[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 28, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H4851-H4856]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
URGING CHINA TO RESPECT THE FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY, EXPRESSION, AND
RELIGION AND ALL FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree
to the resolution (H. Res. 599) urging the Government of the People's
Republic of China to respect the freedom of assembly, expression, and
religion and all fundamental human rights and the rule of law for all
its citizens and to stop censoring discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen
Square demonstrations and their violent suppression.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 599
Whereas on June 4, 1989, peaceful demonstrations held in
and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square were brutally crushed
by the People's Liberation Army, carrying out the orders of
China's Communist Party leadership;
Whereas the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 called upon the
Chinese Communist Party to eliminate corruption, accelerate
economic and political reforms, and protect human rights,
particularly the freedoms of expression and assembly;
Whereas by early May 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 people
joined the protests in Tiananmen Square and citizens in over
400 Chinese cities staged similar protests for democratic
reform, including not only students, but also government
employees, journalists, workers, police officers, members of
the armed forces, and other citizens;
Whereas on May 20, 1989, martial law was declared in
Beijing, China, after authorities had failed to persuade
demonstrators to leave Tiananmen Square;
Whereas during the late afternoon and early evening hours
of June 3, 1989, thousands of armed troops, supported by
tanks and other armor, moved into Beijing to ``clear the
Square'' and surrounding streets of demonstrators;
Whereas on the night of June 3, 1989, and continuing into
the morning of June 4, 1989, soldiers fired into crowds,
inflicting high civilian casualties, killing or injuring
unarmed civilians;
Whereas tanks crushed to death some protesters and
onlookers;
Whereas independent observers report that hundreds, perhaps
thousands, were killed and wounded by the People's Liberation
Army soldiers and other security forces;
Whereas 20,000 people throughout China suspected of taking
part in the democracy movement were reportedly arrested and
sentenced without trial to prison or reeducation
[[Page H4852]]
through labor, and many were reportedly tortured, with many
being imprisoned for decades;
Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers is a group of relatives and
friends of those killed in June 1989 whose demands include
the right to mourn victims publicly, to call for a full and
public accounting of the wounded and dead, and the release of
those who remain imprisoned for participating in the 1989
protests;
Whereas members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have faced
arrest, harassment, and discrimination, with the group's
website blocked in China and international cash donations
made to the group to support families of victims reportedly
frozen by Chinese authorities;
Whereas the Chinese Government undertakes active measures
to deny its citizens the truth about the Tiananmen Square
Massacre, including the blocking of uncensored Internet sites
and weblogs, and the placement of misleading information on
the events of June 3, 1989, through June 4, 1989, on Internet
sites available in China;
Whereas the Chinese Government continues to suppress
dissent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers,
journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers,
members of ethnic minority rights organizations, and other
individuals in Xinjiang and Tibet who seek to express their
political or religious views or their ethnic identity in a
peaceful manner;
Whereas Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain
peaceful advocates for human rights, religious freedom,
ethnic minority rights and the rule of law, and their family
members, such as Nobel Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife
Liu Xia, Gao Zhisheng, Wang Bingzhang, Peng Ming, Zhu Yufu,
Lobsang Tsering, Ilham Tohti, Yang Maodong (also known as Guo
Feixiong), Sun Desheng, Liu Yuandong, Guo Quan, Liu Xianbin,
Yang Rongli, Alimujiang Yimiti, Yang Tianshui, Wang Zhiwen,
Li Chang, Gulmira Imin, Dhondup Wangchen, and Chen Kegui,
nephew of blind human rights activists Chen Guangcheng;
Whereas according to the Prisoner Database maintained by
the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on
China, the Communist Government of China continues to detain
over 1,300 prisoners of conscience, though the number may be
much higher;
Whereas the Chinese authorities continue to maintain a
system of labor camps and ``black jails'' to detain peaceful
advocates for human rights and democratic freedoms, harasses
and detains human rights lawyers who take on cases deemed
politically sensitive, limits the number of children Chinese
couples may have, including through the practice of forced
abortions and sterilizations, restricts severely the
religious activity of Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan
Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims, conducted a 15-year campaign
to eradicate Falun Gong practice in China, publicly vilifies,
and refuses to negotiate with, the Dalai Lama over Tibetan
issues, and, forcibly repatriates thousands of refugees to
North Korea who face persecution, imprisonment, and possible
execution in violation of its international commitments;
Whereas the Government of China maintains tight control of
speech, religion, and assembly, and has continually received
poor rankings focused on civil liberties and political rights
by nongovernmental organizations;
Whereas the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom's most recent annual report has found that
the ``Chinese government continues to perpetrate particularly
severe violations of religious freedom'', with conditions
``worse now than at any time in the past decade'' for
religious minorities, findings which again contributed to the
Commission recommending that China be designated as a
``country of particular concern'';
Whereas the United States Department of State's most recent
human rights report on China found ``extrajudicial killings''
occurred in China;
Whereas the United States Department of State's most recent
human rights report on China found that the Government
continued to target ``for arbitrary detention or arrest''
``human rights activists, journalists . . . and former
political prisoners and their family members'';
Whereas freedom of expression and assembly are fundamental
human rights that belong to all people, and are recognized as
such under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and
Whereas a Government of China which respects the individual
rights of all its people would be more likely to have
productive economic, political, and security relations with
its neighbors and the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) urges the Government of the People's Republic of China
to stop censoring information about the Tiananmen Square
massacre;
(2) expresses sympathy to the families of those killed,
tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their participation
in the democracy protests of June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen
Square, Beijing, in the People's Republic of China;
(3) supports all peaceful advocates for human rights and
the rule of law in China for their efforts to advance
democratic reforms and human rights during the past;
(4) condemns the ongoing human rights abuses and
persecution by the Government of the People's Republic of
China and its efforts to quell peaceful political dissent,
censor the Internet, suppress ethnic and religious
minorities, limit the number of children had by Chinese
couples through coercion and violence, and harass and detain
lawyers and freedom advocates seeking the Government's
commitment, in law and practice, to international human
rights treaties and covenants to which it is a party;
(5) calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to
take all appropriate steps to circumvent Chinese Internet
censorship and to provide information to the people of China
about the Tiananmen Square Massacre;
(6) calls on the United States Government to--
(A) make human rights, including religious freedom, a
priority in bilateral discussions with the Chinese
Government; and
(B) instruct the United States representative at the United
Nations Human Rights Council to introduce a resolution
calling for an examination of the human rights practices of
the Government of the People's Republic of China;
(7) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to--
(A) end the harassment, detention, torture, and
imprisonment of Chinese citizens expressing their legitimate
freedom of religion, expression, and association, including
on the Internet;
(B) release all remaining prisoners of conscience who
continue to be detained as a result of their participation in
the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989, especially
around Tiananmen Square;
(C) end the harassment and discrimination of those involved
in the 1989 protests and their families, permit Chinese
citizens to freely commemorate and share information about
Tiananmen;
(D) allow protest participants who escaped to or are living
in exile in the United States and other countries, or who
reside outside of China because they have been
``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful
protest activity, to return to China without risk of
retribution or repercussion and fully repeal any laws or
decrees that deny them the ability to travel to China; and
(E) end Internet, media, and academic censorship of
discussions of the Tiananmen Protests and events surrounding
it;
(8) calls on the Administration and Members of Congress to
take steps to continue to mark the events of Tiananmen
Square--
(A) meeting with participants in the demonstrations, or
their families, who are living in the United States;
(B) meeting with others outside of China who have been
``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful
protest activities;
(C) signaling support for those in China who demand an
independent and credible accounting of the events surrounding
June 4, 1989; and
(D) supporting those advocating for accountable and
democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law in
China; and
(9) finds that United States relations with China are more
likely to further improve once the Government recognizes and
respects the individual human rights of all its people.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida.
General Leave
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on this resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise in strong support of House Resolution 599. I am proud to stand
with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith); with the Democratic
leader, Ms. Pelosi; and their bipartisan cosponsors in urging the
Beijing regime to respect the fundamental human rights of all Chinese
citizens, to observe the rule of law, and to stop censoring discussions
of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Twenty-five years ago, a million Chinese citizens from all walks of
life gathered in and around Tiananmen Square to call for democracy, to
call for reform, to call for openness.
Similar demonstrations sprang up in more than 400 other cities around
China, but the hopeful idealism of those Chinese patriots was met with
tanks, with bullets and bayonets, and the so-called People's Liberation
Army murdered a still-unknown number of the people of China. The
Tiananmen Square massacre was the brutal start
[[Page H4853]]
of a massive wave of repression against Chinese democracy advocates.
During the past two-and-a-half decades, Mr. Speaker, much has changed
inside China. China's economic and military power have grown
dramatically, and its governing ideology owes less to Marx, Lenin, and
Mao than to a state-fed nationalism, but other things have not changed.
China remains a one-party state where a regime obsessed with
maintaining social control commits wide-ranging human rights abuses,
including extrajudicial killings; disappearances and illegal
imprisonment at so-called black jails; detention of lawyers,
journalists, and bloggers; coercive population control involving forced
abortion and sterilization; and restriction on freedom of religion, of
the press, and assembly.
Repression is even harsher against disfavored minorities such as
Tibetan Buddhists, the Muslim Uighurs, and Falun Gong practitioners.
According to the most recent State Department Country Report on Human
Rights, the Chinese regime ``consistently blocked access to Web sites
it deemed controversial, especially those discussing Taiwan, the Dalai
Lama, Tibet, underground religious and spiritual organizations,
democracy activists, and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.''
A quarter of a century later, why is the regime in Beijing still so
afraid of the truth? How strong is a Communist Party that feels the
need to harass and muzzle the aging Tiananmen mothers who lost their
sons and daughters in 1989? In the biting words of one 76-year-old
mother, Ms. Zhang:
Such a great, mighty, and correct party is afraid of a
little old lady. They are afraid of us oldtimers because we
represent righteousness.
Today, Mr. Speaker, with House Resolution 599, we stand in solidarity
with the righteous mothers of Tiananmen, with the Ladies in White--
Damas de Blanco--in Cuba, and with all those who struggle for liberty
and for human rights where tyrants rule. Those who have sacrificed
their lives in pursuit of freedom are not forgotten.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume, and I rise in strong support of H. Res. 599, urging the
Government of the People's Republic of China to respect the freedom of
assembly, expression, religion, and all fundamental human rights of its
citizens.
{time} 1645
I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Smith for his leadership on
this issue. I would also would like to thank Chairman Royce, Ranking
Member Engel, and the entire Committee on Foreign Affairs for the
bipartisan manner with which we continue to work to shed light upon the
gross violation of human and political rights in China.
Mr. Speaker, next week we will commemorate the 25th anniversary of
the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, where hundreds of student
protestors demanding political and economic reforms were murdered.
Today the image of an unknown man standing in peaceful protest to
government tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square is among the most iconic
of the 20th century and continues to serve as a source of inspiration
to political and human rights advocates around the world.
Unfortunately, many in China will never know of this sad chapter of
Chinese history. The Communist Party of China is determined to erase
all memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre from national memory. The
Chinese Government continues to block all uncensored Internet Web sites
and blogs related to the events of June 3 and June 4, 1989, and
willfully distributes misinformation to its people. Even today, Beijing
continues to harass, arrest, and discriminate against the relatives and
friends of those killed in Tiananmen Square.
Censorship of the Tiananmen Square massacre is just the tip of the
iceberg. Unfortunately, the Chinese Government continues to suppress
political dissent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers,
journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, members of
ethnic minority rights organizations, and other individuals who seek to
express their political or religious views or assert their ethnic
identity.
According to a prisoner database maintained by the United States
Congressional Executive Commission on China, over 1,300 prisoners of
conscience are being held at various ``black jails,'' where they are
often tortured, forced into labor camps, or even killed.
Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 599 condemns the Chinese Government for its
appalling human rights record and calls for an end to the harassment,
detention, torture, and imprisonment of Chinese citizens practicing
their legitimate freedom of religion, expression, and association. It
also calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors to provide the people
of China with information about the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important and
timely resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), chairman of the Foreign
Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations, cochairman also of the Congressional
Executive Commission on China, and the author of this resolution.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much
time is left?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Florida has 16 minutes
remaining.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, it has been 25 years since
China's Government crushed the peaceful demonstrations we remember by
the name ``Tiananmen Square.'' The resolution before us honors the
extraordinary sacrifice endured by hundreds of thousands of peaceful
Chinese democracy activists who rallied for almost 2 months in Beijing
and in over 400 other cities in China in a heroic quest for liberty and
human rights. It has been estimated that over a million people took
part.
Tiananmen has also come to symbolize the brutal lengths China's
Communist Party will go to remain in power. When the tanks rolled into
the square on June 4, 1989, mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters,
and China lost an idealistic generation of future leaders.
You know, Mr. Speaker, some may prefer to look past or even
trivialize the wanton slaughter by Chinese soldiers. The memory of the
dead and those arrested, tortured, and exiled requires us to honor
them, respect their noble aspirations for fundamental freedoms, and
recommit ourselves to the struggle for freedom and human rights in
China.
Former President Jiang Zemin said in an interview that Tiananmen was
``no big deal.'' But it was a very big deal that has left an enduring
mark on Chinese society and on U.S.-China relations.
The Government of China continues to go to astounding, even bizarre,
lengths to censor and ban open discussion of Tiananmen. This resolution
sends the right message: we will never forget Tiananmen, ever,
especially so as long as the Chinese people cannot discuss it and its
significance openly without harassment or arrest or torture.
Mr. Speaker, one of the most enduring symbols of the Tiananmen
demonstrations was the unveiling of a facsimile of the Statue of
Liberty on May 30, 1989. It was a moment that thrilled freedom
advocates around the globe. There was this enduring symbol of freedom
facing the portrait of Mao Zedong hanging in Tiananmen Square.
This moment was extraordinary because it showed that when the Chinese
people are able to speak publicly and freely, they ask for greater
freedoms, democracy, and justice. These are universal liberties that
can be found in demonstrations for liberty worldwide. We see it in
Cairo and Caracas, Turkey and Tunisia, Kabul and Kiev.
There was a moment when we all believed that Tiananmen Square
demonstrations would be a triumph of freedom and democracy. Later in
1989, the Warsaw Pact nations started to crumble, and eventually the
former Soviet Union fell as well, but the Communist leaders of China
sought to cling to power through unbelievable brutality and force. They
sent tanks and soldiers into Beijing to ``clear the square'' on the
evening of June 3 into June 4. The
[[Page H4854]]
beatings, the bayonetting, the torture and murder of students and the
ubiquitous display of tanks turned the dream of freedom into a bloody
nightmare.
Mr. Speaker, in 1991, I was able to visit Beijing prison number 1 on
a trip with my great friend and colleague Frank Wolf. It was a bleak
gulag, where some 40 Tiananmen Square demonstrators were being unjustly
detained. We saw firsthand the price paid by brave and tenacious
individuals for peacefully petitioning their government for freedom,
and it was not pretty. They looked like walking skeletons of Auschwitz,
and they worked grueling hours making products, some of which ended up
in U.S. markets.
Mr. Speaker, for the past 25 years, the Tiananmen demonstrations have
shaped the way the Chinese Government deals with dissent. Despite the
country's stunning economic growth over the past two decades, Beijing's
leaders remain terrified of their own people. China's ruling Communist
Party would rather stifle, imprison, or even kill its own people than
defer or embrace their demands for freedom and rights.
President Xi Jinping's tenure as President, which started with so
much promise of new beginnings, has instead ramped up the repression.
China today is in a race to the bottom with the likes of North Korea.
Last year was the worst year since the 1990s for arrests and
imprisonment of dissidents. Over 230 people have been detained for
their human rights advocacy, and those are the ones we know about.
There are many, many more. In the past month leading up to the
Tiananmen anniversary, Beijing has detained some two dozen activists
for seeking to commemorate the anniversary, even criminalizing private
gatherings and art installations.
China remains, as we all know, one of the worst offenders of human
rights overall. It remains the torture capital of the world. Religious
freedom abuses continue with absolute impunity, and ethnic minority
groups face repression when they peacefully seek rights of culture and
of language.
Hundreds of millions of women, Mr. Speaker, have been forced to abort
their precious babies because of a draconian attempt to limit
population growth in effect since 1979. China's one-child policy is a
human rights disaster without precedent, and it is a demographic
nightmare as well. Brothers and sisters in China, Mr. Speaker, are
illegal, and the preference for having boys has led to a gender
imbalance and a mass extermination of the girl child.
This is not only a massive gender-based crime, Mr. Speaker, but a
security problem as well. Experts are coming to the conclusion that
China's unprecedented gender imbalance will lead to more crime, social
instability, worker shortages, and even possibly war. Of course it has
had a horrific impact on sex trafficking.
Last year, China was rightfully demoted to a tier 3 country under the
provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because of the
missing girls and daughters, so those slavers are now buying and
selling women as commodities because women don't exist relative to the
number of males in the People's Republic of China all because of a
cruel one child per couple policy.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, repression has not dimmed the desires of the
Chinese people for freedom and reform. There is an inspiring drive in
China to keep fighting for freedom under very difficult and dangerous
lethal conditions. This drive is the most important asset in promoting
human rights and democratization.
When democratic change does come to China, it will come from within,
not because of outside pressure; although that pressure needs to be
applied, and it needs to be applied judiciously and effectively. U.S.
policy, in both the short and long term, must be, and seem to be,
supportive of advocates of peaceful change. We can't abscond in our
responsibility. Lists need to be tendered every time we meet with
Chinese leaders, whether it be the White House or any Members of
Congress, of political prisoners.
I believe that someday China will be free. Someday the people of
China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights. As a nation
of free Chinese men and women, we will honor them and they will be
celebrated someday as heroes of Tiananmen Square and all of those who
sacrificed so much and for so long for freedom.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Pelosi), our very distinguished Democratic leader.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I
welcome him to our group, and I appreciate his very important remarks
as we observe the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
As always, I am absolutely honored and pleased to join my colleagues,
the distinguished former chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and
now chair of the subcommittee, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen.
Mr. Wolf and Mr. Smith and I have been fighting this fight together
for decades. I thank them for their courage. We both oppose our own
Presidents--they are Republican, I a Democrat on a Democratic
President--on this subject. This is a bond that we have had about
respecting the dignity and worth of every person.
When we saw what happened in Tiananmen Square, it was almost
unbelievable to see the Government of China turning on its own people,
having tanks run over their children in Tiananmen Square who were
speaking out against corruption, who were speaking out for more
openness, for speaking out to speak out.
I have treasured this poster in my office over the years, for 25
years. It has been signed by every major dissident who has been able to
leave China. Not many of them can go back. But it is the symbol that
Mr. Chris Smith talked about of the man before the tank. It is one of
the most iconic figures in the history of democratic freedoms in the
world.
However, if you were to go to China and ask young people about this
poster--they know this picture--they know nothing about it. It has been
censored. They don't tell people what that is. Some said: Maybe it is a
commercial for something. I don't know what that is.
So powerful is it that even any discussion of it in China for young
people at the university, Peking University, which was a place where
many of these young people came forth and said they would like to end
corruption, expand freedom of expression. What form of government they
will have, as Mr. Smith has said, remains to be seen and up to the
Chinese people. The fact that they could not even talk about it without
being run over by tanks, it was stunning. It was really remarkably
stunning because we have really not seen anything quite like that.
The spring of 1989, 25 years ago, a community of activists, dissident
students, and Chinese citizens stood up for their rights in Tiananmen
Square. People were inspired by a path of political reform advocated by
some of China's leaders who were purged--Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.
The people spoke out against the abuses of their government, a people
who demanded respect, dignity, liberty, a voice. A people cried out for
freedom, their souls yearning for a better future. They called for the
elimination of corruption, an acceleration of economic and political
reform, for freedom of expression and assembly. They called for a
dialogue with China's leaders on how to make progress.
People protested, demonstrated, marched. A military was turned
against the people it was supposed to protect. The People's Liberation
Army turned on the people of China. The young man, again, stood alone
in the street bringing a line of tanks to a grinding halt.
{time} 1700
You don't see it here, but the tanks turned, they turned away from
this lone man and did not run over him for all the world to see, an
image seared into the memory of all who saw it, a photograph
unforgettable to anyone committed to the promise of human rights, a
moment that then and now challenges the conscience of the world.
We cannot have any moral authority to talk about human rights in the
world if we ignore the violations in human rights in a big country, a
prosperous country, an economic engine.
I remember--and my colleagues do too--that at the time the trade
deficit with China, with the U.S., we had a deficit of $5 billion a
year. That was an
[[Page H4855]]
enormous trade deficit, and we thought it would give us leverage to
free the students who were arrested in Tiananmen Square. We just wanted
to free them, to respond to the moms, the parents, free those students.
Others in the Chamber had said we could use that $5 billion at the same
time to stop China from blocking U.S. exports into China, or stop them
from transferring technology, missile technology and the rest, to
Pakistan and beyond.
But there were those also in the Congress and in the country--and
actually on the Chinese payroll, because they were lobbyists,
advocates, lawyers, and all the rest, they hired everybody--who said:
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you can't use that $5 billion for leverage to
free those prisoners, to stop those barriers to our trade, to stop
their transfer of technology to countries that might then turn them
over to rogue countries, you can't do that. But if you remain calm,
there will be peaceful evolution and all this will be improved. In
fact, our trade with China will grow, their freedom will increase.
These people are still arrested, the trade deficit is no longer $5
billion a year, it is $7 billion, but not a year--from $5 billion a
year to $7 billion a week--and not 1 cent of it used for any leverage
to free prisoners or to challenge the Chinese in terms of the
violations of human rights in China and in Tibet. It is stunning. They
own the show. That is just the way it is--$5 billion a year to $7
billion a week. Oh, my God, progress has been made, but not by the
American worker, but not by our economy--no, by the Chinese Government.
It is really stunning, it is really one of, I think, the stories that
has to be told by the U.S. to stand up for who we are and what we stand
for.
Twenty-five years ago, Tiananmen became synonymous with the battle
for human rights in China--again, an iconic site for an iconic struggle
for justice and democracy. Twenty-five years later, the spirit of
Tiananmen endures in the hearts and minds of those continuing to
struggle, both in China and around the world. What moral authority do
we have to say to a small country, you cannot violate the human rights
of your people, but we will take anything the Chinese have to dish out
because we have a commercial interest there?
The heroes--and we have to talk about them because the Chinese tell
them nobody cares about you anymore--these heroes still display the
unmatched courage required simply to speak up and speak out. I thank
Congressman Chris Smith for bringing this resolution forward, and
Speaker Boehner for tomorrow, this week, holding an official
remembrance--again, it is tomorrow--to allow us to stand united with
these heroes.
Today, any mention of these events of June 4, 1989, is censored from
the Chinese people. The victims and their families are imprisoned and
persecuted by the Chinese Government, and the human rights situation in
China and Tibet continues to deteriorate.
Today, the Chinese people may not know the truth about Tiananmen. It
was a long time ago. Many of the young people weren't even born yet.
Corruption, though, they do know is rampant in the Chinese Government.
The rule of law is not applied in a fair manner. They suffer injustices
with no redress of grievances. Air and water pollution are making them
unhealthy and destroying their environment. That may be something that
gets the attention of the government.
Mr. Wolf, thank you for your leadership, for your courage. When Mr.
Smith talks about going to Chinese prison number 1, I know that you led
the way there.
Today, Ding Zilin and the Tiananmen Mothers bravely keep up their
calls for dialogue, and their supporters worldwide join their demands
that the Chinese Government provide an honest accounting of the
crackdown, stop persecution of the families of the demonstrators, and
allow the families to mourn publicly without interference.
Today, Liu Xiaobo remains the world's only imprisoned Nobel Prize
Peace Prize Laureate, as he and his wife, Xia, join so many others
still languishing in prison for criticizing their government or trying
to exercise and secure their basic human rights. We had the privilege
of being asked by the family--some of us--to go to Norway when Liu
Xiaobo received the Nobel Prize. As some of you may recall, there was
an empty chair because the Chinese Government would not allow him out
of prison to go to receive the Nobel Prize. So we joined some Members
that were selected to be part of the delegation. Was that one of the
great honors of our lives? I think we all agree that it was.
We are not here today just to acknowledge history. We are here to
learn from the memory of a dark chapter of our past and to write a
brighter chapter of freedom and justice in the future. We are here to
support the Tiananmen movement. How many of those young people who got
out of China, who came through here, told us their stories of courage.
We cried together. They tried together to make sense of how they could
make a difference for those people who were left behind.
We are here to support the Tiananmen movement, which endures,
inspires, and cannot be stopped. I am hopeful. I am hopeful because
there are conversations that happened with the Chinese Government. I
have had my own on the subject of climate change and environmental
issues like clean air, et cetera, that are problematic in China. Maybe
there can be some communication that can be constructive. I am hopeful
that the visits that we have had to each other's countries to talk
about one subject and another without getting anywhere near that taboo,
in their view, of our talking about people or their freedom, that
perhaps in the communication that exists in the world today that maybe
we have reason to be hopeful.
But with the passage of this resolution, Congress will say to the
people of China and freedom-loving people everywhere: Your cause is our
cause. We can never forget. We must never forget. We will never forget.
Again, the Chinese Government likes to say the prisoners, nobody
knows you are here, they don't remember who you are, they don't
remember why you came here. Well, we want to give lie to that, because
over the years we have always joined together in a strongly bipartisan
way to come to the floor or to go to public events to say the names of
people whom we have not heard of their fate but that their mothers want
an accounting for. As we do this, we look forward to a day when the
world's most populous country can be called a country where people can
speak out, be respected, and when the Chinese Government respects its
own people it will command much more respect then.
Again, I thank you Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen so much for taking the
lead to bring this to the floor; Congressman Castro for your very, very
important remarks; to my pals Mr. Wolf and Mr. Smith, you have done so
much, you have made such a difference. It is an honor to serve with you
and to work on this important project together.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I reserve the right to close, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
With no other speakers, I would simply say that the worth of a nation
is not measured in dollars and cents alone, by size of the military or
armaments. As China's economy continues to grow into among the nations'
largest, so too should its commitment to human rights, democracy, and
transparency. We are proud to support this resolution.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I yield the remainder of
our time to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), subcommittee
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, whose bill will be before
us today, cochair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and a
tireless advocate for human rights in China.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for bringing
the bill up. I want to thank my partner, Congressman Smith, and I want
to thank the Democratic leader, Congresswoman Pelosi, for being there
at every time, including the time you stood up to the Chinese
Government at Tiananmen Square, when you were almost arrested. So I
want to thank the Democratic leader for her help and support every time
an issue of human rights in China has come up. Thank you very much.
[[Page H4856]]
Twenty-five years ago, peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators, many of
them students, most of them students, gathered in Tiananmen in a move
for greater openness, transparency, and the rule of law.
But what could have marked the beginning of a peaceful, political
transition in China was brutally, brutally crushed by the People's
Liberation Army. A historic moment of opportunity was, quite frankly,
lost.
By nearly every measure, China is today as intolerant of dissent as
it has ever been. Just read today's New York Times where they talk
about how they are cracking down, telling people: Do not go to
Tiananmen.
Like authoritarian governments before it, the Chinese Government
remains deeply frightened. They are frightened. They are literally
afraid of their own people. They are afraid of the spirit that animated
that protest, namely, the yearning for basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms.
I first went to China in 1991 with my good friend Congressman Chris
Smith of New Jersey. It was during this trip we visited Beijing prison
number 1. Chinese authorities informed us--and we saw them--that
approximately 40 Tiananmen Square protestors were in the prison. Our
request was to see the demonstrators. They were denied, but Chinese
authorities gave us a tour of the prison's textile and plastic shoe
factories. We saw them making socks. These are the socks that they were
making. The fact is there are golfers on the side, and in those days
they didn't play golf. Tiananmen Square demonstrators were making socks
for Americans to wear as they play golf. I took with me some of the
socks that prisoners were making because they were coming to our
country.
That experience captures, in stark terms, the failure of U.S. foreign
policy--the failure of U.S. foreign policy toward China over successive
demonstrations, both Republican and Democrat alike. The United States
has too often pursued a relationship that is fundamentally inconsistent
with the most basic national values, marked by trade and unfettered
market access at the expense of human rights, religious freedom, and
the rule of law. President Reagan said that the words in the
Constitution and the words in the Declaration of Independence were a
covenant not only with the people in Philadelphia in 1776 and 1787, but
with the people of Tiananmen and the people who want freedom all over
the world.
May this resolution by Congressman Smith and the approaching
anniversary of that dark June day serve as a sobering reminder of the
unmet yearning for basic human liberty which compels men like Liu
Xiaobo, himself an imprisoned Nobel Laureate, won the 2010 Nobel Prize,
was in prison, his wife was under house arrest, she couldn't even go to
Norway to pick up the prize, and also the thousands of others whose
names we do not know, but as Leader Pelosi said: they will be known in
the West, someday everyone will know who they are and everyone will
know who they are in China and we will know the name of ``tank man,''
because ``tank man'' that Ms. Pelosi talked about has done more to
bring about freedom than anybody else, and we will know their names.
I pray for the day that the Chinese Government--the party and system
responsible for the crackdown in Tiananmen and responsible for the
continued repression--will be relegated to the ``ash heap of history.''
They will be relegated to the ash heap of history. I believe that will
come very soon. I believe it will come in my lifetime, particularly if
the Democratic aspirations of the Chinese people can find a champion--
if they can find a champion in the United States of America.
With that, I thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for bringing this bill up. I
thank Mr. Smith for this resolution and all the effort that he has
done. I want to again thank Democratic Leader Pelosi for her leadership
in fighting on these issues of human rights and religious freedom.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support for this
resolution, which I join as an original cosponsor with my good friends
and colleagues, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) and Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi (CA). I cannot express strongly enough my admiration and
respect for their leadership on protecting and promoting human rights
in China, and their commitment to remembering, commemorating and
educating others on the events that took place in Tiananmen Square
twenty-five years ago.
Mr. Speaker, thousands of citizens brutally murdered. Students shot
down by their own government. Tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square to
ruthlessly repress the spark of hope ignited in the hearts of thousands
of people. On June 4th, a massacre ended the weeks of student protest
and civil society actions that sparked hope for change and good
governance, hope for greater inclusion and democracy.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, it has been 25 years since Tiananmen Square--and
China hopes that we've forgotten.
But we have not forgotten. We have not forgotten Tiananmen Square,
nor have we forgotten all the brave Chinese citizens who every day
attempt to exercise the basic rights promised to them under the Chinese
Constitution. The right to speak out and to bring grave matters to the
attention of their government. Chinese citizens and their legal
advocates who have tried to bring issues like government corruption,
corporate exploitation of workers, unsafe working conditions,
inadequate housing, agricultural mismanagement--so many find themselves
the targets of government repression, legal reprisal, harassment, house
arrest and even long and brutal imprisonment.
They deserve the right to speak out and engage in intellectual and
public debate about what constitutes fundamental human rights and
respect, what constitutes the freedom to think and worship as one
chooses, what constitutes respect for the ostensible cultural diversity
of China when faced with the reality of brutal cultural repression in
Tibet and Xinjiang.
There are so many past and current heroes and heroines in China who
have dared to think, write, speak and act freely in defiance of
government control, censorship and mythology. We remember all of them
today, past and present, as we debate this resolution and recall the
events of 25 years ago.
We stand with you, today and always. I urge my colleagues to support
H. Res. 599.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) that the House suspend the
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 599.
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. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. 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, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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