[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TIANANMEN 25 YEARS LATER:
LEADERS WHO WERE THERE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 30, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-185
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
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http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California
GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III,
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania Massachusetts
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
TREY RADEL, Florida--resigned 1/27/ GRACE MENG, New York
14 LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TED S. YOHO, Florida
LUKE MESSER, Indiana--5/20/14
SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin--5/
29/14
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
WITNESSES
Yang Jianli, Ph.D., president, Initiatives for China............. 9
Major Yan Xiong, USA, author..................................... 21
Ms. Chai Ling, founder, All Girls Allowed........................ 25
Mr. Zhou Fengsuo, co-founder, Humanitarian China................. 40
Mr. Chen Qinglin, activist....................................... 44
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Yang Jianli, Ph.D.: Prepared statement........................... 11
Major Yan Xiong, USA: Prepared statement......................... 23
Ms. Chai Ling: Prepared statement................................ 28
Mr. Zhou Fengsuo: Prepared statement............................. 42
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 58
Hearing minutes.................................................. 59
Yang Jianli, Ph.D.: Document 9 Communique........................ 60
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
Organizations:
Statement of Yang Jianli at 1996 hearing....................... 66
Washington Post editorial dated January 19, 2011............... 69
Statement of Pastor Bob Fu..................................... 70
Statement of Chen Qinglin...................................... 72
TIANANMEN 25 YEARS LATER:
LEADERS WHO WERE THERE
----------
FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:32 a.m., in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The hearing will come to order. Good morning to
everyone. Twenty-five years ago, the world watched as students
from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts unveiled a replica
of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square. It was an amazing
site to behold, this enduring symbol of liberty standing face
to face with the dictator Mao Zedong's portrait. It was a
moment when we all dreamed that the Tiananmen Square
demonstrations would become a triumph for freedom and
democracy. Unfortunately, China's Communist leaders sought to
hang on to power through force. They sent tanks and soldiers
into Beijing to ``clear the square'' on the evening of June 3rd
and into June 4th.
The beating, the bayoneting, the torture, and murder of
students and the ubiquitous display of tanks turned the dream
of freedom into a bloody nightmare. We have with us today five
extraordinary witnesses to this tragic scene in world history,
not just witnesses, but key players in the push for democracy
in the People's Republic of China. These individuals are
reminding us today, as they have so tenaciously since their
exile, that the events of Tiananmen Square will never fade from
memory, and they remind us of the longing for freedom that
remains within the Chinese people.
This week and next, we want to remember the extraordinary
sacrifice endured by hundreds of thousands of peaceful Chinese
democracy activists. Some may prefer, particularly in the
business community and some politicians, to look past or to
even trivialize the slaughter of innocents by Chinese soldiers,
but the memory of the dead and those arrested, those who were
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.
The Government of China continues to go to astounding
lengths to erase the memory of the Tiananmen demonstrations and
their violent suppression. The Internet is censored, citizens
holding private discussions or public commemorations are
harassed and detained, and we still have no account by the
government of those who died, those arrested, those disappeared
or those executed.
It is my promise, and I am joined by many of my
distinguished colleagues in the House and Senate, that we will
always remember, always, Tiananmen, as long as the Chinese
people especially cannot discuss its significance openly
without harassment or arrest.
When the tanks rolled down the square on June 4, 1989, all
of China suffered. Mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters,
and China lost an idealistic generation of future leaders.
China's loss from one point of view could be seen as America's
gain. Our witnesses today, exiled refugees from their native
land, have contributed mightily to the American fabric. Out of
tragedy and disillusionment they have created lives that make
America stronger. They are entrepreneurs and pastors, business
people and academics, members of the military, and civil
society leaders.
The Chinese Government may call them criminals and
hooligans, a horrible slander, but one day soon, they will be
called heroes. They already are heroes, but the people in China
will recognize that they are truly remarkable heroes. The
people testifying here today are also extraordinary people of
conscience, and are all advocates for freedom and human rights,
such as Chen Guangchang, Harry Wu, Wei Jingsheng, and a list of
people, it is like a who's who of the best and the greatest and
the most courageous the world has ever seen.
There will always be those who want to downplay human
rights in relations with China, but the people here today
remind us that the people of China suffered for freedom, they
bled for liberty and demanded justice, democracy, and an end to
widespread corruption. These demands were made 25 years ago,
they were made with a great deal of dignity and respect, and
they were treated with harshness and murder, and they still, 25
years later, can fire the imagination of the people of China.
More than ever, the U.S. needs a robust human rights
diplomacy with China. It has been lacking, sorely lacking. We
need policies that actively promote human rights, freedom of
speech, Internet freedom, and the rule of law. We must support
the advocates for peaceful change and the champions of liberty
and clearly signal our support for those seeking rights and
freedoms for all of China's citizens, not only for those
seeking to pad the economic bottom line. Such leadership is
needed now because China is in the midst of a severe crackdown
on human rights advocates and freedom of speech. Last year was
the worst year since the 1990s for arrests, imprisonment of
dissidents. At least 230 people have been detained for their
human rights advocacy on top of all the others who are
languishing in the laogai and in detention throughout the
country.
In the past month, Beijing has detained two more dozen
activists for simply seeking to commemorate the Tiananmen
anniversary in private, and China remains one of the worst
offenders of human rights overall. It remains the torture
capital of the world. I will never forget reading Manfred
Nowak's, who was U.N.'s Special Rapporteur for torture, report
on torture in China's. It was horrific. You are arrested. If
you are a dissident, you are a religious believer, you will--
not maybe--you will be tortured. Religious freedom abuses
continue with impunity, and ethnic minority groups face
repression when they peacefully seek rights to their culture
and language.
Hundreds of millions of women have been forced to abort
their precious babies because of a draconian attempt to limit
population growth. China's one-child-per-couple policy is a
demographic and human rights disaster that has no parallel in
human history. The prevalence for having boys has led to gender
imbalance and a mass extermination of baby girls. This is not
only a massive gender crime, but a security problem as well.
Experts are coming to the conclusion that China's gender
imbalance will and already is leading to crime, social
instability, worker shortages, and there has been a huge spike
in human trafficking.
I was the prime sponsor of the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act, our landmark law here in the United States to
combat sex and labor trafficking. Last year, and it should have
been done much sooner, China was put on Tier 3, labelled an
egregious violator, when it comes to human trafficking, and the
major magnet for all of that is the fact of the missing
daughters systematically exterminated since 1979, and there are
tens of millions of girls, gone, exterminated, killed because
of sex-selection abortion, and now because of that men can't
find wives, there is a huge gender imbalance, so the
traffickers have rolled into China as never before to sell
brides and to sell women as commodities, and there also is the
possibility, and we have heard testimony here at previous
committees I have chaired, where it could even lead to war
because of the instability that the one-child-per-couple policy
has bred.
Despite the country's stunning economic growth over the
past two decades, Beijing's leaders still remain terrified of
their own people. China's ruling Communist Party would rather
stifle, imprison or even kill its own people than to defer to
their demands for freedom and rights. 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 the very difficult and dangerous situations and
conditions.
As our witnesses today will surely attest, the United
States must demonstrate clearly and robustly that democratic
reforms and human rights are critical to their national
interest, to the global interest, and our own. We want to see a
more democratic China, one that respects human rights and is
governed by the rule of law because a more democratic China
will be productive and peaceful rather than a strategic and
hostile competitor.
The future also should be in China's interests, this
future, because there is a growing evidence that the most
prosperous and stable societies are those that protect
religious freedom, the freedom of speech, and the rule of law.
I believe that some day China will be free. People of China
will be able to enjoy all of their God-given human rights, and
the nation of free Chinese women and men, will honor, they will
applaud, and they will celebrate the heroes of Tiananmen Square
and those who sacrificed so much over the years, and the people
at this table, the true heroes, will be honored mightily and
forever in China because they sacrificed so much.
I would like to yield to Mr. Pittenger for comments he
might have.
Mr. Pittenger. Thank you, Chairman Smith. Thank you for
inviting me to participate in this hearing today, and I want to
personally thank you for your 30 years of dedication that I
have known you for those in their pursuit of freedoms of
conscience throughout the world. I would also like to thank the
witnesses who are here to testify before us today. Next week
will mark the 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre.
It was June 4, 1989, when the Chinese Army rolled into
Tiananmen Square in tanks and began to fire indiscriminately on
the peaceful protesters. These protesters were gathered
peacefully, seeking a more democratic China, a China that
allowed for basic human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of
expression, freedom of assembly, and to end government
corruption. Hundreds, if not thousands, were massacred for
peacefully seeking rights which should be afforded to every
person around the world.
To this day in many provinces in China, it continues to
aggressively suppress the rights of citizens, and I am
committed to continue to work with Chairman Smith and this
committee and on the Congressional-Executive Commission on
China to bring light on to these issues. I have worked for the
past 25 years with the underground Christian church. I have
been able to see firsthand the impact of what it means to allow
Christians to live freely and what they can accomplish. The
integrity, the loyalty, and the faithfulness of Christian
believers demonstrates the powerful impact that their freedom
can have on a culture, and even an economy.
Unfortunately, as Ronald Reagan once said, our Nation, too,
has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. Americans dealt
with discrimination based on heritage, gender, and political
affiliation. However, one of the reasons America was able to
eradicate slavery was the free exchange of different political
points of view. Through a very robust debate of ideas, our
Nation has become stronger, even through a Civil War, where we
lost over 600,000 lives.
The concerns I share today are in the spirit of humility as
America faces her own problems, those with drugs, with
violence, with pornography, still prevailing discrimination,
among others. My interest, though, is not to be condescending,
but to recognize how both China and the United States can and
must improve their cultures. My honesty about China is
consistent with my acknowledgment and honesty about our own
country. Again, I would like to thank the witnesses for
appearing before us today. I look forward to your testimony,
and I am again grateful to Chairman Smith for calling this
hearing.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Pittenger, thank you so very much. I would
like to now yield to my distinguished friend from Texas, vice
chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Weber.
Mr. Weber. Thank you, Chairman Smith, thank you for calling
this hearing. The spirit of courage and freedom will outlast
steel tanks and cowardice. There is probably no greater torture
than believing you have to maintain control on other human
beings by weaponry and by those kinds of cowardly acts we
witnessed in Tiananmen Square.
The totalitarian Chinese Government must not be allowed to
last. Democracy must prevail and be the order of the day. You
can count on us, especially with Chairman Smith at the helm, to
be steadfast and to be your friends in the fight for keeping
liberty and freedom on the forefront. We count on you for being
that example, having that courage, the guts, the fortitude. You
all are an inspiration to us.
Democracy will flourish, freedom will survive, because of
you and others like you. So I thank you all for being here,
thank you for your courage, your willingness to participate,
and don't ever give up. Thank you very much. I yield back, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Weber, thank you so very much. Yield to my
good friend and colleague, Mr. Stockman.
Mr. Stockman. Thank you. I can't believe it has been 25
years, quite frankly. It has gone by rather quick in a way, and
I, again, like my colleagues, thank our good friend, the
chairman, for being so steadfast in fighting with and fighting
for individuals that want freedom. Twenty-five years ago in
Tiananmen Square, they built a Statue of Liberty, and many of
my friends were excited that the Chinese people would be free,
and much to our dismay, the government hired--I believe that
this is correct--they couldn't use local military men, so they
got people from the countryside to come in, and they even said
that they used amphetamines and things to hype them up to come
in there.
I think, personally, there has needed to be a distinction
between the government and the people. The government has made
statements that United States hate the Chinese people, that we
don't respect the Chinese people. That is not true. To the
contrary, we appreciate the long history of China, we
appreciate the warm and gracious people of China. What we don't
appreciate is a small collective of people to impose their will
by force on others.
I think 25 years ago, to be quite frank with you, and my
colleagues, I think we let you down. Our response was wrong. We
didn't speak up. And it reminds me about how back in Germany
when there was another government taking over and pushing
people around, at the end of that day, they said that by the
time they came for me, there would be no one left to speak up.
I hope these hearings today will demonstrate that we are still
willing to speak up.
I heard a very compelling story about the mothers of
Tiananmen Square that lost their loved ones, and one of these
mothers said after these many years, she still has hope that
China will redirect its compassion for its own people. This is
really a story about compassion that the government needs to
have on its own people. I hope our Nation will not make the
same mistakes we made 25 years ago, and that this time we will
stand with you, both in spirit and in work, and not just in
words or on Twitter with hashtags, but in actual action, and
with that I yield back my time. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Mr. Stockman. I would
like to yield to my friend, Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Meadows. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank each of you for
being here today, and some, as they would report this as it is
another hearing, it is another hearing on Tiananmen, it is
another hearing on China. I know in my very brief tenure here,
I probably have been in at least six or seven different
hearings that talked about human rights violations in China,
specifically three or four hearings on this particular
anniversary that we are about to recognize here in just a
couple of days, and many would say, well, Chairman Smith
continues to have hearings over and over again, and what good
does it really have? What effect does it have? And yet I would
like to remind those of you that are here to testify today to
not give up hope because there was a gentleman by the name of
William Wilberforce many years ago that, day in and day out,
fought to abolish slavery, and some 17 or 18 years he would
come and he would petition his government on behalf of a blight
on our history that we know today as slavery.
And yet we also know the rest of the story, that William
Wilberforce eventually prevailed because day in and day out it
was a calling. It is the same with our chairman, it is the same
with many of us here in Congress that we will continue to fight
until human trafficking, human rights abuses, and really the
freedoms that many people not only in China but in our country
have died for, and so we have a very good reminder because we
just passed Memorial Day where we have a number of our veterans
who have fought for freedom, many of them shedding their blood
and giving the ultimate sacrifice for a people that they would
never meet, for a people that would never be able to say thank
you.
And so on behalf of them I am proud to stand with our
chairman to continue the fight in this Wilberforce effort to
make sure that this doesn't happen again, and as we see this,
the greatest way that we can diminish what happened 25 years
ago is to allow the future to be a new future where human
rights and respect for life are not only encouraged, but lifted
up, and I thank you for your boldness to be here and your
efforts, and I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Mr. Meadows. We are now
joined by chairman of the Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats
Subcommittee, Chairman Rohrabacher.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Thank you very much, and I just want to
thank you, Mr. Chairman. This man is such a heroic champion of
human rights, and he has dedicated his life. There are people
all over the world that wouldn't be alive today, and there
would be freedom movements all over the world that would have
no hope of success if it wasn't for the dynamic energy that you
have put into this here in Congress, and I am very pleased to
sit with you and actually work with you in providing, and am
grateful for your leadership.
Today we are commemorating and we are looking at what
happened 25 years ago at something that has had dramatic impact
not only to the people of China, but the entire world, and what
happened in Tiananmen Square has dramatically impacted on the
life that we live today in the United States, and of course,
the people of China.
I worked with Reagan in the White House, I was a special
assistant to the President, and I was a speech writer for
President Reagan for 7 years. Had he been President of the
United States when this happened, this would be a different
world and China would be a different place.
It is a disgrace that the United States did not make the
leadership of the Communist Party pay for the crime that they
committed against the people of China. I believe had the
President of the United States at that time, George Herbert
Walker Bush, let the leadership of the Communist Party know
that if they massacred the people in Tiananmen Square, there
would be a major price for them to pay, that massacre wouldn't
have taken place, and today there would not only be democracy
in China, but the world would be a safer, a more peaceful
place, and that--and the fact is, Mr. Chairman, the Communist
Party of China and the perpetrators of that crime have still
not paid the price.
We still permit China to basically enrich itself, the
Chinese leadership enriching themselves in suppressing the
people of China, and we, as Americans who love freedom, are not
taking a stand and making it real that are making our words
real. You know, you can talk about freedom all day long, and
there is a saying, ``Don't talk about saving the oppressed
unless you are willing to take on the oppressor,'' and we have
never been willing to do that. And Mr. Chairman, with your
leadership, maybe we can bolster that commitment around the
world so that we will take on these tin pot dictators and these
monstrous regimes like in China today. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Chairman Rohrabacher, thank you for your
comments and for your leadership. For all of us, to have a man
who helped write and was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, and
Reagan had some of the finest and most in-depth speeches of any
President that had meaning behind it. It wasn't empty calories
or words, and to have one of the men who wrote those speeches
here speaking for human rights day in and day out is such a
huge honor.
I would like to now introduce our five extraordinary
leaders who were there at Tiananmen Square, beginning first
with Dr. Yang Jianli, who is the president of Initiatives for
China, a grass-roots organization dedicated to promoting
democracy in China. A survivor of Tiananmen Square, Dr. Yang
returned to China following the completion of his academic
studies in 2002. Upon arrival he was promptly arrested and held
as a political prisoner for 5 years. Now a U.S. resident, he
continues to promote democracy in China through a variety of
avenues, including leadership roles in the Chinese Democracy
Movement, the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, and the
Interethnic-Interfaith Leadership Conference. He has received
numerous awards and recognitions for his work.
I would like to note parenthetically that back in 1996,
matter of fact, in December 1996, President Clinton unwisely
invited the Defense Minister of China, his name was Chi
Haotian, to the White House. Chi Haotian was the operational
commander of the forces that fired upon, bayoneted, and killed
and maimed so many students and democracy activists. I
protested it, as did many others. President Clinton gave Chi
Haotian a 19-gun salute at the White House. He should have sent
him to The Hague for crimes against humanity but gave him all
of these honors.
While he was here he went to the Army War College, and a
young officer asked about people dying on Tiananmen Square, and
Chi Haotian said that nobody died at Tiananmen Square. Two days
later, I put together an emergency hearing of my subcommittee.
Dr. Yang was there and bore witness, and I will never forget, I
have his very words, and without objection I will put his full
statement into this record, but he said,
``I saw many people killed on Chang'an Street. At 6
a.m. it was already light. I was on a bike, and walking
with me were some students who had retreated from the
square and returning to their schools. As we arrived at
Chang'an Street we saw four tanks coming from the
square were going west at high speed. The two tanks in
front were chasing students. They ran over bodies.
Everyone was screaming. We counted 11 bodies.''
Then he talked about a third tank that shot tear gas. They had
four or five people with machine guns. All of that he bore
witness right here. We invited Chi Haotian and the Chinese
Embassy to send anybody they would like to explain his
egregious lie that he made while here in Washington. We had an
empty chair sitting right there.
So Dr. Yang thank you for that, and I will put your full
statement in this record because past is prologue, the lies and
the deceptions continue to this day.
We will then hear from Major Yan Xiong who is a chaplain in
the United States Army. A survivor of the Tiananmen Square
massacre, Major Xiong was one of the student leaders who
initiated the democratic movement in 1989. Following the
massacre he was placed on the Chinese Government's 21 most
wanted students list. He was promptly arrested and imprisoned
for 19 months. Major Xiong was granted political asylum in the
U.S. in 1992, joined the U.S. Army in 1994, and was
commissioned as an Army chaplain in 2003.
He continues his commitment to democracy in China following
his arrival, most notably through his 3-year chairmanship of
the Party for Freedom and Democracy of China and the Second
Party Representative Conference.
We will then hear from Ms. Chai Ling, who now is the head
of a group called All Girls Allowed, and I have to say, having
known Chai Ling since she was released and remember watching
her statements as one of the student leaders, she is a modern
day Esther, speaking truth to power, especially Chinese
dictatorship.
She, again, is the founder of All Girls Allowed, an
organization dedicated to exposing human rights violations
caused by China's one-child policy and the resulting gendercide
in order to restore life, value, and dignity to women. A leader
of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student movement, she was named
one of Chinese Government's 21 most wanted students following
the massacre.
Consequently, she fled from China to Hong Kong, ultimately
seeking asylum in the U.S. She has been nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize two times for her involvement in Tiananmen Square.
Ms. Chai is also the founding president of Jenzabar, a higher
education software company, and its associated humanitarian aid
foundation.
We will then hear from Mr. Zhou Fengsuo, who is cofounder
of Humanitarian China, an organization that offers humanitarian
aid to prisoners of conscience. Another key student leader of
the 1989 democratic movement in Tiananmen Square, Mr. Zhou was
placed on the 21 most wanted students list and arrested
following the massacre. He was imprisoned for a year. After
coming to the U.S. in 1995, Mr. Zhou continued to advocate for
freedom and democracy in China. In 2000, he was the leading
plaintiff in a class action suit against Li Peng, the Premier
of China during the massacre, for crimes against humanity. Mr.
Zhou also served as the president of the Chinese Democracy
Education Foundation.
Then we will hear from Mr. Chen Qinglin, an advocate for
democracy in China. A student at the time of the Tiananmen
Square massacre, Mr. Chen was imprisoned for 6 years for
attempting to form an opposition party following the massacre.
Additionally, he was one of the first 303 signatories to that
wonderful human rights manifesto known as Charter 08, which was
created by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights
activists.
In 2010 he led the Program of Psychosocial Support for
Domestic Human Rights, a Chinese organization that provides
psychological services for Chinese human rights defenders who
have been tortured by the government. I point out
parenthetically as the sponsor of the Torture Victims Relief
Act, the current law that deals with those who have been
tortured and the PTSD that they suffer, his initiative to deal
with the scars, particularly the emotional scars of those who
bear unbelievable torture at the hands of the Chinese
dictatorship has helped many, many people get some semblance of
normality back to their lives. He lived in China until 2014
when he came to the U.S. to continue his academic pursuits.
Dr. Yang, if you could begin.
STATEMENT OF YANG JIANLI, PH.D., PRESIDENT, INITIATIVES FOR
CHINA
Mr. Yang. Mr. Chairman, thank you for this timely hearing.
As far as I can remember, this is at least the 15th hearing you
have held on human rights issues in China. Thank you very much
for your leadership, and your statements, your words, actions,
and that of other congressional leaders made clear that we have
not been fighting not alone. Thank you very much for your
leadership and for your unwavering support.
Today I will not repeat myself, my personal account of the
Tiananmen massacre. Instead I will try to provide you, Mr.
Chairman and other congressional leaders, a window through
which probably will help you understand better the political
situation in China and the direction it has taken.
Twenty-five years ago the Chinese students and citizens in
Beijing and across China demanded a clean government and
freedom of expression and media, but today the accommodations
in these areas are much worse than before in many ways. For
example, when the new leadership led by Xi Jinping took power
in 2013, it issued a secret document which boils down to this.
I quote,
``We must not permit the dissemination of opinions that
oppose the party's theory or political line, the
publication of views contrary to decisions that
represent the central leadership's views or the spread
of political rumors that defame the image of the party
or the nation.''
It sounds like something from the dark ages, but it is
happening today in China. China has now fallen into its own
dark age. Not only has the party state started a systematic
mafia-style campaign to silence any dissenting voice by
physically removing through democracy and human rights
activists through massive arrests, forced disappearances,
severe sentences, but most seriously, it has launched an ever
larger campaign to control the Chinese people's minds.
The Chinese party state openly denounces the American and
Western values and political system, which we all cherish and
vows to eradicate the so-called seven perils that endanger the
party state's perpetual rule of China, including Western
constitutional democracy, universal values of human rights,
independent press, a civil society, free markets,
neoliberalism, and a few others. This campaign to completely
reject Western ideas is actually an essential part of Xi
Jinping's Chinese dream. It is much worse and farther reaching
than anti-Bourgeois spiritual pollution campaign during the
mid-1980s which the students of Tiananmen Square demanded to
overturn 25 years ago.
Mr. Chairman, I have to sadly report to you that two
activists have been detained and charged with leaking this
infamous Document 9. They are Ms. Gao, whom you may already
know, and a gentleman, an author of several influential books
and the highest ranking official detained in this round of
crackdowns.
There was a chance 25 years ago for political reform and a
peaceful transition to democracy within the Chinese Communist
Party, but with Xi Jinping's total rejection of universal
values and democracy and his denial of free thought, the
opportunity is now gone. The key questions that the United
States must ask are, can a fascist party state that ruthlessly
kills its own people, silences any opposition voices, and bans
people's intellectual freedom rise peacefully? What danger does
it pose to the international order and peace? Mr. Chairman, to
me the answer is pretty clear. China has already extended its
domestic brutality and ruthlessness into the international
arena by bullying its neighbors, and without democracy it will
not rise peacefully.
Finally, I ask to submit the Document 9 for the record.
[The prepared statement of Yang Jianli follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered. We will make that
a part of the record, and I thank you so much.
I would like to now yield to Major Yan Xiong.
STATEMENT OF MAJOR YAN XIONG, USA, AUTHOR
Major Xiong. Thank you, sir. Good morning, sir. Thank you
for inviting me to join you here today. I would like to take a
moment to reiterate that I am here today in my personal
capacity, and what I say today does not represent the views of
the Army or the Department of Defense, the Pentagon.
Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, members of the
subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify today in
remembrance of the events at Tiananmen Square 25 years ago in
June 1989. My own experience of that historic event remains
vivid in my memory.
On the evening of June 3, 1989, I was at Beijing University
listening to a radio broadcast that described the events taking
place. Communist military troops had marched into the Forbidden
City and opened fire on citizens and students. Immediately a
friend and I rode our bicycles toward Tiananmen Square. After 3
miles, when we passed by the People's University, we saw
thousands of people and students holding hands to form a wall,
preventing people from passing them. They shouted at people
trying to break through, Don't go, don't go, they will kill
you.
So eventually, my friend and I forced ourselves past the
barrier and continued toward Tiananmen Square. As we went, we
found more people had formed human walls and tried to persuade
anyone going toward the danger. However, I felt I had to go
since I was one of the student leaders who initiated the
democratic movement.
So to force our way through the people, we had to abandon
our bicycles and make our way forward on foot. As we
approached, we saw the People's Liberation Army had tanks,
vehicles and troops moving into Tiananmen Square. Soldiers with
helmets and AK-47s were randomly shooting at the protesters as
they chanted slogans and they tried to hold their ground. So my
friend and I crept forward, the sounds of bullets shooting,
crying, and the tanks blended together.
As we continued to move forward, we saw horrific scenes of
students and citizens who were both wounded and dying. Few knew
first aid, and I remember having feelings of helplessness as
people cried out for medical assistance. I knew I needed to
report the events taking place, so I found a phone booth and
called my wife, I asked her to call the Beijing University
radio station to tell the truth, that the PLA soldiers had
opened fire on students and citizens and that hundreds were
killed. I continued to relay new information to the radio
station until the early morning, early hours of the morning.
After the protest was broken up, I was put on the list of
most wanted student leaders. After my capture, I endured nearly
2 years in a Chinese prison. It was not until after leaving
prison that with the help of an underground church member, I
became a believer in God and I began my journey in the
Christian faith.
I arrived in the United States in 1992, and just 2 weeks
later was able to celebrate the Fourth of July. I saw, then,
the meaning of freedom, the freedom of expression, the freedom
of religion, and the freedom from fear that all Americans
enjoy. So since the time of my baptism as a Christian, I also
found the freedom that knowing God provides.
As a commissioned officer in the United States, I serve to
protect these freedoms. As an Army chaplain, my job is to
assist my commander to ensure that all members of the Army
family receive their religious support they need to freely
exercise their faith according to the Constitution.
As we mark the 25th year since the Tiananmen massacre, I am
very thankful that the United States continues to remember and
honor the lives that were lost and continues to promote the
struggle for democracy and freedom in our world. It is my
prayer that the lives taken at Tiananmen Square will continue
to live on in our memory and inspire us to continue working
toward a better world free from tyranny and persecution that
upholds the rights and the freedoms for all people. Thank you.
Thank you all for your hearing.
Mr. Smith. Chaplain, thank you so very much for your
testimony.
Major Xiong. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Major Yan Xiong follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. I would like to now yield to Chai Ling.
STATEMENT OF MS. CHAI LING, FOUNDER, ALL GIRLS ALLOWED
Ms. Chai. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Chris Smith and
honorable members of the Committee of Foreign Affairs. Thank
you all for holding this hearing. Chairman Smith, thank you for
your tireless efforts in upholding human rights for all the
people in China and in the world. Today, we know Wilberforce
has a new name, and that name is Chris Smith.
I want to thank my Lord Jesus Christ and Savior, and
declare that it is Him who led me to the truth so that I can be
testifying today on the hope we have found in Christ Jesus for
a new China. My message is a Chinese dream through Jesus. I
want to thank my husband, Bob, our board member Quinn and our
staff Elizabeth who have made an effort to be here to
commemorate and support me in this special journey on this
unique anniversary date.
I will testify to the following three points: What kind of
freedom did we want of China 25 years ago at Tiananmen? What is
our hope today for freedom? And how can the China dream be
achieved?
The dream and freedom we wanted for China 25 years ago was
freedom from fear, freedom from injustice, freedom from lies
and deceit, and freedom from wrongful imprisonment and false
accusations. I want to use three stories of real people's lives
to illustrate what it was like without that freedom.
This is a young woman, Liu Jinfeng. She was sexually
assaulted by her family members, became homeless, was sold as a
bride, and was bullied, beaten, and raped by her abuser. She
was beaten to half dead. For self-defense, she killed her
abuser, but because of this she was executed at the young age
of 20.
Another case is a young woman called Tao Jing. She was 20
years old and accused of carrying drugs for her boyfriend. She
was killed at such a young age and became the youngest female
in China who was executed in the past 50 years.
The third case is the story of Feng Jianmei. On June 2,
2012, she was dragged into a forced abortion clinic, a poison
injection was injected into her tummy, and her baby was killed
within her womb. She was devastated.
And so that is not just these three women's stories, these
are stories for every Chinese woman, and that struggle still
continues to set the people in China free. Even though 25 years
later there is still no accountability for the leaders who
ordered the killings of 1,000 people on June 4, 1989, even
though 25 years later there is no accountability for the Family
Planning Committee people who killed over 400 million babies
and still continue to do so today, even though 25 years later
no accountability for the Communist Party officials or the
family members who have enriched themselves at the expense of
the hard working Chinese people, be warned: The days of justice
are coming soon.
So why do I say so? What is our hope for freedom today?
Twenty-five years ago, China's former reformer leader was
advocating for three reforms--economical, political, and
spiritual. However, Deng Xiaoping only allowed China to have
one, so China today has evolved into an economic dictatorship
with no political reform.
However, despite the brutal oppression, forced abortions,
and religious persecution, China is going through a powerful
and unprecedented spiritual revival. The human heart can't be
satisfied by materialism alone. As Jesus said, man does not
live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the
mouth of God. Even the President Xi Jinping recognized that
China's modernization has left a moral vacuum filled with
materialism, corruption, and greed. However, his prescription
for these things, the ``new China dream,'' is just more of the
same--building a national dream on the basis of sacrificing
individual rights.
Communism, despite its beautiful promises for equality and
happiness, only delivers death and destruction. That is the
painful truth we discovered on the night of June 3rd and on the
morning of June 4th. No society built on the belief system of
denying God and denying God's precious creations can bring life
or hope. Nevertheless, we do rejoice when we hear President Xi
talk about the new China dream, a dream about a great revival
of the nation of China, a dream like Deng Xiaoping's.
When he first came to power, he instructed his team to
study how to transition China into freedom and democracy, but
for some reason unknown, he then lost his way. So today, I want
to come along to offer President Xi the truth I have discovered
after spending 48 years of searching at the great cost of many
sacrifices. That truth is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes to God except through Jesus.
My journey of my search and discovery has been written into
my book, ``A Heart for Freedom.'' Anyone here who is interested
can have a free copy. The vision we have for a China dream as
established by God will look like the following: It will be
like one life under God, one family under God, one church, one
community under God, one nation under God, one world under God.
I do want to make clear, this is not about forcing religion on
anybody, but allowing people to freely choose God and exercise
their beliefs.
I will explain about the bigger picture in detail later if
I have the opportunity, but the cornerstone of this society
will be love. It will be loving God, loving ourselves, and
loving others as we love ourselves. It is what is in the Ten
Commandments.
So how can we achieve the China dream? Today's Chinese
leaders have a great opportunity to achieve this God-given
China dream. We applaud President Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun for
reportedly standing up against the massacre. We applaud
President Xi's recent reforms on China's human rights
practices, including merging the National Population and Family
Planning Committee and the Ministry of Health, which some say
is a face-saving way to abolishing the family planning army. We
applaud his easing of the one-child policy into a selective
two-child policy. We encourage him to continue to remove
restrictions to allow a be-fruitful-and-multiply policy. We
also applaud him for abolishing labor camp systems. These are
great beginnings toward righteousness and justice. In the past
25 years, our hope was mostly misplaced on various leaders'
actions, but not anymore.
Let this year mark the new beginnings that our hope is no
longer rooted in any leaders or any individuals, but in God
alone. If it is God's will to free China, he alone can
accomplish that, and indeed, God speaks about the Chinese dream
through Isaiah 9:6-7. He said,
``For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and
the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his
government and peace, there will be no end. He will
reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and
righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal
of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.''
That child is Jesus. He was born 2,000 years ago. Listen to
this: The promise of a just nation does not depend on any free
will to choose between good and evil, but on the zeal of the
faithful and trustworthy Almighty God. That is what our hope
relies on, and God has indeed accomplished it. When Jesus died
on the cross for humanity, his last words were, ``It is
finished.''
So today, the task of bringing freedom to China is
finished. It is no longer in the hands of any leader, but in
the mind of every Chinese person who hears the good news and
chooses for themselves if they want to choose Jesus and be set
free. I made that decision to choose Jesus 4\1/2\ years ago. My
dear friend, Zhou Fengsuo, took me to a prayer meeting event on
the June 4th anniversary 20 years ago, and 6 months later I
offered my soul for the Lord to take. Six months later God
allowed things to happen. On December 4th, exactly 6 months
later, He brought me to Him. That was not an easy decision, but
I can testify, despite the fact that today I still cannot go
back to China, despite the fact that the regime of China has
not changed, despite the fact that the future still remains
uncertain and unknown, that Jesus has set me free, and I am
free indeed, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
God has no favoritism. The same choice is available to all.
Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So today it
is my fervent prayer that the leaders of China will also choose
freedom and embrace political and spiritual reform, for there
is no force on earth that can stop God's work to bring freedom
to His people. The pharaohs could not do that, and neither
could the Babylonians. Certainly, the Chinese Communists are no
match for the will of the Almighty God. They can continue to
choose to do nothing.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. We are going to have to----
Ms. Chai. Yes, I know, I am sorry.
Mr. Smith. We do have questions coming up.
Ms. Chai. Of course. I will finish the rest later. Thank
you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. I appreciate your testimony.
[The prepared statement of Chai Ling follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. I would now ask that Zhou Fengsuo, if you could
proceed.
STATEMENT OF MR. ZHOU FENGSUO, CO-FOUNDER, HUMANITARIAN CHINA
Mr. Zhou. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee,
thank you for inviting me to this event. This is a day for
remembrance and celebration. I would want to thank this
committee for being such a powerful voice for freedom in China,
not only today, but for many years in the past, and especially
to Mr. Smith.
My name is Zhou Fengsuo. I and my family are grateful for
the freedom we enjoy as Americans now. Twenty-five years ago, I
was deeply involved in organizing the demonstration on
Tiananmen Square. It is the greatest honor of my life that the
Communist government, which made up its list of so-called
Tiananmen 21, designated me as number 5 on the list after Chai
Ling. That was the first time my name showed up in any media. I
did not deserve that honor, for there are many others who I
know worked harder and fought more bravely, but I will always
be proud of my work in helping organizing the Tiananmen
protest.
I was responsible for building the networks that provided
medical support while millions poured in from all corners of
Beijing, there was an ambulance every 5 minutes, and there was
no traffic accident ever, and through that network, many
people, for the first time in their life, were able to speak of
their hope for a better China, their love for freedom and
democracy. That was a festival of hope and freedom. That is
what I will never forget.
I firmly believe when history books of the 21st century are
written, this protest will be seen as a major step in bringing
China to freedom and democracy that I know will come, and that
is why for many years, for the last 25 years every year there
are people in China who risk their lives, their freedom to
commemorate the dream and the sacrifice of the Tiananmen
protest. China's freedom, which I believe you, the chairman,
and the members of the committee will bring about, just as
Ronald Reagan did to the Soviet Union, will not only bring
freedom to people of China, perhaps even more importantly it
will be to the peace and freedom it will bring for the people
of the world. The greatest issue that will define the nature of
the 21st century will be the question of whether democracy and
freedom come to China. If China is free, the 21st century would
likely to be defined by competition to see who builds better
cars and computers, but if China remains a dictatorship, it
could be even more bloody than the 20th century.
So the fight we fight here today is not only a fight for
the people of China, it is a fight for the freedom of our
children. It is a fight to determine whether our children will
live in a world of peace and freedom or in a world of
censorship and totalitarian regimes. These are the large
questions that we are dealing with. But there are some concrete
steps that this Congress can take to help move China closer to
freedom and democracy. The first issue is Internet freedom. As
the Communist regime realizes, the very life of the Communists
ruling depends on the lies promoted by the firewall, the
Internet firewall. And that is even more important than the
armies and the jails in China. So any measure that we can take
to promote Internet freedom, technologies that help circumvent
the firewall, will bring truth to China. Every year I meet
young Chinese, and this year, many teenagers, who talk to me.
The first thing they did, arriving in the United States, was to
look for information about what happened 25 years ago. And they
will change because of that. They will see hope and a dream.
And there is a lot we can do.
Specifically, I would ask BBG to allocate 10 percent of its
funding to the technologies that will circumvent the Internet
firewall. Second, globalization was a major cause in the 1989
protests, but Chinese, ordinary Chinese, have been taken as
hostages, and trade and the investments have been used as a
tool to promote dictatorship and the corrupt universal values.
Many Chinese companies are de facto government organizations.
And it is through such arrangement they became powerful,
profitable monopolies, which Western shareholders may like to
invest in. But in doing such, we are allowing commerce to be
part of the crime that Communists are committing. There is a
lot we can do to promote true free trade and a free market.
Third one, recently there are a lot of rejections of visas
for the foreign journalists in China. This will no doubt create
censorship and self-censorship for foreign journalists. At the
same time, more and more Chinese state-owned media are setting
up shops in the United States to broaden the reach of the
brainwashing. This issue cannot be left to the media alone.
For example, Bloomberg, which reported on the hidden wealth
of the ruling families, admitted that they will never do that
again. And the journalist who was trying to publish such a
report had to leave. At least U.S. should firmly raise the
issue of reciprocity as a strategic option in journalism visa.
Fourth, U.S. should reject entry visas to perpetrators of
human rights violations. With the help of the Internet, we are
able to gather information on these who actively and willingly
participate in persecution of the dissidents, including those
who killed protesters in 1989. We are able to name one of the
persons who was in the tank that ran over people on the morning
of June 4. As we know, daughter of current President could
still be in Harvard. And rejecting entry visa will be a
powerful way to help these freedom fighters in China. Thank
you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Mr. Zhou.
[The prepared statement of Zhou Fengsuo follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. I would like to now ask Mr. Chen Qinglin.
STATEMENT OF MR. CHEN QINGLIN, ACTIVIST
[The following testimony was delivered through an
interpreter.]
Mr. Chen. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and members of the
committee. Thank you for having me to testify before the
Congress today. In the early hours of 1989, June 4, I witnessed
a girl student and boy student were killed and shot on the
Chang'an Avenue in Beijing, and a worker named Zhang Bin legs
were crippled by the soldiers. And this bloody tragedy leaves a
huge trauma in my heart that has never been healed. And on June
4, 1990, in Peking University, my friend at the university, Li
Minai and Peng Rong were arrested for their first anniversary
activities on campus. And I was summoned by the police for
harboring a suspect in my university dorm.
On June 6, 1992, Mr. Hu Shigen and a few dozens, including
me, were arrested and put into prison for 3 years on the charge
of political assembly and party establishment. And again,
October 1997 I was put behind bars again for 40 days for
publishing material relating to the 1989 democracy movement.
And in June 1999, I was summoned many times by the police for
participating in the 10th anniversary of the 1989 movement,
along with Mr. Jiang Qisheng and Meng Yuanxin. And in 2006, a
group of the 1989 generation were expelled out of their city
Beijing for establishing an environmental NGO called Guardian
Spirit. And these victims, including Liang Xiaoyan, Professor
Li Oun, Wang Junxiu, and a few others. And in 2008, as one of
the first signatories of Charter 08 initiated by Dr. Liu Xiaobo
and Zhang zuhua, and I was summoned by the police. And on
February 2, 2014, Ms. Chen Wei and I participated for the 25th
anniversary of the massacre of 1989 movement, in memory of
those victims, I was summoned twice and threatened with arrest.
And on May 5, 2014, as soon as I landed in this country, on
the invitation for the 25th anniversary activities here, I
learned of the arrest of my friend, including Mr. Hu Shigen and
Yu Shiwen were arrested. And a scholar such as HAO JIAN and
various different lawyers were also arrested for the first
time. And some of my best friends, like Yang Hai and Chen
Tianshi and Peng Rong and Ding Mao and a few others were either
under house arrest, or forced to be on the road, or summoned,
or being warned with a written promise not to do things during
this period.
It has been 25 years since the violent crackdown of the
1989 democracy movement. The Communist regime has continued its
crude efforts to repress the generation of 1989. And why? We
want to know why. And the reality of the past 25 years have
proved that the ruling Communist Party after the June 4th
massacre has no respect for God, no responsibility for the
masses, and no historic senses for the future generation.
And following the massacre of June 4th, the ruling regimes
there has utilized all its resources and tools to crash the
Chinese people's dream for democracy and the rule of law. And
the government ruled out the possibility of a peaceful
democratic transition through peaceful dialogues, and has
continued its rule by a strong man, which has dramatically made
the Chinese pay huge costs of governance. And in these years,
the activities from all walks of life in China has been
arrested, and they include underground house church priests and
rights of defense lawyers and college teachers, as well as
business people who have never given up their dream for a
democracy for which the Chinese people have been fighting over
100 years. And this generation, including the Wang Bingzhang
and Gao Zhisheng have been fighting for over 25 years and they
never give up the hope. And I hope that the international
community and those of justice shall not appease the evildoers
while showing their support for the forces of good. God bless
the United States, God bless China. Thank you very much.
[Chen Qinglin did not submit a prepared statement.]
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much. We have an hour-long
series of votes coming up at between 11:15 and 11:30. So what I
thought might be an idea, maybe we could just take notes, would
be to have all of us ask a series of questions. If there is
still time, we would go to a second round. But an hour's worth
of votes plus will be preclude it after that and reconvening.
So I thought I would lay out some questions, ask my
distinguished colleagues to do likewise, and if you wouldn't
mind answering those questions. Would that be agreeable to the
members? I would not want to run out of time so we couldn't get
to everybody.
Let me ask first a threshold question about missed
opportunities. Frank Wolf and I traveled in 1991, just a couple
of years after Tiananmen Square, went to Beijing Prison Number
One. There were 40 Tiananmen Square activists there at that
terrible gulag inside of Beijing. And they wouldn't let us meet
with them. They looked, with their shaved heads, like Auschwitz
inmates. It was a terrible, terrible observation that both of
us made while we were there about the mistreatment.
Candidate Bill Clinton, when he ran against what became
President Bush, made the point that he thought that the first
President Bush, was coddling dictatorships. Brent Scowcroft
made a quick trip over to Beijing after Tiananmen, assured them
in ways that I find totally unseemly and appalling. So I say
this as a preface, that I have always, and I know Mr. Wolf and
all of us, don't see this as a partisan issue, but if somebody
on one party's side or the other enables, wittingly or
unwittingly, these horrific abuses, they need to be called to
task for it.
Well, when Bill Clinton got into office, we had the votes
to take away Most Favored Nation status away from China because
of Tiananmen Square and the human rights abuse that was
proliferating and getting worse by the day. He said don't vote
on that. I will issue an Executive order. And it was a great
Executive order that listed all the human rights benchmarks,
including significant progress in each of those areas. Halfway
through the year of review, I traveled to Beijing, and I was
told bluntly by Chinese leaders that they are getting MFN with
no conditionality, that this was a bluff. I didn't believe it.
And I had a letter signed by 100 Members, including Mr. Wolf,
and Nancy Pelosi, 100 Democrats and Republicans, presented that
to them, and the Chinese official with whom I was meeting
looked at it and laughed. He said the fix is in.
Sure enough, in late May, and as a matter of fact, it was
about as cynical as it gets, on a late Friday, President
Clinton took his Executive order, ripped it in half, and said
it is no longer operative. We lost the ability to pass MFN
removal, and the Chinese Government got away with murder. As I
said earlier with regards to Dr. Yang, a few years later the
butcher of Beijing was at the White House being feted like a
potentate with full military honors. Like I said, he should
have been sent to The Hague for prosecution for crimes against
humanity, and was carried around on a pillow. I say all of this
because now we have a situation where just in December we had
five daughters sit where you sit, all of their dads were being
tortured in China, including Gao Zhisheng. They said our appeal
is to Beijing, let our fathers go. Then they turned around and
said our appeal is to President Obama. Meet with us. You have
two daughters. You will understand. Our dads are being
tortured. We love our dads. We want to be with them. We sent
over a letter, multiple phone calls, and the word back was
President Obama doesn't have the time to meet with the five
daughters, which I found to be and continue to find to be
appalling.
Meanwhile, when Hu Jintao came to the United States, he met
with the President and was asked questions about human rights
at their joint press conference. And the Washington Post did a
scathing editorial in which they wrote President Obama makes Hu
Jintao look good on rights. And as was observed by the
Washington Post on January 19, 2011, the most significant
statements at the joint news conference of Obama and President
Hu Jintao on Wednesday came in response to questions about
human rights. They point out that Hu Jintao was more
forthright, that it was our President who defended the
situation in China. Mr. Obama retreated to the administration's
approach to minimize the issue. He says there has been an
evolution in China over the last 30 years. Yeah, it has been a
deterioration. They have had economic gains, definitely
military and security gains, at the expense of fundamental
human rights.
And Dr. Yang, you made an excellent point that as far back
as 1992 that the three realities of Deng Xiaoping, one of them,
the third one you say was to rely on capitalizing on the dark
side and evil side of human nature, spoiling the elite in
exchange for their loyalty. So give them money, and they are
the colonels who take off their uniforms and then run a
business on the side, and they make money hand over fist and
repress the people. They also point out that the President
never mentioned Gao, did not bring up Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel
Peace Prize winner. And it is just a scathing editorial.
Without objection, I will put it in the record. But missed
opportunities.
He wouldn't meet with the five daughters. I don't know what
he is going to say. He is the leader of the free world, a Nobel
Peace Prize winner, and it seems to me--and again, Mr. Wolf and
I, time and again when George Bush had his 8 years in the White
House, when he wanted to go to the Olympics, we demanded that
he meet with the dissidents before he went to the Olympic
Games. We went over and raised human rights with everyone with
whom we met. Missed opportunities. We can't enable
dictatorship.
Sadly, I think President Obama and even Hillary Clinton, on
her first trip to China as Secretary of State, she said I am
not going to let human rights interfere with global climate
change talks and selling the United States' debt. So, you know,
the Post, hardly a conservative newspaper, took the President
to task and hope springs eternal, he can change, he can pivot.
Our President needs to speak boldly, and he has not done so.
And I hope maybe he will. The 25th anniversary certainly is an
engraved invitation for him to do so.
I will also just make one other point and then yield to my
colleagues. You mentioned, Mr. Zhou, about visas. I wrote a law
in 2000 that says we will withhold visas to those who were
involved or complicit in any way with the forced abortion
policy of the People's Republic of China. We checked with the
Congressional Research Service and asked how many visas have
been denied? And this is during the 8 years of George W. Bush
as well. Less than 30. So again, we have an example now of a
law that is not being enforced. And there are people who are
abusing women, the likes of which we have never seen, who we
can at least deny a visa to, and send a message that we will
not tolerate that kind of abuse. I would like to yield to Mr.
Pittenger.
Mr. Pittenger. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith. Major
Yan Xiong, thank you for your service.
Major Xiong. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Pittenger. What an amazing past that you have had. And
the dedication and leadership that you gave to your own country
is--surviving Tiananmen Square, and being in prison, and then,
of course, coming to the United States, and after 2 years here
serving in our military, and now a chaplain. What an amazing
story. I would like to better understand, of course, you are
very much involved in the underground church, of which I have
been a part of for many, many years. And I would really like to
understand the movement toward democracy and the freedom of
religion, and what America can do to better encourage that. I
have spoken out extensively, met with some of the Chinese
leadership here, even at a dinner last night. And this is very
much in my heart. As I said earlier, America has her own
problems.
So I don't want to come in the spirit of being
condescending. Ronald Reagan said it well, we have our own evil
to deal with. But nonetheless, the church has grown
exponentially in China under enormous oppression. It hasn't
decreased, from what I have observed and known of. But I would
really like to know further what we as Americans can do to help
those fellow believers in China.
Mr. Smith. Thank you for that. If you could, just so we
don't miss with the vote. Mr. Weber, and if you can take notes
and answer the questions if you would. Mr. Weber.
Mr. Weber. Major, you said in your comments your disclaimer
up front was that the views you were about to express were your
own, and not the United States Army's. And my question is, how
in the world do we get those views to be expressed by the
United States Army, and even more deeply held, that kind of
commitment to freedom and passion that you hold?
So don't ever apologize for that as long as I am around,
because I think you are on to something. So I appreciate that.
I think you said that you spent some time in jail. So my
question to you today is how did you feel the first few days
when you spent time in jail? Were your efforts in vain? Did you
have any way of knowing you would be--did you think or believe
you would be here today? How did you feel a month later and
then a year later? And are you able to share that back home
with people who might be getting discouraged? I am going to let
it go at that. We are short on time, Mr. Chairman. I am just
going to let it go with that. I am very interested. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Weber, thank you. Mr. Stockman.
Mr. Stockman. You know, I am very interested, Mr. Zhou; you
were talking about the Internet, and I was interested in your
opinions on the United States giving up control to Russia and
China of ICANN. As you are probably aware, or maybe not aware,
we decided to abdicate our responsibilities, and we are going
to allow China and Russia to help control the Internet. Also, I
would like to know which companies in the United States, some
of which I think are Cisco and some others, have given routers
and systems to track down dissidents in China. I would like you
to, if you could, or anybody here on the panel, could describe
which of those companies in the United States are helping the
PLA suppress individual rights? Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Stockman. Chairman
Rohrabacher.
Mr. Rohrabacher. I would just like to express my solidarity
with you again. And you should never feel that you are alone.
And I send this message to the people of China through you,
that we, some of us, I share your Christian faith, but I think
you could be atheist, or be Buddhist, or be other faiths as
well, because what we are talking about is the basic freedom
for people to make those choices, their spiritual choices that
really count. And I am embarrassed that some people in my own
party put money and profit over those values that our country
stands for. But believe me, there are many, many other
Americans who are willing to sacrifice even economic profit in
order to reach out and stand in solidarity with brothers and
sisters who are struggling for liberty and justice in China and
elsewhere. So I just would like to express that solidarity to
you and to the people of China through you. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Chairman Rohrabacher, thank you very much. I
would like to yield to the chairman of the Commerce, Justice,
Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House
Committee on Appropriations, Mr. Wolf, who by the way was on
the floor until past midnight last night with his
appropriations bill after what, 15 hours of debating amendments
to that. So grateful that he was able to make it today.
Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you. I don't have a question. I just
want to thank you for your tenacity and your bravery and your
courage. And I found the testimony fascinating. And really I
just want to thank you. I want to thank you. And secondly, I
want to--and this really, the idea came from Mr. Rohrabacher. I
want to thank Mr. Smith. Dana said Mr. Smith should be
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And Mr. Smith has done
more on these issues than any other Member of Congress that I
have ever served with. So I just want to thank Mr. Smith for
being tenacious and just staying there. I think did Dana has a
great idea. I think Members ought to circulate a letter
nominating Mr. Smith for the Nobel Peace Prize. But again,
thank you for your courage.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wolf, thank you very much for that. But
frankly, we are here to hear from the five heroes from
Tiananmen Square. If you could begin to answer some of those
questions. Dr. Yang.
Mr. Yang. Thank you. I totally agree with you, Congressman
Frank Wolf, about Congressman Smith, our great leader here. And
I want to respond to your comments about the missed
opportunities. Truly, there were missed opportunities in the
1990s in the aftermath of the Tiananmen massacre. As we can
remember, just not long after the end of the Cold War, China
was very weak, was very much in need of almost everything from
Western democracies, especially the United States,
economically, politically. And China was very isolated because
of the massacre. But I think there was a theory prevailing, and
even it is prevailing today, that China's economic progress in
trade would inevitably result in more political freedom and
guarantee the basic human rights. But the experience of what
happened in China in the past 25 years certainly has not proved
the theory.
The theory does not seem to work in China, at least does
not work in the time framework that we want it. There is
something missing there. And in 1989, we did have opportunity
for an autocratic regime to collapse or to have a major change
in the political system. Usually, it takes three conditions to
become present at a certain time: Political crisis, viable
democracy movement, and international support. Of course, there
was political crisis for the regime. And the democracy movement
at that time, at least for that 2 months, was very viable. But
what we were lacking at that time was strong enough
international support.
So international community, of course, all together
condemned the massacre, but the international community did not
realize that China's people's desires for freedom were really
strong and real. And the moment was there. But we missed that
moment. And over the past 25 years, the international calculus,
not only the Chinese intellectual elite and economic elite,
have been co-opted by the Chinese Government. International
capitalists have also been co-opted.
And I always tell my friends China now is holding China as
hostage, and also at the same time, abduct the international
capitalists. And these international capitalists come back to
their own countries, for example, the U.S., acting as
apologists and lobbyists for China's Government. That is what
is happening. So what can we do about it? I think it will never
be too late to do the right thing. And yesterday, the
congressional highest level bipartisan press conference made it
clear that human rights are never partisan issues. So, you
know, this is a great sign that two parties, the leaders of two
parties come together to get the right message across to China
and the rest of the world.
And that we remember what the heroes did in China, and we
know that their demands have not been fulfilled in China. So
the cause is going on. And we, I mean the U.S. and Americans,
should openly and expressly express support for the activists
in China. And as my friend Zhou Fengsuo said, the U.S. Congress
should pass a bill to have a travel ban on those individual
human rights violators in China. And in the past year, the
Congress passed the Magnitsky law, which imposed on the Russian
human rights abusers a travel ban and also a freeze of assets.
We should have a similar bill about China. China, in many ways,
is a much worse human rights abuser. So I think that we have a
lot to do together to improve China's human rights situation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. I just point out, before
going to the other answers, we are working on a bill that would
do just that. But secondly, we have called on the Obama
administration to enforce the law as it exists today, which
bars visas to those who are complicit in the horrific one-
child-per-couple forced abortion policy. And they have not
enforced the law, sadly. But we will follow up. And I know you
know we are working on that. It is a great idea. Thank you.
Mr. Yang. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Major Xiong. Good morning, sir. Thank you so much for your
encouragement. And I am very grateful to be here today, and I
am very grateful to be a U.S. citizen. I am so proud to serve
our country for 20 years. However, by God's grace, and with
your help, someday I still have my dream to come back to China
and fight for democracy, human rights, and freedom. Of course,
we trust in God. To answer your question, the first question I
remember, it is what can we do for helping the Chinese house
church or other religious groups? We can do a lot of things.
When you have a voice, you have authority, and you really have
a wonderful influence on China. Even that bad government, they
pay attention to you. And when you say one word. Presently in
the jails they get a little bit better, the conditions. It is
all we can do. Concretely, I have some suggestions for all of
you.
You know, in China right now even the Communists can still
persecute any religious group. But by God's grace, a lot of
people, they know the real Creator is not of the Communist
Party, is not of the political party. So more and more people,
they turn to God. So U.S. Congress can do first, continue to
pay attention to those who are persecuted. And I think maybe
you can give a little bit more visas to the ministers, the
religious leaders. It will be easier to come to U.S. with a
visa to this country and get a formal religious or theological
training or study. That is really good.
Of course, we still pay more attention to those who are
persecuted right now in jail. That is we can do a lot of
things. I can say, well, you say one word here. Oh, that is a
lot of influence, good influence on the world. That is the
first question.
The second question I remember, you asked me my personal
experience. Of course, when I was in jail, the PLA, the enemy,
used an AK-47 and hit on my back. At that moment, it seemed the
whole world, the U.S., should pay attention to the prisoners,
the students in jail. So relatively it is much, much better
than if we do not pay attention. I know some cases right now.
When we do not pay attention their prison conditions are
horrible. Physical abuse, physical torture, unreasonable
torture that you can't imagine. So please, please. Can you
imagine, I still have too many inmates that are still in jail
right now. Of course they are released, then put in jail again,
like Mr. Chao Wei, Mr. Chou Chen. They are my inmates. They are
still in jail right now. The names, Wo Ping Chang, Liu Xiaobo,
Cho Mi, a long list. So please pay attention to them, and you
can save them. And another thing, another question I would like
to answer is talk about U.S. Army, oh, I love U.S. Army. I was
so proud to serve as an Army chaplain, a major.
Of course as an Army soldier, I can exactly 100 percent
follow the Army regulations. But if they still give me the
floor, they still encourage me, but the opinion or the view
today, I am just representing myself. That is how I am going to
answer your question, sir. Personally, I really--I have one
personal story. The Communist persecution happens in different
ways. Like myself, I haven't been able to see my mother for
many, many years.
A couple years ago, every time I want to call my mother, my
mother repeated one question. Of course, she speaks Chinese.
She says, my son, when are you going to come see me? I said
momma, very soon. The spring of next year. But recently, she do
not ask that question more when I call her. When I call her,
momma, I am Yan Xiong, your second son. She hung up the
telephone. My father told me she lost most of her memory and
cannot recognize me any more. I preach in the chapel, I will
say, you know, when we get into heaven, my mother will
recognize me. I say, hey, that is my son. When I get in heaven
I will say, hey, that is my mother. That is our hope. But a lot
of tragedy. As my best friend, Mr. Chin Chin will say, He
experiences, we all listen. When we have a voice here, when you
have a voice here, China will be changing. Thank you so much,
sir.
Mr. Pittenger. Thank you.
Major Xiong. Thank you.
Ms. Chai. I would like to address two questions. Do we have
missed opportunities? And the second one, yeah, how can America
do more to support? Yes, America indeed missed a great
opportunity from the very beginning on the night of June 4th. I
was there with my last 5,000 students in Tiananmen Square. My
position at the time was commander-in-chief of the Defending
Tiananmen Square committee, while my colleague was blocking
troops on the streets. We stood on Tiananmen Square until 6
a.m. We were hoping America would come to help us. And America
never came.
I was heartbroken, after 10 months in hiding, after
spending 105 hours in a cargo box, until I was able to finally
come to America. The first thing I did was come to Congressman
Chris Smith, and your hearing, and I asked, ``Where is
America?'' I did not get an answer. Later on, when the former
Ambassador to China, James Lilley, came back, I went to see
him. I said, sir, why? Why did America not come? And he said,
off the record, ``They do not care.'' I was heartbroken. But
that was the unfortunate truth, because at the time, President
George Herbert Walker Bush sent Scowcroft immediately after the
massacre. Scowcroft went to visit not the people, not the
victims in prison, not the victims' families, but the dictators
who ordered the massacre.
I visited Vice President Dan Quayle. I expressed my deep
regret and disappointment. He apologized, and said, ``We are
sorry.'' But that was not enough to represent who America was
supposed to be, which is one Nation under God. What we were
supposed to do was act justly and have mercy for the Lord our
God. That is the America we knew. That is the America we had
hoped for. That has not been the America I've known the past 25
years.
So today is a new day. It is a different day. Starting from
yesterday, when Speaker Boehner, and Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi, and Congressman Chris Smith, came together, you came
together representing this great, amazing Nation to support
those who struggle and fight for freedom but have not given up
hope. The most beautiful thing is that even though America did
not come, God came to America. God came to each one of us, each
of us with our undying, unshaking hope.
Mr. Pittenger, I love what you just said here. Belief. I
would encourage you all to speak about your belief to the
Chinese and to Americans. I do not understand America's First
Amendment to prohibit government to promote a religion, but
also to not prohibit any religion. I was in America for 19
years, and never heard God from the schools. I went to
Princeton and Harvard. I went to entrepreneurship, Wall Street,
and consulting firms. I went to Congress. I read media reports.
I rarely heard about God, and rarely heard about Jesus. I had
to come to faith through hearing the story of a man, a Chinese
house church leader who was persecuted in China over and over
again, and because of his faith, God has done amazing miracles.
He was sent to prison and he fasted for food and water for 74
days. God did not allow him to die, but restored him to life.
The third time he was in prison, his two legs were broken.
He cried out to Jesus saying, ``You want me to preach? How can
I do that?'' He felt Jesus come in and say get up and go. He
got up 8 a.m. in the morning. Facing all of the machine guns
staring at him, he walked past the guards and through three
metal gates. The guards saw him, but did not stop him. He came
to the street. A cab driver came to him, saying, ``Where do you
want to go?'' He said, ``I was given this address in my dream.
Go there.'' By the time they got to that place, the brothers
and sisters said, ``Brother, the Lord gave us the news that you
would be coming here. We shall prepare a hiding place for you.
And let's go there.''
Within half an hour, he was escorted from prison into a
safe house. When he sat down to eat his breakfast, he realized
his legs were healed. That was the moment I realized that this
God is the God I have been searching all my life. I was a
Buddhist when I was being rescued by those courageous Buddhist
people in China who risked their own life to save mine because
they believed in saving lives above all other callings. They
didn't even want to kill mosquitoes. That is why they risked
their lives to save me. They became the first two people that
expanded to a 200 people network. But during this 10-month
intense search, while there was a great reward out there for my
head, none of these families betrayed me.
And so I thought I would witness. Until one day, I was
witnessed to by Jesus, and started asking questions, ``Is your
Jesus similar to or different than my Buddha?'' And I was
finally given a chance to know this God and walk with God. And
I do encourage all American leaders to exercise your freedom of
speech and freedom of religion, and to not only share your
faith, but also work on your faith with your policies, with
your decisions, and with your support. Thank you.
Mr. Pittenger. God bless you, my sister. I am honored to be
called your brother in Christ. And I apologize for how we have
gravely disappointed you and many other believers. I hope we
can do better.
Ms. Chai. Thank you so much. I am also a sinner, so I
forgive the American leaders, just as I have forgiven the
leaders of China and the soldiers who killed us. But with God,
I have hope for truth and reconciliation one day.
Mr. Pittenger. I hear your spirit, and I sense that from
Major Xiong, of his spirit of forgiveness and understanding of
those who wrongfully hurt him in the past as well. Thank you.
Ms. Chai. Thank you. Thank you, brother.
Mr. Zhou. Talking about lost opportunities, I think China
joining WTO was a major event. And prior to that, Mr. Bush's
secret mission to Deng Xiaoping after a few months after
Tiananmen massacre, these two events to me I think basically
changed the landscape of a lot of things. I was released during
the first debate of Most Favored Nation status here in the
United States, the first year after Tiananmen massacre, a week
before that. And together with me, many others were released.
When China joined WTO, this leverage was lost completely. And
for now, I think the international community has not figured
out a way to deal with these corrupting force in global trade
and investment, where on one side you have this totally terror
regime which uses trade and investments as a weapon to promote
their values, and you have U.S. policy that is not dealing with
it.
For example, you know, Microsoft in their Bing search, they
will ban something completely irrelevant just because it is
very remotely related to the tank man image in China. This is a
U.S. company that is following the dictatorship of Beijing. And
you also have brave companies like Google who refuse to do
business in China, to stand up for its principles. Talking
about lost opportunities, I reflect on this a lot. I think for
our protesters, there were a lot of opportunities. The
Tiananmen massacre was a tragedy that a small faction of the
ruling families clustered around Deng Xiaoping, mastermind of
the massacre, without a proper procedure even within the
Communist Party. And it overruled even its own, the majority of
its own people. Hida Talxian, for example, stayed with the
protesters on Tiananmen Square. I don't think the troops will
come. And also, even this year I had the honor or pleasure of
meeting the daughter of a high ranking official who openly
rejected the Tiananmen massacre, objected to it, and lost his
position. And what is even more encouraging is that 2, 3 years
later, the Chinese Congress, the Ren Da, when they vote they
show their support to this guy by rejecting the party-nominated
member. And today, I mean this year, I just realized this
happened to another province too, where when there was an
election, even the party-controlled assembly, they voted down
someone who was with the killing and voted for the people who
are against it.
So it was a losing opportunity for Chinese. It is a small,
tiny portion of the ruling class that overruled the people's
will, and even the majority of the Communists. And even today,
Tiananmen protests remains one issue that can unify Chinese for
a better China. This is where there is majority support from
the ordinary people, and anyone who is sincere about reform in
China. I am pretty sure about that. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Let me just ask, we do have the call to the
floor for the votes, and then any final comments by my
colleagues. About 8 years ago, I chaired a series of hearings,
we had Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google, and he swore them
all in, because they were infamously censoring practically
everything that went on the Internet, and doing other things,
particularly Cisco, in helping with the ability for command and
control for the secret police, which was a terrible enabling. I
showed on the TV, we did a live demonstration using the Google
search engine for China, and typed in Tiananmen.
We got nothing but pretty pictures, including the Secretary
of Commerce from the United States, happy people. Nothing
whatsoever about Tiananmen Square either on the images part or
on the actual search engine for news or Web site information.
All blocked by U.S. companies. I asked a series of questions.
They couldn't give me a reason why they were doing it other
than they are following Chinese law. So censorship remains a
huge problem.
Dr. Yang, you might want to very briefly speak to the fact
that people in China still don't know, particularly the young
people who are brought up in a totally propagandized country,
where the Internet and the great firewall precludes that
information, how do we pierce that wall to get the information?
Secondly, Xi Jinping has said that China suffers ``moral
decay,'' and yet the persecutions of the Christians,
particularly the underground Christian church, the Uyghurs
Muslims, the Falun Gong, and the Buddhists in Tibet, has gotten
exponentially worse in the last few years. It was already bad.
And yet Frank Wolf, who wrote the International Religious
Freedom Act, the U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom chairman, Robbie George, testified May 22nd, right
here, and said that we have not had a designation of CPC
(Country of Particular Concern), egregious violators, since
2011. And that means China, and the enforcement, and in the
bill that Mr. Wolf wrote, there are approximately 18
enforcement actions which are very significant are not being
applied to China or anywhere else as a direct result of that.
We practically begged the administration to get serious about
religious persecution globally, including especially in China,
but they have not even renewed the designations of the eight
countries that were on the list, and the other eight that ought
to be on it according to the Commission. Would you speak to
that, maybe Dr. Yang? And again, you mentioned the Internet,
Mr. Zhou. And anybody else. My colleagues want to make any
final comment before we go?
Mr. Yang. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. China, like all
autocracies, continues its rule depending on lies and violence
and corruption. And so controlling information is the major
strategy that helps to continue its rule. So information is
power. It is very important. But what I want to say first,
before I get to the Internet, is that people do not have to
know Tiananmen massacre to know the truth of their government.
Because they live this government in everyday life. So they
understand the nature of the government. So they demand for
dignity and freedom. So they don't have to know the truth about
the massacre, the Tiananmen massacre to know the situation in
China.
But anyway, information will help them to stand up for
their rights. So I heard that the bill going on introduced in
the House about helping the Internet freedom in China with a
big budget. And we really, at this moment, want to call on all
the Congressional Members and the leaders to realize the
importance of Internet freedom for the people on the ground in
China. And these resources can help the people develop
technology needed, necessary for people to get around the
firewall, to get information forbidden by the Chinese
Government. So thank you for support for that bill. And I want
to come back to the topic which you talked about earlier. And
unlike my friends Chai Ling, Yan Xiong, and Zhou Fengsuo, I am
not naturalized. I am not a U.S. citizen, I am a Chinese
citizen still. And I don't think I am in the position to
criticize the U.S. Government and American people for not doing
enough for us.
So a democracy movement must be homegrown. We must do our
own job. But what I want to talk about is not that. Some people
believe that the United States cannot press China on human
rights issues because the U.S. seeks China's cooperation on
economic and national security issues. So we are talking about
the national interests of the U.S. When we are talking about
national interests of U.S., we all talk about the economic
business opportunity for American capitalists in China. So, you
know, if Americans do not do business there, if we don't
cooperate with the Chinese Government, others will go as well.
But I often urge my American friends, here, you are my American
friends, and you are in military service, have you ever done a
calculation how much American taxpayers' money would be saved
if China became democratic?
So remember, China is a dictatorship. With its fast
economic growth, military expansion, its recent behavior in
Southeast Asia is really disturbing. So I want to ask this
question again. Have you done any calculation on how much money
would be saved if China became democratic? This is about the
national interests of this country, not about Chinese citizens.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wolf, we are out of time regrettably with
the votes having begun. I ask unanimous consent that Pastor Bob
Fu's statement be made a part of the record.
I have always believed that it takes two essential elements
for a dictatorship to prosper, sadly, and those are to control
the flow of information, propaganda, and secret police, and
when we enable either of those, and we have enabled without any
reasonable doubt the propaganda side through our own self-
censorship through these corporations, we have done a grave
injustice to the Chinese people.
We are out of time I deeply regret, but I want to thank all
of you for your extraordinary humanitarian service to your
fellow sufferers in China, because I am sure the burden that
you carry is very deep and very strong, but also to the rest of
the world because China is spreading its bad governance model
to much of Africa. I have held hearings on how they are
enabling dictatorships like in Sudan with Bashir and many
others, so a free and democratic China will be a force for good
not just for the Chinese people, but for the rest of the globe,
and I think we have to redouble our efforts as never before on
the 25th anniversary.
I disagree with President Obama that they have made
progress in the last 30 years. They have made significant,
significant regression, and it is a race to the bottom with
North Korea when it comes to human rights, and it is about time
this country spoke out with some boldness to think that Liu
Xiaobo, and I was one of the ones, I led the effort in Congress
to name him as Nobel Peace Prize winner. We had two others on
that, Chang Gaungcheng and Gao Zhisheng, and really all of you
should be on that as well as prisoners of conscience and as men
and women of great, great character.
Liu Xiaobo is in prison, and the President doesn't raise
that effectively, never publicly when he is with Xi Jinping or
anybody else. Those days of hiding under the sand have to
change, and this is a new appeal to the President, and again
meet with those five daughters, and that he should meet with
the five of you at the White House to talk about human rights
in China, and we will make that request as well. Thank you. The
hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:32 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the Record
Material submitted for the record by Yang Jianli, Ph.D., president,
Initiatives for China
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations