Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, on October 15, 2015, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy released the following statement marking the 5-year anniversary of the arrest of Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo:

This week marks the five-year anniversary that Liu Xia was placed under house arrest in China. She has never been charged with a crime and remains confined to her apartment because her husband, respected democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

Over the past five years, Liu Xia's health has sharply deteriorated. She suffers from anxiety, depression, severe back pain and had a heart attack last year. Her repeated requests to leave the country for medical treatment have been denied.

We urgently request the Chinese government allow Liu Xia to seek medical treatment abroad and release Liu Xiaobo, the world's only jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Such action would be a welcome humanitarian gesture.

I could not agree more with the very wise sentiments expressed by Senator Feinstein and Senator Leahy. That is exactly right. The United States should speak with one voice in support of human rights and against the disgrace that China has jailed this Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

My resolution, following in the tradition of legislation that renamed the street in front of the Soviet Embassy in honor of the heroic Russian dissident and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov in 1984, would do the same, it would rename the street in front of the People's Republic of China Embassy to be ``Liu Xiaobo Plaza'' after the equally heroic Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate who had been brutally imprisoned by the PRC since 2009 for peacefully advocating for basic political freedom.

I would note that the original legislation naming the street in front of the Soviet Embassy in honor of Mr. Sakharov was introduced by my colleague the senior Senator from Iowa who is on the floor with me today to support me in this request.

As I noted when I first asked unanimous consent for this legislation on September 24 on the eve of President Xi's visit to Washington, I, for one, think as Americans we should not be troubled by embarrassing Communist oppressors, and this issue is not abstract to me.

My family, like Dr. Liu, has been imprisoned by repressive regimes. My father as a teenager was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba. He had his nose broken. He had his teeth shattered. He lay in the blood and grime of a prison cell.

In Cuba, my aunt--my Tia Sonia--was a few years later imprisoned and tortured by Castro--my father by Batista, my aunt by Castro--imprisoned and tortured by an oppressive Communist regime.

The United States has a long history of standing with dissidents and speaking out for human rights. When this body acted to rename the street in front of the Soviet Embassy ``Sakharov Plaza,'' that was a powerful statement that helped bring condemnation of the world on the Soviet Union's repressive human rights record. We should show the same bipartisan unanimity with regard to Communist China, standing together with a wrongfully imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate. We should say to the wrongfully imprisoned dissidents across the world: America hears you and we stand with you.

Some years ago I visited with Natan Sharansky in Jerusalem. He described how the prisoners in the Soviet gulag would pass notes from cell to cell: Did you hear what President Reagan said? Evil empire, ash heap of history, tear down this wall.

What this body does makes a difference. What this country does makes a difference, and we should not forget our core values.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 224; I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

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Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, I intend to continue pressing this resolution because I believe we have a moral imperative to speak for freedom. It is one thing to put out press releases, it is another thing to act. I agree with every word in the press release that was issued by Senator Feinstein and Senator Leahy, and my request is simply to put action to those words.

I tell you, when I visit with Chinese Americans in my State of Texas, I don't want to have to look them in the eyes and tell them I stood with the Chinese Communist Government, the oppressors, instead of standing with Dr. Liu, instead of standing with a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, for fear of embarrassing their oppressors.

There are few things more powerful than embarrassment, than public sunshine. When Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate and said ``Tear down this wall,'' he didn't listen to the voice of timidity say: Now that is going to embarrass the Soviets.

I would note in the White House that the staffers repeatedly crossed out that line of his speech. They said: No, no, no, no, no. That will upset the Soviets. That will set us back diplomatically--the exact same argument, sadly, the senior Senator from California just presented. And each time President Reagan wrote that line back in with his own hand, explaining to those staffers: You don't understand, that is the entire point of giving the speech. That is why I am there because when we speak the truth, the truth has power.

This body--Democratic Senators in this body and Republican Senators in this body--should not be aiding and abetting the oppression of the Chinese Government. We should be standing and speaking for truth and for freedom, and we should be following the pattern that was successfully demonstrated by Senator Grassley in introducing the resolution naming ``Sakharov Plaza'' in front of the Soviet Embassy.

With that, I yield to my colleague, the senior Senator from Iowa.

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