Recognizing the 17th Anniversary of the Massacre in Tiananmen Square

RECOGNIZING THE 17TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MASSACRE IN TIANANMEN SQUARE

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that every one of us remembers the events that occurred in Tiananmen Square on June 3 and June 4, 1989. We may be hazy on the dates, but the images are as fresh today as they were then. We all remember the Chinese version of the Statue of Liberty being erected by thousands of peaceful, well-behaved demonstrators, mostly students.

We remember peaceful protests in Beijing and throughout China calling for the establishment of a dialogue with the government and party leaders on democratic reforms, including freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and respect for workers' rights and the elimination of corruption by government officials.

All over the Communist world, from Berlin to Beijing, there was a tremendous outpouring of hope that year, hope that freedom and democracy would soon triumph. Exhausted, obsolete, and morally bankrupt Communist regimes were turning on the people in the last desperate effort to retain their control and the enormous privileges such control gave them and to the party elites.

Later that year, the Berlin Wall, symbol of the physical, mental, and moral prisons that held over a billion people in chains, fell. We all remember the incredible joy felt throughout the world when this happened.

Also burned for all time in our memory is the image of the lone protestor on Tiananmen Square who held up the tanks sent to crush the demonstrators. Yet we also remember that the police grabbed that heroic figure and swept him away, like so many others, to an unknown fate. Those tanks, under orders of the Communist government of China, then crushed under their treads the movement for democracy in China. The Communist government killed, tortured and imprisoned thousands for daring to question its illegal monopoly on power. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are still imprisoned and persecuted for exercising the rights guaranteed to them by their Constitution and the rules of all civilized societies. While millions in Europe now enjoy freedom, that right is still denied to Chinese people.

Right after Tiananmen Square, Mr. Speaker, Frank Wolf and I went to Beijing and visited Beijing Prison No. 1, a prison where some 40 Tiananmen Square prisoners were being held. They were like modern-day Nazi concentration camps, and these victims with their heads shaved were asking peacefully that the government allow some basic liberties that we all take for granted in the U.S. and in many other nations of the world. They were hunted down, tortured and jailed.

China declared war not only on the protestors but on history itself. The Communist government undertakes active measures to deny its citizens the truth even today about what happened in Tiananmen Square. In December of 1996, Mr. Speaker, here in Washington at the invitation of President Bill Clinton, General Chi Haotian, the defense minister of the People's Republic of China, the general who was the operational commander of the soldiers who slaughtered pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square in June 1989, said, ``Not a single person lost his life in Tiananmen Square.'' According to General Chi, the Chinese Army did nothing more violent than the ``pushing of people.''

To counter that big lie, I quickly put together and chaired a hearing of eyewitnesses to Tiananmen who definitively refuted General Chi's brazen lies, but then again, what did he care? General Chi got the red carpet treatment at the Clinton White House and full military honors. I believe he should have been charged with crimes against humanity.

Most Chinese today, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately have no accurate knowledge of what happened in Tiananmen Square. China blocks even today uncensored Internet sites and Web logs and places misleading information on Internet sites available in China, often with the collusion and cooperation of U.S. Internet companies such as Yahoo and Google. As part and parcel of its Tiananmen Square cover-up, the Communist government sentenced journalist Shi Tao to 10 years in prison, using information provided by Yahoo, for using his Yahoo e-mail account to send foreigners a copy of a Chinese Government memo warning of possible trouble during the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

We all know that torture does not stop with those who demand political freedoms. It is appropriate on this occasion to remember and seek freedom for all prisoners of conscience, all believers, democrats, and human rights activists who will one day triumph in China, but who now suffer grievously. There is ongoing aggressive repression of those who want to practice their faith as they see fit.

Matter of fact, it has gotten worse in the last few years. Falun Gong practitioners, for example, are routinely rounded up and beaten and abused, and hundreds have been tortured to death while held in captivity. Catholics loyal to the Pope and members of the Protestant house church movements are harassed, tortured and imprisoned. The Communist government of China subjects Buddhist Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs to cultural and physical genocide.

China also makes brothers and sisters illegal. China's coercive one-child-per-couple policy not only subjects millions of women to forced abortions and sterilizations; it has encouraged a massive increase in sex-selective abortions and female infanticide. The result is up to 100 million missing girls or women and one of the worst human trafficking problems now in the world. Matter of fact, it has been said by one China demographer that by the year 2020 as many as 40 million men will be looking for wives in China and will not be able to find them as a direct result of the one-child-per-couple policy.

Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Mao Hengfeng, a long-time activist to end this evil policy, was rearrested just a few days ago as part of a new crackdown on pro-democracy protests related to the Tiananmen Square anniversary. The Chinese Communists know, even if many Westerners still do not understand it, that democracy and the right to life are intrinsically connected. I held a hearing a year and a half ago on Mrs. Mao, and I continue to admire her incredible courage. Today, I pray for her and her family and will work again for her early release.

Two other prisoners, Madam Speaker, especially Dr. Yang Jianli and Dr. Wang Bingzhang, deserve special recognition as well today. They are both American permanent residents. Their families are U.S. citizens, and they have for many years peacefully worked for freedom and democracy in the People's Republic of China. In a country with thousands of prisoners, their cases are particularly egregious examples of China's human rights violations. This bill calls for their immediate release, as well as the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience.

Madam Speaker, we cannot forget these people. Had the hopes of the Tiananmen Square been realized, we would not need to pass such a resolution as we do today. The more than 25 hearings that I have held on this subject would not have been needed and many resolutions, including two more that will follow this one to make a record three resolutions on China's egregious human rights abuse being considered on the House floor today.

Alas, all of this is necessary until China agrees to observe the fundamental human rights that belong to all people and are recognized as such under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. We must not collaborate with the Chinese Communists to erase history. We must honor the memory of those who protested and did so so valiantly.

This amendment in the nature of a substitute that we offer today has been updated to more tightly focus on the denial of fundamental human rights in China symbolized by the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance our time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov