[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 30, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H7342-H7347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CALLING ON CHINA TO END HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES PRIOR TO THE OLYMPICS
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to
the resolution (H. Res. 1370) calling on the Government of the People's
Republic of China to immediately end abuses of the human rights of its
citizens, to cease repression of Tibetan and Uighur citizens, and to
end its support for the Governments of Sudan and Burma to ensure that
the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games take place in an atmosphere that honors
the Olympic traditions of freedom and openness, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 1370
Whereas the relationship between the United States and the
People's Republic of China is one of the most important and
complex in global affairs;
Whereas in the context of this complex relationship, the
promotion of human rights and political freedoms in the
People's Republic of China is a central goal of United States
foreign policy towards China;
Whereas increased protection and stronger guarantees of
human rights and political freedoms in the People's Republic
of China would improve the relationship between the United
States and the People's Republic of China;
Whereas the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held from
August 8, 2008, through August 24, 2008;
Whereas the United States should continue to advance its
policy goal of improved human rights and political freedoms
in the People's Republic of China in the context of the
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games;
Whereas all Olympic athletes deserve to participate in a
competition that takes place in an atmosphere that honors the
Olympic traditions of freedom and openness;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
committed to protect human rights, religious freedom, freedom
of movement, and freedom of the press as part of its
conditions for being named to host the Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
issued temporary regulations promising foreign media
representatives covering the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games that
they could travel freely, with the exception of in the Tibet
Autonomous Region, and did not require advance permission
before interviewing Chinese citizens during the period of
January 1, 2007, to October 18, 2008;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
has failed to abide by many provisions of those regulations
and has restricted foreign media by--
(1) detaining 15 journalists in 2007 for activities
permitted by the new regulations;
(2) refusing to allow foreign media representatives access
to Tibetan areas of China, including those areas outside of
the Tibet Autonomous Region covered by the pledge of free
access, to report on the March 2008 protests and the
Government of the People's Republic of China's violent
crackdown against Tibetans in those areas; and
(3) interfering with foreign media representatives and
their Chinese employees who were hired within China, such
that 40 percent of foreign correspondents have reported
government interference with their attempts to cover the news
in China;
Whereas in advance of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, there
are widespread reports that the Government of the People's
Republic of China has refused to grant visas or entry to
individuals because of their political views, beliefs,
writings, association, religion, and ethnicity;
Whereas Chinese citizens and foreign visitors in China for
the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will not have free access to
information if the Government of the People's Republic of
China continues to engage in blocking of overseas websites
and other forms of Internet filtering and censorship;
Whereas the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will not take place
in an atmosphere of freedom if the Government of the People's
Republic of China continues to limit the freedoms of speech,
press, religion, movement, association, and assembly of its
citizens and visitors, including political dissidents,
protesters, petitioners, the disabled, religious activists,
minorities, the homeless, and other people it considers
undesirable;
Whereas despite the Government of the People's Republic of
China's repeated pledges to the international community that
the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS are a national
priority, HIV/AIDS activists and their organizations remain
targets for repression and harassment by Chinese authorities;
Whereas in the period preceding the Olympics Games, Chinese
security forces have detained, threatened, and harassed HIV/
AIDS and hepatitis advocates; shut down conferences and
meetings of Chinese and foreign HIV/AIDS experts; and closed
AIDS organizations;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
continues to ignore its international commitments to refugee
protection, as evidenced by film footage recording the
shooting death of a Tibetan nun by Chinese border guards in
October of 2006 and human rights groups' reports citing
increased bounties offered for turning in North
[[Page H7343]]
Korean refugees in 2008 to discourage border-crossing prior
to the Olympic Games;
Whereas workers in the People's Republic of China are often
exposed to exploitative and unsafe working conditions,
including excessive exposure to dangerous machinery and
chemicals;
Whereas according to Amnesty International, some Chinese
companies withhold wages from workers for months while
retaining their ID cards to prevent them from securing other
work and, in the city of Shenzhen alone, an average of 13
factory workers a day lose a finger or an arm, and every 4\1/
2\ days a worker dies in a workplace accident;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
has increased its persecution of the Falun Gong prior to the
Olympic Games;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
remains unwilling to invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to
China to hold direct talks on a resolution on the issue of
Tibet, despite calls from the international community to do
so before the Olympic Games;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China
has had discussions with the representatives of the Dalai
Lama, but has been unwilling to engage in substantive
discussions on the future of Tibet and Tibetans in China;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China's
continued economic and political support for foreign
governments that commit gross human rights violations,
including those of Sudan and Burma, contradicts the spirit of
freedom and openness of the Olympic Games;
Whereas it is the desire of the House of Representatives
that the People's Republic of China take the specific actions
set forth herein so that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are
successful and reflect positively on its host country;
Whereas the Chinese Government limits most women to having
one child and strictly controls the reproductive lives of
Chinese citizens by systematic means that include mandatory
monitoring of women's reproductive cycles, mandatory
contraception or sterilization, mandatory birth permits,
coercive fines for failure to comply, forced abortion, and
involuntary sterilization, and this coercive policy adversely
affects Chinese women and has led to widespread sex-selective
abortion; and
Whereas on June 26, 2008, the Congressional-Executive
Commission on China published on its Web site a well-
documented list of 734 political prisoners detained by the
Government of China for exercising rights pertaining to
peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of
association, and free expression, which are rights guaranteed
to them by China's law and Constitution, or by international
law, or both: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to immediately end abuses of the human rights of its
citizens, to cease repression of Tibetan and Uighur people,
and to end its support for the Governments of Sudan and Burma
to ensure that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games take place in
an atmosphere that honors the Olympic traditions of freedom
and openness;
(2) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to immediately release all those imprisoned or detained
for nonviolently exercising their political and religious
rights and their right to free expression, such as Hu Jia,
who have been imprisoned, detained, or harassed for seeking
to hold China accountable to commitments to improve human
rights conditions announced when bidding to host the Olympic
Games, embodied in China's own laws and regulations, and in
international agreements;
(3) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to honor its commitment to freedom of the press for
foreign reporters in China before and during the Olympic
Games, to make those commitments permanent, and publicly to
guarantee an immediate end to the detention, harassment, and
intimidation of both foreign and domestic reporters;
(4) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to permit visitors to China, including through the
issuance of visas, for the period surrounding the Olympics,
regardless of religious background, belief, or political
opinion;
(5) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to guarantee freedom of movement within China during
the period surrounding the Olympics for all visitors,
participants, and journalists visiting China for the
Olympics, and such freedom of movement should include the
freedom to visit Tibet, Xinjiang, China's border regions, and
all other areas of China without restriction and without
special permits or advance notice;
(6) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to guarantee access to information by Chinese citizens
and foreign visitors, including full access to domestic and
overseas broadcasts, print media, and websites that in the
past may have been excluded, censored, jammed, or blocked;
(7) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to permit political dissidents, protesters,
petitioners, religious activists, minorities, the disabled,
the homeless, and others to maintain their homes, usual
locations, jobs, freedom of movement, and freedom to engage
in peaceful activities during the period surrounding the
Olympics;
(8) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to end the exploitative and dangerous conditions faced
by Chinese workers in many state enterprises and other
commercial entities;
(9) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to begin earnest negotiations, without preconditions,
directly with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his
representatives, on the future of Tibet to provide for a
mutually agreeable solution that addresses the legitimate
grievances of, and provides genuine autonomy for, the Tibetan
people;
(10) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to end its political, economic, and military support
for the Government of Sudan until the violent attacks in
Darfur have ceased and the Sudanese Government has allowed
for the full deployment of the United Nations-African Union
Mission peacekeeping force in Darfur;
(11) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to end its political, economic, and military support
for the Government of Burma until democracy is restored in
Burma, human rights abuses have ceased, and Aung San Suu Kyi
and other political prisoners of conscience are released;
(12) calls on the President to make a strong public
statement on China's human rights situation prior to his
departure to Beijing for the Olympic Games, to make a similar
statement in Beijing and meet with the families of jailed
prisoners of conscience, and to seek to visit Tibet and
Xinjiang while in China to attend the Olympic Games;
(13) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to abandon its coercive population control policy which
includes forced abortion and involuntary sterilization; and
(14) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to review the political prisoner list published by the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China with a view to
releasing ill and aged prisoners on humanitarian grounds, and
to releasing those imprisoned in violation of Chinese law or
international human rights law.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Berman) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this
resolution and I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, despite commitments by Beijing to improve human and
political rights in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, the
situation has not improved and in some cases has become far worse.
Likewise in the past few months, China's international behavior with
respect to despicable regimes in Sudan and Burma has improved
marginally at best. Beijing remains these countries' strongest
supporter.
Because of China's failure to improve its record on supporting human
rights at home and abroad, now is the time to call on China to take
immediate, substantial and serious action if there is to be any hope
that the Olympic games will take place in an atmosphere that honors the
Olympic spirit of freedom and openness.
This resolution does just that. It is a direct call to China by the
House of Representatives to end human rights abuses, honor its
commitments for freedom of the press and freedom of movement ahead of
the Olympics, permit peaceful political activities during the games,
enter into direct discussions with the Dalai Lama over the future of
Tibet, and end its political and economic support of the regimes in
Sudan and Burma.
President Bush has decided to go to the Olympics opening ceremony.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with his decision, it is clear that the
President should not pass up this opportunity to make a strong
statement in support of human rights, one of our central policy goals.
This resolution calls on the President to make such a statement before
and during his trip to Beijing for the games. It is important for the
House of Representatives to speak with one voice on the issue of human
rights and political freedoms in China ahead of the Olympics. I
strongly support this resolution.
[[Page H7344]]
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution which
underscores Beijing's broken promise to the International Olympic
Committee and the international community. When Beijing was awarded the
2008 Summer Olympics, China's leaders committed themselves to using
this historic event as a catalyst to improve human rights for the
citizens of the world's most populous nation. By all credible accounts,
however, the human rights situation in China has not improved on the
eve of the games. The Olympics has led China's draconian security
forces to further crack down on dissidents and increase repression of
minority groups. The glimmer of gold from Olympic medals in Beijing
cannot conceal a tarnished record of Chinese official sponsorship of
dictatorial regimes in Sudan, Burma and North Korea. The shine of
silver cannot blind us to the fact that the Beijing regime continues
its bloody suppression of minority groups, including the Tibetans. The
brilliance of bronze cannot block out the repression of Falun Gong
practitioners, Internet journalists, underground church believers and
other political prisoners left to languish in the laogai forced labor
camps and the vast prison system.
In a report issued just yesterday, Amnesty International affirmed
that in the last year alone, thousands of dissidents, reformers and
other independent voices were arrested as part of a campaign by Chinese
authorities to ``clean up'' Beijing before the start of the Olympic
games. According to the report, human rights activists have been
targeted in other parts of the country as well, with many of those
arrested and sentenced to manual labor without trial. Amnesty's report
cites the case of one activist who was arrested earlier this month on
charges of possessing state secrets, although it is believed that the
arrest was prompted by his efforts to help the families of children
killed in May's earthquake bring a legal case against local
authorities.
Amnesty's deputy director in Asia said: ``By continuing to persecute
and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese
authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were
granted the games 7 years ago. The Chinese authorities are tarnishing
the legacy of the games.'' I agree with what he said.
When it comes to the pursuit of democratic values and human rights,
we remain a world divided with a dream unfulfilled for many in China
and elsewhere. I urge my colleagues to join in sending the Chinese
leadership a strong message.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my
colleague from California (Ms. Woolsey).
Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Berman and
Ranking Member Chabot for the time and for their leadership on human
rights issues as well as Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen. I rise today in
strong support of House Resolution 1370.
In about a week, all eyes will turn to China. Athletes from around
the world will converge on Beijing, except, it appears, seven of the 10
Iraqi athletes who are not allowed into the country for some reason.
Many world leaders--such as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel--are taking a very bold step next week
by boycotting the opening ceremonies. I am still hoping that our
President will reconsider his decision to attend in light of China's
poor human rights record. It's no secret, Madam Speaker, that China has
long sought to sweep its human rights violations under the rug. With
the help of western companies, the Chinese government blocks or scrubs
Web sites that it deems as troublemakers. Sites like CNN and certain
Google searches are being censored. Try looking up Tiananmen Square
while in China. No pictures of the 1989 student protest, certainly not
the iconic picture of one man facing down a tank. In fact today many
students at Beijing University couldn't even identify the photo.
Madam Speaker, as Chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee,
I'm especially concerned about the treatment of Chinese workers. We
have learned that reeducation labor camps and dire working conditions
are the norm, not the exception, in China. This year's Olympics offered
China the opportunity to turn a corner, but instead China turned
backward.
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and call on the
President to stand up for human rights in China.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on
Africa and Global Health and a long-standing champion of human rights
in China and around the world.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for yielding. I thank
the chairman for bringing this important resolution to the floor and
thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) for his fine leadership and
that of Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
A few years ago, Madam Speaker, Liu Jingmin, vice president of the
Beijing Olympic bid committee, famously asserted that ``by allowing
Beijing to host the games, you will help the development of human
rights.'' At the time, the argument seemed plausible, at least to the
naive, but in the long run-up to the Olympics the reality has been
numbingly disappointing and yet another wake-up call concerning bogus
promises made for political and financial gain by the Beijing
dictatorship. The pre-Olympic crackdown on political dissidents and
religious believers and the crushing of cyber-dissidents is yet another
antithetical manifestation to everything that is sane, compassionate or
just.
In recent months, the Chinese government has been filling its jails,
house arresting, surveilling and warning all known dissidents. These
men and women are persecuted simply because they seek to exercise
fundamental human freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and ironically by the Chinese constitution itself.
Tragically but predictably, the Olympics have been the occasion of a
massive crackdown designed to silence and put beyond reach all those
Chinese whose views differ from the government line. For so many brave
Chinese men and women, for the Tibetans, many of them Buddhist monks
and nuns, for members of Falun Gong, Chinese Christians, Uighur
Muslims, democracy and labor activists and others, this has been a
terrible summer, not in spite of but precisely because of the Olympic
games. The fact is this is a reproach to the International Olympic
Committee and to all those who believe in fundamental human rights.
As we meet here, right now in HC-7 several key human rights leaders,
including the great Harry Wu and Wei Jingsheng, are speaking out
against the atrocities committed with impunity by the government of
China. I would note parenthetically that Wei was let out of prison--
Wei, father of the Democracy Wall movement--simply to try to garner
Olympics 2000. When the government didn't get that from the Olympic
committee, they rearrested Wei Jingsheng and tortured him almost to
death. That is the reality of the people we're dealing with.
In fact, let me just point out to my colleagues that any number of
the Chinese government's human rights violations should have been a
deal-stopper for the International Olympic Committee. Take the one-
child-per-couple policy, Madam Speaker, with its attendant evils of
forced abortion and rampant sex-selective abortion. In effect since
1979, the one-child-per-couple policy constitutes one of the gravest
crimes against women and children in all of human history, and our
resolution before us today has appropriate language condemning that
atrocity.
The Chinese government massively violates Chinese women with a state
policy of mandatory monitoring of all Chinese women's reproductive
cycles, mandatory birth permits, mandatory contraception or
sterilization, and ruinous fines up to 10 times the annual salary of
both husband and wife if they don't comply with the one-child-per-
couple policy. This policy has imposed unspeakable pain, violence,
humiliation and degradation on hundreds of millions of Chinese women,
many of whom suffer life-long depression as a direct consequence. It is
no wonder more women commit suicide in China than anywhere else in the
world.
As a direct result of this egregious human rights violation, tens of
millions of girls are missing today, dead,
[[Page H7345]]
due to sex-selective abortions, creating a huge gender disparity, a new
dark manifestation of genocide which is perhaps more appropriately
called gendercide.
{time} 1130
The lost girls of China, and the estimates are between 50 to 100
million lost girls, murdered simply because they were girls.
Madam Speaker, 3 weeks ago, Frank Wolf and I visited Beijing in order
to press for respect of fundamental human rights. The Chinese Secret
Police threatened eight human rights lawyers with whom we had planned
to meet for dinner in a public restaurant and placed several of them
under house arrest.
We did, let me conclude with this, present the Chinese government
with a list of people, 734 prisoners, a short list by Chinese
standards, of people who are advocating for democracy and freedom. And
with the Olympics now underway, we ask again, let those people and all
like-minded human rights activists who languish and are tortured in
prison, please let them go.
The resolution is a great one, and deserves everyone's support.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I would like to yield 4 minutes to the
gentleman from the great State of Indiana (Mr. Pence) who is the
ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman for yielding; thank him for his
strong moral leadership on this issue. And I want to commend the
ranking member and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee for
having the moral courage to bring this resolution to the House before
Congress adjourns.
It is important that we speak truth to power. And with the 2008
Olympics in Beijing about to begin, it is important that the people of
the United States be heard on our ideals, as athletes from around the
globe and global media descend on China.
It is important that we say, as the late Tom Lantos, chairman of this
committee, said in a hearing last year, a few months before his death,
``China is a police state.''
I personally believe that the selection of China as the site of the
2008 Olympic Games was a historic error. The Olympics is a symbol of
the human spirit, and in that regard, a symbol of human freedom. And
this police state, therefore, is precisely the wrong venue for a
celebration of human dignity and the human spirit.
And so I commend to my colleagues support for H. Res. 1370. I am
particularly grateful for the call on the government of the People's
Republic of China to end abuses of human rights, to release those
imprisoned for political and religious expression, and also challenging
China to honor its commitment to freedom of the press of foreign
reporters.
But I must say, while there is much talk in the media today about the
crowd of smog hanging over Beijing as these games approach, let me say
from my heart, the real cloud over the Beijing Olympics is the horror
of forced abortion. And therefore, I am especially grateful to
Congressman Chris Smith, from whom we just heard, for adding an
important amendment to this resolution noting that, whereas the Chinese
government limits most women to having one child and strictly controls
the reproductive lives of Chinese citizens by systematic means that
include mandatory monitoring of women's reproductive cycles, mandatory
sterilization and contraception, mandatory birth permits, coercive
fines for failure to comply and the like, that this legislation will
call on Congress to--excuse me--call on the People's Republic of China
to immediately end the practice of forced abortion.
And make no mistake about it, China's policy requires that
unpermitted babies be aborted. Article 25 of the Henan Province
Population and Family Planning Regulations reads: ``Under any of the
following conditions, necessary remedial measures shall be taken and
pregnancy terminated under the guidance of family planning technical
service workers: Pregnancy out of wedlock, pregnancy without a
certificate, or where the party already has one child.''
In the committee, Madam Speaker, we heard the most horrific stories
of these so-called family planning technical service workers literally
breaking into homes, dragging women in their ninth month of pregnancies
off to clinics, forcing abortions on them and, in one case after
another, going to horrific means to ensure that the newly born child's
life had been completely snuffed out. There is not time in this debate
to recount those instances, but they are legion in China, and they are
the result of heartbreak among tens of millions of that country of good
and decent people.
And so I commend the chairman of this committee, Mr. Berman, for his
leadership. I commend Mr. Chabot for his leadership, and especially the
gentleman from New Jersey, a leading voice for the sanctity of life in
the United States of America, for ensuring that this legislation, this
resolution comes before the Olympics, that we speak truth to power to
the People's Republic of China; that here in the United States of
America, the people of this country will say, with one voice, we
believe in freedom and we believe in life, and we reject the policy of
forced abortion in China, and urge them to do likewise at this time.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas, a former judge, Mr. Poe, an esteemed member of the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, and the author of China-related resolutions, part of
which were incorporated into this measure.
Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, I rise in total support of this resolution
today. And I want to thank the chairman for including language from one
of my proposals regarding worker exploitation to the bill being
considered today.
Having been to China, I have seen firsthand how the Chinese
government runs roughshod over its people and abuses their basic
rights.
Earlier this year, Madam Speaker, I introduced a resolution
condemning the government of China for not only its inhumane working
conditions, but also for the exportation of unsafe goods like lead toys
and pet food to the United States, and for the poor environmental
policy that affects the entire globe. I hope the committee will soon
consider the Chinese policy of exporting harmful products to the United
States and other parts of the world.
However, the Olympic Games begin next week, and I believe it is
critical to remind the government of China that it is a member of the
world community, and the world is watching how China treats its
citizens. China has a social and moral responsibility to provide basic
rights to all of its citizens, especially in the workplace.
In June of 2007, it was discovered that hundreds of people, including
women and small children, were forced to work in hot brick-making
factories, suffering from brutal beatings and confinement equal to
imprisonment.
According to Amnesty International, there are instances where Chinese
companies withhold wages from the workers for months at a time, refuse
to give them ID cards. Without an ID card, it prevents that worker from
securing work someplace else.
In the city of Shenzhen alone, in an average day, 13 factory workers
lose an arm or some other body member, and every 4 days a worker dies
in a workplace accident. And Madam Speaker, this is just in one city in
China.
I stand with the Chinese people who have been subjected to inhumane
working conditions, and call on the government to end the dangerous
conditions faced by these workers. If China expects to gain the respect
of the global community, China must earn that respect from its own
citizens first, and that requires reforming their inhumane working
conditions and respecting basic human rights of their own people.
And once again, I want to thank the chairman for bringing this to the
House floor.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the Speaker of
the House, who came up with the idea for having this resolution at this
particular time, our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for 1 minute.
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. I
thank him for bringing this legislation, salute him and the ranking
member of the committee, Congresswoman
[[Page H7346]]
Ros-Lehtinen, for her ongoing persistent advocacy for human rights
throughout the world. I thank you for you leadership as well, Mr.
Berman, Mr. Chairman.
I rise today in strong support of this resolution calling on the
Chinese government to end its human rights abuses in China and Tibet so
that the Olympic Games can take place in an atmosphere that honors the
Olympic traditions of freedom and openness.
I thank Chairman Berman again and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for
bringing the resolution to the floor. With passage of this resolution,
the House will speak with one voice about the conditions in China and
Tibet on the eve of the Olympic Games.
Madam Speaker, the Olympic charter states that the Olympics should
promote ``a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human
dignity.'' The reality is that human rights abuses committed by Chinese
authorities are worsening in the weeks and months before the Olympics.
In exchange for the privilege of hosting the Olympic Games, the
Chinese government made commitments on freedom of the press, human
rights and on the environment. Many of these commitments have been
violated repeatedly and blatantly. Both foreign and domestic
journalists have been harassed, threatened and detained. Human rights
defenders and activists have been arrested and imprisoned at an
alarming rate in recent months.
The dialog between the Chinese government and the representatives of
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, have gone nowhere. Thousands of peaceful
Tibetans still languish in prisons in the aftermath of the protest that
began in March. Chinese authorities have stepped up the so-called
``patriotic education'' campaigns that require Tibetan Buddhists,
regardless of their true thoughts, to publicly denounce the Dalai Lama.
The violations of human rights do not end on China's borders. On the
international front, the Chinese government continues to support the
genocidal regime in Sudan and the military junta in Burma. Their
actions run counter to our interests of promoting peace, stability and
morality in the world. The situation in the Sudan would change
drastically if the Chinese government would cooperate at the U.N. and
send that message to the Sudanese government.
It is in this context that President Bush is traveling to China to
attend the Olympic Games. To my knowledge, a sitting President of the
United States has never attended an Olympics on foreign soil. That
gives the President tremendous leverage with the Chinese government as
he gives them tremendous face by attending the opening ceremonies of
the Olympics.
I have no objection to the President attending the Olympic Games. I
do hope, though, that with all of the face, for lack of a better word,
that the Chinese government will receive by his participation in the
opening ceremony, that he will take the opportunity to use his leverage
to speak very forcefully to the Chinese regime, not only about human
rights in China and Tibet, of course that is a top priority, but also
about the barriers to U.S. products going into China, about the dangers
that are foisted upon our children and the American people by the lack
of safety and the production of food.
It is important for the body to know, and I am sure others have made
the point, that the President recently met with some advocates for
human rights in China and Tibet. I was very proud that they had the
opportunity to meet with the President in the White House, and I thank
the President for doing that.
But shortly after the President had the meeting, two of these people
were detained on the way to a meeting with our colleagues, Congressman
Smith and Congressman Wolf, Frank Wolf of Virginia.
So the message has to be, I think, clear to the Chinese government.
We have concerns about jobs. We have concerns about U.S. jobs fleeing
to China without opening of their markets to our products. We have
concerns about human rights in China and Tibet. We want to work with
the Chinese government to fight global warming. There are areas where
we can have a level of cooperation.
But if we give them that level of respect by having the President of
the United States be at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, it
is important for the President, when he is there, to deliver a strong
message of concerns that we have in our country.
I hope that we can have a brilliant future with China. Mr. Smith and
Mr. Wolf and I have been trying for over 20 years, haven't we, been
making this fight on human rights, as well as others in this body, and
our dear friend, Mr. Lantos, as well.
They told us 19 years ago, at the time of Tiananmen Square, if only
we would engage economically with China, then human rights would
improve there, democratization would take place, markets would be open
to our products. But that just really hasn't happened.
Here we are 19 years later. The Olympic Committee honored China by
giving them the opportunity to host these Olympic Games. The President
of the United States is honoring them by attending the opening
ceremonies. It is very important that the opportunity afforded to China
be met with responsible behavior on their part in terms of human rights
in China and Tibet.
So I hope that the President will not miss the opportunity, that
historic, that has wide-ranging consequences, and which will be viewed
with such favorability should he deliver the message when he is there.
The President is well known for his support of freedom of religion.
That is a commitment that he has made throughout the world, and it is
one that I hope that he will carry with him to China as well.
{time} 1145
With that, again, I thank the gentleman and Congresswoman Ros-
Lehtinen for bringing this to the floor.
I am very thrilled that the Congress of the United States will speak
with one voice on this important subject. I know the struggle for human
rights is a long one, but we did not expect the Olympics to result in a
situation where they were worsened in China instead of improved, as was
the promise.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I appreciate the Speaker's words relative to China. The Speaker has a
very tough job, and with that job goes praise and criticism. I know
many of us, including myself, have been critical of the Speaker for not
allowing, for example, a vote on ANWR on the floor of this House and we
certainly think that we ought to have that vote.
But I want to praise the Speaker on her speaking out when she was on
a trip in India on a codel and she spoke out when the crackdown on
Tibet was occurring, the scandalous, outrageous crackdown on Tibet was
occurring. The Speaker spoke out, and I issued a press release and also
a personal letter thanking her for speaking out on behalf of our
country. I think it was the right thing for her to do, and I think it
took a lot of courage for the Speaker of the House to actually speak
out on behalf of Tibetans who are undergoing considerable civil rights,
human rights abuses.
The fact is, there are still, according to a recent article, at least
1,000 Tibetans that are unaccounted for because of this crackdown by
the PRC, by Communist China. This is a very serious issue, and I'm glad
that we're taking up this resolution.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) who is the cochair of the
Congressional Human Rights Caucus and who recently traveled to China.
Mr. WOLF. I thank the gentleman. I thank him for yielding.
I want to thank Mr. Berman and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and
Mr. Chabot for bringing the bill up.
I also want to thank President Bush for meeting yesterday with the
dissidents, and I know they were probably passionate with him to
explain how important it is to speak out.
I also want to second what Mr. Chabot said about the Speaker. I
appreciate Speaker Pelosi raising this issue on human rights and
religious freedom in China. There is tremendous persecution. Catholic
bishops are in
[[Page H7347]]
jail. A large number of house church leaders are still in jail. As Mr.
Smith said, there is a list of 730 dissidents that we should advocate
publicly for.
In the days during the Reagan administration, President Reagan would
advocate publicly for names. That is very important. We know what
they've done in Tibet in the Drapchi prison in the persecution of
Tibetan monks and nuns. We know the Uighurs, Rebiya Kadeer, whose
children have been arrested and are in jail as we now speak. They're
plundering, beating the Falun Gong. And even in Flushing, New York, we
believe--and the FBI is investigating--that the Chinese embassy was
involved in a counter-demonstration beating of the Falun Gong in
Flushing, New York. Not in Flushing, China, but in Flushing, New York.
We know of the labor camps, the laogais. We know what Harry Wu has
told us of the labor camps that are still operating, and there are more
labor camps in China today than there were gulags in the Soviet Union.
We know when the Speaker said, very accurately, the genocide in
Darfur, the Chinese government is the number one supporter of the
genocidal government in Khartoum. And as Mr. Smith and Mr. Pence said
on the one-child policy on forced abortion, we know what they're doing.
What I would urge the administration to do and the President to do--I
want to make sure we don't violate the rules and I speak to the
Speaker--is to give a speech the way that President Reagan gave a
speech at the Danilov Monastery. It was a very powerful speech. As
Natan Sharansky said, when Ronald Reagan gave the speech in Orlando,
Florida, where he called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire, it sent a
message through the Perm. The prisoners in the Perm knew of what
President Reagan was publicly speaking out and advocating for, and the
people in the Perm and the people in jail knew when President Reagan
gave the Danilov Monastery speech that he was speaking out.
So I would urge the President to give a Danilov Monastery/Evil Empire
speech in China. Select a Catholic church or a house church or a
university and boldly speak out. Keep in mind Reagan boldly spoke out
and called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire, boldly spoke out in the
Danilov Monastery.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman from Virginia has
expired.
Mr. CHABOT. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.
Mr. WOLF. I thank the gentleman.
Ronald Reagan spoke out both times very boldly. If you recall, at
President Reagan's funeral, Gorbachev came and attended the funeral.
You can do it in that way. So I urge the President.
I would also urge the committee to bring up Congressman Smith's
Global Online Freedom bill so we can send a message, because when we
were there, we saw that sometimes some American companies are
cooperating with the Chinese government using American technology to
cooperate.
My closing comment, Madam Speaker, is that we urge the President to
give a Ronald Reagan Danilov Monastery-type speech so that when he
leaves China, it is clear to the dissidents who are in prison--because
they will hear him--it is clear to the family members of those
dissidents--because they will hear him--and it will be doubly clear,
triply clear to the Chinese government that America and the President
of the United States stands for freedom, and that must be done
publicly.
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution,
which is yet another meaningless but provocative condemnation of China.
It is this kind of jingoism that has led to such a low opinion of the
United States abroad. Certainly I do not condone human rights abuses,
wherever they may occur, but as Members of the U.S. House of
Representatives we have no authority over the Chinese government. It is
our constitutional responsibility to deal with abuses in our own
country or those created abroad by our own foreign policies. Yet we are
not debating a bill to close Guantanamo, where abuses have been
documented. We are not debating a bill to withdraw from Iraq, where
scores of innocents have been killed, injured, and abused due to our
unprovoked attack on that country. We are not debating a bill to
reverse the odious FISA bill passed recently which will result in
extreme abuses of Americans by gutting the Fourth Amendment.
Instead of addressing these and scores of other pressing issues over
which we do have authority, we prefer to spend our time criticizing a
foreign government over which we have no authority and foreign domestic
problems about which we have very little accurate information.
I do find it ironic that this resolution ``calls on the Government of
the People's Republic of China to begin earnest negotiations, without
preconditions, directly with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his
representatives.'' For years U.S. policy has been that no meeting or
negotiation could take place with Iran until certain preconditions are
met by Iran. Among these is a demand that Iran cease uranium
enrichment, which Iran has the right to do under the terms of the Non-
Proliferation Treaty. It is little wonder why some claim that
resolutions like this are hypocritical.
Instead of lecturing China, where I have no doubt there are problems
as there are everywhere, I would suggest that we turn our attention to
the very real threats in a United States where our civil liberties and
human rights are being eroded on a steady basis. The Bible cautions
against pointing out the speck in a neighbor's eye while ignoring the
log in one's own. I suggest we contemplate this sound advice before
bringing up such ill-conceived resolutions in the future.
Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and
urge strong support for this resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Berman) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1370, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CHABOT. Madam 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.
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