[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 85 (Thursday, May 22, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4805-S4807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
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SENATE RESOLUTION 574--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE
GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RELEASE
FROM CUSTODY THE CHILDREN OF REBIYA KADEER AND CANADIAN CITIZEN HUSEYIN
CELIL AND SHOULD REFRAIN FROM FURTHER ENGAGING IN ACTS OF CULTURAL,
LINGUISTIC, AND RELIGIOUS SUPPRESSION DIRECTED AGAINST THE UYGHUR
PEOPLE
Mr. BROWN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 574
Whereas the protection of the human rights of minority
groups is consistent with the actions of a responsible
stakeholder in the international community and with the role
of a host of a major international event such as the Olympic
Games;
Whereas recent actions taken against the Uyghur minority by
authorities in the People's Republic of China and,
specifically, by local officials in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region, have included major violations of human
rights and acts of cultural suppression;
Whereas the authorities of the People's Republic of China
have manipulated the strategic objectives of the
international war on terror to increase their cultural and
religious oppression of the Muslim population residing in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
Whereas an official campaign to encourage Han Chinese
migration into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has
resulted in the Uyghur population becoming a minority in
their traditional homeland and has placed immense pressure on
those who are seeking to preserve the linguistic, cultural,
and religious traditions of the Uyghur people;
Whereas a new policy now actively recruits young Uyghur
women and forcibly transfers
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them to work at factories in urban areas in far-off eastern
provinces, resulting in tens of thousands of Uyghur women
being separated from their families and placed into
substandard working conditions thousands of miles from their
homes;
Whereas the legal system of the People's Republic of China
is used as a tool of repression, including for the imposition
of arbitrary detentions and torture commonly employed against
any and all Uyghurs who voice discontent with the Government;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
continues to apply charges of ``political crimes'' and the
death penalty to Uyghurs and other political dissidents,
contrary to international humanitarian standards;
Whereas the People's Republic of China is implementing a
monolingual Chinese language education system that undermines
the linguistic basis of Uyghur culture by transitioning
minority students from education in their mother tongue to
education in Chinese, shifting dramatically away from past
policies that provided choice for the Uyghur people;
Whereas the Senate has a particular interest in the fate of
Uyghur human rights leader Rebiya Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize
nominee, and her family, as Ms. Kadeer was first arrested in
August 1999 while she was en route to meet with a delegation
from the Congressional Research Service and was held in
prison on spurious charges until her release and exile to the
United States in the spring of 2005;
Whereas upon her release, Rebiya Kadeer was warned by her
Chinese jailers not to advocate for human rights in Xinjiang
and throughout China while in the United States or elsewhere,
and was reminded that she had several family members residing
in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
Whereas while residing in the United States, Rebiya Kadeer
founded the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy
Foundation and was elected President of the Uyghur American
Association and President of the World Uyghur Congress in
Munich, Germany;
Whereas 2 of Rebiya Kadeer's sons were detained and beaten
and one of her daughters was placed under house arrest in
June 2006;
Whereas President George W. Bush recognized the importance
of Rebiya Kadeer's human rights work in a June 5, 2007,
speech in Prague, Czech Republic, when he stated: ``Another
dissident I will meet here is Rebiyah Kadeer of China, whose
sons have been jailed in what we believe is an act of
retaliation for her human rights activities. The talent of
men and women like Rebiyah is the greatest resource of their
nations, far more valuable than the weapons of their army or
their oil under the ground.'';
Whereas Kahar Abdureyim, Rebiya Kadeer's eldest son, was
fined $12,500 for tax evasion and another son, Alim
Abdureyim, was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined
$62,500 for tax evasion in a blatant attempt by local
authorities to take control of the Kadeer family's remaining
business assets in the People's Republic of China;
Whereas another of Rebiya Kadeer's sons, Ablikim Abdureyim,
was beaten by local police to the point of requiring medical
attention in June 2006 and has been subjected to continued
physical abuse and torture while being held incommunicado in
custody since that time;
Whereas Ablikim Abdureyim was also convicted by a kangaroo
court on April 17, 2007, for ``instigating and engaging in
secessionist'' activities and was sentenced to 9 years of
imprisonment, this trial being held in secrecy and Mr.
Abdureyim reportedly being denied the right to legal
representation;
Whereas 2 days later, on April 19, 2007, another court in
Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,
sentenced Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil to life in prison
for ``splittism'' and also for ``being party to a terrorist
organization'' after having successfully sought his
extradition from Uzbekistan where he was visiting relatives;
Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have
continued to refuse to recognize Huseyin Celil's Canadian
citizenship, although he was naturalized in 2005, denied
Canadian diplomats access to the courtroom when Mr. Celil was
sentenced, and have refused to grant consular access to Mr.
Celil in prison;
Whereas a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of the
People's Republic of China publicly warned Canada ``not to
interfere in China's domestic affairs'' after Huseyin Celil's
sentencing;
Whereas Huseyin Celil's case was a major topic of
conversation in a recent Beijing meeting between the Foreign
Ministers of Canada and the People's Republic of China; and
Whereas there have been recent armed crackdowns throughout
the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region against the Uyghur
population: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the
Government of the People's Republic of China--
(1) should recognize, and seek to ensure, the linguistic,
cultural, and religious rights of the Uyghur people of the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
(2) should immediately release the children of Rebiya
Kadeer from both incarceration and house arrest and cease
harassment and intimidation of the Kadeer family members;
(3) should immediately release Canadian citizen Huseyin
Celil and allow him to rejoin his family in Canada; and
(4) should immediately cease all Government-sponsored
violence and crackdowns against the people throughout the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including those involved
in peaceful protests and political expression.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, the Chinese people have endured an
unspeakable tragedy, as we know, with the loss of tens of thousands in
a major earthquake. Those numbers continue to grow. On the radio this
morning, I heard it looks like more than 50,000 Chinese people have
died in one of the greatest tragedies of the last decade. My prayers
are with the people of Sichuan Province and all those brave men and
women who are there now providing support as volunteers, especially
providing support to the Chinese people in Sichuan Province.
I wish to focus on something else in China. This isn't the Chinese
people, it is the actions of a few people at the top of the Chinese
Government--actions we must confront. When I say ``only a few people at
the top,'' the Chinese Government is called the People's Republic of
China for a reason. It is a Communist government, a very top-line
hierarchical system, where a few people at the top enjoy so much of the
benefits and so much of the power and they wield that so unfairly and
immorally and, many times, against so many in their country.
For us to ignore the behavior of the Chinese Government, to dismiss
that behavior, to minimize that behavior is a reprehensible act on our
part.
In a little more than 3 months, the world will witness one of its
great quadrennial events--the summer Olympic Games. The games have been
billed as a way for the host, China, to reintroduce itself--a new
China, if you will--to the international community. And China has
pulled out all the stops: $38 billion in infrastructure improvements,
including a brandnew 91,000-seat stadium, 300 miles of new roads, and
an entirely new terminal at Beijing's International Airport, all
because of the Olympic Games.
What China will not be highlighting is its human rights record. That
is because it is abysmally disgraceful.
As China rolls out the red carpet to welcome hundreds of thousands of
tourists and as Olympic-related media flock to Beijing to watch the
events, no one will be allowed to go to Tibet, no one will be allowed
to go to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, no one will be allowed
to see the hundreds of political prisons, no one will be allowed to
visit the areas of China where hundreds of millions live in abject
poverty.
Last year, Amnesty International--a no more respected and fairminded
group in the world--said of China:
An increased number of . . . journalists were harassed,
detained, and jailed. Thousands of people who pursued their
faith outside officially sanctioned churches were subjected
to harassment and many to detention and imprisonment.
Thousands of people were sentenced to death of executed.
Migrants from rural areas were deprived of basic rights.
The Presiding officer, from the State of Rhode Island, has talked
passionately about the freedom of the press and journalism in countries
where we have the kind of relationship we have with China and how
important it is. Others in this body have talked about human rights and
labor rights, and now China has violated those values we hold dear and
that international organizations that serve all of the world hold so
dear.
Beijing will continue to attempt to paint its repressive regime
during the Olympics in the best light possible, as we have seen in the
last month with the unnerving events in Tibet. The repression in Tibet,
a region similar in its treatment by the government as the Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region, is nothing new. For almost 60 years, Tibetans
have survived under Beijing repression. Tibet was swallowed up by China
in 1950. The Uyghur Autonomous Region was swallowed up by China the
year before.
China's policy is straightforward: Declare war on human rights, bring
in native Chinese for the best jobs, eradicate the indigenous culture,
the language, the spiritual center, disperse the population. It seems
to have worked for China's interest every time.
China's policies keep import prices low by allowing inhumane
treatment of
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workers, slave wages, and unsafe working conditions have become all too
common.
China, the Communist regime, has become China, the world's largest
one-company town where workers are interchangeable, replaceable parts
and where members of the Communist Party are its shareholders.
The United States as purportedly the world leader in human rights--we
talk about exporting democracy, we brag about our values, yet out
business is with encouragement and incentives--unbelievably enough,
sometimes from our own Government--even though we say we are the world
leader in human rights. The United States should not be endorsing in
any way the brutal and horrific policies of the Chinese Government.
Again, the United States, by our actions by the Government and by
business do not seem so interested oftentimes in human rights in China
in spite of what we say. We should not be sacrificing our moral compass
at the altar of the dollar. We do that way too often.
I met with Rabiya Kadeer, the Uyghur dissident leader and head of the
Uyghur American Association. She told me of her time in prison for
political advocacy on behalf of her people. She spent 6 long years in
prison, arrested in 1999 on her way to a meeting with foreign activists
and leaders. She told me of her children who either live in fear or
live in prison because of her advocacy on behalf of basic freedoms for
the 12 or 13 million Uyghur people. She told me of her exile. She is
not allowed to return to her native country.
We need the strength to stand up to rather than apologize for China's
brutal regime. This has been the systematic policy of a highly
efficient and powerful central government.
The Chinese Uyghurs have long fought for more autonomy from Beijing
and greater freedom to practice their Muslim religion.
This is not a new policy. We have seen the same in the Zinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region where ethnic Uyghur people have been
systematically relocated and repressed. Their Turkic language is
prohibited, their women are placed into forced labor, especially young
women taken out of the Autonomous Region to other parts of China, in
many cases to be slave labor, forced labor, in other cases to be sex
slaves, and their political leaders are jailed. Yet we allow China into
the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and made
them a preferred trading partner.
Communities across America feel the reverberations of this policy.
Not only does it blacken our name as a country when China violates
every kind of human rights we care about, but then it affects our
country in so many other ways.
We have lost more than 3 million manufacturing jobs across this
country since President Bush has been President. Many of these jobs
have been eliminated because of government-subsidized imports from
China, because of cheating on currency rules, and because of direct off
shoring to countries such as China.
China gives their manufacturers that unfair competitive advantage by
manipulating its currency and providing massive subsidies to its
industry. We know all that. American companies have been complicit by
hiring Chinese subcontractors and forcing those subcontractors to
continue to cut costs, meaning contaminated vitamins, contaminated
pharmaceuticals, and dangerous toxic lead-based paint on toys.
I am submitting a resolution today calling on the Chinese to free the
Kadeer children, free the Uyghur political prisoners, and end the
political, religious, and ethnic repression in that part of China.
I ask my colleagues to take a look at this resolution, to meet with
Ms. Kadeer and to join me in working to bring the atrocities against
the Uyghur people to an end. Instead of welcoming China, celebrating
China, and trading with China on their terms, as we all talk about the
great quadrennial events of the international Olympic Games, we should
be helping China's repressed. We should not indulge China its abuses.
It dishonors our own values.
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