialized nations could influence China 
through economic activity to better respect the rights of its citizens 
to fundamental human rights.
  I strongly opposed Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status for 
China, and today we have seen why the protection of basic liberties 
should not come second to economic growth. China is more violent, 
repressive, and resistant to democratic values than it was before we 
opened our ports to freely accept Chinese products.
  And despite all of these abhorrent acts. China was still awarded the 
honor of hosting the 2008 Olympics. The Olympic Games: an event 
designed to lift up ``the educational value of good example and respect 
for universal fundamental ethical principles,'' according to its own 
charter. Does China's behavior sound like a ``good example'' to the 
rest of the world? Or that it is reflecting ``fundamental ethical 
principles'' that all nations should aspire to?
  It is because of these actions I have described that I do not support 
the president or other senior U.S. officials attending the 2008 Beijing 
Olympics. The political prisoners in China and Chinese dissidents 
around the world will be deeply demoralized by what the Chinese 
government will surely portray as symbolic support for its regime if 
senior American officials attend the games. I have proposed language 
for inclusion in the 2008 emergency supplemental appropriations bill 
that would prohibit U.S. federal employees from attending the Olympics 
on the taxpayer's dime.
  Some assert that human rights will come to China once stability has 
been attained. They say that protection of human rights is secondary to 
attaining economic power and wealth. We must reject that notion. China 
poses a threat not only to its own citizens, but to the entire world. 
The United States government must be vigilant about protecting the 
values of human rights, religious freedom and democracy that we hold 
dear.

                          ____________________