[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 123 (Monday, July 23, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5132-S5133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 587--COMMEMORATING JULY 2018 AS ``LIU XIAOBO VICTIMS 
                          OF COMMUNISM MONTH''

  Mr. CRUZ submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 587

       Whereas the communist ideology is directly responsible for 
     crimes against humanity;
       Whereas communist regimes have been directly responsible 
     for crimes against humanity, mass starvations, and the murder 
     of tens of millions of people;
       Whereas awareness of the crimes against humanity committed 
     by communist regimes on behalf of communist ideology 
     throughout the world must inform the minds of the people of 
     the United States;
       Whereas Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published ``The 
     Communist Manifesto'' in February 1848;
       Whereas ``The Communist Manifesto'' defines communism as 
     the ``abolition of private property'';
       Whereas communists, in the words of Karl Marx and Friedrich 
     Engels, ``openly declare that their ends can be attained only 
     by the forcible overthrow of all existing social 
     conditions'';
       Whereas the crimes of communists were justified by class 
     struggle theory and the principle of the dictatorship of the 
     ``proletariat'', and used terror as a method to preserve the 
     dictatorship;
       Whereas Vladimir Lenin led the October Revolution in 1918 
     that forcibly overthrew the social and political institutions 
     of Russia and resulted in the establishment of the first 
     communist government in history;
       Whereas the subsequent Red Terror that followed the October 
     Revolution claimed the lives of approximately 1,500,000 
     Russians;
       Whereas Vladimir Lenin oversaw the mass campaign of 
     violence of the October Revolution and the Red Terror with no 
     moral qualms, and asked instead: ``How can you make a 
     revolution without executions?'';
       Whereas the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (referred 
     to in this preamble as the ``USSR'') was formally established 
     in 1922;
       Whereas the USSR partnered with Adolf Hitler and Nazi 
     Germany in the 1930s, culminating in the Molotov-Ribbentrop 
     Pact of 1939;
       Whereas the USSR coordinated an invasion of eastern Poland 
     in 1939 according to the terms of a secret additional 
     protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939;
       Whereas the Red Army of the USSR and Wehrmacht of Germany 
     held a joint military parade in Brest, Poland, after which 
     occupation of the city was transferred to the Red Army;
       Whereas, during the USSR occupation of Brest, Poland, the 
     USSR arrested and deported more than 500,000 Jewish refugees, 
     many of whom died en route to Siberia;
       Whereas the USSR carried out ruthless violence against 
     religious minorities, including campaigns to suppress the 
     religious traditions and culture of the Jewish population of 
     the USSR;
       Whereas tens of thousands of Jews were killed between 1918 
     and 1920 as a result of organized pogroms during the civil 
     war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution in the USSR;
       Whereas the USSR conducted open anti-Semitic campaigns 
     aimed at completely eliminating Jewish cultural life;
       Whereas approximately 1,000,000 Jews were killed by the 
     German Einstzgruppen, or deployment groups, in USSR-occupied 
     territories during World War II;
       Whereas, under Joseph Stalin alone, more than 20,000,000 
     deaths occurred in the USSR as a result of executions, Gulag 
     camps, and famine;
       Whereas, during the Great Purge in the USSR, approximately 
     700,000 political dissidents were executed by gunshot to the 
     back of the head;
       Whereas approximately 1,700,000 people died in the Gulag 
     camps, where prisoners ranging from political dissidents to 
     petty criminals were subjected to forced labor, extreme 
     temperatures, and harsh treatment;
       Whereas communist agricultural policies caused the Soviet 
     Famine of 1932 to 1933, which lead to the deaths of an 
     estimated 7,500,000 victims, including the Holodomor, the 
     deliberate genocidal famine of millions of Ukranians;
       Whereas the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 
     has adopted a resolution declaring the ``cruel and deliberate 
     actions and policies of the Soviet regime'' that created the 
     Holodomor were responsible for the deaths of millions of 
     people in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Russia;
       Whereas the USSR conducted a series of ethnically motivated 
     deportations under extremely harsh conditions, causing the 
     deaths of several hundred thousand victims;
       Whereas the USSR funded communist revolutions around the 
     world and trained insurgent forces to topple existing 
     governments, including those in Mongolia, Romania, Vietnam, 
     Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, North Korea, and China;
       Whereas agents associated with the USSR entered the 
     Mongolian People's Republic to engineer the Mongolian Great 
     Terror, in which approximately 35,000 people were executed, 
     including approximately 18,000 Buddhist lamas;
       Whereas the Socialist Republic of Romania, a Soviet-backed, 
     communist regime, committed massive human rights violations, 
     killing or persecuting as many as 2,000,000 people between 
     1945 and 1989;
       Whereas the USSR recognized the independence of North 
     Vietnam, legitimizing the insurgency of Ho Chi Minh against 
     France, as a means of fighting against the United States;
       Whereas, during the Vietnam War, communist North Vietnam 
     caused the deaths of approximately 58,220 Americans;
       Whereas nearly 365,000 Vietnamese civilians are estimated 
     to have died as a result of the Vietnam War, including in the 
     horrific massacre by North Vietnam at Hue, Vietnam;
       Whereas, after the Vietnam War, the Communist Party of 
     Vietnam is estimated to have caused the deaths of 
     approximately 430,000 people through executions, 
     deportations, and causing people to flee persecution, many of 
     whom were lost at sea;
       Whereas the Government of Vietnam continues to suppress the 
     basic human and civil rights of its citizens, including 
     freedom of speech, the press, association, and religion;
       Whereas human rights activists and bloggers in Vietnam face 
     harassment, intimidation, physical assault, and imprisonment 
     at the hands of the Government of Vietnam;
       Whereas the deaths of approximately 85,000 people during 
     and after the Laotian Civil War are attributable to the 
     incursions of communist North Vietnam;
       Whereas the USSR and North Vietnam helped install the 
     communist Lao People's Revolutionary Party (referred to in 
     this preamble as the ``LPRP'') as the sole political party of 
     Laos;
       Whereas the LPRP has been accused of committing genocide 
     against the Hmong people, with up to 100,000 people killed 
     out of a population of 400,000;
       Whereas the LPRP still restricts many of the civil and 
     political rights of its citizens, including freedom of 
     speech, association, religion, and assembly;
       Whereas the USSR and North Vietnam supported the Communist 
     Party of Kampuchea (referred to in this preamble as the 
     ``Khmer Rouge'') in overthrowing the government of the King 
     of Cambodia;
       Whereas, under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge 
     carried out the Cambodian genocide, which caused the deaths 
     of a \1/4\ of the population of Cambodia in only 4 years;

[[Page S5133]]

       Whereas the Khmer Rouge tortured and executed as many as 
     17,000 individuals in the S-21 jail in Phnom Penh, Cambodia;
       Whereas the Killing Fields were sites in Cambodia where 
     many Cambodians were killed and left in mass graves by the 
     Khmer Rouge;
       Whereas experts estimate that the remains of more than 
     1,300,000 victims of execution are buried at the Killing 
     Fields in Cambodia, representing only 60 percent of the full 
     death toll of the Cambodian genocide;
       Whereas the Khmer Rouge brutally tortured and executed 
     Stuart Glass of Canada, John Dewhirst of Great Britain, and 
     Kerry Hamill of New Zealand after their boat strayed into 
     Cambodian waters in 1978;
       Whereas the USSR lent the newly established communist 
     regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba economic and diplomatic 
     support to undermine the influence of the United States in 
     the Western Hemisphere;
       Whereas the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, ordered the 
     executions of 582 supporters of the former Cuban government 
     in 1959 following the overthrow of former President Fulgencio 
     Batista;
       Whereas, under the authority of President Castro, between 
     4,000 and 17,000 individuals were executed by the infamous 
     firing squads of the Cuban Communist Party;
       Whereas, in the 1960s and 1970s, homosexuals, clergy, and 
     others who posed a threat to the regime of President Castro 
     were rounded up and sent to labor camps for re-education;
       Whereas President Castro acknowledged holding up to 15,000 
     political prisoners in 1964;
       Whereas, under President Castro, the Cuban Communist Party 
     refused access to Cuba to international monitors such as the 
     International Committee of the Red Cross and Human Rights 
     Watch;
       Whereas the Government of Cuba continues to heavily censor 
     all media;
       Whereas the Government of Cuba continues to deny basic 
     human rights, including freedom of expression, religion, 
     association, and assembly;
       Whereas the USSR lent diplomatic and military support to 
     the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and its ruling 
     party, the communist Worker's Party of Korea (referred to in 
     this preamble as the ``WPK''), shortly after the country was 
     founded on September 9, 1948;
       Whereas, during the Korean War, the WPK caused the deaths 
     of 36,914 Americans;
       Whereas the WPK caused the deaths of an estimated 1,700,000 
     people including through execution, forced labor, starvation, 
     and Gulags;
       Whereas the WPK continues to restrict all civil and 
     political liberties of its citizens;
       Whereas the WPK prohibits political opposition, independent 
     media, civil society, and trade unions;
       Whereas the WPK currently incarcerates an estimated 200,000 
     political prisoners;
       Whereas the WPK uses forced labor, physical abuse, and 
     execution as tactics of fear to maintain obedience and 
     control;
       Whereas the WPK fails to provide stable support for the 
     rights of minority groups, including women, children, people 
     with disabilities, and prisoners;
       Whereas the USSR financed the establishment of the Chinese 
     Soviet Republic in 1931, an independent government within the 
     Jiangxi province of China, where Mao Zedong began his 
     protracted revolution against the Kuomintang;
       Whereas Mao Zedong and the Chinese Red Army conquered the 
     Kuomintang and established the People's Republic of China on 
     October 1, 1949;
       Whereas Mao Zedong orchestrated the deaths of more than 
     78,000,000 men, women, and children over the course of 3 
     decades from starvation, forced labor, torture, public 
     execution, and warfare;
       Whereas Mao Zedong directed the cultural genocide of the 
     Tibetans, brutally executing approximately 92,000 people, who 
     largely consisted of educated people and leaders of the 
     Tibetan population;
       Whereas Mao Zedong justified bloodshed as a necessity for 
     communist revolution, saying: ``A revolution is not a dinner 
     party, nor a literary composition, nor painting nor 
     embroidering. It cannot be done so delicately, so leisurely, 
     so gentlemanly and gently, kindly, politely and modestly. 
     Revolution is insurrection, the violent action of one class 
     overthrowing the power of another.'';
       Whereas the Communist Party of China faced its first 
     existential threat to power in June 1989, the same year the 
     Berlin Wall collapsed, when students and professors 
     peacefully demonstrated for democracy at Tiananmen Square in 
     Beijing, China;
       Whereas hundreds of the protesters at Tiananmen Square in 
     Beijing, China, lost their lives at the hands of the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China after the 
     Government sent troops and tanks to sweep the square clean;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo, a visiting lecturer at Columbia 
     University in the United States, left the United States to 
     help lead the protest at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo initiated the Tiananmen Four Gentlemen 
     Hunger Strike, which lasted 3 days;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo is credited with saving the lives of 
     many students by helping negotiate evacuation of the students 
     from Tiananmen Square;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo was detained and jailed from 1989 to 
     1991 for his role in the protest at Tiananmen Square, and 
     then jailed again in 1996 through 1999 for advocating that 
     the Government of the People's Republic of China redress its 
     wrongdoing in the student protest;
       Whereas, in 1996, Liu Xiaobo married Liu Xia, who has stood 
     bravely by his side as a partner and fellow activist;
       Whereas, on December 9, 2008, a diverse group of more than 
     300 Chinese scholars, writers, lawyers, and activists issued 
     Charter 08, a manifesto calling on the Communist Party of 
     China to abandon authoritarian rule in favor of democracy, 
     the guarantee of human rights, and the rule of law;
       Whereas Charter 08 boldly declared: ``The `New China' 
     established in 1949 is a `people's republic' in name, but in 
     reality it is a `party domain.' The ruling party monopolizes 
     all the political, economic, and social resources. It has 
     created a string of human rights disasters . . . causing tens 
     of millions of deaths, and exacting a disastrous price from 
     both the people and the country.'';
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo was one of the original drafters of 
     Charter 08 and was taken into custody just days before the 
     manifesto was released;
       Whereas, in December 2009, a court in Beijing, China, 
     sentenced Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for ``inciting 
     subversion of state power'' for his involvement in drafting 
     Charter 08;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 
     October 8, 2010, ``for his long and non-violent struggle for 
     fundamental human rights in China'';
       Whereas Liu Xia was held in extra-legal home confinement 
     from October 2010, 2 weeks after the announcement of the 
     award of the Nobel Peace Prize to her husband, to July 2018, 
     and reportedly suffered severe health problems that required 
     hospitalization;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer 
     in May 2017;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo died on July 13, 2017, while serving his 
     11-year prison sentence, and is survived by his wife Liu Xia;
       Whereas Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to freedom, not only 
     in his own country of China, but across the world;
       Whereas the Communist Party of China continues to prevent 
     Liu Hui, the brother of Liu Xia, from leaving China;
       Whereas, in different parts of the world, some totalitarian 
     regimes survive and, by continuing to cling to power, they 
     commit crimes and impose a high cost to the well-being of 
     their people; and
       Whereas the millions of victims of communism, both present 
     and past, are entitled to justice, sympathy, understanding, 
     and recognition of their suffering: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate commemorates July 2018 as ``Liu 
     Xiaobo Victims of Communism Month''.

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