[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 85 (Thursday, June 7, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3871-S3872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE LATE FANG LIZHI TO THE PEOPLE OF
CHINA AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary
Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 476 and
the Senate now proceed to its consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 476) honoring the contributions of
the late Fang Lizhi to the people of China and the cause of
freedom.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I do not know of any further debate on this
resolution.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?
If not, the question is on adoption of the resolution.
The resolution (S. Res. 476) was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be
agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, there be
no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to this
matter be printed in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 476
Whereas the Chinese scientist and democracy advocate, Fang
Lizhi, passed away at his home in Tucson, Arizona, on April
6, 2012;
Whereas Fang Lizhi was born in February 1936 in Beijing,
China;
Whereas, in 1952, Fang Lizhi enrolled in the Physics
Department of Peking University, where he met his future
wife, Li Shuxian, and joined the Chinese Communist Party in
1955;
Whereas, in 1955, Fang Lizhi openly questioned the lack of
independent thinking in China's education system and, in
1957, drafted a letter with Li Shuxian and other associates
proposing political reform;
Whereas Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were sentenced to hard
labor in 1957 and 1958, respectively, as victims of China's
Anti-Rightist Campaign;
Whereas, during China's Cultural Revolution, Fang Lizhi and
other faculty members and students of the University of
Science and Technology of China were sentenced to
``reeducation through labor'' in a coal mine and a brick
factory;
Whereas, after he was again freed from confinement, Fang
Lizhi emerged as China's leading astrophysicist and wrote the
first modern Chinese-language cosmological studies, although
the theory of general relatively contradicted Communist
dogma;
Whereas, when he was appointed as vice president of the
University of Science and Technology of China in 1984, Fang
Lizhi initiated a series of reforms intended to democratize
the management of the university and enhance academic
freedom;
Whereas, in the winter of 1986 1987, when Chinese students
across China protested on behalf of democracy and human
rights, the Government of China fired Fang Lizhi from his
post at the University of Science and Technology of China and
subsequently purged him from the Communist party;
Whereas when, in the wake of his purge, excerpts from Fang
Lizhi's speeches were distributed by authorities in China as
examples of ``bourgeois liberalism'', his writings became
tremendously popular among Chinese students;
Whereas, in February 1989, Fang Lizhi published an essay
entitled ``China's Despair and China's Hope'', in which he
wrote, ``The road to democracy has already been long and
difficult, and is likely to remain difficult for many years
to come.'';
Whereas, in this essay, Fang Lizhi also wrote that ``it is
precisely because democracy is generated from below--despite
the many frustrations and disappointments in our present
situation--I still view our future with hope'';
Whereas, in the spring and early summer of 1989, Chinese
students gathered in Tiananmen Square to voice their support
for democracy, as well as to protest corruption in the
Chinese Communist Party;
Whereas Fang Lizhi chose not to join the protests at
Tiananmen Square in order to demonstrate that the students
were acting autonomously;
Whereas, from June 3 through 4, 1989, the Government of
China directed the People's Liberation Army to clear
Tiananmen Square of protestors, killing hundreds of students
and other civilians in the process;
Whereas, the Government of China issued arrest warrants for
Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian after the Tiananmen Massacre,
accusing the pair of engaging in ``counterrevolutionary
propaganda'' and denouncing Fang as the ``instigator of chaos
which resulted in the deaths of many people'';
Whereas, on June 5, 1989, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were
escorted by United States diplomats to the United States
Embassy in Beijing;
Whereas, between June 1989 and June 1990, United States
diplomatic personnel under the leadership of Ambassador James
R. Lilley sheltered Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian at the United
States Embassy in Beijing, despite the many hardships it
imposed on the mission;
Whereas, at a November 15, 1989, ceremony awarding Fang
Lizhi the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, Senator
Edward M. Kennedy said of Fang ``What Andrei Sakharov was in
Moscow, Fang Lizhi became in Beijing.'';
[[Page S3872]]
Whereas, on June 25, 1990, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were
allowed to leave China for the United Kingdom and then the
United States;
Whereas, in 1992, Fang Lizhi received an appointment as a
professor of physics at the University of Arizona in Tucson,
where he continued his research in astrophysics and
advocating for human rights in China;
Whereas, in the years since June 4, 1989, a new generation
of Chinese activists has continued the struggle for democracy
in their homeland, working ``from below'' to protect the
rights of Chinese citizens, to increase the openness of the
Chinese political system, and to reduce corruption among
public officials; and
Whereas, with the passing of Fang Lizhi, China and the
United States have lost a great scientist and one of the most
eloquent human rights advocates of the modern era: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) mourns the loss of Fang Lizhi;
(2) honors the life, scientific contributions, and service
of Fang Lizhi to advance the cause of human freedom;
(3) offers the deepest condolences of the Senate to the
family and friends of Fang Lizhi; and
(4) stands with the people of China as they strive to
improve their way of life and create a government that is
truly democratic and respectful of international norms in the
area of human rights.
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