Urging China to Respect the Freedom of Assembly, Expression, and Religion and All Fundamental Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Floor Speech

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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.

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.

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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.

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