[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9086-9091]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   URGING CHINA TO RESPECT THE FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY, EXPRESSION, AND 
     RELIGION AND ALL FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree 
to the resolution (H. Res. 599) urging the Government of the People's 
Republic of China to respect the freedom of assembly, expression, and 
religion and all fundamental human rights and the rule of law for all 
its citizens and to stop censoring discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen 
Square demonstrations and their violent suppression.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 599

       Whereas on June 4, 1989, peaceful demonstrations held in 
     and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square were brutally crushed 
     by the People's Liberation Army, carrying out the orders of 
     China's Communist Party leadership;
       Whereas the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 called upon the 
     Chinese Communist Party to eliminate corruption, accelerate 
     economic and political reforms, and protect human rights, 
     particularly the freedoms of expression and assembly;
       Whereas by early May 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 people 
     joined the protests in Tiananmen Square and citizens in over 
     400 Chinese cities staged similar protests for democratic 
     reform, including not only students, but also government 
     employees, journalists, workers, police officers, members of 
     the armed forces, and other citizens;
       Whereas on May 20, 1989, martial law was declared in 
     Beijing, China, after authorities had failed to persuade 
     demonstrators to leave Tiananmen Square;
       Whereas during the late afternoon and early evening hours 
     of June 3, 1989, thousands of armed troops, supported by 
     tanks and other armor, moved into Beijing to ``clear the 
     Square'' and surrounding streets of demonstrators;
       Whereas on the night of June 3, 1989, and continuing into 
     the morning of June 4, 1989, soldiers fired into crowds, 
     inflicting high civilian casualties, killing or injuring 
     unarmed civilians;
       Whereas tanks crushed to death some protesters and 
     onlookers;
       Whereas independent observers report that hundreds, perhaps 
     thousands, were killed and wounded by the People's Liberation 
     Army soldiers and other security forces;
       Whereas 20,000 people throughout China suspected of taking 
     part in the democracy movement were reportedly arrested and 
     sentenced without trial to prison or reeducation through 
     labor, and many were reportedly tortured, with many being 
     imprisoned for decades;
       Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers is a group of relatives and 
     friends of those killed in June 1989 whose demands include 
     the right to mourn victims publicly, to call for a full and 
     public accounting of the wounded and dead, and the release of 
     those who remain imprisoned for participating in the 1989 
     protests;
       Whereas members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have faced 
     arrest, harassment, and discrimination, with the group's 
     website blocked in China and international cash donations 
     made to the group to support families of victims reportedly 
     frozen by Chinese authorities;
       Whereas the Chinese Government undertakes active measures 
     to deny its citizens the truth about the Tiananmen Square 
     Massacre, including the blocking of uncensored Internet sites 
     and weblogs, and the placement of misleading information on 
     the events of June 3, 1989, through June 4, 1989, on Internet 
     sites available in China;
       Whereas the Chinese Government continues to suppress 
     dissent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers, 
     journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, 
     members of ethnic minority rights organizations, and other 
     individuals in Xinjiang and Tibet who seek to express their 
     political or religious views or their ethnic identity in a 
     peaceful manner;
       Whereas Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain 
     peaceful advocates for human rights, religious freedom, 
     ethnic minority rights and the rule of law, and their family 
     members, such as Nobel Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife 
     Liu Xia, Gao Zhisheng, Wang Bingzhang, Peng Ming, Zhu Yufu, 
     Lobsang Tsering, Ilham Tohti, Yang Maodong (also known as Guo 
     Feixiong), Sun Desheng, Liu Yuandong, Guo Quan, Liu Xianbin, 
     Yang Rongli, Alimujiang Yimiti, Yang Tianshui, Wang Zhiwen, 
     Li Chang, Gulmira Imin, Dhondup Wangchen, and Chen Kegui, 
     nephew of blind human rights activists Chen Guangcheng;
       Whereas according to the Prisoner Database maintained by 
     the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on 
     China, the Communist Government of China continues to detain 
     over 1,300 prisoners of conscience, though the number may be 
     much higher;
       Whereas the Chinese authorities continue to maintain a 
     system of labor camps and ``black jails'' to detain peaceful 
     advocates for human rights and democratic freedoms, harasses 
     and detains human rights lawyers who take on cases deemed 
     politically sensitive, limits the number of children Chinese 
     couples may have, including through the practice of forced 
     abortions and sterilizations, restricts severely the 
     religious activity of Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan 
     Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims, conducted a 15-year campaign 
     to eradicate Falun Gong practice in China, publicly vilifies, 
     and refuses to negotiate with, the Dalai Lama over Tibetan 
     issues, and, forcibly repatriates thousands of refugees to 
     North Korea who face persecution, imprisonment, and possible 
     execution in violation of its international commitments;
       Whereas the Government of China maintains tight control of 
     speech, religion, and assembly, and has continually received 
     poor rankings focused on civil liberties and political rights 
     by nongovernmental organizations;
       Whereas the United States Commission on International 
     Religious Freedom's most recent annual report has found that 
     the ``Chinese government continues to perpetrate particularly 
     severe violations of religious freedom'', with conditions 
     ``worse now than at any time in the past decade'' for 
     religious minorities, findings which again contributed to the 
     Commission recommending that China be designated as a 
     ``country of particular concern'';
       Whereas the United States Department of State's most recent 
     human rights report on China found ``extrajudicial killings'' 
     occurred in China;
       Whereas the United States Department of State's most recent 
     human rights report on China found that the Government 
     continued to target ``for arbitrary detention or arrest'' 
     ``human rights activists, journalists . . . and former 
     political prisoners and their family members'';
       Whereas freedom of expression and assembly are fundamental 
     human rights that belong to all people, and are recognized as 
     such under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and
       Whereas a Government of China which respects the individual 
     rights of all its people would be more likely to have 
     productive economic, political, and security relations with 
     its neighbors and the United States: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) urges the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     to stop censoring information about the Tiananmen Square 
     massacre;
       (2) expresses sympathy to the families of those killed, 
     tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their participation 
     in the democracy protests of June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen 
     Square, Beijing, in the People's Republic of China;
       (3) supports all peaceful advocates for human rights and 
     the rule of law in China for their efforts to advance 
     democratic reforms and human rights during the past;
       (4) condemns the ongoing human rights abuses and 
     persecution by the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China and its efforts to quell peaceful political dissent, 
     censor the Internet, suppress ethnic and religious 
     minorities, limit the number of children had by Chinese 
     couples through coercion and violence, and harass and detain 
     lawyers and freedom advocates seeking the Government's 
     commitment, in law and practice, to international human 
     rights treaties and covenants to which it is a party;
       (5) calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to 
     take all appropriate steps to circumvent Chinese Internet 
     censorship and to provide information to the people of China 
     about the Tiananmen Square Massacre;
       (6) calls on the United States Government to--
       (A) make human rights, including religious freedom, a 
     priority in bilateral discussions with the Chinese 
     Government; and
       (B) instruct the United States representative at the United 
     Nations Human Rights Council to introduce a resolution 
     calling for an examination of the human rights practices of 
     the Government of the People's Republic of China;
       (7) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to--
       (A) end the harassment, detention, torture, and 
     imprisonment of Chinese citizens expressing their legitimate 
     freedom of religion, expression, and association, including 
     on the Internet;
       (B) release all remaining prisoners of conscience who 
     continue to be detained as a result of their participation in 
     the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989, especially 
     around Tiananmen Square;
       (C) end the harassment and discrimination of those involved 
     in the 1989 protests and

[[Page 9087]]

     their families, permit Chinese citizens to freely commemorate 
     and share information about Tiananmen;
       (D) allow protest participants who escaped to or are living 
     in exile in the United States and other countries, or who 
     reside outside of China because they have been 
     ``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful 
     protest activity, to return to China without risk of 
     retribution or repercussion and fully repeal any laws or 
     decrees that deny them the ability to travel to China; and
       (E) end Internet, media, and academic censorship of 
     discussions of the Tiananmen Protests and events surrounding 
     it;
       (8) calls on the Administration and Members of Congress to 
     take steps to continue to mark the events of Tiananmen 
     Square--
       (A) meeting with participants in the demonstrations, or 
     their families, who are living in the United States;
       (B) meeting with others outside of China who have been 
     ``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful 
     protest activities;
       (C) signaling support for those in China who demand an 
     independent and credible accounting of the events surrounding 
     June 4, 1989; and
       (D) supporting those advocating for accountable and 
     democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law in 
     China; and
       (9) finds that United States relations with China are more 
     likely to further improve once the Government recognizes and 
     respects the individual human rights of all its people.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida.


                             General Leave

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on this resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise in strong support of House Resolution 599. I am proud to stand 
with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith); with the Democratic 
leader, Ms. Pelosi; and their bipartisan cosponsors in urging the 
Beijing regime to respect the fundamental human rights of all Chinese 
citizens, to observe the rule of law, and to stop censoring discussions 
of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
  Twenty-five years ago, a million Chinese citizens from all walks of 
life gathered in and around Tiananmen Square to call for democracy, to 
call for reform, to call for openness.
  Similar demonstrations sprang up in more than 400 other cities around 
China, but the hopeful idealism of those Chinese patriots was met with 
tanks, with bullets and bayonets, and the so-called People's Liberation 
Army murdered a still-unknown number of the people of China. The 
Tiananmen Square massacre was the brutal start of a massive wave of 
repression against Chinese democracy advocates.
  During the past two-and-a-half decades, Mr. Speaker, much has changed 
inside China. China's economic and military power have grown 
dramatically, and its governing ideology owes less to Marx, Lenin, and 
Mao than to a state-fed nationalism, but other things have not changed.
  China remains a one-party state where a regime obsessed with 
maintaining social control commits wide-ranging human rights abuses, 
including extrajudicial killings; disappearances and illegal 
imprisonment at so-called black jails; detention of lawyers, 
journalists, and bloggers; coercive population control involving forced 
abortion and sterilization; and restriction on freedom of religion, of 
the press, and assembly.
  Repression is even harsher against disfavored minorities such as 
Tibetan Buddhists, the Muslim Uighurs, and Falun Gong practitioners.
  According to the most recent State Department Country Report on Human 
Rights, the Chinese regime ``consistently blocked access to Web sites 
it deemed controversial, especially those discussing Taiwan, the Dalai 
Lama, Tibet, underground religious and spiritual organizations, 
democracy activists, and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.''
  A quarter of a century later, why is the regime in Beijing still so 
afraid of the truth? How strong is a Communist Party that feels the 
need to harass and muzzle the aging Tiananmen mothers who lost their 
sons and daughters in 1989? In the biting words of one 76-year-old 
mother, Ms. Zhang:

       Such a great, mighty, and correct party is afraid of a 
     little old lady. They are afraid of us oldtimers because we 
     represent righteousness.

  Today, Mr. Speaker, with House Resolution 599, we stand in solidarity 
with the righteous mothers of Tiananmen, with the Ladies in White--
Damas de Blanco--in Cuba, and with all those who struggle for liberty 
and for human rights where tyrants rule. Those who have sacrificed 
their lives in pursuit of freedom are not forgotten.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume, and I rise in strong support of H. Res. 599, urging the 
Government of the People's Republic of China to respect the freedom of 
assembly, expression, religion, and all fundamental human rights of its 
citizens.

                              {time}  1645

  I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Smith for his leadership on 
this issue. I would also would like to thank Chairman Royce, Ranking 
Member Engel, and the entire Committee on Foreign Affairs for the 
bipartisan manner with which we continue to work to shed light upon the 
gross violation of human and political rights in China.
  Mr. Speaker, next week we will commemorate the 25th anniversary of 
the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, where hundreds of student 
protestors demanding political and economic reforms were murdered. 
Today the image of an unknown man standing in peaceful protest to 
government tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square is among the most iconic 
of the 20th century and continues to serve as a source of inspiration 
to political and human rights advocates around the world.
  Unfortunately, many in China will never know of this sad chapter of 
Chinese history. The Communist Party of China is determined to erase 
all memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre from national memory. The 
Chinese Government continues to block all uncensored Internet Web sites 
and blogs related to the events of June 3 and June 4, 1989, and 
willfully distributes misinformation to its people. Even today, Beijing 
continues to harass, arrest, and discriminate against the relatives and 
friends of those killed in Tiananmen Square.
  Censorship of the Tiananmen Square massacre is just the tip of the 
iceberg. Unfortunately, the Chinese Government continues to suppress 
political dissent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers, 
journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, members of 
ethnic minority rights organizations, and other individuals who seek to 
express their political or religious views or assert their ethnic 
identity.
  According to a prisoner database maintained by the United States 
Congressional Executive Commission on China, over 1,300 prisoners of 
conscience are being held at various ``black jails,'' where they are 
often tortured, forced into labor camps, or even killed.
  Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 599 condemns the Chinese Government for its 
appalling human rights record and calls for an end to the harassment, 
detention, torture, and imprisonment of Chinese citizens practicing 
their legitimate freedom of religion, expression, and association. It 
also calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors to provide the people 
of China with information about the Tiananmen Square massacre.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important and 
timely resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), chairman of the Foreign 
Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and

[[Page 9088]]

International Organizations, cochairman also of the Congressional 
Executive Commission on China, and the author of this resolution.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much 
time is left?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Florida has 16 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, it has been 25 years since 
China's Government crushed the peaceful demonstrations we remember by 
the name ``Tiananmen Square.'' The resolution before us honors the 
extraordinary sacrifice endured by hundreds of thousands of peaceful 
Chinese democracy activists who rallied for almost 2 months in Beijing 
and in over 400 other cities in China in a heroic quest for liberty and 
human rights. It has been estimated that over a million people took 
part.
  Tiananmen has also come to symbolize the brutal lengths China's 
Communist Party will go to remain in power. When the tanks rolled into 
the square on June 4, 1989, mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters, 
and China lost an idealistic generation of future leaders.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, some may prefer to look past or even 
trivialize the wanton slaughter by Chinese soldiers. The memory of the 
dead and those arrested, tortured, and exiled requires us to honor 
them, respect their noble aspirations for fundamental freedoms, and 
recommit ourselves to the struggle for freedom and human rights in 
China.
  Former President Jiang Zemin said in an interview that Tiananmen was 
``no big deal.'' But it was a very big deal that has left an enduring 
mark on Chinese society and on U.S.-China relations.
  The Government of China continues to go to astounding, even bizarre, 
lengths to censor and ban open discussion of Tiananmen. This resolution 
sends the right message: we will never forget Tiananmen, ever, 
especially so as long as the Chinese people cannot discuss it and its 
significance openly without harassment or arrest or torture.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the most enduring symbols of the Tiananmen 
demonstrations was the unveiling of a facsimile of the Statue of 
Liberty on May 30, 1989. It was a moment that thrilled freedom 
advocates around the globe. There was this enduring symbol of freedom 
facing the portrait of Mao Zedong hanging in Tiananmen Square.
  This moment was extraordinary because it showed that when the Chinese 
people are able to speak publicly and freely, they ask for greater 
freedoms, democracy, and justice. These are universal liberties that 
can be found in demonstrations for liberty worldwide. We see it in 
Cairo and Caracas, Turkey and Tunisia, Kabul and Kiev.
  There was a moment when we all believed that Tiananmen Square 
demonstrations would be a triumph of freedom and democracy. Later in 
1989, the Warsaw Pact nations started to crumble, and eventually the 
former Soviet Union fell as well, but the Communist leaders of China 
sought to cling to power through unbelievable brutality and force. They 
sent tanks and soldiers into Beijing to ``clear the square'' on the 
evening of June 3 into June 4. The beatings, the bayonetting, the 
torture and murder of students and the ubiquitous display of tanks 
turned the dream of freedom into a bloody nightmare.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1991, I was able to visit Beijing prison number 1 on 
a trip with my great friend and colleague Frank Wolf. It was a bleak 
gulag, where some 40 Tiananmen Square demonstrators were being unjustly 
detained. We saw firsthand the price paid by brave and tenacious 
individuals for peacefully petitioning their government for freedom, 
and it was not pretty. They looked like walking skeletons of Auschwitz, 
and they worked grueling hours making products, some of which ended up 
in U.S. markets.
  Mr. Speaker, for the past 25 years, the Tiananmen demonstrations have 
shaped the way the Chinese Government deals with dissent. Despite the 
country's stunning economic growth over the past two decades, Beijing's 
leaders remain terrified of their own people. China's ruling Communist 
Party would rather stifle, imprison, or even kill its own people than 
defer or embrace their demands for freedom and rights.
  President Xi Jinping's tenure as President, which started with so 
much promise of new beginnings, has instead ramped up the repression. 
China today is in a race to the bottom with the likes of North Korea.
  Last year was the worst year since the 1990s for arrests and 
imprisonment of dissidents. Over 230 people have been detained for 
their human rights advocacy, and those are the ones we know about. 
There are many, many more. In the past month leading up to the 
Tiananmen anniversary, Beijing has detained some two dozen activists 
for seeking to commemorate the anniversary, even criminalizing private 
gatherings and art installations.
  China remains, as we all know, one of the worst offenders of human 
rights overall. It remains the torture capital of the world. Religious 
freedom abuses continue with absolute impunity, and ethnic minority 
groups face repression when they peacefully seek rights of culture and 
of language.
  Hundreds of millions of women, Mr. Speaker, have been forced to abort 
their precious babies because of a draconian attempt to limit 
population growth in effect since 1979. China's one-child policy is a 
human rights disaster without precedent, and it is a demographic 
nightmare as well. Brothers and sisters in China, Mr. Speaker, are 
illegal, and the preference for having boys has led to a gender 
imbalance and a mass extermination of the girl child.
  This is not only a massive gender-based crime, Mr. Speaker, but a 
security problem as well. Experts are coming to the conclusion that 
China's unprecedented gender imbalance will lead to more crime, social 
instability, worker shortages, and even possibly war. Of course it has 
had a horrific impact on sex trafficking.
  Last year, China was rightfully demoted to a tier 3 country under the 
provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because of the 
missing girls and daughters, so those slavers are now buying and 
selling women as commodities because women don't exist relative to the 
number of males in the People's Republic of China all because of a 
cruel one child per couple policy.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, repression has not dimmed the desires of the 
Chinese people for freedom and reform. There is an inspiring drive in 
China to keep fighting for freedom under very difficult and dangerous 
lethal conditions. This drive is the most important asset in promoting 
human rights and democratization.
  When democratic change does come to China, it will come from within, 
not because of outside pressure; although that pressure needs to be 
applied, and it needs to be applied judiciously and effectively. U.S. 
policy, in both the short and long term, must be, and seem to be, 
supportive of advocates of peaceful change. We can't abscond in our 
responsibility. Lists need to be tendered every time we meet with 
Chinese leaders, whether it be the White House or any Members of 
Congress, of political prisoners.
  I believe that someday China will be free. Someday the people of 
China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights. As a nation 
of free Chinese men and women, we will honor them and they will be 
celebrated someday as heroes of Tiananmen Square and all of those who 
sacrificed so much and for so long for freedom.
  Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Pelosi), our very distinguished Democratic leader.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I 
welcome him to our group, and I appreciate his very important remarks 
as we observe the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
  As always, I am absolutely honored and pleased to join my colleagues, 
the distinguished former chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 
now chair of the subcommittee, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen.
  Mr. Wolf and Mr. Smith and I have been fighting this fight together 
for

[[Page 9089]]

decades. I thank them for their courage. We both oppose our own 
Presidents--they are Republican, I a Democrat on a Democratic 
President--on this subject. This is a bond that we have had about 
respecting the dignity and worth of every person.
  When we saw what happened in Tiananmen Square, it was almost 
unbelievable to see the Government of China turning on its own people, 
having tanks run over their children in Tiananmen Square who were 
speaking out against corruption, who were speaking out for more 
openness, for speaking out to speak out.
  I have treasured this poster in my office over the years, for 25 
years. It has been signed by every major dissident who has been able to 
leave China. Not many of them can go back. But it is the symbol that 
Mr. Chris Smith talked about of the man before the tank. It is one of 
the most iconic figures in the history of democratic freedoms in the 
world.
  However, if you were to go to China and ask young people about this 
poster--they know this picture--they know nothing about it. It has been 
censored. They don't tell people what that is. Some said: Maybe it is a 
commercial for something. I don't know what that is.
  So powerful is it that even any discussion of it in China for young 
people at the university, Peking University, which was a place where 
many of these young people came forth and said they would like to end 
corruption, expand freedom of expression. What form of government they 
will have, as Mr. Smith has said, remains to be seen and up to the 
Chinese people. The fact that they could not even talk about it without 
being run over by tanks, it was stunning. It was really remarkably 
stunning because we have really not seen anything quite like that.
  The spring of 1989, 25 years ago, a community of activists, dissident 
students, and Chinese citizens stood up for their rights in Tiananmen 
Square. People were inspired by a path of political reform advocated by 
some of China's leaders who were purged--Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.
  The people spoke out against the abuses of their government, a people 
who demanded respect, dignity, liberty, a voice. A people cried out for 
freedom, their souls yearning for a better future. They called for the 
elimination of corruption, an acceleration of economic and political 
reform, for freedom of expression and assembly. They called for a 
dialogue with China's leaders on how to make progress.
  People protested, demonstrated, marched. A military was turned 
against the people it was supposed to protect. The People's Liberation 
Army turned on the people of China. The young man, again, stood alone 
in the street bringing a line of tanks to a grinding halt.

                              {time}  1700

  You don't see it here, but the tanks turned, they turned away from 
this lone man and did not run over him for all the world to see, an 
image seared into the memory of all who saw it, a photograph 
unforgettable to anyone committed to the promise of human rights, a 
moment that then and now challenges the conscience of the world.
  We cannot have any moral authority to talk about human rights in the 
world if we ignore the violations in human rights in a big country, a 
prosperous country, an economic engine.
  I remember--and my colleagues do too--that at the time the trade 
deficit with China, with the U.S., we had a deficit of $5 billion a 
year. That was an enormous trade deficit, and we thought it would give 
us leverage to free the students who were arrested in Tiananmen Square. 
We just wanted to free them, to respond to the moms, the parents, free 
those students. Others in the Chamber had said we could use that $5 
billion at the same time to stop China from blocking U.S. exports into 
China, or stop them from transferring technology, missile technology 
and the rest, to Pakistan and beyond.
  But there were those also in the Congress and in the country--and 
actually on the Chinese payroll, because they were lobbyists, 
advocates, lawyers, and all the rest, they hired everybody--who said: 
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you can't use that $5 billion for leverage to 
free those prisoners, to stop those barriers to our trade, to stop 
their transfer of technology to countries that might then turn them 
over to rogue countries, you can't do that. But if you remain calm, 
there will be peaceful evolution and all this will be improved. In 
fact, our trade with China will grow, their freedom will increase.
  These people are still arrested, the trade deficit is no longer $5 
billion a year, it is $7 billion, but not a year--from $5 billion a 
year to $7 billion a week--and not 1 cent of it used for any leverage 
to free prisoners or to challenge the Chinese in terms of the 
violations of human rights in China and in Tibet. It is stunning. They 
own the show. That is just the way it is--$5 billion a year to $7 
billion a week. Oh, my God, progress has been made, but not by the 
American worker, but not by our economy--no, by the Chinese Government. 
It is really stunning, it is really one of, I think, the stories that 
has to be told by the U.S. to stand up for who we are and what we stand 
for.
  Twenty-five years ago, Tiananmen became synonymous with the battle 
for human rights in China--again, an iconic site for an iconic struggle 
for justice and democracy. Twenty-five years later, the spirit of 
Tiananmen endures in the hearts and minds of those continuing to 
struggle, both in China and around the world. What moral authority do 
we have to say to a small country, you cannot violate the human rights 
of your people, but we will take anything the Chinese have to dish out 
because we have a commercial interest there?
  The heroes--and we have to talk about them because the Chinese tell 
them nobody cares about you anymore--these heroes still display the 
unmatched courage required simply to speak up and speak out. I thank 
Congressman Chris Smith for bringing this resolution forward, and 
Speaker Boehner for tomorrow, this week, holding an official 
remembrance--again, it is tomorrow--to allow us to stand united with 
these heroes.
  Today, any mention of these events of June 4, 1989, is censored from 
the Chinese people. The victims and their families are imprisoned and 
persecuted by the Chinese Government, and the human rights situation in 
China and Tibet continues to deteriorate.
  Today, the Chinese people may not know the truth about Tiananmen. It 
was a long time ago. Many of the young people weren't even born yet. 
Corruption, though, they do know is rampant in the Chinese Government. 
The rule of law is not applied in a fair manner. They suffer injustices 
with no redress of grievances. Air and water pollution are making them 
unhealthy and destroying their environment. That may be something that 
gets the attention of the government.
  Mr. Wolf, thank you for your leadership, for your courage. When Mr. 
Smith talks about going to Chinese prison number 1, I know that you led 
the way there.
  Today, Ding Zilin and the Tiananmen Mothers bravely keep up their 
calls for dialogue, and their supporters worldwide join their demands 
that the Chinese Government provide an honest accounting of the 
crackdown, stop persecution of the families of the demonstrators, and 
allow the families to mourn publicly without interference.
  Today, Liu Xiaobo remains the world's only imprisoned Nobel Prize 
Peace Prize Laureate, as he and his wife, Xia, join so many others 
still languishing in prison for criticizing their government or trying 
to exercise and secure their basic human rights. We had the privilege 
of being asked by the family--some of us--to go to Norway when Liu 
Xiaobo received the Nobel Prize. As some of you may recall, there was 
an empty chair because the Chinese Government would not allow him out 
of prison to go to receive the Nobel Prize. So we joined some Members 
that were selected to be part of the delegation. Was that one of the 
great honors of our lives? I think we all agree that it was.
  We are not here today just to acknowledge history. We are here to 
learn from the memory of a dark chapter of our past and to write a 
brighter chapter of freedom and justice in the

[[Page 9090]]

future. We are here to support the Tiananmen movement. How many of 
those young people who got out of China, who came through here, told us 
their stories of courage. We cried together. They tried together to 
make sense of how they could make a difference for those people who 
were left behind.
  We are here to support the Tiananmen movement, which endures, 
inspires, and cannot be stopped. I am hopeful. I am hopeful because 
there are conversations that happened with the Chinese Government. I 
have had my own on the subject of climate change and environmental 
issues like clean air, et cetera, that are problematic in China. Maybe 
there can be some communication that can be constructive. I am hopeful 
that the visits that we have had to each other's countries to talk 
about one subject and another without getting anywhere near that taboo, 
in their view, of our talking about people or their freedom, that 
perhaps in the communication that exists in the world today that maybe 
we have reason to be hopeful.
  But with the passage of this resolution, Congress will say to the 
people of China and freedom-loving people everywhere: Your cause is our 
cause. We can never forget. We must never forget. We will never forget.
  Again, the Chinese Government likes to say the prisoners, nobody 
knows you are here, they don't remember who you are, they don't 
remember why you came here. Well, we want to give lie to that, because 
over the years we have always joined together in a strongly bipartisan 
way to come to the floor or to go to public events to say the names of 
people whom we have not heard of their fate but that their mothers want 
an accounting for. As we do this, we look forward to a day when the 
world's most populous country can be called a country where people can 
speak out, be respected, and when the Chinese Government respects its 
own people it will command much more respect then.
  Again, I thank you Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen so much for taking the 
lead to bring this to the floor; Congressman Castro for your very, very 
important remarks; to my pals Mr. Wolf and Mr. Smith, you have done so 
much, you have made such a difference. It is an honor to serve with you 
and to work on this important project together.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I reserve the balance of my time to close, Mr. 
Speaker.
  Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  With no other speakers, I would simply say that the worth of a nation 
is not measured in dollars and cents alone, by size of the military or 
armaments. As China's economy continues to grow into among the nations' 
largest, so too should its commitment to human rights, democracy, and 
transparency. We are proud to support this resolution.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I yield the remainder of 
our time to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), subcommittee 
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, whose bill will be before 
us today, cochair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and a 
tireless advocate for human rights in China.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for bringing 
the bill up. I want to thank my partner, Congressman Smith, and I want 
to thank the Democratic leader, Congresswoman Pelosi, for being there 
at every time, including the time you stood up to the Chinese 
Government at Tiananmen Square, when you were almost arrested. So I 
want to thank the Democratic leader for her help and support every time 
an issue of human rights in China has come up. Thank you very much.
  Twenty-five years ago, peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators, many of 
them students, most of them students, gathered in Tiananmen in a move 
for greater openness, transparency, and the rule of law.
  But what could have marked the beginning of a peaceful, political 
transition in China was brutally, brutally crushed by the People's 
Liberation Army. A historic moment of opportunity was, quite frankly, 
lost.
  By nearly every measure, China is today as intolerant of dissent as 
it has ever been. Just read today's New York Times where they talk 
about how they are cracking down, telling people: Do not go to 
Tiananmen.
  Like authoritarian governments before it, the Chinese Government 
remains deeply frightened. They are frightened. They are literally 
afraid of their own people. They are afraid of the spirit that animated 
that protest, namely, the yearning for basic human rights and 
fundamental freedoms.
  I first went to China in 1991 with my good friend Congressman Chris 
Smith of New Jersey. It was during this trip we visited Beijing prison 
number 1. Chinese authorities informed us--and we saw them--that 
approximately 40 Tiananmen Square protestors were in the prison. Our 
request was to see the demonstrators. They were denied, but Chinese 
authorities gave us a tour of the prison's textile and plastic shoe 
factories. We saw them making socks. These are the socks that they were 
making. The fact is there are golfers on the side, and in those days 
they didn't play golf. Tiananmen Square demonstrators were making socks 
for Americans to wear as they play golf. I took with me some of the 
socks that prisoners were making because they were coming to our 
country.
  That experience captures, in stark terms, the failure of U.S. foreign 
policy--the failure of U.S. foreign policy toward China over successive 
demonstrations, both Republican and Democrat alike. The United States 
has too often pursued a relationship that is fundamentally inconsistent 
with the most basic national values, marked by trade and unfettered 
market access at the expense of human rights, religious freedom, and 
the rule of law. President Reagan said that the words in the 
Constitution and the words in the Declaration of Independence were a 
covenant not only with the people in Philadelphia in 1776 and 1787, but 
with the people of Tiananmen and the people who want freedom all over 
the world.
  May this resolution by Congressman Smith and the approaching 
anniversary of that dark June day serve as a sobering reminder of the 
unmet yearning for basic human liberty which compels men like Liu 
Xiaobo, himself an imprisoned Nobel Laureate, won the 2010 Nobel Prize, 
was in prison, his wife was under house arrest, she couldn't even go to 
Norway to pick up the prize, and also the thousands of others whose 
names we do not know, but as Leader Pelosi said: they will be known in 
the West, someday everyone will know who they are and everyone will 
know who they are in China and we will know the name of ``tank man,'' 
because ``tank man'' that Ms. Pelosi talked about has done more to 
bring about freedom than anybody else, and we will know their names.
  I pray for the day that the Chinese Government--the party and system 
responsible for the crackdown in Tiananmen and responsible for the 
continued repression--will be relegated to the ``ash heap of history.'' 
They will be relegated to the ash heap of history. I believe that will 
come very soon. I believe it will come in my lifetime, particularly if 
the Democratic aspirations of the Chinese people can find a champion--
if they can find a champion in the United States of America.
  With that, I thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for bringing this bill up. I 
thank Mr. Smith for this resolution and all the effort that he has 
done. I want to again thank Democratic Leader Pelosi for her leadership 
in fighting on these issues of human rights and religious freedom.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support for this 
resolution, which I join as an original cosponsor with my good friends 
and colleagues, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) and Democratic Leader 
Nancy Pelosi (CA). I cannot express strongly enough my admiration and 
respect for their leadership on protecting and promoting human rights 
in China, and their commitment to remembering, commemorating and 
educating others on the events that took place in Tiananmen Square 
twenty-five years ago.

[[Page 9091]]

  Mr. Speaker, thousands of citizens brutally murdered. Students shot 
down by their own government. Tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square to 
ruthlessly repress the spark of hope ignited in the hearts of thousands 
of people. On June 4th, a massacre ended the weeks of student protest 
and civil society actions that sparked hope for change and good 
governance, hope for greater inclusion and democracy.
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, it has been 25 years since Tiananmen Square--and 
China hopes that we've forgotten.
  But we have not forgotten. We have not forgotten Tiananmen Square, 
nor have we forgotten all the brave Chinese citizens who every day 
attempt to exercise the basic rights promised to them under the Chinese 
Constitution. The right to speak out and to bring grave matters to the 
attention of their government. Chinese citizens and their legal 
advocates who have tried to bring issues like government corruption, 
corporate exploitation of workers, unsafe working conditions, 
inadequate housing, agricultural mismanagement--so many find themselves 
the targets of government repression, legal reprisal, harassment, house 
arrest and even long and brutal imprisonment.
  They deserve the right to speak out and engage in intellectual and 
public debate about what constitutes fundamental human rights and 
respect, what constitutes the freedom to think and worship as one 
chooses, what constitutes respect for the ostensible cultural diversity 
of China when faced with the reality of brutal cultural repression in 
Tibet and Xinjiang.
  There are so many past and current heroes and heroines in China who 
have dared to think, write, speak and act freely in defiance of 
government control, censorship and mythology. We remember all of them 
today, past and present, as we debate this resolution and recall the 
events of 25 years ago.
  We stand with you, today and always. I urge my colleagues to support 
H. Res. 599.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 599.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

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