IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 599 
Urging the Government of the People’s Republic of China to respect the 
freedom of assembly, expression, and religion and all fundamental human 
rights and the rule of law for all its citizens and to stop censoring 
discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and their 
violent suppression. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 27, 2014 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. WOLF, Mr. ENGEL, 
Mr. CHABOT, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. TURNER, and Mr. PITTENGER) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Urging the Government of the People’s Republic of China 
to respect the freedom of assembly, expression, and reli-
gion and all fundamental human rights and the rule 
of law for all its citizens and to stop censoring discussion 
of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and their 
violent suppression. 
Whereas on June 4, 1989, peaceful demonstrations held in 
and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square were brutally 
crushed by the People’s Liberation Army, carrying out 
the orders of China’s Communist Party leadership; 
Whereas the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 called upon the 
Chinese Communist Party to eliminate corruption, accel-
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erate economic and political reforms, and protect human 
rights, particularly the freedoms of expression and assem-
bly; 
Whereas by early May 1989, an estimated 1,000,000 people 
joined the protests in Tiananmen Square and citizens in 
over 400 Chinese cities staged similar protests for demo-
cratic reform, including not only students, but also gov-
ernment employees, journalists, workers, police officers, 
members of the armed forces, and other citizens; 
Whereas on May 20, 1989, martial law was declared in Bei-
jing, China, after authorities had failed to persuade dem-
onstrators to leave Tiananmen Square; 
Whereas during the late afternoon and early evening hours 
of June 3, 1989, thousands of armed troops, supported 
by tanks and other armor, moved into Beijing to ‘‘clear 
the Square’’ and surrounding streets of demonstrators; 
Whereas on the night of June 3, 1989, and continuing into 
the morning of June 4, 1989, soldiers fired into crowds, 
inflicting high civilian casualties, killing or injuring un-
armed civilians; 
Whereas tanks crushed to death some protesters and onlook-
ers; 
Whereas independent observers report that hundreds, perhaps 
thousands, were killed and wounded by the People’s Lib-
eration Army soldiers and other security forces; 
Whereas 20,000 people throughout China suspected of taking 
part in the democracy movement were reportedly arrested 
and sentenced without trial to prison or reeducation 
through labor, and many were reportedly tortured, with 
many being imprisoned for decades; 
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Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers is a group of relatives and 
friends of those killed in June 1989 whose demands in-
clude the right to mourn victims publicly, to call for a full 
and public accounting of the wounded and dead, and the 
release of those who remain imprisoned for participating 
in the 1989 protests; 
Whereas members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have 
faced arrest, harassment, and discrimination, with the 
group’s website blocked in China and international cash 
donations made to the group to support families of vic-
tims reportedly frozen by Chinese authorities; 
Whereas the Chinese Government undertakes active measures 
to deny its citizens the truth about the Tiananmen 
Square Massacre, including the blocking of uncensored 
Internet sites and weblogs, and the placement of mis-
leading information on the events of June 3, 1989, 
through June 4, 1989, on Internet sites available in 
China; 
Whereas the Chinese Government continues to suppress dis-
sent by imprisoning pro-democracy activists, lawyers, 
journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, mem-
bers of ethnic minority rights organizations, and other in-
dividuals in Xinjiang and Tibet who seek to express their 
political or religious views or their ethnic identity in a 
peaceful manner; 
Whereas Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain 
peaceful advocates for human rights, religious freedom, 
ethnic minority rights and the rule of law, and their fam-
ily members, such as Nobel Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo 
and his wife Liu Xia, Gao Zhisheng, Wang Bingzhang, 
Peng Ming, Zhu Yufu, Lobsang Tsering, Ilham Tohti, 
Yang Maodong (also known as Guo Feixiong), Sun 
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•HRES 599 IH 
Desheng, Liu Yuandong, Guo Quan, Liu Xianbin, Yang 
Rongli, Alimujiang Yimiti, Yang Tianshui, Wang Zhiwen, 
Li Chang, Gulmira Imin, Dhondup Wangchen, and Chen 
Kegui, nephew of blind human rights activists Chen 
Guangcheng; 
Whereas according to the Prisoner Database maintained by 
the United States Congressional-Executive Commission 
on China, the Communist Government of China continues 
to detain over 1,300 prisoners of conscience, though the 
number may be much higher; 
Whereas the Chinese authorities continue to maintain a sys-
tem of labor camps and ‘‘black jails’’ to detain peaceful 
advocates for human rights and democratic freedoms, 
harasses and detains human rights lawyers who take on 
cases deemed politically sensitive, limits the number of 
children Chinese couples may have, including through the 
practice of forced abortions and sterilizations, restricts 
severely the religious activity of Protestants, Catholics, 
Tibetan Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims, conducted a 
15-year campaign to eradicate Falun Gong practice in 
China, publicly vilifies, and refuses to negotiate with, the 
Dalai Lama over Tibetan issues, and, forcibly repatriates 
thousands of refugees to North Korea who face persecu-
tion, imprisonment, and possible execution in violation of 
its international commitments; 
Whereas the Government of China maintains tight control of 
speech, religion, and assembly, and has continually re-
ceived poor rankings focused on civil liberties and polit-
ical rights by nongovernmental organizations; 
Whereas the United States Commission on International Reli-
gious Freedom’s most recent annual report has found 
that the ‘‘Chinese government continues to perpetrate 
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particularly severe violations of religious freedom’’, with 
conditions ‘‘worse now than at any time in the past dec-
ade’’ for religious minorities, findings which again con-
tributed to the Commission recommending that China be 
designated as a ‘‘country of particular concern’’; 
Whereas the United States Department of State’s most re-
cent human rights report on China found ‘‘extrajudicial 
killings’’ occurred in China; 
Whereas the United States Department of State’s most re-
cent human rights report on China found that the Gov-
ernment continued to target ‘‘for arbitrary detention or 
arrest’’ ‘‘human rights activists, journalists . . . and 
former political prisoners and their family members’’; 
Whereas freedom of expression and assembly are funda-
mental human rights that belong to all people, and are 
recognized as such under the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights; and 
Whereas a Government of China which respects the indi-
vidual rights of all its people would be more likely to have 
productive economic, political, and security relations with 
its neighbors and the United States: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) urges the Government of the People’s Re-
public of China to stop censoring information about 
the Tiananmen Square massacre; 
(2) expresses sympathy to the families of those 
killed, tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their 
participation in the democracy protests of June 4, 
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1989, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in the People’s 
Republic of China; 
(3) supports all peaceful advocates for human 
rights and the rule of law in China for their efforts 
to advance democratic reforms and human rights 
during the past; 
(4) condemns the ongoing human rights abuses 
and persecution by the Government of the People’s 
Republic of China and its efforts to quell peaceful 
political dissent, censor the Internet, suppress ethnic 
and religious minorities, limit the number of children 
had by Chinese couples through coercion and vio-
lence, and harass and detain lawyers and freedom 
advocates seeking the Government’s commitment, in 
law and practice, to international human rights trea-
ties and covenants to which it is a party; 
(5) calls on the Broadcasting Board of Gov-
ernors (BBG) to take all appropriate steps to cir-
cumvent Chinese Internet censorship and to provide 
information to the people of China about the 
Tiananmen Square Massacre; 
(6) calls on the United States Government to— 
(A) make human rights, including religious 
freedom, a priority in bilateral discussions with 
the Chinese Government; and 
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(B) instruct the United States representa-
tive at the United Nations Human Rights 
Council to introduce a resolution calling for an 
examination of the human rights practices of 
the Government of the People’s Republic of 
China; 
(7) calls on the Government of the People’s Re-
public of China to— 
(A) end the harassment, detention, torture, 
and imprisonment of Chinese citizens express-
ing their legitimate freedom of religion, expres-
sion, and association, including on the Internet; 
(B) release all remaining prisoners of con-
science who continue to be detained as a result 
of their participation in the peaceful pro-democ-
racy demonstrations in 1989, especially around 
Tiananmen Square; 
(C) end the harassment and discrimination 
of those involved in the 1989 protests and their 
families, permit Chinese citizens to freely com-
memorate 
and 
share 
information 
about 
Tiananmen; 
(D) allow protest participants who escaped 
to or are living in exile in the United States 
and other countries, or who reside outside of 
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China because they have been ‘‘blacklisted’’ in 
China as a result of their peaceful protest activ-
ity, to return to China without risk of retribu-
tion or repercussion and fully repeal any laws 
or decrees that deny them the ability to travel 
to China; and 
(E) end Internet, media, and academic 
censorship of discussions of the Tiananmen 
Protests and events surrounding it; 
(8) calls on the Administration and Members of 
Congress to take steps to continue to mark the 
events of Tiananmen Square— 
(A) meeting with participants in the dem-
onstrations, or their families, who are living in 
the United States; 
(B) meeting with others outside of China 
who have been ‘‘blacklisted’’ in China as a re-
sult of their peaceful protest activities; 
(C) signaling support for those in China 
who demand an independent and credible ac-
counting of the events surrounding June 4, 
1989; and 
(D) supporting those advocating for ac-
countable and democratic governance, human 
rights, and the rule of law in China; and 
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(9) finds that United States relations with 
China are more likely to further improve once the 
Government recognizes and respects the individual 
human rights of all its people. 
Æ 
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