[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

[[Page S4806]]

     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

[[Page S4807]]

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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