[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 23570-23571]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, the Communist party is celebrating the 
fiftieth anniversary of the People's Republic of China on October 1. 
Unfortunately, many Chinese people have little reason to celebrate. 
Indeed, this is not a celebration of the Chinese people but an 
orchestrated celebration of the Communist party--a party of purges.
  From the formative decade at Yenan, where the party was 
headquartered, and Mao Tse-tung soundly crushed challenges to his 
power; to the killing of hundreds of landlords in the 1950s; to the 
anti-rightist purging of half a million people following the Hundred 
Flowers period and during the Great Leap Forward; to the Cultural 
Revolution, during which millions were murdered or died in confinement, 
to the massacre at Tiananmen Square just ten years ago--the Communist 
party has sustained its existence not by the consent of the people, but 
through the violent elimination of dissent.
  Even today, we see the party of purges in action on a daily basis. 
The Communist party is deeply engaged in a piercing campaign to silence 
the voices of faith and freedom--to purge from society, anyone they see 
as a threat to their power. The Chinese government continues to 
imprison members of the Chinese Democracy Party. In August, the 
government sentenced Liu Xianbin to thirteen years in prison on charges 
of subversion. His real crime was his desire for democracy. Another 
Democracy Party member, Mao Qingxiang, was formally arrested in 
September after being held in detention since June. He will likely 
languish in prison for ten years because of his desire to be free. I 
could go on, but some human rights groups estimate that there could be 
as many as 10,000 political prisoners suffering in Chinese prisons. The 
party is determined to purge from society, those people it finds 
unsavory.
  And the Chinese government will not tolerate people worshiping 
outside its official churches. So when it began cracking down on the 
Falun Gong meditation group, which it considers a cult, the government 
used this inexcusable action to perpetrate another--an intensified 
assault on Christians. In August, the government arrested thirty-one 
Christian house church members in Henan province. Henan province must 
be a wellspring of faith because over 230 Christians have been arrested 
there since October. Now I am concerned that eight of these House 
church leaders may face execution if they are labeled and treated as 
leaders of a cult. Let me say clearly and unequivocally that the eyes 
of the international community are watching. I hope that these peaceful 
people will be released.
  In the months leading up to this fiftieth anniversary celebration, 
everything and everyone has been swept aside to cast a glamorous light 
on the Communist party. But the reality is quite ugly. Hundreds of 
street children, homeless, and mentally and physically disabled people 
have been rounded up and forced into Custody and Repatriation centers 
across the country. They are beaten, they are given poor food in 
unsanitary conditions, and they must pay rent.
  In fact, only 500,000 people will be allowed to participate in the 
celebration in Beijing. Non-Beijing residents cannot enter the city and 
migrant workers have been sent home. They will not be able to see the 
Communist Party in all its glory, as it displays the DF-31 
intercontinental ballistic missile and other arms, nor will they see 
the tanks rolling past Tiananmen Square. And Tibetans in Lhasa, who 
certainly do not want to celebrate, are being forced to participate 
under threat of losing their pay or their pensions.
  This gilded celebration will not obscure the corrosion beneath. We 
must recognize the nature of this regime. We must never turn a blind 
eye or a deaf ear to cries of those suffering in China. We must be 
realistic when we deal with the Chinese government.
  So when Time Warner chairman Gerald Levin courts President Jiang 
Zemin even when Time Magazine's China issue is banned, when our top 
executives are silent on human rights, when we put profit over 
principle, we are shielding our eyes from the stark reality of 
persecution in China. As Ronald Reagan said, ``. . . we demean the 
valor of every person who struggles for human dignity and freedom. And 
we

[[Page 23571]]

also demean all those who have given that last full measure of 
devotion.''
  Mr. President, it is my sincere hope and desire that in the next 
fifty years, the Chinese people will truly have something to celebrate. 
I hope that they will no longer be suppressed by a regime that extracts 
dissent like weeds from a garden, but that they will be able to enjoy 
the fruits of democracy.

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