I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1147

To encourage liberalization inside the People’s Republic of China and Tibet.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 7, 1995

Mr. LANTOS (for himself, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, and Mr.

SOLOMON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

A BILL

To encourage liberalization inside the People’s Republic of

China and Tibet.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES.

4 (a) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to create

5 principles governing the conduct of United States eco6 nomic cooperation projects in the People’s Republic of

7 China and Tibet.

8 (b) PRINCIPLES.—It is the sense of the Congress that

9 any United States economic cooperation project in the
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1 People’s Republic of China or Tibet should adhere to the

2 following principles:

3 (1) Suspend the use of all goods, wares, arti4 cles, and merchandise that are mined, produced, or

5 manufactured, in whole or in part, by convict labor

6 or forced labor if there is reason to believe that the

7 material or product is produced or manufactured by

8 such convict or forced labor, and refuse to use forced

9 labor in the project.

10 (2) Seek to ensure that political or religious

11 views, sex, ethnic or national background, involve12 ment in political or labor activities or nonviolent

13 demonstrations, or association with suspected or

14 known dissidents will not prohibit hiring, lead to

15 harassment, demotion, or dismissal, or in any way

16 affect the status or terms of employment in the

17 project. The United States parent company of the

18 United States economic cooperation project should

19 not discriminate in terms or conditions of employ20 ment in the project against persons with past

21 records of arrests or internal exile for nonviolent

22 protest or membership in unofficial organizations

23 committed to nonviolence.

24 (3) Ensure that methods of production used in

25 the project do not pose an unnecessary physical dan-
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1 ger to workers and neighboring populations and

2 property and that the project does not unnecessarily

3 risk harm to the surrounding environment, and con4 sult with community leaders regarding environ5 mental protection with respect to the project.

6 (4) Strive to use business enterprises that are

7 not controlled by the Government of the People’s

8 Republic of China or its authorized agents and de9 partments as potential partners in the project.

10 (5) Prohibit any military presence on the prem11 ises of the operations of the project.

12 (6) Undertake to promote freedom of associa13 tion and assembly among the employees of the

14 project. The United States economic cooperation

15 project should protest any infringement by the Gov16 ernment of the People’s Republic of China of these

17 freedoms to the appropriate authorities of that Gov18 ernment and to the International Labor Organiza19 tion, which has an office in Beijing.

20 (7) Use every possible channel of communica21 tion with the Government of the People’s Republic

22 of China to urge that government to disclose publicly

23 a complete list of all those individuals arrested since

24 March 1989, to end incommunicado detention and

25 torture, and to provide international observers access
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1 to all places of detention in the People’s Republic of

2 China and Tibet and to trials of prisoners arrested

3 in connection with the pro-democracy events of April

4 through June of 1989 and the pro-democracy dem5 onstrations which have taken place in Tibet since

6 1987.

7 (8) Discourage or undertake to prevent compul8 sory political indoctrination programs from taking

9 place on the premises of the operations of the

10 project.

11 (9) Promote freedom of expression, including

12 the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information

13 and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either

14 orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or

15 through any media. To this end, the United States

16 economic cooperation project should raise with ap17 propriate authorities of the Government of the Peo18 ple’s Republic of China concerns about restrictions

19 on the importation of foreign publications.

20 (10)(A) Undertake to prevent harassment of

21 workers who, consistent with the United Nations

22 World Population Plan of Action, decide freely and

23 responsibly the number and spacing of their chil24 dren.
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1 (B) Prohibit compulsory population control ac2 tivities on the premises of the operations of the

3 project.

4 (c) PROMOTION OF PRINCIPLES BY OTHER NA5 TIONS.—The Secretary shall forward a copy of the prin6 ciples set forth in subsection (b) to the member nations

7 of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel8 opment and encourage them to promote principles similar

9 to these principles.

10 SEC. 2. REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT.

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Each United States parent com12 pany conducting a United States economic cooperation

13 project in the People’s Republic of China or Tibet shall

14 register with the Secretary and indicate whether such

15 company agrees to implement the principles set forth in

16 section 1(b). No fee shall be required for registration

17 under this subsection.

18 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The registration require19 ment of subsection (a) shall take effect 6 months after

20 the date of the enactment of this Act.

21 SEC. 3. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

22 (a) REPORT.—Each United States parent company

23 conducting a United States economic cooperation project

24 in the People’s Republic of China or Tibet shall report

25 to the Secretary describing such company’s adherence to
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1 the principles. Such company shall submit a completed re2 porting form furnished by the Secretary. The first report

3 shall be submitted not later than 1 year after the date

4 on which the national registers under section 2 and not

5 later than the end of each 1-year period occurring there6 after.

7 (b) REVIEW OF REPORT.—The Secretary shall review

8 each report submitted under subsection (a) and determine

9 whether the United States parent company submitting the

10 report is adhering to the principles. The Secretary may

11 request additional information from the United States

12 parent company and other sources to verify the informa13 tion contained in the report submitted by the company.

14 (c) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Secretary shall submit a

15 report to the Congress and to the Secretariat of the Orga16 nization for Economic Cooperation and Development de17 scribing the level of adherence to the principles by United

18 States parent companies subject to the reporting require19 ment of subsection (a). This report shall be submitted not

20 later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this

21 Act and not later than the end of each 1-year period occur22 ring thereafter.

23 SEC. 4. EXPORT MARKETING SUPPORT.

24 (a) SUPPORT.—A Federal agency may intercede with

25 a foreign government or foreign national regarding export
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1 marketing activity in the People’s Republic of China or

2 Tibet on behalf of a United States parent company subject

3 to the reporting requirements of section 3(a) only if that

4 company adheres to the principles.

5 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take ef6 fect 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act.

7 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

8 For purposes of this Act—

9 (1) the terms ‘‘adhere to the principles’’, ‘‘ad10 hering to the principles’’ and ‘‘adherence to the prin11 ciples’’ mean—

12 (A) agreeing to implement the principles

13 set forth in section 1(b);

14 (B) implementing those principles by tak15 ing good faith measures with respect to each

16 such principle; and

17 (C) reporting accurately to the Secretary

18 on the measures taken to implement those prin19 ciples;

20 (2) the term ‘‘intercede with a foreign govern21 ment or foreign national’’ includes any contact by an

22 officer or employee of the United States with offi23 cials of any foreign government or foreign national

24 involving or contemplating any effort to assist in

25 selling a good, service, or technology in the People’s
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1 Republic of China or Tibet, except that such term

2 does not include multilateral or bilateral govern3 ment-to-government trade negotiations intended to

4 resolve trade issues which may affect United States

5 parent companies who do not adhere to the prin6 ciples;

7 (3) the term ‘‘organized under the laws of the

8 United States’’ means organized under the laws of

9 the United States, any State of the United States,

10 the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of

11 Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern

12 Mariana Islands, or any other territory or possession

13 of the United States;

14 (4) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

15 of State;

16 (5) the term ‘‘United States economic coopera17 tion project’’ means—

18 (A) an equity joint venture, a cooperative

19 joint venture, or a wholly foreign-owned enter20 prise established under the laws of the People’s

21 Republic of China, in which—

22 (i) a corporation, partnership, wholly23 owned subsidiary, or other business asso24 ciation organized under the laws of the

25 United States is an investor, or
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1 (ii) a corporation, partnership, or

2 other business association organized under

3 the laws of a country other than the

4 United States or under the laws of a terri5 tory or possession of a country other than

6 the United States, which is wholly owned

7 by a corporation, partnership, or other

8 business association organized under the

9 laws of the United States, is an investor,

10 and which employs more than 50 individuals in

11 the People’s Republic of China or Tibet; or

12 (B) a branch office or representative of13 fice—

14 (i) of a corporation, partnership, whol15 ly-owned subsidiary, or other business as16 sociation organized under the laws of the

17 United States, or

18 (ii) of a corporation, partnership, or

19 other business association organized under

20 the laws of a country other than the Unit21 ed States or under the laws of a territory

22 or possession of a country other than the

23 United States, which is wholly owned by a

24 corporation, partnership, or other business
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1 association organized under the laws of the

2 United States,

3 which employs more than 25 individuals in the

4 People’s Republic of China or Tibet; and

5 (6) the term ‘‘United States parent company’’

6 means a corporation, partnership, or other business

7 association organized under the laws of the United

8 States which is—

9 (A) the direct investor in a United States

10 economic cooperation project described in para11 graph (5)(A)(i), or the sole owner of the inves12 tor in a United States economic cooperation

13 project described in paragraph (5)(A)(ii); or

14 (B) the registrant in the People’s Republic

15 of China of a branch office or representative of16 fice described in paragraph (5)(B)(i), or the

17 sole owner of the registrant of a branch office

18 or representative office described in paragraph

19 (5)(B)(ii).

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