[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 78 (Wednesday, June 5, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H3104-H3105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        U.S.-CHINA RELATIONSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, in a few days, China's new President, 
Xi Jinping, will conclude a tour of the Western Hemisphere by meeting 
with President Obama in an informal summit in California. The leaders 
of the Pacific Rim's two most powerful countries will discuss many 
issues of mutual concern. This important relationship continues to 
evolve dynamically in spite of the difficulties that we both have. 
These difficulties spring from some radically different philosophical 
outlooks on both life as well as governance. These differences deserve 
both our attention and candor.
  Mr. Speaker, 24 years ago, this week, June 3, 1989, a massacre took 
place in China in a place called Tiananmen Square. Student protesters 
who were seeking some form of liberty for their interests gathered 
there. And I remember very vividly two very stark images from that 
time. One was the homemade replica of the Statue of Liberty that was 
erected in their midst. The other was a courageous Chinese man who 
decided to take it upon himself to stand as a silent witness, arms at 
his side like a soldier at attention, for the cause of human rights. He 
stood in the street and blocked four tanks as they proceeded on toward 
the student protesters. The tanks tried to make their way around him. 
As they did, he would move and stand in front of them. Clearly, there 
was a dilemma going on in the minds of the young Chinese soldiers who 
were driving those tanks. Perhaps they didn't want to kill one of their 
countrymen. So they tried to avoid it. But the young man persisted. For 
a time, he blocked those tanks, courageously and alone, from carrying 
out part of what would become the Tiananmen Square massacre. 
Eventually, some of his friends or other Chinese citizens whisked him 
away from certain death. Those were two very stark images in my mind 
that have stayed with me ever since.
  In the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week, another one of 
those student leaders actually spoke. Her name is Chai Ling. She's a 
courageous new American, one who knows well the tragedy of forced 
repression--both political repression and the painful, silent 
repression in China that is not spoken of enough, which is that 
country's forced abortion policies, its One Child policy, which has, by 
the way, disproportionately targeted unborn girls.
  In her testimony, she spoke clearly about her passion and love for 
China and her hope that the United States and China can begin a new 
embrace in a spirit of cooperation rooted in the fundamental respect 
for human dignity, which transcends both language and culture. She 
argues that the fear that led to the devastating persecutions of the 
Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square, and more recently, this 
genocidal One Child policy, which has seriously distorted China's 
demographic balance, must be transformed by truth. She echoes the 
spirit of Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist who stood up so 
courageously against repression last year in China. When he visited 
here in Washington, he said this to a small group of us: The intrinsic 
kindness of persons cannot be defeated by violence and force.
  Mr. Speaker, dysfunction in this important bilateral relationship 
between the United States and China serves neither of our countries, 
nor the broader world, as the influence of this relationship extends 
far beyond our respective national borders. China wants our markets, we 
want their stuff and, perversely, there are incentives for our 
businesses to seek out their low-cost manufacturing. We want their 
investment, they want our resources. We sell our enterprises, we also 
run up our debt, and they buy the debt. In turn, we run down our 
economy in an endless

[[Page H3105]]

chase for near-term gain. This feeds a dysfunctional interdependence 
that is further aggravated by fundamental disagreements stemming from 
different world views and perspectives on the individual and the state.
  We need to look closely at our notions of self-interest in this 
relationship, which vividly illustrates some of the challenges 
associated with global interdependence. But there are also 
opportunities that we need to grasp, Mr. Speaker. The President 
recently changed the way in which we talk about the concept of national 
interest in his State of the Union address, and I agree with him. We 
should talk about our national conscience in concert with our national 
interest. The two are inseparable. In conscience, we cannot say that 
all is well with the U.S.-China relationship.
  We can hope for a better day. Hopefully, this meeting between the 
President and the new President of China will bear lasting fruit which 
transcends discussions about defense and economics, and looks to that 
which is fundamentally just and good for all peoples of the world.

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