108TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 326
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas Dr. Wang Bingzhang is a permanent resident of the
United States and his sister and daughter are United
States citizens;
Whereas Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. at McGill University
in Canada in coronary-arterial research and is a well-re-
spected leader of the overseas Chinese pro-democracy
movement and the founder of China Spring magazine;
•HCON 326 EH
Whereas Dr. Wang is currently serving a life sentence in
prison in the People’s Republic of China and is suffering
from gastritis, varicose veins, phlebitis, and depression;
Whereas Dr. Wang was abducted in northern Vietnam in
June 2002 after meeting with a Chinese labor activist;
Whereas Dr. Wang was driven to the border between Viet-
nam and the People’s Republic of China and forced back
to China by boat;
Whereas Dr. Wang was blindfolded and bound and held in
various places in Guangxi Province and his captors de-
manded a $10,000,000 ransom, which Dr. Wang was un-
able to pay;
Whereas Dr. Wang although provided his captors with the
names and telephone numbers of his relatives, they were
never contacted;
Whereas Dr. Wang was finally taken to a Buddhist temple
in Fangchenggang City in southern Guangxi Province
where his abductors unexpectedly left and moments later
he was ‘‘rescued’’ by the Chinese police;
Whereas Dr. Wang was detained by the Chinese police and
then transported to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi
Province;
Whereas Dr. Wang was held incommunicado for six months,
during which time the Government of the People’s Re-
public of China denied any knowledge of his whereabouts;
Whereas on December 4, 2002, the Chinese Government re-
versed itself, admitting that Dr. Wang had been in its
custody since July 3, 2002;
•HCON 326 EH
Whereas on December 5, 2002, Dr. Wang was charged with
‘‘offenses of espionage’’ and ‘‘the conduct of terrorist ac-
tivities’’;
Whereas on January 22, 2003, Dr. Wang was tried by the
Intermediate People’s Court in the city of Shenzhen in
Guangdong Province;
Whereas Dr. Wang’s trial lasted only half a day and was
closed to the public because the Chinese Government in-
dicated that ‘‘state secrets’’ might be revealed, thereby
precluding family members, supporters, and reporters
from attending;
Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang declared himself innocent of
all charges;
Whereas at the trial, the Chinese Government refused to re-
lease any evidence of Dr. Wang’s wrongdoing;
Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang was denied the right to due
process, specifically the right to the presumption of inno-
cence, the right to adequate time and facilities to prepare
for his own defense, the right to a fair trial before an
independent and impartial tribunal, the right to call wit-
nesses on his own behalf, the right to cross-examine wit-
nesses testifying against him, and in general, the lack of
other due process guarantees that would ensure his ade-
quate defense and a full hearing;
Whereas Dr. Wang’s trial represented the first time the Chi-
nese Government had brought charges against a pro-de-
mocracy dissident under its new terrorism laws;
Whereas although Dr. Wang was convicted and sentenced to
life in prison on February 10, 2003, Dr.Wang’s lawyers
stated that there was insufficient evidence to convict him;
•HCON 326 EH
Whereas Dr. Wang’s lawyers immediately appealed the
court’s verdict, but the appeal was rejected on February
28, 2003;
Whereas a human rights petition was submitted on Dr.
Wang’s behalf to the United Nations Arbitrary Working
Group of the Office of the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Human Rights;
Whereas the petition claimed that Dr. Wang was being arbi-
trarily detained and that the judicial standards employed
in his trial fell far short of internationally recognized
standards for judicial proceedings under provisions of the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group
noted that Dr. Wang is an internationally recognized pro-
democracy activist as opposed to the Chinese Govern-
ment’s characterization of Dr. Wang as an individual
who advocates violence and suggests the use of methods
such as kidnapping and bombings to achieve his goals,
and that Dr. Wang had boasted of carrying out many
violent terrorist activities;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group
further noted that the Chinese Government offered ‘‘no
evidence of any specific occasion on which Wang made
the alleged calls to violence’’ and that ‘‘[o]ther than the
kidnapping of which Wang himself was a victim, as the
Government itself acknowledges, no information has been
given about other kidnappings or acts of violence initiated
by Wang’’;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group
further stated that ‘‘Wang, during his first five months
in detention, did not have knowledge of the charges, the
•HCON 326 EH
right to legal counsel, or the right to judicial review of
the arrest and detention; and that, after that date, he did
not benefit from the right to the presumption of inno-
cence, the right to adequate time and facilities for de-
fense, the right to a fair trial before an independent and
impartial tribunal, the right to a speedy trial and the
right to cross-examine witnesses’’;
Whereas in conclusion, the United Nations Working Group
declared that ‘‘the detention of Wang Bingzhang is arbi-
trary, being in contravention of articles 9, 10 and 11 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’’ and re-
quested ‘‘the [Chinese] Government to take the necessary
steps to remedy the situation of Wang Bingzhang and
bring it into conformity with the standards and principles
set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’’;
Whereas the United States Congressional-Executive Commis-
sion on China made the following recommendation in its
2003 annual report: ‘‘The President and the Congress
should increase diplomatic efforts to hold the Chinese
government to [its commitments on human rights mat-
ters during the December 2002 U.S.-China human rights
dialogue], particularly the release of those arbitrarily de-
tained’’;
Whereas the report also stated the following: ‘‘The Chinese
[G]overnment has also taken advantage of the global war
on terrorism to persecute . . . political dissidents. In Feb-
ruary 2003, Wang Bingzhang, a U.S. permanent resident
and veteran pro-democracy activist, was convicted of
‘leading a terrorism organization’ and ‘spying’ and sen-
tenced to life imprisonment’’; and
Whereas the report finally noted that ‘‘[i]n July 2003, the
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that
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Wang’s arrest and imprisonment violated international
law’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that—
(1) Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a permanent resident
of the United States, is being arbitrarily detained in
the People’s Republic of China in violation of inter-
national law;
(2) the United States Government should re-
quest the Government of the People’s Republic of
China to release Dr. Wang, permitting him to imme-
diately return to the United States; and
(3) the President should make the immediate
release of Dr. Wang by the Government of the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China a top priority of United
States foreign policy.
Passed the House of Representatives May 6, 2004.
Attest:
Clerk.