Title: Remembering the victims of the violent suppression of democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China on June 3 and 4, 1989, and calling on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to respect the universally recognized human rights of all people living in China and around the world.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution expresses support for the leaders of the peaceful Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations in the spring of 1989 in Beijing, and expresses sympathy and solidarity with the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned for their participation. It also calls on the Chinese government to (1) support a full and transparent accounting of its violent suppression of the protests, (2) cease censoring information about the massacre, and (3) allow the protesters to return to China without risk of retribution.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 393 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 393

    Remembering the victims of the violent suppression of democracy 
 protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China on June 3 and 4, 
 1989, and calling on the Government of the People's Republic of China 
to respect the universally recognized human rights of all people living 
                     in China and around the world.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 21, 2019

  Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. 
   Malinowski, Ms. Wild, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Cicilline, Mr. Bera, Mr. 
Allred, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Keating, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Schrier, Mr. Vargas, 
Mrs. Torres of California, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Sherman, Mrs. Wagner, and Mr. 
  Mast) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Remembering the victims of the violent suppression of democracy 
 protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China on June 3 and 4, 
 1989, and calling on the Government of the People's Republic of China 
to respect the universally recognized human rights of all people living 
                     in China and around the world.

Whereas June 4, 2019, marks the 30th anniversary of the violent crackdown on 
        peaceful demonstrations held in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square by 
        the People's Liberation Army, carrying out the orders of the Government 
        of the People's Republic of China;
Whereas an estimated 1,000,000 people joined the protests in Tiananmen Square 
        and citizens in over 400 Chinese cities staged similar protests calling 
        for democratic reform, including not only students, but also government 
        employees, journalists, workers, police officers, members of the armed 
        forces, and other citizens;
Whereas the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 called upon the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China to eliminate corruption, accelerate economic 
        and political reform, and protect human rights, particularly the 
        freedoms of expression and assembly, issues that remain relevant in 
        United States-China relations 30 years later;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China takes active measures 
        to deny its citizens the truth about the Tiananmen Square massacre, 
        including the blocking of uncensored internet sites and social media 
        commentary on microblog and other messaging services, and the placement 
        of misleading information on the events of June 3 and 4, 1989, on 
        internet sites available in China;
Whereas, on May 20, 1989, martial law was declared in Beijing, China, after 
        authorities had failed to persuade demonstrators 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 and surrounding streets;
Whereas, on the night of June 3, 1989, and continuing into the morning of June 
        4, 1989, soldiers fired into crowds, inflicting high casualties on the 
        demonstrators and injuring many unarmed civilians;
Whereas tanks crushed to death some protesters and onlookers and seriously 
        injured many others;
Whereas independent observers reported that hundreds, perhaps thousands, were 
        killed and wounded by People's Liberation Army soldiers and other 
        security forces in Beijing and other cities in China;
Whereas tens of thousands were detained and sent to prison or reeducation 
        through labor, often without trial and many were tortured and imprisoned 
        for decades;
Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers is a group of relatives and friends of those 
        killed in June 1989 whose demands include the right to mourn victims 
        publicly and who call for a full, public, and independent accounting of 
        the wounded, dead, and those imprisoned for participating in the spring 
        1989 demonstrations;
Whereas members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have faced arrest, harassment, 
        and discrimination, with the group's website blocked in China and the 
        freezing by Chinese authorities of international cash donations made to 
        the group to support families of victims;
Whereas despite the Government of the People's Republic of China's integration 
        into the international economic system and its obligations under 
        international treaties and covenants, the political reforms and the 
        protection of universally recognized rights sought by the Tiananmen 
        demonstrators have not been realized during the past 30 years;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to actively 
        suppress universally recognized rights by imprisoning or restricting the 
        activities of pro-democracy activists, human rights lawyers, citizen 
        journalists, labor union leaders, religious believers, members of ethnic 
        minorities, and individuals in the Xinjiang and Tibetan regions, among 
        many others who seek to express their political or religious views or 
        their ethnic identity in a peaceful manner, including in Hong Kong where 
        the Government of the People's Republic of China has increasingly 
        exerted influence, eroding freedoms there, and placing its special 
        status at risk;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to harass, 
        disappear, and detain peaceful advocates for human rights, religious 
        freedom, ethnic minority rights and the rule of law, and their family 
        members, such as Ilham Tohti, Gao Zhisheng, Wang Bingzhang, Lobsang 
        Tsering, Yang Maodong (also known as Guo Feixiong), Liu Xianbin, Qin 
        Yongmin, Wu Gan, Zhang Haitao, Wang Quanzhang, Tashi Wangchug, Tang 
        Jingling, Liu Feiyue, Wang Yi, Jiang Rong, Cao Yuguang, Abdurehim Heyit, 
        Eziz Emet, Hebibulla Tohti, Drugdra, Lobsang Gephel, Sonam Dargye, 
        Thardoe Gyaltsen, Gulmira Imin, and Huang Qi, among many others;
Whereas according to the Political Prisoner Database maintained by the United 
        States Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Government of 
        the People's Republic of China continues to detain over 1,500 political 
        and religious prisoners, though the number is presumed to be much 
        higher;
Whereas Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent advocate for human rights and 
        political reform Liu Xiaobo died in state custody in 2017, the first 
        Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in state custody since Carl Von 
        Ossietzky died in 1938 after being detained by the Nazi German 
        government;
Whereas over a million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic and religious 
        minorities are interned in political reeducation camps in Xinjiang 
        Uyghur Autonomous Region and elsewhere in China and are subjected to the 
        forced renunciation of faith, torture, and forced assimilation of their 
        language and culture through actions that may constitute crimes against 
        humanity;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China harasses, detains, and 
        tortures human rights lawyers who take on cases deemed politically 
        sensitive; prevents Chinese workers from forming independent unions and 
        engages in an ongoing crackdown on labor advocates, organizations, and 
        their supporters; restricts severely the religious activity of 
        Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, and Turkic Muslims and has 
        sought to eradicate Falun Gong practice in China; vilifies publicly and 
        refuses to negotiate with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his 
        representatives over Tibetan issues and asserts control over the 
        reincarnation process through which the next Dalai Lama will be 
        recognized; repatriates forcibly refugees to North Korea and pressures 
        neighboring governments to repatriate refugees from China who reach 
        their territory in contravention of the international legal principle of 
        non-refoulement; restricts the activities of and detains citizen 
        journalists; and continues to limit the size of Chinese families;
Whereas the protection of universally recognized human rights, in law and 
        practice, would allow the Government of the People's Republic of China 
        to establish more stable economic, political, and security relations 
        with its neighbors and the United States; and
Whereas the United States Congress annually observes the 1989 Tiananmen 
        demonstrations and their violent suppression--

    (1) because of the enduring impact this historical episode has had on 
United States-China relations;

    (2) because there has been no justice for those who lost their lives 
seeking freedom and political reform during the Spring of 1989;

    (3) because the Government of the People's Republic of China censors 
research, discussion and commemoration of Tiananmen in China;

    (4) because the demonstrations showed that the ideas of democracy and 
freedom, human rights and the rule of law are not foreign to the people of 
China;

    (5) because the demonstrations and their violent suppression showed the 
lengths to which the leaders of the Government of the People's Republic of 
China will go to suppress universally recognized rights and to maintain 
their hold on power; and

    (6) because, despite persistent, ongoing, and sometimes brutal 
repression, there continue to be Chinese citizens bravely seeking to 
exercise universally recognized human rights, ensure the rule of law, and 
promote political reform thus carrying on the legacy of the Tiananmen 
demonstrations: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) expresses sympathy and solidarity to the families of 
        those killed, tortured, and imprisoned for their participation 
        in the pro-democracy demonstrations during the spring of 1989 
        in Beijing and in other cities across the People's Republic of 
        China;
            (2) supports the leaders of the Tiananmen demonstrations 
        and all those who peacefully sought political reform, 
        democratic transparency, the rule of law, and protections for 
        universally recognized human rights in China;
            (3) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China to--
                    (A) support a full, transparent, and independent 
                accounting of the government's actions and number of 
                deaths that occurred during the violent suppression of 
                the spring 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations;
                    (B) rehabilitate the reputations of those who 
                participated in the demonstrations and those detained 
                for seeking to commemorate the anniversary of the 
                demonstrations; and
                    (C) cease the censoring of information and 
                discussion about the Tiananmen Square massacre, 
                including at Confucius Institutes worldwide;
            (4) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China to allow Tiananmen demonstration participants who escaped 
        to or are living in exile in the United States and other 
        countries, or who reside outside of China because they have 
        been ``blacklisted'' in China as a result of their peaceful 
        protest activity, to return to China without risk of 
        repercussions or retribution; and
            (5) condemns the ongoing restrictions on universally 
        recognized human rights by the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China and its efforts to quell peaceful political 
        dissent, censor the internet, brutally suppress ethnic and 
        religious minorities, and detain and torture lawyers and rights 
        advocates seeking the Government's commitment, in law and 
        practice, to international human rights treaties and covenants 
        to which it is a party and that are reflected in the Chinese 
        constitution.
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