[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 12, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3952-S3953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Calling for the Release of Liu Xiaobo

  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I stand here today on behalf of a hero of 
freedom and democracy in the People's Republic of China. Liu Xiaobo and 
his wife Liu Xia are the faces of liberty in China. They have 
sacrificed comfort and normalcy to chart a path toward political 
liberalization. For that, they have been detained, imprisoned, and 
abused.
  In 2008, Liu Xiaobo coauthored ``Charter 08,'' a manifesto that 
shined a light on the Communist Party of China and its totalitarian 
abuse of power. Though many brave souls signed their names and their 
fates to that document, Dr. Liu's name was at the very top. For this 
reason, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He also received charges of 
``inciting subversion of state power'' and an 11-year prison sentence. 
It is impossible to neglect the stark irony: a man dedicated to 
nonviolence, imprisoned for promoting peace.
  Motivating Dr. Liu's tremendous courage and self-sacrifice was a 
determination to remember what the People's Republic of China 
desperately wants the world to forget: Tiananmen Square. A poet, 
author, and political scientist, Dr. Liu was, in 1989, a visiting 
scholar at Columbia University, but when the pro-democracy protests 
broke out in Beijing in June of that year, he raced back to China to 
support them. He staged a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in the 
midst of the historic student protests and insisted that they would 
remain nonviolent in the faces of the tanks, which the Chinese military 
deployed to smash them.
  In 1996, the party subjected him to 3 years of ``reeducation through 
labor'' for continuing to question China's one-party system.
  In 2008, on the eve of the 100-year anniversary of China's first 
Constitution and the 30-year anniversary of Beijing's Democracy Wall 
movement, Dr. Liu dedicated his work on ``Charter 08'' to the martyrs 
at Tiananmen Square.
  Today, 8 years into his unjust imprisonment, Dr. Liu needs our help 
more than ever. Last month, it was revealed that Dr. Liu has contracted 
an aggressive, late stage form of liver cancer. Although PRC 
authorities ``released'' him ``on medical parole,'' both Liu Xiaobo and 
Liu Xia linger without freedom. Even worse, Liu Xiaobo is dying.

[[Page S3953]]

His condition is critical, and we are running out of time to act on his 
behalf.
  Although Chinese authorities compelled the Lius to sign an affidavit 
allegedly attesting to their satisfaction with the medical care they 
have received in China and their wish to remain there, Liu Xia has 
communicated to their attorney their desire to spend Liu Xiaobo's final 
days in America. PRC doctors insisted that Dr. Liu was too ill to 
travel, but medical experts from the United States and Germany--one of 
them being Dr. Joseph Herman of the MD Anderson Cancer Center of the 
University of Texas--visited Dr. Liu and attested to the contrary. 
Issuing a joint statement, they agreed that Dr. Liu ``can be safely 
transported with appropriate medical evacuation care and support.'' 
They then issued this stark warning: ``However, the medical evacuation 
would have to take place as quickly as possible.''
  The urgency of this situation goes beyond Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xia's 
livelihood is inextricably linked to the ability of the two of them to 
leave China. Due to his imprisonment, Liu Xiaobo has been unable to 
receive his $1.5 million in prize money from the Norwegian Nobel 
Committee. The holdup of transferring the funds is merely routine: a 
signed form from Dr. Liu and an open bank account with his name on it. 
But China has prevented these technical steps from progressing. If Liu 
Xiaobo dies without receiving this account, Liu Xia will be left 
destitute with no money. I shudder to think what a life would hold for 
the wife of China's boldest political prisoner.
  Only one man stands between a dying man's wish and his wife's 
livelihood and freedom: Xi Jinping. Although no one action can undo the 
turmoil that the Lius have suffered over the past 28 years, it is not 
too late to do the right thing and to allow this man and his wife to 
spend their last days together according to their wishes.
  It wouldn't be the first time that Xi has made a similar decision. 
Earlier this year, he agreed, after consultations with the Trump 
administration, to release an imprisoned Houstonian, Sandy Phan-Gillis, 
who was incarcerated on false charges. Although nothing could bring 
back the 2 years of separation from her family, she and her family are 
now reunited--something I spent considerable time urging and 
encouraging and was grateful to see come to pass.
  Lest Xi forget, even Kim Jong Un, the dictator in North Korea, 
allowed Otto Warmbier, a young American college student from Ohio--in 
the prime of his life before torture and abuse left him in a coma--to 
return home for his final hours. Surely, Xi can show the same degree of 
humanity shown by Kim Jong Un.
  Indeed, toward that end, the bill that I have introduced numerous 
times to rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in honor of 
Liu Xiaobo is an instrument of leverage that can help produce his 
freedom. In 2015, I came to this floor and asked on three separate 
occasions for unanimous consent to pass my bill to rename the street in 
front of the Chinese Embassy after Liu Xiaobo. Over and over again, 
sadly, Democratic Senators stood up and objected, stymieing the effort. 
Each time I advocated on behalf of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia, my 
colleagues expressed procedural concerns: This is counterproductive. 
Doing so will only antagonize China.
  Well, some of us are less concerned about antagonizing Chinese 
Communist dictators.
  My fellow Senators assured me that they have negotiated the release 
of many political prisoners behind the scenes. Well, that is wonderful, 
and I encourage them to do so now in the few days and weeks Liu Xiaobo 
has ahead.
  Even so, despite repeated Democratic objections--repeated Democratic 
obstructionism--ultimately, the U.S. Senate was able to pass my bill by 
voice vote in the 114th Congress, and the reason at the time was 
evident: China's stubbornness--wrongly imprisoning a Nobel Peace 
laureate--required public action to force the issue. The end goal 
should be clear. It is not merely to rename a street, but rather to use 
the action to shine light on the Lius and to pressure the PRC to do the 
right thing.
  No Member can explain the success of this tactic better than my good 
friend Senator Grassley, the senior Senator from Iowa, who led a very 
similar effort in 1984 to rename the street in front of the Soviet 
Embassy after Andrei Sakharov, the famed Soviet dissident. Senator 
Grassley led that effort under Ronald Reagan, and when the street was 
renamed, it meant anytime a Soviet had to write to their Embassy, they 
had to write Sakharov's name. It meant anytime you had to pick up the 
phone and call the Embassy and say ``Where exactly do I find this 
Embassy?'' they had to address and highlight the dissident.
  For the PRC, they do not want to highlight Liu Xiaobo because he is a 
powerful voice for freedom and against tyranny. Just as it worked 
against the Soviet Union, as Reagan demonstrated, public shaming, 
shining light, telling the truth can bring down the machinery of 
oppression. So, too, can public shaming--shining light--secure Dr. 
Liu's freedom.
  As we stand here today, we don't know if Xi is going to allow Dr. Liu 
to come to freedom, to live out his last days in peace, and to receive 
the Nobel Peace Prize that he was so justly awarded. If Xi does the 
right thing, we can all commend the action. But if not, I am announcing 
my intention to continue to press this bill, to seek its passage again 
in this Congress, just as the Senate passed it in the prior Congress. I 
intend to press forward and seek passage of this bill.
  If Dr. Liu is not released--if he dies in China, still under their 
oppression--I intend to continue to fight until the day when the street 
is named in front of the Embassy and the Chinese Communists can bow 
their heads in shame at their injustice. If they don't want to be 
publicly shamed, there is an easy path: Don't commit shameful acts. 
Truth has power. Sunshine and light have power.
  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--Republicans and 
Democrats: If there is an issue that should unite us all, it is that a 
Nobel Peace laureate speaking out for peace and democracy should not be 
wrongly imprisoned in Communist China. That should bring us together--
and the full force of the United States.
  I commend President Trump for leading on this issue, and I am hopeful 
that China will see its way to doing the right thing.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.