[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 28, 2014)] [House] [Pages H4851-H4856] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] URGING CHINA TO RESPECT THE FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY, EXPRESSION, AND RELIGION AND ALL FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 599) urging the Government of the People's Republic of China to respect the freedom of assembly, expression, and religion and all fundamental human rights and the rule of law for all its citizens and to stop censoring discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and their violent suppression. The Clerk read the title of the resolution. The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 599 Whereas on June 4, 1989, peaceful demonstrations held in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square were brutally crushed by the People's Liberation Army, carrying out the orders of China's Communist Party leadership; Whereas the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 called upon the Chinese Communist Party to eliminate corruption, accelerate economic and political reforms, and protect human rights, particularly the freedoms of expression and assembly; Whereas by early May 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 people joined the protests in Tiananmen Square and citizens in over 400 Chinese cities staged similar protests for democratic reform, including not only students, but also government employees, journalists, workers, police officers, members of the armed forces, and other citizens; Whereas on May 20, 1989, martial law was declared in Beijing, China, after authorities had failed to persuade demonstrators to leave Tiananmen Square; Whereas during the late afternoon and early evening hours of June 3, 1989, thousands of armed troops, supported by tanks and other armor, moved into Beijing to ``clear the Square'' and surrounding streets of demonstrators; Whereas on the night of June 3, 1989, and continuing into the morning of June 4, 1989, soldiers fired into crowds, inflicting high civilian casualties, killing or injuring unarmed civilians; Whereas tanks crushed to death some protesters and onlookers; Whereas independent observers report that hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed and wounded by the People's Liberation Army soldiers and other security forces; Whereas 20,000 people throughout China suspected of taking part in the democracy movement were reportedly arrested and sentenced without trial to prison or reeducation [[Page H4852]] through labor, and many were reportedly tortured, with many being imprisoned for decades; Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers is a group of relatives and friends of those killed in June 1989 whose demands include the right to mourn victims publicly, to call for a full and public accounting of the wounded and dead, and the release of those who remain imprisoned for participating in the 1989 protests; Whereas members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have faced arrest, harassment, and discrimination, with the group's website blocked in China and international cash donations made to the group to support families of victims reportedly frozen by Chinese authorities; Whereas the Chinese Government undertakes active measures to deny its citizens the truth about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, including the blocking of uncensored Internet sites and weblogs, and the placement of misleading information on the events of June 3, 1989, through June 4, 1989, on Internet sites available in China; Whereas the Chinese Government continues to suppress dissent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers, journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, members of ethnic minority rights organizations, and other individuals in Xinjiang and Tibet who seek to express their political or religious views or their ethnic identity in a peaceful manner; Whereas Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain peaceful advocates for human rights, religious freedom, ethnic minority rights and the rule of law, and their family members, such as Nobel Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia, Gao Zhisheng, Wang Bingzhang, Peng Ming, Zhu Yufu, Lobsang Tsering, Ilham Tohti, Yang Maodong (also known as Guo Feixiong), Sun Desheng, Liu Yuandong, Guo Quan, Liu Xianbin, Yang Rongli, Alimujiang Yimiti, Yang Tianshui, Wang Zhiwen, Li Chang, Gulmira Imin, Dhondup Wangchen, and Chen Kegui, nephew of blind human rights activists Chen Guangcheng; Whereas according to the Prisoner Database maintained by the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Communist Government of China continues to detain over 1,300 prisoners of conscience, though the number may be much higher; Whereas the Chinese authorities continue to maintain a system of labor camps and ``black jails'' to detain peaceful advocates for human rights and democratic freedoms, harasses and detains human rights lawyers who take on cases deemed politically sensitive, limits the number of children Chinese couples may have, including through the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations, restricts severely the religious activity of Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims, conducted a 15-year campaign to eradicate Falun Gong practice in China, publicly vilifies, and refuses to negotiate with, the Dalai Lama over Tibetan issues, and, forcibly repatriates thousands of refugees to North Korea who face persecution, imprisonment, and possible execution in violation of its international commitments; Whereas the Government of China maintains tight control of speech, religion, and assembly, and has continually received poor rankings focused on civil liberties and political rights by nongovernmental organizations; Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom's most recent annual report has found that the ``Chinese government continues to perpetrate particularly severe violations of religious freedom'', with conditions ``worse now than at any time in the past decade'' for religious minorities, findings which again contributed to the Commission recommending that China be designated as a ``country of particular concern''; Whereas the United States Department of State's most recent human rights report on China found ``extrajudicial killings'' occurred in China; Whereas the United States Department of State's most recent human rights report on China found that the Government continued to target ``for arbitrary detention or arrest'' ``human rights activists, journalists . . . and former political prisoners and their family members''; Whereas freedom of expression and assembly are fundamental human rights that belong to all people, and are recognized as such under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and Whereas a Government of China which respects the individual rights of all its people would be more likely to have productive economic, political, and security relations with its neighbors and the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives-- (1) urges the Government of the People's Republic of China to stop censoring information about the Tiananmen Square massacre; (2) expresses sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their participation in the democracy protests of June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in the People's Republic of China; (3) supports all peaceful advocates for human rights and the rule of law in China for their efforts to advance democratic reforms and human rights during the past; (4) condemns the ongoing human rights abuses and persecution by the Government of the People's Republic of China and its efforts to quell peaceful political dissent, censor the Internet, suppress ethnic and religious minorities, limit the number of children had by Chinese couples through coercion and violence, and harass and detain lawyers and freedom advocates seeking the Government's commitment, in law and practice, to international human rights treaties and covenants to which it is a party; (5) calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to take all appropriate steps to circumvent Chinese Internet censorship and to provide information to the people of China about the Tiananmen Square Massacre; (6) calls on the United States Government to-- (A) make human rights, including religious freedom, a priority in bilateral discussions with the Chinese Government; and (B) instruct the United States representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council to introduce a resolution calling for an examination of the human rights practices of the Government of the People's Republic of China; (7) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of China to-- (A) end the harassment, detention, torture, and imprisonment of Chinese citizens expressing their legitimate freedom of religion, expression, and association, including on the Internet; (B) release all remaining prisoners of conscience who continue to be detained as a result of their participation in the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989, especially around Tiananmen Square; (C) end the harassment and discrimination of those involved in the 1989 protests and their families, permit Chinese citizens to freely commemorate and share information about Tiananmen; (D) allow protest participants who escaped to or are living in exile in the United States and other countries, or who reside outside of China because they have been ``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful protest activity, to return to China without risk of retribution or repercussion and fully repeal any laws or decrees that deny them the ability to travel to China; and (E) end Internet, media, and academic censorship of discussions of the Tiananmen Protests and events surrounding it; (8) calls on the Administration and Members of Congress to take steps to continue to mark the events of Tiananmen Square-- (A) meeting with participants in the demonstrations, or their families, who are living in the United States; (B) meeting with others outside of China who have been ``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful protest activities; (C) signaling support for those in China who demand an independent and credible accounting of the events surrounding June 4, 1989; and (D) supporting those advocating for accountable and democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law in China; and (9) finds that United States relations with China are more likely to further improve once the Government recognizes and respects the individual human rights of all its people. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida. General Leave Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this resolution. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Florida? There was no objection. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of House Resolution 599. I am proud to stand with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith); with the Democratic leader, Ms. Pelosi; and their bipartisan cosponsors in urging the Beijing regime to respect the fundamental human rights of all Chinese citizens, to observe the rule of law, and to stop censoring discussions of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Twenty-five years ago, a million Chinese citizens from all walks of life gathered in and around Tiananmen Square to call for democracy, to call for reform, to call for openness. Similar demonstrations sprang up in more than 400 other cities around China, but the hopeful idealism of those Chinese patriots was met with tanks, with bullets and bayonets, and the so-called People's Liberation Army murdered a still-unknown number of the people of China. The Tiananmen Square massacre was the brutal start [[Page H4853]] of a massive wave of repression against Chinese democracy advocates. During the past two-and-a-half decades, Mr. Speaker, much has changed inside China. China's economic and military power have grown dramatically, and its governing ideology owes less to Marx, Lenin, and Mao than to a state-fed nationalism, but other things have not changed. China remains a one-party state where a regime obsessed with maintaining social control commits wide-ranging human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings; disappearances and illegal imprisonment at so-called black jails; detention of lawyers, journalists, and bloggers; coercive population control involving forced abortion and sterilization; and restriction on freedom of religion, of the press, and assembly. Repression is even harsher against disfavored minorities such as Tibetan Buddhists, the Muslim Uighurs, and Falun Gong practitioners. According to the most recent State Department Country Report on Human Rights, the Chinese regime ``consistently blocked access to Web sites it deemed controversial, especially those discussing Taiwan, the Dalai Lama, Tibet, underground religious and spiritual organizations, democracy activists, and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.'' A quarter of a century later, why is the regime in Beijing still so afraid of the truth? How strong is a Communist Party that feels the need to harass and muzzle the aging Tiananmen mothers who lost their sons and daughters in 1989? In the biting words of one 76-year-old mother, Ms. Zhang: Such a great, mighty, and correct party is afraid of a little old lady. They are afraid of us oldtimers because we represent righteousness. Today, Mr. Speaker, with House Resolution 599, we stand in solidarity with the righteous mothers of Tiananmen, with the Ladies in White-- Damas de Blanco--in Cuba, and with all those who struggle for liberty and for human rights where tyrants rule. Those who have sacrificed their lives in pursuit of freedom are not forgotten. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise in strong support of H. Res. 599, urging the Government of the People's Republic of China to respect the freedom of assembly, expression, religion, and all fundamental human rights of its citizens. {time} 1645 I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Smith for his leadership on this issue. I would also would like to thank Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and the entire Committee on Foreign Affairs for the bipartisan manner with which we continue to work to shed light upon the gross violation of human and political rights in China. Mr. Speaker, next week we will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, where hundreds of student protestors demanding political and economic reforms were murdered. Today the image of an unknown man standing in peaceful protest to government tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square is among the most iconic of the 20th century and continues to serve as a source of inspiration to political and human rights advocates around the world. Unfortunately, many in China will never know of this sad chapter of Chinese history. The Communist Party of China is determined to erase all memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre from national memory. The Chinese Government continues to block all uncensored Internet Web sites and blogs related to the events of June 3 and June 4, 1989, and willfully distributes misinformation to its people. Even today, Beijing continues to harass, arrest, and discriminate against the relatives and friends of those killed in Tiananmen Square. Censorship of the Tiananmen Square massacre is just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the Chinese Government continues to suppress political dissent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers, journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, members of ethnic minority rights organizations, and other individuals who seek to express their political or religious views or assert their ethnic identity. According to a prisoner database maintained by the United States Congressional Executive Commission on China, over 1,300 prisoners of conscience are being held at various ``black jails,'' where they are often tortured, forced into labor camps, or even killed. Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 599 condemns the Chinese Government for its appalling human rights record and calls for an end to the harassment, detention, torture, and imprisonment of Chinese citizens practicing their legitimate freedom of religion, expression, and association. It also calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors to provide the people of China with information about the Tiananmen Square massacre. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important and timely resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, cochairman also of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, and the author of this resolution. Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is left? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Florida has 16 minutes remaining. Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, it has been 25 years since China's Government crushed the peaceful demonstrations we remember by the name ``Tiananmen Square.'' The resolution before us honors the extraordinary sacrifice endured by hundreds of thousands of peaceful Chinese democracy activists who rallied for almost 2 months in Beijing and in over 400 other cities in China in a heroic quest for liberty and human rights. It has been estimated that over a million people took part. Tiananmen has also come to symbolize the brutal lengths China's Communist Party will go to remain in power. When the tanks rolled into the square on June 4, 1989, mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters, and China lost an idealistic generation of future leaders. You know, Mr. Speaker, some may prefer to look past or even trivialize the wanton slaughter by Chinese soldiers. The memory of the dead and those arrested, 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. Former President Jiang Zemin said in an interview that Tiananmen was ``no big deal.'' But it was a very big deal that has left an enduring mark on Chinese society and on U.S.-China relations. The Government of China continues to go to astounding, even bizarre, lengths to censor and ban open discussion of Tiananmen. This resolution sends the right message: we will never forget Tiananmen, ever, especially so as long as the Chinese people cannot discuss it and its significance openly without harassment or arrest or torture. Mr. Speaker, one of the most enduring symbols of the Tiananmen demonstrations was the unveiling of a facsimile of the Statue of Liberty on May 30, 1989. It was a moment that thrilled freedom advocates around the globe. There was this enduring symbol of freedom facing the portrait of Mao Zedong hanging in Tiananmen Square. This moment was extraordinary because it showed that when the Chinese people are able to speak publicly and freely, they ask for greater freedoms, democracy, and justice. These are universal liberties that can be found in demonstrations for liberty worldwide. We see it in Cairo and Caracas, Turkey and Tunisia, Kabul and Kiev. There was a moment when we all believed that Tiananmen Square demonstrations would be a triumph of freedom and democracy. Later in 1989, the Warsaw Pact nations started to crumble, and eventually the former Soviet Union fell as well, but the Communist leaders of China sought to cling to power through unbelievable brutality and force. They sent tanks and soldiers into Beijing to ``clear the square'' on the evening of June 3 into June 4. The [[Page H4854]] beatings, the bayonetting, the torture and murder of students and the ubiquitous display of tanks turned the dream of freedom into a bloody nightmare. Mr. Speaker, in 1991, I was able to visit Beijing prison number 1 on a trip with my great friend and colleague Frank Wolf. It was a bleak gulag, where some 40 Tiananmen Square demonstrators were being unjustly detained. We saw firsthand the price paid by brave and tenacious individuals for peacefully petitioning their government for freedom, and it was not pretty. They looked like walking skeletons of Auschwitz, and they worked grueling hours making products, some of which ended up in U.S. markets. Mr. Speaker, for the past 25 years, the Tiananmen demonstrations have shaped the way the Chinese Government deals with dissent. Despite the country's stunning economic growth over the past two decades, Beijing's leaders remain terrified of their own people. China's ruling Communist Party would rather stifle, imprison, or even kill its own people than defer or embrace their demands for freedom and rights. President Xi Jinping's tenure as President, which started with so much promise of new beginnings, has instead ramped up the repression. China today is in a race to the bottom with the likes of North Korea. Last year was the worst year since the 1990s for arrests and imprisonment of dissidents. Over 230 people have been detained for their human rights advocacy, and those are the ones we know about. There are many, many more. In the past month leading up to the Tiananmen anniversary, Beijing has detained some two dozen activists for seeking to commemorate the anniversary, even criminalizing private gatherings and art installations. China remains, as we all know, one of the worst offenders of human rights overall. It remains the torture capital of the world. Religious freedom abuses continue with absolute impunity, and ethnic minority groups face repression when they peacefully seek rights of culture and of language. Hundreds of millions of women, Mr. Speaker, have been forced to abort their precious babies because of a draconian attempt to limit population growth in effect since 1979. China's one-child policy is a human rights disaster without precedent, and it is a demographic nightmare as well. Brothers and sisters in China, Mr. Speaker, are illegal, and the preference for having boys has led to a gender imbalance and a mass extermination of the girl child. This is not only a massive gender-based crime, Mr. Speaker, but a security problem as well. Experts are coming to the conclusion that China's unprecedented gender imbalance will lead to more crime, social instability, worker shortages, and even possibly war. Of course it has had a horrific impact on sex trafficking. Last year, China was rightfully demoted to a tier 3 country under the provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because of the missing girls and daughters, so those slavers are now buying and selling women as commodities because women don't exist relative to the number of males in the People's Republic of China all because of a cruel one child per couple policy. Finally, Mr. Speaker, 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 very difficult and dangerous lethal conditions. This drive is the most important asset in promoting human rights and democratization. When democratic change does come to China, it will come from within, not because of outside pressure; although that pressure needs to be applied, and it needs to be applied judiciously and effectively. U.S. policy, in both the short and long term, must be, and seem to be, supportive of advocates of peaceful change. We can't abscond in our responsibility. Lists need to be tendered every time we meet with Chinese leaders, whether it be the White House or any Members of Congress, of political prisoners. I believe that someday China will be free. Someday the people of China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights. As a nation of free Chinese men and women, we will honor them and they will be celebrated someday as heroes of Tiananmen Square and all of those who sacrificed so much and for so long for freedom. Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), our very distinguished Democratic leader. Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I welcome him to our group, and I appreciate his very important remarks as we observe the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. As always, I am absolutely honored and pleased to join my colleagues, the distinguished former chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and now chair of the subcommittee, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. Mr. Wolf and Mr. Smith and I have been fighting this fight together for decades. I thank them for their courage. We both oppose our own Presidents--they are Republican, I a Democrat on a Democratic President--on this subject. This is a bond that we have had about respecting the dignity and worth of every person. When we saw what happened in Tiananmen Square, it was almost unbelievable to see the Government of China turning on its own people, having tanks run over their children in Tiananmen Square who were speaking out against corruption, who were speaking out for more openness, for speaking out to speak out. I have treasured this poster in my office over the years, for 25 years. It has been signed by every major dissident who has been able to leave China. Not many of them can go back. But it is the symbol that Mr. Chris Smith talked about of the man before the tank. It is one of the most iconic figures in the history of democratic freedoms in the world. However, if you were to go to China and ask young people about this poster--they know this picture--they know nothing about it. It has been censored. They don't tell people what that is. Some said: Maybe it is a commercial for something. I don't know what that is. So powerful is it that even any discussion of it in China for young people at the university, Peking University, which was a place where many of these young people came forth and said they would like to end corruption, expand freedom of expression. What form of government they will have, as Mr. Smith has said, remains to be seen and up to the Chinese people. The fact that they could not even talk about it without being run over by tanks, it was stunning. It was really remarkably stunning because we have really not seen anything quite like that. The spring of 1989, 25 years ago, a community of activists, dissident students, and Chinese citizens stood up for their rights in Tiananmen Square. People were inspired by a path of political reform advocated by some of China's leaders who were purged--Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. The people spoke out against the abuses of their government, a people who demanded respect, dignity, liberty, a voice. A people cried out for freedom, their souls yearning for a better future. They called for the elimination of corruption, an acceleration of economic and political reform, for freedom of expression and assembly. They called for a dialogue with China's leaders on how to make progress. People protested, demonstrated, marched. A military was turned against the people it was supposed to protect. The People's Liberation Army turned on the people of China. The young man, again, stood alone in the street bringing a line of tanks to a grinding halt. {time} 1700 You don't see it here, but the tanks turned, they turned away from this lone man and did not run over him for all the world to see, an image seared into the memory of all who saw it, a photograph unforgettable to anyone committed to the promise of human rights, a moment that then and now challenges the conscience of the world. We cannot have any moral authority to talk about human rights in the world if we ignore the violations in human rights in a big country, a prosperous country, an economic engine. I remember--and my colleagues do too--that at the time the trade deficit with China, with the U.S., we had a deficit of $5 billion a year. That was an [[Page H4855]] enormous trade deficit, and we thought it would give us leverage to free the students who were arrested in Tiananmen Square. We just wanted to free them, to respond to the moms, the parents, free those students. Others in the Chamber had said we could use that $5 billion at the same time to stop China from blocking U.S. exports into China, or stop them from transferring technology, missile technology and the rest, to Pakistan and beyond. But there were those also in the Congress and in the country--and actually on the Chinese payroll, because they were lobbyists, advocates, lawyers, and all the rest, they hired everybody--who said: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you can't use that $5 billion for leverage to free those prisoners, to stop those barriers to our trade, to stop their transfer of technology to countries that might then turn them over to rogue countries, you can't do that. But if you remain calm, there will be peaceful evolution and all this will be improved. In fact, our trade with China will grow, their freedom will increase. These people are still arrested, the trade deficit is no longer $5 billion a year, it is $7 billion, but not a year--from $5 billion a year to $7 billion a week--and not 1 cent of it used for any leverage to free prisoners or to challenge the Chinese in terms of the violations of human rights in China and in Tibet. It is stunning. They own the show. That is just the way it is--$5 billion a year to $7 billion a week. Oh, my God, progress has been made, but not by the American worker, but not by our economy--no, by the Chinese Government. It is really stunning, it is really one of, I think, the stories that has to be told by the U.S. to stand up for who we are and what we stand for. Twenty-five years ago, Tiananmen became synonymous with the battle for human rights in China--again, an iconic site for an iconic struggle for justice and democracy. Twenty-five years later, the spirit of Tiananmen endures in the hearts and minds of those continuing to struggle, both in China and around the world. What moral authority do we have to say to a small country, you cannot violate the human rights of your people, but we will take anything the Chinese have to dish out because we have a commercial interest there? The heroes--and we have to talk about them because the Chinese tell them nobody cares about you anymore--these heroes still display the unmatched courage required simply to speak up and speak out. I thank Congressman Chris Smith for bringing this resolution forward, and Speaker Boehner for tomorrow, this week, holding an official remembrance--again, it is tomorrow--to allow us to stand united with these heroes. Today, any mention of these events of June 4, 1989, is censored from the Chinese people. The victims and their families are imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese Government, and the human rights situation in China and Tibet continues to deteriorate. Today, the Chinese people may not know the truth about Tiananmen. It was a long time ago. Many of the young people weren't even born yet. Corruption, though, they do know is rampant in the Chinese Government. The rule of law is not applied in a fair manner. They suffer injustices with no redress of grievances. Air and water pollution are making them unhealthy and destroying their environment. That may be something that gets the attention of the government. Mr. Wolf, thank you for your leadership, for your courage. When Mr. Smith talks about going to Chinese prison number 1, I know that you led the way there. Today, Ding Zilin and the Tiananmen Mothers bravely keep up their calls for dialogue, and their supporters worldwide join their demands that the Chinese Government provide an honest accounting of the crackdown, stop persecution of the families of the demonstrators, and allow the families to mourn publicly without interference. Today, Liu Xiaobo remains the world's only imprisoned Nobel Prize Peace Prize Laureate, as he and his wife, Xia, join so many others still languishing in prison for criticizing their government or trying to exercise and secure their basic human rights. We had the privilege of being asked by the family--some of us--to go to Norway when Liu Xiaobo received the Nobel Prize. As some of you may recall, there was an empty chair because the Chinese Government would not allow him out of prison to go to receive the Nobel Prize. So we joined some Members that were selected to be part of the delegation. Was that one of the great honors of our lives? I think we all agree that it was. We are not here today just to acknowledge history. We are here to learn from the memory of a dark chapter of our past and to write a brighter chapter of freedom and justice in the future. We are here to support the Tiananmen movement. How many of those young people who got out of China, who came through here, told us their stories of courage. We cried together. They tried together to make sense of how they could make a difference for those people who were left behind. We are here to support the Tiananmen movement, which endures, inspires, and cannot be stopped. I am hopeful. I am hopeful because there are conversations that happened with the Chinese Government. I have had my own on the subject of climate change and environmental issues like clean air, et cetera, that are problematic in China. Maybe there can be some communication that can be constructive. I am hopeful that the visits that we have had to each other's countries to talk about one subject and another without getting anywhere near that taboo, in their view, of our talking about people or their freedom, that perhaps in the communication that exists in the world today that maybe we have reason to be hopeful. But with the passage of this resolution, Congress will say to the people of China and freedom-loving people everywhere: Your cause is our cause. We can never forget. We must never forget. We will never forget. Again, the Chinese Government likes to say the prisoners, nobody knows you are here, they don't remember who you are, they don't remember why you came here. Well, we want to give lie to that, because over the years we have always joined together in a strongly bipartisan way to come to the floor or to go to public events to say the names of people whom we have not heard of their fate but that their mothers want an accounting for. As we do this, we look forward to a day when the world's most populous country can be called a country where people can speak out, be respected, and when the Chinese Government respects its own people it will command much more respect then. Again, I thank you Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen so much for taking the lead to bring this to the floor; Congressman Castro for your very, very important remarks; to my pals Mr. Wolf and Mr. Smith, you have done so much, you have made such a difference. It is an honor to serve with you and to work on this important project together. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I reserve the right to close, Mr. Speaker. Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. With no other speakers, I would simply say that the worth of a nation is not measured in dollars and cents alone, by size of the military or armaments. As China's economy continues to grow into among the nations' largest, so too should its commitment to human rights, democracy, and transparency. We are proud to support this resolution. With that, I yield back the balance of my time. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I yield the remainder of our time to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), subcommittee chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, whose bill will be before us today, cochair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and a tireless advocate for human rights in China. Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for bringing the bill up. I want to thank my partner, Congressman Smith, and I want to thank the Democratic leader, Congresswoman Pelosi, for being there at every time, including the time you stood up to the Chinese Government at Tiananmen Square, when you were almost arrested. So I want to thank the Democratic leader for her help and support every time an issue of human rights in China has come up. Thank you very much. [[Page H4856]] Twenty-five years ago, peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators, many of them students, most of them students, gathered in Tiananmen in a move for greater openness, transparency, and the rule of law. But what could have marked the beginning of a peaceful, political transition in China was brutally, brutally crushed by the People's Liberation Army. A historic moment of opportunity was, quite frankly, lost. By nearly every measure, China is today as intolerant of dissent as it has ever been. Just read today's New York Times where they talk about how they are cracking down, telling people: Do not go to Tiananmen. Like authoritarian governments before it, the Chinese Government remains deeply frightened. They are frightened. They are literally afraid of their own people. They are afraid of the spirit that animated that protest, namely, the yearning for basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. I first went to China in 1991 with my good friend Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey. It was during this trip we visited Beijing prison number 1. Chinese authorities informed us--and we saw them--that approximately 40 Tiananmen Square protestors were in the prison. Our request was to see the demonstrators. They were denied, but Chinese authorities gave us a tour of the prison's textile and plastic shoe factories. We saw them making socks. These are the socks that they were making. The fact is there are golfers on the side, and in those days they didn't play golf. Tiananmen Square demonstrators were making socks for Americans to wear as they play golf. I took with me some of the socks that prisoners were making because they were coming to our country. That experience captures, in stark terms, the failure of U.S. foreign policy--the failure of U.S. foreign policy toward China over successive demonstrations, both Republican and Democrat alike. The United States has too often pursued a relationship that is fundamentally inconsistent with the most basic national values, marked by trade and unfettered market access at the expense of human rights, religious freedom, and the rule of law. President Reagan said that the words in the Constitution and the words in the Declaration of Independence were a covenant not only with the people in Philadelphia in 1776 and 1787, but with the people of Tiananmen and the people who want freedom all over the world. May this resolution by Congressman Smith and the approaching anniversary of that dark June day serve as a sobering reminder of the unmet yearning for basic human liberty which compels men like Liu Xiaobo, himself an imprisoned Nobel Laureate, won the 2010 Nobel Prize, was in prison, his wife was under house arrest, she couldn't even go to Norway to pick up the prize, and also the thousands of others whose names we do not know, but as Leader Pelosi said: they will be known in the West, someday everyone will know who they are and everyone will know who they are in China and we will know the name of ``tank man,'' because ``tank man'' that Ms. Pelosi talked about has done more to bring about freedom than anybody else, and we will know their names. I pray for the day that the Chinese Government--the party and system responsible for the crackdown in Tiananmen and responsible for the continued repression--will be relegated to the ``ash heap of history.'' They will be relegated to the ash heap of history. I believe that will come very soon. I believe it will come in my lifetime, particularly if the Democratic aspirations of the Chinese people can find a champion-- if they can find a champion in the United States of America. With that, I thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for bringing this bill up. I thank Mr. Smith for this resolution and all the effort that he has done. I want to again thank Democratic Leader Pelosi for her leadership in fighting on these issues of human rights and religious freedom. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support for this resolution, which I join as an original cosponsor with my good friends and colleagues, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA). I cannot express strongly enough my admiration and respect for their leadership on protecting and promoting human rights in China, and their commitment to remembering, commemorating and educating others on the events that took place in Tiananmen Square twenty-five years ago. Mr. Speaker, thousands of citizens brutally murdered. Students shot down by their own government. Tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square to ruthlessly repress the spark of hope ignited in the hearts of thousands of people. On June 4th, a massacre ended the weeks of student protest and civil society actions that sparked hope for change and good governance, hope for greater inclusion and democracy. Yes, Mr. Speaker, it has been 25 years since Tiananmen Square--and China hopes that we've forgotten. But we have not forgotten. We have not forgotten Tiananmen Square, nor have we forgotten all the brave Chinese citizens who every day attempt to exercise the basic rights promised to them under the Chinese Constitution. The right to speak out and to bring grave matters to the attention of their government. Chinese citizens and their legal advocates who have tried to bring issues like government corruption, corporate exploitation of workers, unsafe working conditions, inadequate housing, agricultural mismanagement--so many find themselves the targets of government repression, legal reprisal, harassment, house arrest and even long and brutal imprisonment. They deserve the right to speak out and engage in intellectual and public debate about what constitutes fundamental human rights and respect, what constitutes the freedom to think and worship as one chooses, what constitutes respect for the ostensible cultural diversity of China when faced with the reality of brutal cultural repression in Tibet and Xinjiang. There are so many past and current heroes and heroines in China who have dared to think, write, speak and act freely in defiance of government control, censorship and mythology. We remember all of them today, past and present, as we debate this resolution and recall the events of 25 years ago. We stand with you, today and always. I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 599. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 599. The question was taken. The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it. Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. ____________________