[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 23727-23728]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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         FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

 Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, the Communist party celebrated 
the fiftieth anniversary of the People's Republic of China on October 
1. Unfortunately, many Chinese people had little reason to celebrate. 
Indeed, this was not a celebration of the Chinese people but an 
orchestrated celebration of the Communist party--a party of purges.
  From the formative decade of 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 under Mao Tse-tung and Deng Xiaoping 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 under Jiang Zemin 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 were swept aside to cast a glamorous light on 
the Communist party. But the reality was quite ugly. Hundreds of street 
children, homeless, and mentally and physically disabled people were 
rounded up and forced into Custody and Repatriation centers across the 
country. There they were beaten, they were given poor food in 
unsanitary conditions, and they had to pay rent.
  In fact, only 500,000 carefully selected citizens were allowed to 
participate in the celebration in Beijing. Non-Beijing residents could 
not enter the city and migrant workers were sent home. They did not see 
the Communist Party in all its glory, as it displayed the DF-31 
intercontinental ballistic missile and other arms, nor did they see the 
tanks rolling past Tiananmen Square. And Tibetans in Lhasa, who 
certainly did not want to celebrate, were forced to participate under 
threat of losing their pay or their pensions. Mr. President, this was a 
celebration of the party, not the people.
  But this gilded celebration will not obscure the corrosion beneath. 
We must recognize the nature of this corrupt regime. We must never turn 
a blind eye or a deaf ear to cries of those suffering in China. We must 
face reality 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 also demean all those who have given that last full measure of 
devotion.''

[[Page 23728]]

  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 
a government accountable to the people. I hope that the self-
congratulatory shouts of the Communist party will be drowned out by the 
voices of a free people.

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