III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 260 

Remembering the 32nd anniversary of the violent repression of peaceful 

protests centered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and expressing the 

sense of the Senate condemning the Government of the People’s Republic 

of China’s ongoing denial of basic rights and fundamental freedoms. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 8, 2021 

Mr. RUBIO (for himself and Mr. MERKLEY) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Remembering the 32nd anniversary of the violent repression 

of peaceful protests centered in Beijing’s Tiananmen 

Square and expressing the sense of the Senate condemning the Government of the People’s Republic of 

China’s ongoing denial of basic rights and fundamental 

freedoms. 

Whereas, during the spring of 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 

people engaged in Tiananmen Square protests and staged 

similar protests in over 400 Chinese cities, including 

among many others, students, workers, academics, journalists and government employees; 

Whereas the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 called upon the 

Government of the People’s Republic of China (‘‘China’’) 

to eliminate corruption, accelerate economic and political 


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•SRES 260 IS 

reform, and protect human rights, particularly the freedoms of expression and assembly, issues that have become more acute in United States-China relations 32 

years later; 

Whereas, on June 4, 1989, troops of the People’s Liberation 

Army, at the behest of Chinese Communist Party leadership, attacked Tiananmen Square to repress demonstrators, crushing defenseless protestors with tanks and firing on them indiscriminately, killing hundreds or possibly 

thousands of individuals; 

Whereas, since June 4, 1989, the Government of China censors any mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, 

even the date it occurred, and imprisons and harasses its 

own citizens who attempt to discuss or peacefully commemorate Tiananmen Square protests and their violent 

suppression; 

Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers—a group in China composed of parents and family members of individuals killed 

on or around June 4, 1989—have annually called upon 

the Government of China to reveal the full truth of what 

transpired, and some members of this group have passed 

away without obtaining justice and accountability for 

their family members who were killed in 1989; 

Whereas people of mainland China and Macau are again 

barred this year from commemorating the lives lost and 

the legacy of the 1989 massacre, and the Government of 

the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the 

People’s Republic of China (‘‘Hong Kong’’) is using pandemic restrictions as a pretext for denying the vigil organizers a permit to gather; 


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Whereas the Government of China continues to view the demands of the Tiananmen protesters, including democracy, transparency, rights protections, and freedom of 

speech, as threats to the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s hold on political power; 

Whereas the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square 

massacre is a poignant milestone, particularly as the autonomy of Hong Kong and freedoms guaranteed to the 

people of Hong Kong have been crushed by the Government of China’s imposition of the Law of the People’s 

Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in 

the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on June 

30, 2020; 

Whereas the people of Hong Kong have peacefully commemorated the Tiananmen massacre each year faithfully in 

large numbers; 

Whereas, starting in 2020, the Hong Kong Police Force has 

blocked the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate 

Tiananmen; 

Whereas Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms have been 

blatantly denied by the actions of the Government of 

Hong Kong and the Government of China, particularly 

over the past several years, with disqualifications of elected members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, blocking 

citizens from running for office, failing to address the petitions of the Hong Kong people, banning a political 

party advocating Hong Kong independence, failing to address excessive use of force by police, and criminalizing 

peaceful political activities through the use of spurious 

charges of ‘‘subversion,’’ ‘‘collusion with a foreign country or with external elements,’’ and ‘‘secession’’; 


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Whereas reforms to Hong Kong’s legislative council ended 

any semblance of electoral democracy in Hong Kong by 

requiring the nomination of candidates by the Election 

Committee, which previously only elected the Chief Executive, reducing the number of directly elected seats from 

35 to 20, and requires vetting by a screening committee 

of the ‘‘patriotism’’ of any candidate, defined as allegiance to the Government of Hong Kong and the Government of China and often interpreted as support for the 

Chinese Communist Party; 

Whereas the political turmoil in Hong Kong is the result of 

actions of the Government of Hong Kong and the Government of China, including the arbitrary arrests and 

sentencing of peaceful protesters, including well-known 

democracy advocates such as Joshua Wong, Martin Lee, 

Jimmy Lai, Lee Cheuk Yan, Margaret Ng, Albert Ho, 

Leung Kwok-hung, Au Nok-hin, Figo Chan, and others; 

Whereas, on May 6, 2021, four Hong Kong pro-democracy 

activists—Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen, 

and Jannelle Leung—were sentenced to lengthy prison 

terms for participating in last year’s Tiananmen Square 

vigil; 

Whereas the arbitrary arrests of Hong Kong residents for 

participating in peaceful rallies and vigils, which is a violation of the rights guaranteed to the residents of Hong 

Kong by the International Covenant on Civil and Political 

Rights and the Joint Declaration of the Government of 

the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s Republic of 

China on the Question of Hong Kong, done at Beijing on 

December 19, 1984 (the ‘‘Sino-British Declaration’’), 

should be considered by the international community to 


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be the arbitrary detention of political prisoners for the 

purposes of applying sanctions under the Hong Kong 

Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 (Public Law 

116–76) and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act (Public Law 

116–149); 

Whereas China’s National People’s Congress has imposed national security legislation with respect to Hong Kong in 

contravention of the procedures outlined in the Basic 

Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of 

the People’s Republic of China (the ‘‘Basic Law’’); 

Whereas that legislation has nullified the independence of 

Hong Kong’s judiciary and its tradition of rule of law by 

suspending due process and trial by jury for cases 

deemed issues of national security; 

Whereas the implementation of that legislation has effectively 

destroyed Hong Kong’s autonomy in direct violation of 

the Sino-British Declaration; 

Whereas the National Security Law is in direct conflict with 

the rights guaranteed to the people of Hong Kong by virtue of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 

Rights, to which Hong Kong is made subject by way of 

the Basic Law; 

Whereas the United States Department of State, pursuant to 

the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (Public 

Law 102–383) and the Hong Kong Human Rights and 

Democracy Act of 2019 (Public Law 116–76), determined that Hong Kong no longer manifests a ‘‘high degree of autonomy’’ distinct from mainland China; 

Whereas vague national security laws are used widely in 

mainland China to imprison or arbitrarily detain dissidents, rights defenders, civil society advocates, religious 


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leaders and adherents, former party members, and persons from ethnic groups whose religious freedom, linguistic rights, and political expression are heavily restricted by Chinese authorities; 

Whereas human rights, democracy, and religious freedom advocates continue to be imprisoned, arbitrarily detained, 

disappeared and held incommunicado in undisclosed locations, and abducted across international borders under 

vague national security laws and other criminal charges 

in mainland China, including Gao Zhisheng, Gui Minhai, 

Xing Wangli, Jiang Tianyong, Wu Gan, Qin Yongmin, 

Zhou Shifeng, Yu Wensheng, Wang Yi, and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in state custody nearly four 

years ago; 

Whereas the Chinese Communist Party and the Government 

of China used the tools of state power to silence whistleblowers at the onset of the COVID–19 pandemic, including doctors such as the late Li Wenliang, journalists, lawyers, scientists, and concerned citizens, and has subsequently imprisoned some of these individuals, including 

Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced to four years in prison 

on account of her whistleblowing activity, and Chen 

Zhaozhi, who has been detained for over a year on account of COVID–19 related social media posts; 

Whereas the United States Congress, particularly in recent 

years, has passed numerous measures articulating the 

longstanding and bipartisan commitment to human rights 

in China, including— 

(1) the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114– 

328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note); 


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(2) the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–198); 

(3) the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 

(Public Law 115–330); 

(4) the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy 

Act of 2019 (Public Law 116–76); 

(5) the Hong Kong Autonomy Act of 2019 (Public 

116–149); 

(6) the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (Public 

116–145); and 

(7) the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 

(Public Law 116–260); 

Whereas, on this day, we stand in solidarity with Chinese 

human rights lawyers, labor and free speech advocates, 

Christians and other religious groups, and those distinct 

ethnic groups who face persecution, such as Tibetans, 

who continue to face severe restrictions and a concerted 

state effort to erase Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan language, and Tibetan traditional culture; 

Whereas, on this day, we condemn the ongoing campaign of 

genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the 

Chinese Communist Party and the Government of China 

against Uyghurs as well as other Muslim ethnic groups 

who live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 

more than 1,000,000 of whom have been forced into 

mass internment camps, suffering a range of human 

rights abuses including being tortured, sexually assaulted, 

forced to renounce their religion and pledge allegiance to 

the Government of China, coerced into state-run programs of forced labor, separated from their families, and 

forced to undergo abortion and sterilization procedures; 

and 


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Whereas, on this day, we remember the words of the late 

Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who said there is ‘‘no force 

that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and 

China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, 

where human rights reign supreme’’: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) commemorates the Tiananmen protests and 

3 their violent suppression until such time as citizens 

4 of China are able to do so freely and publicly every5 where across their country; 

6 (2) expresses sympathy to the families of those 

7 killed, tortured, imprisoned, or exiled for their par8 ticipation in the pro-democracy demonstrations dur9 ing the spring of 1989; 

10 (3) calls on the Government of China to allow 

11 those Tiananmen demonstration participants cur12 rently living in exile in the United States and other 

13 countries to return to China without risk of reper14 cussions or retribution to themselves, their families, 

15 or their allies; 

16 (4) condemns the use of violence, torture, har17 assment, and arbitrary detention as a means to re18 press the legitimate aspirations of the people of 

19 China to speak and associate freely, including to pe20 tition the government and challenge the policies and 

21 ideology of the Chinese Communist Party; 


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1 (5) calls on the Government of China to release 

2 all prisoners of conscience, including prisoners de3 tained because of their participation in Tiananmen 

4 Square commemorations or actions calling for the 

5 type of political reforms and rights protections pur6 sued by those who gathered in Tiananmen Square in 

7 1989 and including over one million Uyghurs and 

8 other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the 

9 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; 

10 (6) condemns the forced imposition of national 

11 security legislation with respect to Hong Kong; 

12 (7) calls upon the President to continue to use 

13 existing authorities to hold accountable Hong Kong 

14 officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive 

15 Carrie Lam, and Government of China officials for 

16 crushing Hong Kong’s autonomy and guaranteed 

17 rights; and 

18 (8) calls upon the President to build an inter19 national coalition to demand that the Government of 

20 China adhere to its international agreements and 

21 human rights obligations. 

Æ 


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