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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1221 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

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, 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 applications 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 Hon-kwong--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;
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, 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
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square 
        protests and their violent suppression by recognizing the 
        solemn significance of the 1989 demonstrations and the impact 
        the Tiananmen Massacre has had on United States-People's 
        Republic of China relations;
            (2) will continue to participate in somber remembrances for 
        the victims of the Tiananmen Massacre for as long as 
        commemorations are banned in the People's Republic of China;
            (3) calls on the United States Government to--
                    (A) urge the Government of the People's Republic of 
                China to cease censoring information and discussion 
                about the Tiananmen Massacre and end efforts of 
                intimidation and surveillance against those seeking to 
                remember loved ones killed or missing or to commemorate 
                June 4, 1989, within China;
                    (B) seek the unconditional release of political 
                prisoners in the People's Republic of China, including 
                those such as Peng Lifa, Li Kangmeng, Kamile Wayit and 
                others arrested for peacefully engaging in protests in 
                China;
                    (C) demand the end of transnational repression 
                efforts in the United States targeting people from Hong 
                Kong, former Tiananmen student leaders, Uyghurs, 
                Tibetans, and others exercising fundamental freedoms 
                and free speech abroad;
                    (D) urge the Government of the Hong Kong Special 
                Administrative Region (HKSAR) and authorities of the 
                Government of the People's Republic of China to--
                            (i) allow resumption of the annual vigil to 
                        commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre in Hong 
                        Kong;
                            (ii) release all political prisoners, 
                        including Chow Hang-tung, Jimmy Lai, Joshua 
                        Wong and others jailed in Hong Kong in part for 
                        organizing or attending a Tiananmen vigil; and
                            (iii) lift the arrest ``bounties'' on the 
                        people of Hong Kong who engage in peaceful pro-
                        democracy activities abroad;
                    (E) employ existing sanctions authorities for HKSAR 
                officials, including prosecutors and judges, complicit 
                in the undermining of Hong Kong high degree of autonomy 
                and the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by 
                international law and treaty;
                    (F) use the voice, vote, and influence of the 
                United States at the United Nations to seek urgent 
                discussions of the human rights record of the 
                Government of the People's Republic of China and the 
                HKSAR at the United Nations Security Council and at the 
                United Nation's Human Rights Council; and
                    (G) make clear through public messaging campaigns 
                that the people of the United States want the people 
                living in the People's Republic of China to be able to 
                exercise all of their internationally-recognized human 
                rights without fear, and that efforts by the United 
                States Government to hold People's Republic of China 
                officials accountable for human rights abuses are 
                undertaken in solidarity with them and their 
                aspirations for liberty; and
            (4) calls on Members of Congress to--
                    (A) issue public statements and arrange meetings 
                with participants of the Tiananmen Square protests who 
                live outside of China and the families and friends of 
                the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre based 
                outside China; and
                    (B) use the Political Prisoner Database maintained 
                by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China for 
                information when raising political prisoner cases with 
                the Government of the People's Republic of China or 
                HKSAR officials.
                                 <all>
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