May 23, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 87 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S3114-S3116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SENATE RESOLUTION 221--RECOGNIZING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 TIANANMEN SQUARE MASSACRE AND CONDEMNING THE INTENSIFYING REPRESSION 
AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE USE 
     OF SURVEILLANCE BY CHINESE AUTHORITIES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

  Mr. GARDNER (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Risch, Mr. Menendez, Mr. 
Toomey, and Mr. Rubio) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

[[Page S3115]]

  


                              S. Res. 221

       Whereas the United States was founded on the principle that 
     all persons are endowed with certain unalienable rights;
       Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 
     by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 
     10, 1948, enshrined the rights of freedom of expression, 
     assembly, and association;
       Whereas, after the death on April 15, 1989, of former 
     General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Yaobang, 
     who was compelled to resign in 1987 for expressing support of 
     students demanding political reform, thousands of people 
     gathered to mourn him and demonstrate peacefully in Beijing;
       Whereas, throughout April and May 1989, peaceful 
     demonstrations continued in Tiananmen Square and in an 
     estimated 400 other cities across China, with total numbers 
     of demonstrators reaching into the millions;
       Whereas, on May 9, 1989, prompted by discontent over 
     censorship of the coverage of protests, more than 1,000 
     Chinese journalists signed a petition calling for freedom of 
     the press;
       Whereas, by May 18, 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 Chinese 
     citizens from all walks of life, including students, 
     teachers, workers, writers and other individuals, gathered 
     peacefully in Tiananmen Square to call for political and 
     economic reforms;
       Whereas several Chinese individuals in positions of 
     authority, including the presidents of 8 Chinese universities 
     and the central committees of the Communist Youth League of 
     China, called for the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to accept the demands of the Tiananmen Square 
     protestors;
       Whereas Chinese students abroad, including in the United 
     States, organized rallies in support of the Tiananmen Square 
     demonstrations;
       Whereas, on May 20, 1989, the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China declared martial law in Beijing and 
     deployed troops of the People's Liberation Army within the 
     city;
       Whereas, on June 4, 1989, troops of the People's Liberation 
     Army, at the behest of Chinese Communist Party leadership, 
     attacked Tiananmen Square to repress demonstrators, crushing 
     defenseless protestors with tanks and firing on them 
     indiscriminately, killing hundreds or possibly thousands of 
     individuals;
       Whereas troops of the People's Liberation Army also 
     suppressed protests in other cities in China;
       Whereas protestors braved the brutal repression ordered by 
     the Government of the People's Republic of China, including 
     by facing down a column of tanks sent to intimidate unarmed 
     civilians;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     dishonestly portrayed the individuals gathered as rioters;
       Whereas, in 2019, the Government of the People's Republic 
     of China censors any mention of Tiananmen Square and 
     imprisons its own citizens who attempt to discuss Tiananmen 
     Square;
       Whereas, in recent years, Chinese Communist Party 
     leadership, especially under President Xi Jinping, has 
     tightened its control over the lives of Chinese citizens and 
     suppressed beliefs and activities it views as threatening to 
     its rule, including through--
       (1) the ``709 Crackdown'', in which the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China, on July 9, 2015, detained and 
     imprisoned hundreds of lawyers working to uphold the rule of 
     law;
       (2) the imprisonment of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, a 
     Nobel Peace Prize winner and outspoken advocate for political 
     reform, until his death in 2017; and
       (3) the internment of 800,000 to possibly more than 
     2,000,000 Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims in 
     internment camps in Xinjiang;
       Whereas the 2018 Department of State annual Country Report 
     on Human Rights Practices for the People's Republic of China 
     detailed the continued violations of fundamental freedoms, 
     including the freedoms of speech, the press, religion, 
     association, and assembly, by the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China;
       Whereas Congress has passed numerous measures articulating 
     the longstanding and bipartisan commitment to support for 
     human rights in China, including--
       (1) the sanctions imposed in response to the Tiananmen 
     Square massacre under section 902 of the Foreign Relations 
     Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 (Public Law 
     101-246; 22 U.S.C. 2151 note);
       (2) the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (Public 
     Law 102-383; 22 U.S.C. 5701 et seq.);
       (3) the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (Public 
     Law 105-292; 22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.);
       (4) the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 (division B of 
     Public Law 106-286; 22 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.);
       (5) the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (subtitle B of title VI 
     of Public Law 107-228; 22 U.S.C. 6901 note);
       (6) the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Congressional Gold Medal Act 
     (Public Law 109-287; 31 U.S.C. 5111 note);
       (7) the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 (Public Law 
     108-333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.);
       (8) the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 
     2008 (Public Law 110-346);
       (9) the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act 
     (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114-328; 22 U.S.C. 
     2656 note);
       (10) the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 
     2017 (Public Law 115-198); and
       (11) the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 (Public Law 
     115-330);
       Whereas, on December 31, 2018, President Donald J. Trump 
     signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 
     (Public Law 115-409), which condemned the ``forced 
     disappearances, extralegal detentions, invasive and 
     omnipresent surveillance, and lack of due process in judicial 
     proceedings'' in China and authorized funding to promote 
     democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in China;
       Whereas the full, complete, and timely implementation of 
     all relevant laws of the United States that address 
     democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in China, 
     including the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 (Public 
     Law 115-409), is critical to demonstrating the unwavering 
     support of the United States for the fundamental rights and 
     freedoms of the Chinese people and to providing full support 
     for human rights defenders in China;
       Whereas the Chinese Communist Party has passed and 
     implemented sweeping laws that provide the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China with broad authority to suppress 
     the legitimate freedoms and activities of Chinese citizens, 
     civil society, and international entities operating inside 
     China, including--
       (1) the 2014 Counterespionage Law;
       (2) the 2015 National Security Law;
       (3) the 2015 Counterterrorism Law;
       (4) the 2016 Charity Law;
       (5) the 2017 Law of the People's Republic of China on 
     Administration of Activities of Overseas Nongovernmental 
     Organizations in the Mainland of China; and
       (6) the 2017 Cybersecurity Law;
       Whereas the Chinese Communist Party has used surveillance 
     since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 
     to maintain tight political and social control;
       Whereas the ability of the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China to monitor its citizens and otherwise 
     violate their fundamental rights and liberties has been 
     accelerated by the proliferation of closed-circuit security 
     cameras, the adoption of new technologies such as facial 
     recognition, and the use of big data and artificial 
     intelligence;
       Whereas the Chinese Communist Party has turned Xinjiang 
     into a testing ground for these intrusive, Orwellian 
     surveillance measures;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is 
     promoting a state-controlled model of Internet governance 
     that is used to justify government repression of expression 
     online;
       Whereas Chinese companies are exporting surveillance 
     technologies to other countries with poor human rights 
     records, and the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     is providing training to officials in these countries; and
       Whereas, despite this long and intensifying record of 
     oppression by the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China, selfless Chinese human rights defenders continue their 
     work and advocacy because, in the words of Liu Xiaobo, there 
     is ``no force that can put an end to the human quest for 
     freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by 
     law, where human rights reign supreme'': Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) expresses its deepest sympathy with the family, 
     friends, colleagues, and classmates of the victims of the 
     Tiananmen Square massacre;
       (2) condemns the use of violence as a means to repress the 
     legitimate aspirations of the Chinese people to speak and 
     associate freely, including to petition the government and 
     challenge the policies and ideology of the Chinese Communist 
     Party;
       (3) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to invite full and independent investigations into the 
     Tiananmen Square massacre by the United Nations High 
     Commissioner for Human Rights;
       (4) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to release all political prisoners, including prisoners 
     held because of their participation in the Tiananmen Square 
     protest or actions pursuing reforms called for by the 
     individuals gathered in Tiananmen Square;
       (5) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to refrain from intimidating protest participants who 
     fled China and allow them to return to China without fear of 
     detention or other repercussions;
       (6) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to cease its current repression of the Chinese people, 
     including of lawyers and activists who stand up for the 
     rights of their fellow citizens;
       (7) urges the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     to cease the use of emerging technologies as tools of 
     oppression;
       (8) calls on the United States Government and Members of 
     Congress to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square 
     protests, including by--
       (A) meeting with participants of the Tiananmen Square 
     protests who now live outside of China;
       (B) meeting with others outside of China who have been 
     blacklisted by the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China as a result of their peaceful protest activities;
       (C) supporting calls for accountability for the officials 
     who ordered the Tiananmen Square massacre; and
       (D) supporting individuals who continue to call for reforms 
     in China to further the freedom of speech, freedom of 
     assembly, freedom

[[Page S3116]]

     of the press, freedom to petition the government, and freedom 
     of religion; and
       (9) calls on the international community to cooperate in 
     addressing the Government of the People's Republic of China's 
     continued persecution of its own citizens, including the use 
     of intrusive mass surveillance.

                          ____________________