[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 216 (Wednesday, December 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9192-S9193]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Chinese Political Prisoners

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, in 1948, the world came together to 
adopt the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights to declare with 
one voice that every single person on Earth is ``born free and equal in 
dignity and rights.'' They declared that ``no one shall be subjected to 
arbitrary arrest, detention or exile''; that ``everyone has the right 
to freedom of thought'' and everyone has a right to ``freedom of 
opinion and expression.''
  This is Yu Wensheng, a human rights lawyer based in Beijing. His 
rights are being denied to him because he is arbitrarily detained after 
being arrested for exercising freedom of expression and freedom of 
opinion.
  Yu has a history of ruffling feathers in Beijing. He is known for 
criticizing the Communist Party, for supporting the ``Yellow Umbrella'' 
movement for rights in Hong Kong, and for taking on politically 
sensitive cases. Beijing has retaliated by destroying his legal career 
and making it impossible for him to practice law.
  Yu Wensheng has been in Chinese custody since January of 2018 because 
he dared to publish an open letter calling for political reforms, such 
as holding fair elections.
  The day after he published that letter calling for fair elections, 
law enforcement officers, including police and armored vehicles, 
confronted him while he was walking his son to school and forced him 
into a police vehicle on suspicion of ``picking quarrels and provoking 
troubles.'' Police had no regard for his son's safety at that moment. 
Authorities later added the charge of ``inciting subversion,'' a charge 
often used against human rights advocates and typically carrying a 
sentence of up to 5 years.
  Two years would go by before Yu was allowed to speak to his wife; 2 
years before he was allowed to speak to his son; 2 years before he was 
allowed to meet with his defense lawyers. During those 2 years, he was 
secretly tried and convicted. In June of 2020, he was sentenced to 4 
years in prison--all without any defense lawyers present, without his 
family being even informed.
  He suffered greatly during this incarceration. He was beaten up by a 
group of inmates and sustained injuries to his head. His right hand 
suffered nerve damage--damage that occurred in a previous detention--
and is now shaking so violently, he can barely use it. He has had to 
learn to write with his left hand.
  His appeals have been denied. He was sent to serve his sentence in a 
prison 600 miles away from Beijing despite repeated requests from his 
wife that he serve out his sentence closer to home so his family could 
visit.
  That type of action is the exact opposite of the U.N. Declaration of 
Human Rights, that declaration that no one should be subjected to 
arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile. This man was subjected to 
arbitrary arrest, detention, and exile simply for expressing the 
opinion that there should be fair elections. He is not alone.
  Today, I will also highlight a Chinese journalist. Her name is Haze 
Fan. She worked in Beijing for Bloomberg, covering global business 
issues. Before

[[Page S9193]]

working with Bloomberg in 2017, she worked for other major 
international outlets, household names like Reuters, CNBC, CBS, and Al 
Jazeera.
  On December 7, 2020, just over a year ago, Ms. Fan was being escorted 
from her apartment by security officials. She was detained on suspicion 
of endangering China's national security, although a year later, the 
investigation into Ms. Fan is still ongoing, with no details of what 
she is accused of or even where she is held. She was a journalist, and 
a message is being sent.
  Certainly, this is not consistent with the U.N. Declaration of Human 
Rights that says that everyone has the right to freedom of thought and 
to freedom of opinion and expression because for being a journalist, 
she is being detained.
  As I stand here at this moment, 127 journalists like Haze Fan are 
detained in China, according to the statistics compiled by Reporters 
Without Borders. It is no wonder that China is at the very bottom of 
Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, right there with 
North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Eritrea.
  This is what is happening in a country that just 7 weeks from now 
will be hosting the Olympic Games--Games meant to be a celebration of 
camaraderie, physical achievement, and lifting up the human spirit. But 
it is Yu Wensheng and Haze Fan and all others like them detained by the 
Chinese Government for demanding the recognition that all are ``born 
free and equal in dignity and rights'' who deserve to have their 
spirits lifted up. They deserve to know where the world stands. Does 
the world stand with them?
  Now, the United States and the United Kingdom, joined by Canada and 
joined by Australia--they have declared diplomatic boycotts of 
February's Games. I am very proud that the Government of the United 
States has declared this boycott. They said that they will not join the 
fanfare of the Games, helping China to disguise the egregious human 
rights abuses against individuals like these; that we will not stand 
with our diplomats at those opening ceremonies when China has stripped 
the political rights of every single citizen in Hong Kong. We will not 
have our diplomats there in opening celebrations, helping China cover 
up its genocide against the Uighur people. But tonight, I am wondering 
where the rest of the free world is.
  You know, I was thinking a little bit about the history of France--
the history of France being very engaged in human rights issues. France 
stood with the United States as an ally when we fought for our freedom. 
France gifted our Nation with the symbol of freedom, the Statue of 
Liberty, whose torch is held up to the world. France authored the 
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen not in 1990 but in 
1789--one of the very first documents laying out the foundations of 
human rights, defining individual and collective rights. Where is 
France tonight--standing with the United States and Canada and 
Australia? They are not there.

  I am really disappointed to hear President Macron saying that any 
such boycott would be ``insignificant.'' Do you know what is 
significant? Going to the opening celebrations and helping China cover 
up genocide and stripping Hong Kong of political rights. It is not just 
significant and substantial, it is wrong.
  France, we call on you to continue the tradition of fighting for 
freedom, the tradition that led you to stand with us, that led you to 
send us the Statue of Liberty, that led you to craft one of the first 
documents in the world for human rights in 1789.
  The Education Minister of France argued that sport should be separate 
from political interference. When you put the Games in a nation engaged 
in genocide, you put the athletes in the middle of the worst of world 
horrors and ask them to be complicit in covering up by engaging in the 
Games as if nothing else was going on.
  You know, it was 1936 that the Olympic Games were held in Hitler's 
Germany. He was already engaged in serious human rights violations. He 
turned down those violations during the Games, and the world said: 
Germany is coming back into the family of nations. We did not as a 
world highlight his ongoing crimes at that time, which emboldened him 
to horrific acts that followed soon upon the close of those Games. That 
was a mistake, to help Hitler cover up the human rights abuses of the 
Nazis, and it is a mistake for us now to help China cover up its 
horrific human rights abuses.
  So I call on France to join us in this boycott, this diplomatic 
boycott, to say: Yes, it is too late for the Games to move. I regret 
that. I called on them to be moved. But it is not too late to strip 
away the pomp and circumstance of the opening Games. It is not too late 
to call out the serious, egregious conduct occurring in China--not some 
petty serious problem but genocide and the crushing of the entire state 
of Hong Kong, the entire entity of Hong Kong, in terms of their 
political rights.
  France, join us, as you have over time, in standing for human rights.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.