[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 20 (Monday, February 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S717-S719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



      Chinese Political Prisoners Jiang Tianyong and Tang Jingling

  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I know that we are in the middle of an 
important debate about a topic of education in our schools. One of the 
topics I hope young Americans will learn more about is the state of 
affairs across the world when it comes to human rights.
  We are a vibrant society engaged in a heated debate, as we often have 
been throughout our history, about items of political matters. If you 
look here today, there are people standing up to speak on different 
sides of an issue. You see that the Republican Party today controls the 
White House, the Senate, and the House, and yet you have people with 
the freedom in this country to be able to stand up and oppose that. We 
have seen that across the country with demonstrations and speeches and 
all sorts of other protected speech. We are very fortunate

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and blessed to live in a nation with those freedoms. That is not the 
case all over the world.
  I wanted to take this opportunity in the midst of all of this debate 
and discussion about an important topic, the nomination before the 
Senate, to remind people that despite our differences on these issues, 
we are truly blessed to be able to live in a country where opposing the 
party in power does not mean you go to jail.
  As I have been doing for some time now, I wanted to come this evening 
and highlight yet another example of human rights abuses that is taking 
place in a very important part of the world. For the past couple of 
years, my office and I have been highlighting human rights cases 
through our social media campaign. We call it hashtag ``Expression NOT 
Oppression.''
  The goals of this are to raise awareness about these cases and the 
individuals who are suffering at the hands of these repressive 
governments. We know that through history some of the oppressed 
people--we may not think these floor speeches matter; we may not think 
that mentioning it here in this forum matters, but it does to them 
because one of the first things oppressors tell them is that the world 
has forgotten about them, and they don't matter anymore. That is one of 
the first reasons we come: to raise awareness and let them know we know 
their names, we know their story, and we will continue to speak out on 
their behalf.
  The second reason is to show their families and their loved ones that 
elected officials--like me here in the United States--have not 
forgotten them because we know that tyrants, as I said, like to tell 
political prisoners that they are alone in their struggle.
  The third reason is to call for action, whether it is for the 
administration to make their causes a priority, too, or to call on 
these governments to release these individuals.
  There is one more reason I think that this effort, hashtag 
``Expression NOT Oppression,'' is important. As well as all the good 
work being done here on both sides of the aisle in defense of human 
rights, promotion of democracy and the defense of God-given freedoms 
like religious freedom and freedom of the press and free speech, which 
we celebrate here even in this debate, have to continue to be pillars 
of our foreign policy. I hope that these cases we highlight bring those 
guiding principles to light.
  Today, I want to discuss the cases of two Chinese political prisoners 
whose courageous wives I had the opportunity to meet last week when 
they visited in Washington, DC. These women personally requested that I 
intervene on behalf of their husbands, pressing on the Chinese 
Government to unconditionally release them and, in the case of one, to 
account for his whereabouts. Perhaps just as importantly, they urged me 
that I press our own State Department to prioritize these cases 
diplomatically in the hope that these families can be reunited in the 
not-too-distant future.
  I come here today to urge our now new Secretary of State, Mr. 
Tillerson, to prioritize the release of these men in his diplomatic 
engagement with China. In the coming weeks, I also expect that we will 
have a chance to hear from the President's nominee to be U.S. 
Ambassador to China, Governor Branstad of Iowa. When he comes before 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing, I 
will bring up these cases and others and urge him to make their freedom 
a priority of his work if confirmed.
  Jiang Tianyong is a 45-year-old lawyer. He was disbarred by the 
Chinese Government because of his vigorous human rights advocacy, 
including his representation of blind legal advocate Chen Guangcheng, 
fellow rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, Falun Gong practitioners, and other 
human rights cases. Despite the risks of this work, he has been 
steadfast in his support of the families and of their right to lawyers 
and legal advocates caught up in China's sweeping nationwide crackdown 
on the legal community in July of 2015, which ensnared roughly 250 
lawyers and advocates.
  Consistent with a spate of recent media stories, Jiang's wife 
indicated that his family and friends lost contact with him in late 
November of last year. That is when a Chinese state-controlled 
newspaper reported he had been detained for a series of trumped-up 
charges.
  His wife has received no formal confirmation of his precise 
whereabouts, and, to date, he has been denied access to a lawyer of his 
choosing. Even more troubling is that this is entirely legal under 
China's laws, even though it violates all international norms of 
justice. Under China's own laws, authorities may hold him, or anyone, 
for up to 6 months without informing his family where he is held and 
without allowing him to access a lawyer, conditions that the United 
Nations Committee Against Torture has found place ``detainees at a 
high-risk of torture.'' Indeed, reports over the past months about four 
other human rights lawyers provide detailed information about the 
Chinese authorities' use of torture to extract ``confessions'' and 
impose unbearable psychological pressure.

  All of these realities underscore that China remains a country of 
rule by law. Congressmen Chris Smith of New Jersey and I cochair the 
Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which found in our 2016 
annual report that ``the Chinese Communist Party has continued to 
reject the notion that the rule of law should supercede the Party's 
role in guiding the functions of the State.'' As such, lawyers, 
advocates, dissidents and others often find themselves in the party's 
crosshairs, persecuted under the law, rather than protected by it, and 
they have no recourse of justice.
  A second Chinese individual I want to highlight today is lawyer Tang 
Jingling, who has also been disbarred for his rights advocacy. He first 
gained prominence as a lawyer working on cases related to village 
compensation, corruption, and by representing activists. In January of 
last year, he was convicted of ``inciting subversion of state power.'' 
That is the charge, and he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was 
first detained in May 2014 on suspicion of ``picking quarrels and 
provoking troubles.'' Just imagine that. Picking quarrels and provoking 
troubles is a crime in China. This happened, by the way, during the 
lead up to the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, when 
the Chinese Government worked desperately to wipe out any discussion or 
memory of this historically brutal crackdown. In reality, all Tang and 
other activists did was participate in a nonviolent disobedience 
movement seeking legal and social reform in China.
  Following his conviction, Tang eloquently wrote:

       Inside the grand edifice of the court, we can see stately 
     and ornate furnishings and decorations, and we can see the 
     government employees in dignified attire. But we cannot see 
     the law and we can definitely not see justice.

  He continues, movingly, speaking of the faith that has sustained him 
in the midst of injustice:

       The Holy Bible has a passage that reads: ``Blessed are 
     those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake.'' Today, 
     we have been pronounced guilty, thrown in prison, separated 
     from our families, and have endured humiliation and 
     difficulties--and I am far from being able to convince and 
     prove to others how these tribulations could have become my 
     blessings. But God's will is inevitably difficult to 
     understand. I often pray and ask him to give me more 
     strength, so that I may persevere until the moment of 
     revelation. I dare say, in 2011, while in a secret jail, and 
     now in detention, almost every day I have passed has been 
     calm and fulfilling. I have never lost my direction.

  The courage and conviction of these men should be an inspiration to 
us all--an inspiration that should propel us to act. I would add a 
reminder again of how blessed and fortunate we are to live by the grace 
of God in a nation where we have the freedom to speak, to object, to 
state our views without fear of the circumstances and the consequences 
that these brave men now face. The Chinese people who yearn for the 
protection of their most basic human rights and bravely stand with 
their fellow marginalized countrymen are China's greatest asset--not 
its biggest threat, as the government of the Communist Party wrongly 
believes. Any government which views its own people with such fear and 
hostility will, as has often been said, find itself on the wrong side 
of history.
  So I hope more of my colleagues in this body, in the House, and 
especially in the administration will join their voices in support of 
these political prisoners and all who languish in jails, prisons, and 
gulags simply because

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they want a better life, because they want a say in their future and 
have bravely made these aspirations clear.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.