IV
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. RES. 160
Calling on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately
and unconditionally release Li Shaomin and all other American scholars
of Chinese ancestry being held in detention, calling on the President
of the United States to continue working on behalf of Li Shaomin
and the other detained scholars for their release, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 8, 2001
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, and Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on International Relations
RESOLUTION
Calling on the Government of the People’s Republic of China
to immediately and unconditionally release Li Shaomin
and all other American scholars of Chinese ancestry
being held in detention, calling on the President of the
United States to continue working on behalf of Li
Shaomin and the other detained scholars for their re-
lease, and for other purposes.
Whereas in recent months the Government of the People’s
Republic of China has targeted, arrested, and detained
several scholars and intellectuals of Chinese ancestry with
ties to the United States, including at least 2 United
States citizens and 3 permanent residents of the United
States;
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Whereas according to the Department of State’s 2000 Coun-
try Reports on Human Rights Practices in China, and
international human rights organizations, the Govern-
ment of the People’s Republic of China ‘‘has continued
to commit widespread and well-documented human rights
abuses, in violation of internationally accepted norms’’;
Whereas the targeting of intellectuals and scholars for har-
assment, arbitrary arrest, detention, and criminal charges
has created a chilling effect on the freedom of expression,
in contravention of internationally accepted norms, in-
cluding the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which the People’s Republic of China signed in
October 1998;
Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China
frequently uses torture and other human rights violations
to produce coerced ‘‘confessions’’ from detainees;
Whereas the Department of State’s 2000 Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices in China has extensively docu-
mented that human rights abuses in the People’s Repub-
lic of China ‘‘included instances of extrajudicial killings,
the use of torture, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest
and detention, the mistreatment of prisoners, lengthy in-
communicado detention, and denial of due process’’, and
also found that ‘‘[p]olice and prosecutorial officials often
ignore the due process provisions of the law and of the
Constitution . . . [f]or example, police and prosecutors
can subject prisoners to severe psychological pressure to
confess, and coerced confessions frequently are intro-
duced as evidence’’;
Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China
has reported that some of the scholar detainees have
‘‘confessed’’ to their ‘‘crimes’’ of ‘‘spying’’, but it has yet
•HRES 160 IH
to produce any evidence of spying, and has refused to
permit the detainees to confer with their families or law-
yers;
Whereas the Department of State’s 2000 Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices in China also found that ‘‘police
continue to hold individuals without granting access to
family or a lawyer, and trials continue to be conducted
in secret’’;
Whereas Dr. Li Shaomin is a United States citizen and
scholar who has been detained by the Government of the
People’s Republic of China for more than 100 days, and
was formally charged with spying for Taiwan on May 15,
2001;
Whereas Dr. Li Shaomin has been deprived of his basic
human rights by arbitrary arrest and detention, and has
not been allowed to contact his wife and child (both
United States citizens), or his lawyer;
Whereas Dr. Gao Zhan is a permanent resident of the United
States and scholar who has been detained by the Govern-
ment of the People’s Republic of China for more than
114 days, and was formally charged with ‘‘accepting
money from a foreign intelligence agency’’ on April 4,
2001;
Whereas Dr. Gao Zhan has been deprived of her basic human
rights by arbitrary arrest and detention, and has not
been allowed to contact her husband and child (both
United States citizens), her lawyer, or Department of
State consular personnel in China;
Whereas Wu Jianmin is a United States citizen and author
who has been detained by the Government of the People’s
Republic of China, has been deprived of his basic human
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rights by arbitrary arrest and detention, has been denied
access to lawyers and family members, and has yet to be
formally charged with any crimes;
Whereas Tan Guangguang is a permanent resident of the
United States and researcher who has been detained by
the Government of the People’s Republic of China on
suspicions of ‘‘leaking state secrets’’, has been deprived
of his basic human rights by arbitrary arrest and deten-
tion, has been denied access to lawyers and family mem-
bers, and has yet to be formally charged with any crimes;
Whereas Teng Chunyan is a permanent resident of the
United States, Falun Gong practitioner, and researcher
who has been sentenced to three years in prison for spy-
ing by the Government of the People’s Republic of China,
apparently for conducting research which documented
violations of the human rights of Falun Gong adherents
in China, has been deprived of her basic human rights by
being placed on trial in secret, and by being forced to un-
dergo three months of ‘‘thought re-education’’ while she
awaited an appeal to the Beijing Higher People’s Court,
which was denied on May 11, 2001;
Whereas Liu Yaping is a permanent resident of the United
States and a businessman who was arrested and detained
in Inner Mongolia in March 2001 by the Government of
the People’s Republic of China for alleged failure to pay
income taxes, has been deprived of his basic human
rights by being denied any access to family members, by
being denied regular access to lawyers, is reported to be
suffering from severe health problems, and has yet to be
formally charged with any crimes;
Whereas because there is documented evidence that the Gov-
ernment of the People’s Republic of China uses torture
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to coerce confessions from suspects, and because there is
no evidence that any of the detained scholars and intel-
lectuals are spies, there is reason to believe that the
‘‘confessions’’ of Dr. Li Shaomin and Dr. Gao Zhan may
have been coerced; and
Whereas the arbitrary imprisonment of United States citizens
and residents by the Government of the People’s Republic
of China, and the continuing violations of their funda-
mental human rights, demands an immediate and force-
ful response by Congress and the President of the United
States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That—
(1) the House of Representatives—
(A) condemns and deplores the continued
detention of Li Shaomin, Gao Zhan, Wu
Jianmin, Tan Guangguang, Teng Chunyan, and
other scholars detained on false charges by the
Government of the People’s Republic of China,
and calls for their immediate and unconditional
release;
(B) condemns and deplores the lack of due
process afforded to these detainees, and the
probable coercion of confessions from some of
them;
(C) condemns and deplores the ongoing
and systematic pattern of human rights viola-
tions by the Government of the People’s Repub-
lic of China, of which the unjust detentions of
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their legal status and immediate humanitarian
needs.
Æ