the hearing will come to order i want to welcome everyone to this important hearing and i want to thank human rights commission staff concho aggressor and elizabeth hoffman for their incredible work in organizing today's hearing before i begin my remarks i would just like to say that there is a dear colleague with a brief calendar of some of the events happening this week on capitol hill and the rock and around the city that commemorate and reflect on tenements where i think coverage and courage every one to take advantage of the many opportunities to hear and to learn from eyewitness accounts of these historic events that took place twenty years ago this week the human rights commission will be hosting a screening of the discovery channel's documentary film tank man on thursday at five p m in the congressional visitors center and advise everyone to come and see this incredible film that takes a closer look at one of the iconic images of the chinese government's brutal crackdown against the demonstrators and the simple coverage of the students and other chinese citizens who simply wanted their voices heard also on the literature table is a letter from the speaker of the house nancy pelosi to chinese president  regarding prisoners of conscience who should be released from chinese prison the speaker personally hand delivered this letter to the president while in china last week twenty years ago i was working as a congressional  congressman joe moakley the representative boston massachusetts unlike most of the world we have been we have been watching the reporting from tenements where as the demonstrations for political and economic reform grew and spread across china the nonviolent actions by chinese people from all walks of life caught and held the imagination frankly we could hardly believe what we were seeing i know that we all hoped it would all lead to an exciting new era in china but instead beginning the night of june third and throughout june fourth we witnessed live the violence of tanks and machine guns against defenseless civilians i had intended to give a brief description of some of those events but instead i i would like to devote more time to the introductions of our panelists because your life stories are so representative of tenement square and its aftermath so at this point i'd like to yield to my colleagues for opening statement the co chair of the tom lantos human rights commission congressman frank wolf thank you jim i appreciate it very much i want to start by thanking the witnesses the trial the great distances to be with here today and share your personal demonstrations were led up to the june fourth crackdown in tenements where twenty years ago i want you all to know that you are true heroes of the movement for freedom and democracy in china it is important that your stories  struggles are not forgotten in fact as your name should be on the lips when freedom comes to china as it will your name should be on the lips of all the schoolchildren and they should be able to talk about you the same way that we in the united states talk about the revolutionary war heroes of of the adams in the jefferson's in a man is an amount rose and people who have fought and defended this country at an early timing concord massachusetts and places like that say you should be and will be when that time comes in that same category all right the chinese government has made painstakingly efforts to ensure that the events which took place on the square twenty years ago i race from history all references to the tenement protests have been removed from student textbooks and the topic is off limits for the state run media i went to china for the first time in one thousand nine hundred one with my good friend congressman chris smith of new jersey it was during this trip that we visited beijing prison number one you can see those pictures there congresses smith and i are walking through beijing prison number one they had a sock factory in the middle of there those people working on that machinery were tenements where demonstrators they were making the socks for export to the to the united states and chinese authorities inform us that at that time forty tenements where protesters were in the prison at the time that congressman smith and i were where there are requests to see the demonstrators were denied however the chinese authorities gave us a visit they said other prison textile and plastic shoe factory where we then took these pictures and took the socks and him tested because they were later for export to through the west i took with the socks out and gave them to senator moynihan who brays the socks on the floor of the senate when the issue of most favored nation trading status came up and unfortunately m f and test still today the chinese people long for freedom from the oppressive rule of the communist party last winter a group of chinese democracy activists published charter zero eight a document the chinese government responded by systematically incarcerated harassing the brave group of individuals who signed the charter twenty years a passenger crackdown a tenement square and the chinese government continues to ignore the peaceful protests and i stress peaceful protest of us own citizens for democratic reform i continue every night to pray for the freedom that china china the chinese people will have freedom the same way that millions of americans and millions of people in the west prayed for the freedom of people behind the iron curtain we prayed and many people prayed in the same thing that happened with regard to the berlin wall and the iron curtain will happen with regard to the china i strongly believe that in my lifetime we will see the collapse we see the collapse of the chinese communist party in the constitution day speech president ronald reagan described the an honest day's constitution and he said the following as a covenant we have made not only with ourselves but all of mankind and we have an obligation that congress the administration the executive branch everyone has an obligation worldwide to keep that covenant with the people of china and people who live in oppression around the world again i want to thank our witnesses for being with here today i look forward to your testimony and i would love to have the opportunity sometime to return to ten and then with all  day thank you for your courage thank you very much congressman pitts from pennsylvania thank you mr chairman thank you for holding this important hearing on tenement square and human rights in china i remember well april one thousand nine hundred nine when students in beijing felt peaceful demonstrations and tiananmen square calling for freedom openness and dialogue the chinese government responded by declaring martial law and on june third the people's liberation army troops were deployed in the square and no one can forget that terrible massacre that in shoes the extraordinary image of a man standing unarmed in front of a row of china type fifty nine tanks preventing their advance has become one of the most famous photos of the twentieth century and will be forever ingrained in all of our memories but that man represents thousands of others in the wake of the crackdown hundreds perhaps thousands of people were killed or wounded thousands more were arrested or detained this week we pause to remember the lives that were tragically lost in the mad we commemorate their courage their stand for freedom we remember those they left behind mothers and fathers husbands wives sisters brothers and friends we also remember those who remain in prison because of their involvement in the democratic protest and we call on the chinese government to release these individuals as an act of reconciliation and good faith china has made significant progress towards economic reform but political reform is still needed to ensure the fundamental rights of people of the people such as the freedom protestors who desire freedom of religion expression and assembly and we look forward to a day when the people of china are truly free i would like to extend a special welcome to all of our witnesses i look forward to hearing your stories your testimonies of courage and survival i would also like like to thank bob fu for his dedicated work to protect and defend the basic freedoms of the chinese people thank you for your leadership for your courage and for your willingness to travel a long distance to be with us today we the courage and determination of the students at tenement square and the images very much inspired me with respect to the level of determination that the group there convey in their face again an oppressive force and i and i was thinking that possibly some of the even to me students in vietnam could also have the same courage and the same determination to stand up and speak out against the communist governments of vietnam you and i we share the same heritage we share the same history and i believe that the history of vietnam will very much correspond to the history of china cause when will state that he hopes to see the communist party of china collapse in this lifetime i also i want to select the the view of couse when will and saying that i hope in my lifetime the communist government of naam will also call out and i believe that with more people with the same courage and the same you terminations as each and every one of you here  we will be able to promote much more quickly the marcos see and freedom not only in china but also in other parts of the world so i look forward to hear from you and thank you very much for being here new jersey chairman thank you very much for calling this very important and cochairman wolf and i too want to welcome our very distinguished panelists to this hearing twenty years ago as we all know hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered on tiananmen square and elsewhere in china to express their desire for peaceful democratic reforms in the face of these massive demonstrations the chinese government hesitated they were apparently some decent men and women in the party's leadership would be gone to understand what a tragedy communist rule had been for the chinese people countless millions who whose lives had been destroyed by its famines and cultural revolution and totalitarian social controls but we know what happened obviously pushed the reformers aside cleared him a square with tanks and shot to death thousands of peaceful demonstrators in december of one thousand nine hundred six here in washington at the invitation of then president bill clinton general  defense minister of the people's republic of china the general who was in operational command of the soldiers who slaughtered pro democracy demonstrators in and around gentleman square in june of one thousand nine hundred ninety said and i quote not a single person lost his life in tiananmen square according to general jones the chinese army did nothing more violent than this is his quote the pushing of people journo to not only met with mrs mr clinton in the white house but was accorded full military honors including one thousand gun salute and visits to military bases rather than getting the red carpet general choice should have been held to account for his crimes against humanity the care of this law i put together a hearing and we included eyewitnesses who were there who saw what happened we also invited general chose obviously did not show up nor did anybody from the embassy on the scoring they can speak well when no one's holding them to account but they don't want to speak with people who are in the know and certainly had witnesses that day who were there and saw the bayoneted bodies twenty years after tiananmen square mr chairman the chinese government perpetuates journal chose or willian fabrication that no one died in truth thousands die and approximately seven thousand were wounded twenty years after tiananmen square an untold number of democracy activists remain incarcerated for peacefully advocating for human rights we all noted to be jailed by the torture that continues to this day we must raise our voices on his behalf and so many others like him mr chairman later on today the house will take action on a resolution that will put the democrats and republicans of our body on record as deploring what happened twenty years ago calling for an accountability calling for release of all the political prisoners and i do think we need to know every day where is happening it's not over not visible but in the prisons throughout the laogai system people are being mistreated as they were on the streets being tortured in you mainly treated cruelly and wantonly despised by their jailers so this hearing i think is important to get a record again what is happening in china today but also looking back twenty years the terrible massacre that occurred cannot go on forgotten and unremembered i thank you and i yield back and i want to thank the gentleman from new jersey  you and it is now my pleasure to introduce our witnesses i'm a take just a little bit of time because i want people who are familiar with your back grounds to know what you have done and what you have been through mr fane jang was leaving tenement square in the early morning of june fourth one nine hundred eighty nine along with other student protesters in an orderly retreat he suddenly realised that a military tank was approaching them from behind sensing the imminent danger he used all his strength to push a female student out of the tanks path and in doing so both his legs were crushed by the tanks rolling treads things has continued to live in china he has refused to cooperate with the government and its efforts to cover up the truth of his last legs and of the massacre that took place in tenement square for the past twenty years he has been harassed and closely monitored by police always an excellent athlete he excelled at sports even after his legs were amputated pacific region games and last year he was banned from competing in the two thousand and eight special olympics held in beijing with the help of the mothers of tenement square and other brave chinese citizens who continue to keep alive the memory of telling us where inside china things and he is here today in washington to remember the twentieth anniversary of the one nine hundred eighty nine demonstrations even before ten am and mr demo democracy party but it was banned by the chinese government in december one thousand nine hundred eight when was sentenced to eleven years in prison for subversion in two thousand and four he was released in exiled due to u s and international pressure since that time he live in the united states studying at harvard and the university of illinois at events at the a brand champaign and he continues to be a member of the chinese democracy party's service platform as one of the people responsible for their web site a w c c d t r dot org he firmly believes that the transition to constitutional democracy will occur in china fans who grew up in a peasant family and traveled to beijing in one nine hundred eighty five to study physics as jing why university during his four years there he organized the first and only direct election of the physics student union in the history of that university he was one of the student leaders during the pro democracy demonstrations in tenements where you set up the first student broadcast ation as university and he did the same thing at tenements where it became the operations center for the protesters on june fourth one thousand nine hundred nine as students were being attacked by army tanks and machine guns giles stayed in town and square until the very last moment he was one of the twenty one most wanted students by the chinese government and was soon arrested he spent one year in prison without trial before he was released in june one thousand nine hundred he was sent to internal exile in a remote province where he and and other former dissidents got september two thousand he was a leading plaintive at a loss to brought by the telamon massacre of victor victims and survivors against the chinese premier who ordered the crackdown on the demonstrators charging him with crimes against humanity the first of many efforts to hold accountable the mass murders of nine hundred eighty nine since then he has been involved in a number of chinese human rights organizations and initiatives including providing humanitarian aid and support to individuals and groups inside china including the telamon mothers with his organization humanitarian china is working on a human rights archive database with over two thousand cases of human rights abuses and prisoners of conscience bob fu is one of the leading voices in the world for freedom of religion and worship in china he was born and raised in china and graduated from the school of international relations at the people's university in beijing he later taught english to the communist party officials at the beijing administrative college and the beijing party school he was pastor of the house church in beijing until he and his wife were jailed for two months in one thousand nine hundred six for illegal evangelism bob and his wife heidi fled to the united states in one thousand nine hundred seven where he founded the china eight association to draw international attention to china's persecution against house church christians he has provided testimony before the house international relations committee the u s commission on international religious freedom the congressional executive commission on china the united nations commission on human rights the foreign press association and many members and entities of the european union and the european commission bob is a visiting professor at religion and philosophy at oklahoma wesleyan university and a ph d candidate at westminster theological seminary in philadelphia is the china analyst for voices of the martyrs editor in chief of the chinese law religion monitor and guest editor for chinese law  government at u c l a journal and in two thousand and seven he received the john leland religious liberty award from the southern baptists baptists ethics and religious liberty commission there are thousands of stories connected to the one nine hundred eighty nine events we now refer to as tenements where as we begin our hearing i would like to take a moment to remember the hundreds perhaps thousands who were murdered in tenements square or later imprisoned or sent into exile i want to remember the families the friends and the colleagues of those who died and those who survived our witnesses today are but four of these voices but we are privileged and we are honored to have them here and we look forward to their testimony government and congress to the time i massacre jam which is just what that guy seen through the yugo i'm so glad to be here speaking to the us congress own leaders but i have to confess to you i have never been very interested in nine i went to join the protest and i don't get them demonstration they came there with many hopes and i deeply believe those the chief hopes of those thomas square was that all government would allow more freedom of speech and freedom media corruption would be dealt with and that the government would start a dialogue  was scared soul i just told her don't be scared to walk with me along with others because it's all women many who just simply crushed lost their lives to leave poco area many i was fortunate these this survived but i know that so many lost their lives and so many like me was caused this the abled for ever by the chinese military like many others survivors of that him and massacre we have been mistreated and persecuted in the past twenty years after the massacre in the past twenty years there's no sign no sign at all the time these government had any willingness even to the meat of combat any mistakes for that massacre nor any yeah sure dr don't pocket many of family members sons and daughters of those who lost their lives were have been mistreated and persecuted in the past twenty years and many war were on the have been imprisoned for simply because they want to request the truth about that him and square many other pursuit of freedoms useless agenda so would you talk to my b g i mean these are the sure i mean if the chinese government is seriously want to improve human rice and implement the human rights record it is so important that i see it is you that you call for more freedom and democracy in china stably committee for truth to find out who authored the killing they are the teams of tanks to taste the students work peacefully leaving the square that justice can be accomplished she had idea i thank you very much for your testimony and we all appreciate you being here and we know it's difficult to recount the terrible events of telamon square but we admire your courage  whole experience state to recall that dreams are still alive  i think we all surprised by the passion that chinese people show up for doing that to be here yet people every day and that's what we remember and that's what surprised everyone who participate we were driven out by attacks all night long i was hearing kang shots around the pm the square i saw people pleading being carried away young as i was that crack stopped and basically would not allow any public discussion so it takes a lot of i first to keep the memory alive and as years go on we begin to in the mall detail about what really ha that is the families of these who killed have always being on the pressure being persecuted cannot speak about talk about their loved was lost in that period even after ten years in the united states she has being afraid to speak up because she does not want her family's in china to get into trouble so for these families is never history one of the one of the go you nine hundred eighty nine was actually economic freedom which was eventually carried out by the communist government while we were all hoping that the globalization with the help of china both economically and in terms of its human rights  in the last ten years what we've seen is exactly the opposite and the through the chinese community all over the war last year doing the olympic torch i was beaten by a group of chinese supporters there were tens of thousands of chinese coming out from all over california and the other parts of the country in support of the chinese government why one it will be heard all over the world and there will be a lot of people to carry it out unfortunately it was happening in san francisco of us tens of thousands of chinese supporters carrying red flags and the cursing and the pushing us around i said well then you should protect us but as a police state nothing and we got to read to notice from the chinese newspaper that this is political and they will not accept it like this and as a dream of these who died twenty years ago i still alive to join you today i was asked to speak up about my experience at tammany square the moment itself and a discussion of this question paul do we go from here i know you are all of a man of action i would start with this question where do we go from here was it was my dream to be a democratically elected premier of thai and now it is my dream that that would be my meeting people on thomas square worshipping god with repression from the government this would be such a wonderful that my homeland that my homeland would be strong on the floor seeing so many levels i remember last year before the olympics when congressman congressman smith went to china congressman wolves team received a letter received a phone call telling that they would be arrested if they go to the gym a square to protest i remembered i gave them a few dress of the independent house churches that they want to call to visit to go to a catholic church to visit during that sunday their congregation welcoming them once to embrace them they had to toast to leave because there are so much fear out there is there any progress twenty years later after their time as square in china yes in some areas you know economic financial prosperity and there are more modern buildings built but china now is the country holding it is the largest has and there's hope yes if you want to ask me is there any hole i think i hope our fall and in those men of the were released they went to their torturers they went to the interrogators this they all tell them i still love you because you are created by the maid of god wives were beaten the themselves were kidnapped continue to file want he stopped another the so called sensitive cases by a lawyer lost their lives and the other a want my recommendations i think we talk about where do we go from here i would because we have stowed with the truth that we were falling far below the requirement for a nation founded on the truth that all men were created equal that we had a lesson to learn with the truth by asking the tinies government for it as member of congress you have the privilege to visit china to meet with the tinies officials and please every time when you visit there do not hesitate to tell the truth about what have twenty years ago to tell the chinese government officials that you want to visit a uni pendent house of worship you have the nameless that you want to meet with them because the are you all fellow brothers or sisters not because they are you are a member of congress in the us you want to share the fellowship with them to give them a big h so where do we go from here to clan piously to truth to promote clear legal definition of religious freedom rule of law and registration of  independent churches house church it religious size to call for accountability demonstrate that mistreat the provision of the law are being followed i remember it was the chinese ambassador in washington d c and he said i want to come here to see a fellow well but the really last word was i don't hope there won't be any surprise so my hope is one day maybe in the very near future your your dream for is to congressman wolf thank you mr chairman i were going over to the floor for the resolution in the media and i want to one thank all of the witnesses for your very eloquent testimony and hopefully this word will get back to to the to the people of china secondly i want to say before my other comments that the people of china are very good people very decent very strong very very resilient and i'm confident that they will they will prevail in any comment made is more directed to the government and not at all to the chinese people  fell the chinese people are yearning for for freedom and i think it's important and i appreciate you making it clear that they have a large number of catholic bishops some say thirty to thirty four in jail today they have hundreds of protestant pastors in jail today they have plundered to have literally changing the culture and bulldozing buildings and a they have killed and imprisoned the following gong and have treated them just in a terrible way and i guess you have several comments that one i think it's important for the people in the west particularly the religious community in the west in the bible and in the religious teachings it tells you to speak out and advocate for the poor and those who are persecuted and yet there is almost complete silence by the leaders of all the churches and all the face in the west the sound the silence where as during the eighty's and seventies during carter and reagan there was more advocacy on the part of the western church leaders of all denominations because of almost every denomination they have suffered persecution in its history and i think that all the religious leaders in this country should advocate  for the last comment as i believe that china has almost found the playbook of child jeske you who did it is pretty much what the chinese government is currently doing now and that the chinese government and this government in power now will go the same way that the remaining government will go we'll wait some day we'll hear a kind of a radio call sort of if there was that christmas of one thousand nine hundred nine were some these taking place in china and all of a sudden like that this government will fall and there will be freedom of babu we all can gather together in tenement square and so i sank all of you i will get all of your testimony we will put it in the congressional record we will also speak an advocate and urge the members of this administration and this congress in both political parties and quite frankly in some respects both political parties have been silent to advocate for until we see that day of freedom and i want to thank all of and you said the dreams are still alive for freedom that you can express yourselves without any censorship from the government and the thirst for truth is still going on that was inspirational and you talk about the tenement massacre not being history the pain and suffering is still with your people could you  do you have any idea how many individuals remain in detention today for their involvement in the one nine hundred eighty nine pro democracy protest in the estimates  foundation it's about a third all over the country and about eighty in beijing and the according to the chinese government the official death toll from the crackdown was between two to three hundred however other estimates estimates are could be significantly higher do you have any estimates as to how many were killed in the can did all of those individuals imprisoned for their association with the movement actually participate in the protests twenty years ago or did they arrest others besides protesters he just he just talked to when sort of he said you know i'm also a soldier and very saddened by what happened he was beaten up we've gone pointing out he's had and  arrested and beaten by the people he believe you know he's familiar ways can you expand on that statement that you made that the dreams are still alive do you mean that there's broad public support in china for the freedoms that you were thirsting for and protesting for still today yes i'm glad that you asked this question because although the government the communist party so he asked this question you have use all these forces to kill people to put people in prison you come co created this idea that there is a plot to overthrow the that what he was what the government declared the reason for the martial law was true so this is the only investigation that the government has come back to that we trades try to prove that there is a plot to overthrow the government so that they have to use martial law but of course the government wouldn't talk about their findings anymore so that's the only investigation we know from the government so one of the things that we in congress could do would be to ash the chinese government to have an official investigation into the tiananmen square massacre yes exactly actually just last week here in the united states and there but that he was an active supporter of the chinese students but that young twenty years most people like him which he changed but he did the present of good idea geisha and the chinese government has never had any kind of a commemoration for the victims who were massacred they have never had any kind of recognition publicly of the loss life no not one final question about your you're an eloquent spokesman for religious liberty in around the world but especially in china how many would you estimate in china are members of the unregistered church movement to house churches do you have any estimates just for how many million people participate in that persecution as you outlined in china a report the the level the the increase what was the reason for the increase in persecution is a because they want to make china look good for the beijing olympics therefore they want to suppress any kind of possible protests or what is the reason for for the for the increase in persecution or is it a a personal agenda of the president of china thank you for asking that question yes i mean we even those peaceful worshippers when they were reading it to round them up when they are worshipping in their own homes and but one thing of course first of all that the persecution and the level of persecution or degree of persecution is different even in different provinces or at different times as you mentioned they're pretty olympics the chinese government has launched a pretty all empirics clean up campaign in beijing even those who are saigon where people are being brainwashed to not continue with their faith or what kind of camp are you talking about they are called re education through labor camps the their reasons for imprisonment you know their their reason for imprisonment there are reasons the main reason is because the refused to surrender themselves to be under the total control of the so called government peach arctic catholic social asian government sanctioned organization and instead they want to follow their faith according to the bi let me ask one final question and that is what is the best way for congress or the u s government to support those voices inside china calling for reform and the exercise of basic freedoms like freedom of expression association of worship but let alone the freedom to form alternative political parties and the reason why i asked that question is we come together today to commemorate the horrific events at tenement where and i think there is absolute unity in the united states congress and the united states government that these these actions taken by the chinese government were horrific and are atrocities  and i think what whether there was debate sometimes in the congress and in the administration is how best do you encourage change in china there are some who say that we need to take a  tougher stand we need to be more vocal we need to be more in your face but there are others who say if you do that you force the chinese government to dig in and then you don't get any progress there are others who say we should be quiet you know that you should send signals to the chinese government that you disapprove of the human rights situation but you shouldn't be so public about it and there are others who say that we need to do is somewhere in the middle and i think what all of us are interested in on this commission is promoting human rights we're not interested in giving speeches and we're not interested in doing things that don't advance the cause because of that you have all talked about here today and so i guess the question is your advice to us is as to how we can best help you in your work and expand political space and political freedoms in china maybe that's because more attention to what's happening there but i want to i want to i want to be with you and help in a way that actually that we could stand here a year from now and two years from now and three years from now see this progress so any advice or guidance that you can give us that would be very much appreciated any and all of you can ok i would just voice mail pending i believe internet freedom said all the reasoning why you know some folks from the us are hesitant to meet with human rights defenders lawyers dissidents or dependent religious  people yes yes i would be in card you know the administration officials in the u s embassy i'm currently i think we only had one or two officials working in the human rights we share your commitment to human rights not only in china but around the world we are grateful for your courage and for your inspiration and we look forward to working with you in the weeks and months and years ahead thank you very much this conclu