IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1221 

Marking the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and condemning the ongoing and often brutal suppression of human rights 

and basic freedoms by the Government of the People’s Republic of 

China and Chinese Communist Party, including in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 10, 2024 

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself and Ms. WEXTON) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Marking the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and condemning the ongoing and often brutal suppression of human rights and basic freedoms by the 

Government of the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Communist Party, including in the Hong Kong 

Special Administrative Region, and for other purposes. 

Whereas June 4, 2024, marks the 35th anniversary of the 

violent crackdowns on peaceful demonstrations held on 

Tiananmen Square in central Beijing and in 400 other 

cities in the People’s Republic of China; 

Whereas these demonstrations included an estimated 

1,000,000 Chinese citizens from all walks of life, including students, government employees, journalists, workers, 


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police officers, and members of the Armed Forces, who 

gathered peacefully to call for democratic reforms; 

Whereas these peaceful demonstrators called upon the Government of the People’s Republic of China to eliminate 

corruption, accelerate economic and political reform, and 

protect human rights, particularly the freedoms of expression and assembly—concerns that remain pertinent 

in China today; 

Whereas the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party sent 

armed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops and tanks 

into Beijing and surrounding areas beginning on June 3, 

1989, killing and injuring thousands of demonstrators 

and other unarmed civilians, including in Tiananmen 

Square; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

continues to censor any mention of the crackdown centered on Tiananmen Square and prevents the victims 

from being publicly mourned and remembered; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

harasses, detains, and arrests those who call for a full, 

public, and independent accounting of the wounded, dead, 

and those imprisoned for participating in the spring 1989 

demonstrations—including the Tiananmen Mothers 

Group; 

Whereas the people of Hong Kong had held annual 

Tiananmen Square vigils since 1990 in Victoria Park, 

which were the only such mass gathering on Chinese territory because commemorations of the event are banned 

in mainland China; 

Whereas the longstanding tradition of Hong Kong vigils came 

to an end in 2020 when Hong Kong police denied appliVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:21 May 11, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1221.IH HR1221

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cations for assembly pretextually on COVID-related 

grounds and then jailed key organizers of the annual 

event on politically motivated criminal charges involving 

unlawful assembly or national security; 

Whereas Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan, and Tsui Honkwong—members of the Hong Kong Alliance that organized the annual vigil—were convicted for resisting police 

demand to surrender the personal information of alliance 

members; 

Whereas Hong Kong police arrested 24 prominent individuals, including Joshua Wong, Gwyneth Ho, Jimmy Lai, 

and Lee Cheuk-yan on charges of unlawful assembly or 

inciting unlawful assembly simply for showing up at Victoria Park in 2020; 

Whereas the central Government of the People’s Republic of 

China and the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have since used the National Security Law imposed on the HKSAR in 2020 by 

the PRC’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee to suppress peaceful protests and democratic 

voices in Hong Kong, including by barring candidates 

from standing for election and by arresting more than 

1,000 pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders; 

Whereas, in March 2024, the Hong Kong Legislative Council 

passed national security legislation pursuant to Article 23 

of the Basic Law, which gives law enforcement additional 

powers to prosecute people on vague charges, thereby 

augmenting the risk of arbitrary detention, including the 

suppression of peaceful protests, vigils, and assemblies 

the Hong Kong government does not like; 


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Whereas to protest censorship and harsh zero-COVID policy, 

mass protests in November 2022 spurred the largest 

mass demonstrations in China since 1989; 

Whereas these protests were in part spurred by the actions 

of Peng Lifa, also called ‘‘Bridgeman,’’ who unfurled two 

banners over the Sitong Bridge in Beijing which read 

‘‘We don’t want Covid Tests, we want food. We don’t 

want Cultural Revolution, we want reform. We don’t 

want lockdowns, we want freedom. We don’t want an autocrat, we want votes. We don’t want lies, we want dignity. We are citizens, not slaves.’’; 

Whereas Li Kangmeng, a university student, was reportedly 

the first person to hold up a blank sheet of white paper 

to highlight pervasive censorship in China, inspiring others to adopt this symbol as a form of protest—giving a 

name to the 2022 protests as the ‘‘White Paper Movement’’; 

Whereas Peng Lifa and Li Kangmeng remain in some from 

of detention, despite being nominated by Members of the 

Congress for the Nobel Peace Prize; 

Whereas an unknown amount of other people engaged in protest remain detained or disappeared, including university 

student Kamile Wayit, who was sentenced for ‘‘extremism’’ because she posted protest video on the Chinese 

social media platform WeChat; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

continues to commit gross violations of international-recognized human rights—through the arbitrary detention, 

torture, and harassment of pro-democracy activists, members of ethnic groups, religious believers, human rights 

lawyers, citizen journalists, and labor union leaders, 


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among many others seeking to express their political or 

religious views or ethnic identity in a peaceful manner; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

is responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity 

being committed against the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

has engaged in forced collection of biometric information 

from Tibetans and separates Tibetan children from their 

parents in colonial boarding schools, a practice that may 

constitute crimes against humanity; and 

Whereas Congress took steps, over the past 35 years, to remember the Tiananmen demonstrations and their violent 

suppression because of the profound impact the event has 

had on United States-People’s Republic of China relations and because commemorating Tiananmen was 

censored and banned in China and now in Hong Kong: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) marks the 35th anniversary of the 

3 Tiananmen Square protests and their violent sup4 pression by recognizing the solemn significance of 

5 the 1989 demonstrations and the impact the 

6 Tiananmen Massacre has had on United States-Peo7 ple’s Republic of China relations; 

8 (2) will continue to participate in somber re9 membrances for the victims of the Tiananmen MasVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:21 May 11, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR1221.IH HR1221

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1 sacre for as long as commemorations are banned in 

2 the People’s Republic of China; 

3 (3) calls on the United States Government to— 

4 (A) urge the Government of the People’s 

5 Republic of China to cease censoring informa6 tion and discussion about the Tiananmen Mas7 sacre and end efforts of intimidation and sur8 veillance against those seeking to remember 

9 loved ones killed or missing or to commemorate 

10 June 4, 1989, within China; 

11 (B) seek the unconditional release of polit12 ical prisoners in the People’s Republic of China, 

13 including those such as Peng Lifa, Li 

14 Kangmeng, Kamile Wayit and others arrested 

15 for peacefully engaging in protests in China; 

16 (C) demand the end of transnational re17 pression efforts in the United States targeting 

18 people from Hong Kong, former Tiananmen 

19 student leaders, Uyghurs, Tibetans, and others 

20 exercising fundamental freedoms and free 

21 speech abroad; 

22 (D) urge the Government of the Hong 

23 Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) 

24 and authorities of the Government of the Peo25 ple’s Republic of China to— 


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1 (i) allow resumption of the annual 

2 vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Mas3 sacre in Hong Kong; 

4 (ii) release all political prisoners, in5 cluding Chow Hang-tung, Jimmy Lai, 

6 Joshua Wong and others jailed in Hong 

7 Kong in part for organizing or attending a 

8 Tiananmen vigil; and 

9 (iii) lift the arrest ‘‘bounties’’ on the 

10 people of Hong Kong who engage in peace11 ful pro-democracy activities abroad; 

12 (E) employ existing sanctions authorities 

13 for HKSAR officials, including prosecutors and 

14 judges, complicit in the undermining of Hong 

15 Kong high degree of autonomy and the funda16 mental freedoms guaranteed by international 

17 law and treaty; 

18 (F) use the voice, vote, and influence of 

19 the United States at the United Nations to seek 

20 urgent discussions of the human rights record 

21 of the Government of the People’s Republic of 

22 China and the HKSAR at the United Nations 

23 Security Council and at the United Nation’s 

24 Human Rights Council; and 


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1 (G) make clear through public messaging 

2 campaigns that the people of the United States 

3 want the people living in the People’s Republic 

4 of China to be able to exercise all of their inter5 nationally-recognized human rights without 

6 fear, and that efforts by the United States Gov7 ernment to hold People’s Republic of China of8 ficials accountable for human rights abuses are 

9 undertaken in solidarity with them and their as10 pirations for liberty; and 

11 (4) calls on Members of Congress to— 

12 (A) issue public statements and arrange 

13 meetings with participants of the Tiananmen 

14 Square protests who live outside of China and 

15 the families and friends of the victims of the 

16 Tiananmen Square massacre based outside 

17 China; and 

18 (B) use the Political Prisoner Database 

19 maintained by the Congressional-Executive 

20 Commission on China for information when 

21 raising political prisoner cases with the Govern22 ment of the People’s Republic of China or 

23 HKSAR officials. 

Æ 


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