I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2358
To provide for improved monitoring of human rights violations in the People’s
Republic of China.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 31, 1997
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Mr. KING, Mr. ROYCE, Mr. COX of Califor-
nia, Mr. GIBBONS, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of
Texas, Mr. MCINTOSH, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr. SMITH
of New Jersey, Mr. SOLOMON, and Mr. SPENCE) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
A BILL
To provide for improved monitoring of human rights
violations in the People’s Republic of China.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Political Freedom in
China Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Congress concurs in the following con-
clusions of the United States State Department on
human rights in the People’s Republic of China in
1996:
(A) The People’s Republic of China is ‘‘an
authoritarian state’’ in which ‘‘citizens lack the
freedom to peacefully express opposition to the
party-led political system and the right to
change their national leaders or form of govern-
ment’’.
(B) The Government of the People’s Re-
public of China has ‘‘continued to commit wide-
spread and well documented human rights
abuses, in violation of internationally accepted
norms, stemming from the authorities’ intoler-
ance of dissent, fear of unrest, and the absence
or inadequacy of laws protecting basic free-
doms’’.
(C) ‘‘[a]buses include torture and mistreat-
ment of prisoners, forced confessions, and arbi-
trary and incommunicado detention’’.
(D) ‘‘[p]rison conditions remained harsh
[and] [t]he Government continued severe re-
strictions on freedom of speech, the press, as-
sembly, association, religion, privacy, and work-
er rights’’.
(E) ‘‘[a]lthough the Government denies
that it holds political prisoners, the number of
persons detained or serving sentences for
‘counterrevolutionary crimes’ or ‘crimes against
the state’ and for peaceful political or religious
activities are believed to number in the thou-
sands’’.
(F) ‘‘[n]on-approved religious groups, in-
cluding Protestant and Catholic groups . . . ex-
perienced intensified repression’’.
(G) ‘‘[s]erious human rights abuses persist
in minority areas, including Tibet, Zinjiang,
and Inner Mongolia[, and] [c]ontrols on religion
and other fundamental freedoms in these areas
have also intensified’’.
(H) ‘‘[o]verall in 1996, the authorities
stepped up efforts to cut off expressions of pro-
test or criticism. All public dissent against the
party and government was effectively silenced
by intimidation, exile, the imposition of prison
terms, administrative detention, or house ar-
rest. No residents were known to be active at
year’s end.’’.
(2) In addition to the State Department, credi-
ble independent human rights organizations have
documented an increase in repression in China dur-
ing 1996, and effective destruction of the dissident
movement through the arrest and sentencing of the
few remaining pro-democracy and human rights ac-
tivists not already in prison or exile.
(3) Among those were Wang Dan, a student
leader of the 1989 pro-democracy protests, sen-
tenced on October 30, 1996, to 11 years in prison
on charges of conspiring to subvert the Government;
Li Hai, sentenced to 9 years in prison on December
18, 1996, for gathering information on the victims
of the 1989 crackdown, which according to the
court’s verdict constituted ‘‘state secrets’’; and Liu
Nianchun, an independent labor organizer, sentenced
to 3 years of ‘‘re-education through labor’’ on July
4, 1996, due to his activities in connection with a
petition campaign calling for human rights reforms.
(4) Many political prisoners are suffering from
poor conditions and ill-treatment leading to serious
medical and health problems, including—
(A) Wei Jingsheng, sentenced to 14 years
in prison on December 13, 1996, for conspiring
to subvert the government and for ‘‘communica-
tion with hostile foreign organizations and indi-
viduals, amassing funds in preparation for over-
throwing the government and publishing anti-
government articles abroad,’’ is currently held
in Jile No. 1 Prison (formerly the Nanpu New
Life Salt Farm) in Hebei province, where he re-
portedly suffers from severe high blood pressure
and a heart condition, worsened by poor condi-
tions of confinement;
(B) Gao Yu, a journalist sentenced to 6
years in prison on November 1994 and honored
by UNESCO in May 1997, has a heart condi-
tion; and
(C) Chen Longde, a leading human rights
advocate now serving a 3-year reeducation
through labor sentence imposed without trial in
August 1995, has reportedly been subject to re-
peated beatings and electric shocks at a labor
camp for refusing to confess his guilt.
(5) In 1997, only 1 official in the United States
Embassy in Beijing is assigned to human monitoring
human rights in the People’s Republic of China, and
no officials are assigned to monitor human rights in
United States consulates in the People’s Republic of
China.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR ADDI-
TIONAL PERSONNEL AT DIPLOMATIC POSTS
TO MONITOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PEO-
PLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.
There are authorized to be appropriated to support
personnel to monitor political repression in the People’s
Republic of China in the United States Embassy in
Beijing, as well as the American consulates in Guangzhou,
Shanghai, 
Shenyang, 
Chengdu, 
and 
Hong 
Kong,
$2,200,000 for fiscal year 1998 and $2,200,000 for fiscal
year 1999.
Æ