III 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 151 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
OCTOBER 1, 2009 
Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress that China release 
democratic activist Liu Xiaobo from imprisonment. 
Whereas Liu Xiaobo has inspired untold numbers of Chinese 
people to stare down their government and demand 
change; 
Whereas on December 9, 2008, a diverse group of more than 
300 Chinese scholars, writers, lawyers, and activists 
issued Charter 08, a manifesto calling on the Chinese 
Communist 
Party 
to 
abandon 
authoritarian 
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rule in favor of democracy, the guarantee of human 
rights, and the rule of law; 
Whereas Liu Xiaobo was one of the original signers of Char-
ter 08 and was taken into custody shortly before the 
manifesto was released, has been detained ever since, and 
now faces charges of ‘‘inciting subversion of state 
power’’; 
Whereas Charter 08 documents the widespread failings of the 
Chinese Communist Party, calls for urgent and extensive 
political reforms in China, enumerates and endorses the 
ideas and principles of freedom, human rights, equality, 
Republicanism, democracy, and constitutional rule, and 
enumerates 19 recommendations for political reform 
within Communist China; 
Whereas Charter 08 says that ‘‘the most fundamental prin-
ciples of democracy are that the people are sovereign, and 
that the people select their own government’’; 
Whereas Chinese authorities violated Chinese law in handling 
Liu Xiaobo’s case, including keeping him under ‘‘residen-
tial surveillance’’ beyond the legal time limit and at an 
undisclosed location, denying him access to his family or 
lawyers, and refusing to allow a fellow Charter 08 signa-
tory to represent him; 
Whereas the signatories of Charter 08 represent numerous 
strata of Chinese society, including former members of 
the Chinese Communist Party; 
Whereas the document which caused him to be confined to 
a windowless room, without access to books or writing 
materials, is as simple as those in the founding docu-
ments of this country which have inspired us all for over 
200 years; 
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Whereas Liu Xiaobo signed his name to those simple but 
powerful words despite having already spent 20 months 
in prison for his part in the 1989 protests in Tiananmen 
Square, and three years in a re-education through labor 
camp for challenging China’s one-party rule; and 
Whereas Liu Xiaobo’s leadership has inspired the Chinese 
people and the world: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that China’s 
Government immediately release Liu Xiaobo and begin 
making strides toward true representative democracy. 
Passed the House of Representatives October 1, 
2009. 
Attest: 
LORRAINE C. MILLER, 
Clerk. 
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