[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 599 Engrossed in House (EH)]
H. Res. 599
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
May 28, 2014.
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 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.
Attest:
Clerk.