106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 28

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the

Rights.of the United Nations Commission on Humanabuses in China and Tibet at the annual meetingPeople’s Republic of China for its human rightsforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing theUnited States should introduce and make all ef-
106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 28

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China

has signed two important United Nations human rights

treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights;

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China

recognizes the United Nations Universal Declaration of
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Human Rights, which calls for the protection of the

rights of freedom of association, press, assembly, religion,

and other fundamental rights and freedoms;

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China

demonstrates a pattern of continuous, serious, and widespread violations of internationally recognized human

rights standards, including violations of the rights described in the preceding clause and the following:

(1) restricting nongovernmental political and social

organizations;

(2) cracking down on film directors, computer software developers, artists, and the press, including threats

of life prison terms;

(3) sentencing poet and writer, Ma Zhe, to seven

years in prison on charges of subversion for publishing

an independent literary journal;

(4) sentencing three pro-democracy activists, Xu

Wenli, Wang Youcai, and Qing Yongmin, to long prison

sentences in December 1998 for the announced effort to

organize an alternative political party committed to democracy and respect for human rights;

(5) sentencing Zhang Shanguang to prison for ten

years for giving Radio Free Asia information about

farmer protests in Hunan province;

(6) putting on trial businessman Lin Hai for providing e-mail addresses to a pro-democracy Internet

magazine based in the United States;
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(7) arresting, harassing, and torturing members of

the religious community who worship outside of official

Chinese churches;

(8) refusing the United Nations High Commissioner

on Human Rights access to the Panchen Lama, Gendun

Choekyı ́ Nyima;

(9) continuing to engage in coercive family planning

practices, including forced abortion and forced sterilization; and

(10) operating a system of prisons and other detention centers in which gross human rights violations, including torture, slave labor, and the commercial harvesting of human organs from executed prisoners, continue

to occur;

Whereas repression in Tibet has increased steadily, resulting

in heightened control on religious activity, a denunciation

campaign against the Dalai Lama unprecedented since

the Cultural Revolution, an increase in political arrests,

the secret trial and sentencing of former Middlebury College Fulbright Scholar and Tibetan ethnomusicologist

Ngawang Choephel to 18 years in prison on espionage

charges, and suppression of peaceful protests, and the

Government of the People’s Republic of China refuses direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives

on a negotiated solution for Tibet;

Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, provides

a forum for discussing human rights and expressing
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international support for improved human rights performance;

Whereas during his July 1998 visit to the People’s Republic

of China, President Clinton correctly affirmed the necessity of addressing human rights in United States-China

relations; and

Whereas the United States did not sponsor a resolution on

China’s human rights record at the 1998 session of the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Now,

therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the

3 United States—

4 (1) should introduce and make all efforts nec5 essary to pass a resolution criticizing the People’s

6 Republic of China for its human rights abuses in

7 China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the

8 United Nations Commission on Human Rights; and

9 (2) should immediately contact other govern10 ments to urge them to cosponsor and support such

11 a resolution.

Passed the House of Representatives March 11,

1999.

Attest:

Clerk.