III 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 476 

Honoring the contributions of the late Fang Lizhi to the people of China 

and the cause of freedom. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 4, 2012 

Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself, Mr. INHOFE, Mr. KYL, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. 

MENENDEZ, and Mr. WEBB) submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Honoring the contributions of the late Fang Lizhi to the 

people of China and the cause of freedom. 

Whereas the Chinese scientist and democracy advocate, Fang 

Lizhi, passed away at his home in Tucson, Arizona, on 

April 6, 2012; 

Whereas Fang Lizhi was born in February 1936 in Beijing, 

China; 

Whereas, in 1952, Fang Lizhi enrolled in the Physics Department of Peking University, where he met his future 

wife, Li Shuxian, and joined the Chinese Communist 

Party in 1955; 

Whereas, in 1955, Fang Lizhi openly questioned the lack of 

independent thinking in China’s education system and, in 


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•SRES 476 IS 

1957, drafted a letter with Li Shuxian and other associates proposing political reform; 

Whereas Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were sentenced to hard 

labor in 1957 and 1958, respectively, as victims of China’s Anti-Rightist Campaign; 

Whereas, during China’s Cultural Revolution, Fang Lizhi and 

other faculty members and students of the University of 

Science and Technology of China were sentenced to ‘‘reeducation through labor’’ in a coal mine and a brick factory; 

Whereas, after he was again freed from confinement, Fang 

Lizhi emerged as China’s leading astrophysicist and 

wrote the first modern Chinese-language cosmological 

studies, although the theory of general relatively contradicted Communist dogma; 

Whereas, when he was appointed as vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China in 1984, 

Fang Lizhi initiated a series of reforms intended to democratize the management of the university and enhance 

academic freedom; 

Whereas, in the winter of 1986–1987, when Chinese students 

across China protested on behalf of democracy and 

human rights, the Government of China fired Fang Lizhi 

from his post at the University of Science and Technology of China and subsequently purged him from the 

Communist party; 

Whereas when, in the wake of his purge, excerpts from Fang 

Lizhi’s speeches were distributed by authorities in China 

as examples of ‘‘bourgeois liberalism’’, his writings became tremendously popular among Chinese students; 


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•SRES 476 IS 

Whereas, in February 1989, Fang Lizhi published an essay 

entitled ‘‘China’s Despair and China’s Hope’’, in which 

he wrote, ‘‘The road to democracy has already been long 

and difficult, and is likely to remain difficult for many 

years to come.’’; 

Whereas, in this essay, Fang Lizhi also wrote that ‘‘it is precisely because democracy is generated from below—despite the many frustrations and disappointments in our 

present situation—I still view our future with hope’’; 

Whereas, in the spring and early summer of 1989, Chinese 

students gathered in Tiananmen Square to voice their 

support for democracy, as well as to protest corruption 

in the Chinese Communist Party; 

Whereas Fang Lizhi chose not to join the protests at 

Tiananmen Square in order to demonstrate that the students were acting autonomously; 

Whereas, from June 3 through 4, 1989, the Government of 

China directed the People’s Liberation Army to clear 

Tiananmen Square of protestors, killing hundreds of students and other civilians in the process; 

Whereas, the Government of China issued arrest warrants for 

Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian after the Tiananmen Massacre, accusing the pair of engaging in ‘‘counterrevolutionary propaganda’’ and denouncing Fang as the ‘‘instigator of chaos which resulted in the deaths of many people’’; 

Whereas, on June 5, 1989, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were 

escorted by United States diplomats to the United States 

Embassy in Beijing; 

Whereas, between June 1989 and June 1990, United States 

diplomatic personnel under the leadership of Ambassador 


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•SRES 476 IS 

James R. Lilley sheltered Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian at 

the United States Embassy in Beijing, despite the many 

hardships it imposed on the mission; 

Whereas, at a November 15, 1989, ceremony awarding Fang 

Lizhi the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, Senator Edward M. Kennedy said of Fang ‘‘What Andrei 

Sakharov was in Moscow, Fang Lizhi became in Beijing.’’; 

Whereas, on June 25, 1990, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were 

allowed to leave China for the United Kingdom and then 

the United States; 

Whereas, in 1992, Fang Lizhi received an appointment as a 

professor of physics at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he continued his research in astrophysics and 

advocating for human rights in China; 

Whereas, in the years since June 4, 1989, a new generation 

of Chinese activists has continued the struggle for democracy in their homeland, working ‘‘from below’’ to protect 

the rights of Chinese citizens, to increase the openness of 

the Chinese political system, and to reduce corruption 

among public officials; and 

Whereas, with the passing of Fang Lizhi, China and the 

United States have lost a great scientist and one of the 

most eloquent human rights advocates of the modern era: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) mourns the loss of Fang Lizhi; 

3 (2) honors the life, scientific contributions, and 

4 service of Fang Lizhi to advance the cause of human 

5 freedom; 


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•SRES 476 IS 

1 (3) offers the deepest condolences of the Senate 

2 to the family and friends of Fang Lizhi; and 

3 (4) stands with the people of China as they 

4 strive to improve their way of life and create a gov5 ernment that is truly democratic and respectful of 

6 international norms in the area of human rights. 

Æ 


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