Remembering the 32nd anniversary of the violent repression of peaceful protests centered in Beijings 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.

Remembering the 32nd anniversary of the violent repression of peaceful protests centered in Beijings 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 Peoples Republic of China ( China Whereas, on June 4, 1989, troops of the Peoples 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 Mothersa group in China composed of parents and family members of individuals killed on or around June 4, 1989have 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 Peoples Republic of China ( Hong Kong 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 Partys 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 Kongs 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 Kongs 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, secession Whereas reforms to Hong Kongs 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 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 activistsJoshua Wong, Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen, and Jannelle Leungwere sentenced to lengthy prison terms for participating in last years 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 Peoples Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, done at Beijing on December 19, 1984 (the Sino-British Declaration Public Law 11676 Public Law 116149 Whereas Chinas National Peoples 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 Kongs 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 Kongs 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 102383 Public Law 11676 high degree of autonomy Whereas vague national security laws are used widely in mainland China to imprison or arbitrarily detain dissidents, rights defenders, civil society advocates, religious 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 COVID19 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 COVID19 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 114328 22 U.S.C. 2656 (2) the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017 ( Public Law 115198 (3) the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 ( Public Law 115330 (4) the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 ( Public Law 11676 (5) the Hong Kong Autonomy Act of 2019 (Public 116149); (6) the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (Public 116145); and (7) the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 ( Public Law 116260 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 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 That the Senate (1) commemorates the Tiananmen protests and their violent suppression until such time as citizens of China are able to do so freely and publicly everywhere across their country; (2) expresses sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, imprisoned, or exiled for their participation in the pro-democracy demonstrations during the spring of 1989; (3) calls on the Government of China to allow those Tiananmen demonstration participants currently living in exile in the United States and other countries to return to China without risk of repercussions or retribution to themselves, their families, or their allies; (4) condemns the use of violence, torture, harassment, and arbitrary detention as a means to repress the legitimate aspirations of the people of China to speak and associate freely, including to petition the government and challenge the policies and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party; (5) calls on the Government of China to release all prisoners of conscience, including prisoners detained because of their participation in Tiananmen Square commemorations or actions calling for the type of political reforms and rights protections pursued by those who gathered in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and including over one million Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; (6) condemns the forced imposition of national security legislation with respect to Hong Kong; (7) calls upon the President to continue to use existing authorities to hold accountable Hong Kong officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and Government of China officials for crushing Hong Kongs autonomy and guaranteed rights; and (8) calls upon the President to build an international coalition to demand that the Government of China adhere to its international agreements and human rights obligations.

Summary: This resolution commemorates the Tiananmen Square protests and their violent suppression by the Chinese government. It also expresses sympathy to families of those killed, tortured, imprisoned, or exiled for participation in the prodemocracy demonstrations of spring 1989.