A resolution remembering the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, and condemning the widespread repression against citizens, the transnational repression against activists and other individuals, and the systematic efforts to undermine human rights norms within and outside of the United Nations system by the People's Republic of China.

Bill: 118-sres-715
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD]
Introduced: 2024-06-03
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2024-06-03
text: Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (text: CR S3932-3933)

Summaries:

tv_txt: III 118th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 715 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 3, 2024 Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Merkley , and Mr. Rubio ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Remembering the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, and condemning the widespread repression against citizens, the transnational repression against activists and others individuals, and the systematic efforts to undermine human rights norms within and outside of the United Nations system by the People's Republic of China.

Whereas, on June 4, 2024, the world will mark the 35th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, during which authorities of the People’s Republic of China murdered thousands of peaceful pro-democracy protestors who were calling for an end to corruption, an expansion of economic opportunity, and a rights-respecting system of government; Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China persists in efforts to erase the memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and to harass, intimidate, and arrest activists, scholars, and family members of the victims of the massacre, including the Tiananmen Mothers, who have had the courage to speak out, honor the dead, and call for accountability, and persecuted heroic army officers, such as Major General Xu Qinxian, who refused to lead his soldiers during the massacre and was stripped of his Chinese Communist Party membership and jailed for 4 years; Whereas the people of Hong Kong had held an annual Tiananmen Square vigil in Victoria Park since 1990, which had been the only such mass gathering on Chinese territory; Whereas the longstanding tradition of the Hong Kong vigils came to an end in 2020, when the Hong Kong police denied applications for assembly pretextually on COVID–19 related grounds and when key organizers of the annual event were jailed on politically motivated criminal charges, including unlawful assembly and posing a threat to national security; Whereas, on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the international community is reminded of the sacrifices made by the Chinese people for the ideals of democracy and human rights and remains deeply concerned by the ongoing human rights abuses and violations by the People's Republic of China against Chinese citizens and other individuals within the People's Republic of China and abroad; Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China continues to perpetrate systematic and egregious human rights abuses against Chinese citizens, including— (1) a widespread crackdown on freedom of expression and the press; (2) unrelenting surveillance, harassment, and imprisonment of human rights defenders, lawyers, scholars, journalists, and members from religious and ethnic minorities and groups; and (3) an Orwellian system of technological and social control over Chinese citizens; Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China continues to commit atrocities against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic and religious groups in Xinjiang, including— (1) mass arbitrary detention in so-called re-education camps ; (2) increased prosecutions and formal imprisonment for politically motivated charges; (3) forced labor and forced abortions and sterilizations; (4) involuntary political indoctrination; (5) severe restrictions on religious freedom; and (6) constant monitoring and surveillance; Whereas the systematic repression against the Tibetan community by the Government of the People’s Republic of China continues unabated and includes— (1) a forced campaign of Sinicization that attempts to eliminate the unique religious, linguistic, and cultural identity of Tibet; (2) indoctrination of Tibetan children through government-run boarding schools; (3) efforts to co-opt Tibetan Buddhism through the control of Tibetan Buddhist religious practices, monastic communities, selection of Tibetan Buddhist lamas and efforts to interfere in the succession process of the Dalai Lama; (4) environmental degradation of the Tibetan plateau; and (5) forced relocation of Tibetan nomads under the false guise of conservation or economic development; Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China abrogated international commitments under the terms of the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, done at Beijing December 19, 1984 (referred to in this preamble as the Joint Declaration ), through an unprecedented crackdown on fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, including— (1) by passing and implementing the repressive and vague Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (referred to in this preamble as the National Security Law ), which undermined the high degree of autonomy promised under the Joint Declaration; (2) by harassing, intimidating, and arresting peaceful activists, lawyers, pro-democracy legislators, journalists, and others under the guise of the National Security Law; and (3) by implementing Article 23 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, which further and severely curtails the exercise of human rights in Hong Kong; Whereas the ongoing and heroic efforts of the Chinese people to shine a light on the abuses of the Government of the People’s Republic of China and to advocate for human rights, including through mass demonstrations in November 2022, known as the White Paper Movement to protest censorship and the harsh zero-COVID policy, have been met with brutal suppression and further efforts to monitor, control, and politically indoctrinate Chinese citizens; Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China carries out a coordinated campaign of transnational repression to silence dissenting voices abroad, including through tactics, such as surveillance, harassment, abduction, coercion, and by imprisoning family members in the People's Republic of China; Whereas transnational repression by the Government of the People’s Republic of China not only violates the fundamental freedoms of individuals and the sovereignty of other nations, but also engenders a climate of fear and self-censorship among Chinese communities abroad, including journalists, activists, scholars, and researchers; Whereas the rise of the People’s Republic of China as a global power has been accompanied by concerted efforts by the Government of the People's Republic of China to reshape international institutions and norms, especially institutions and norms related to human rights; Whereas, through pressure, intimidation, economic coercion, and other tactics used against organizational leadership and sovereign nations, the Government of the People’s Republic of China seeks to dilute the focus on human rights within the multilateral system and other international fora, and to promote its model of non-interference inside and outside the United Nations system to prevent international scrutiny of domestic human rights abuses and use of transnational repression by the Government of the People's Republic of China; and Whereas the People’s Republic of China, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order, and increasingly, the economic, military, and technological power to do it, and the systematic efforts of the Government of the People's Republic of China to redefine international institutions and the multilateral system according to its authoritarian worldview poses an unprecedented challenge to the post-World War II human rights consensus forged through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and threatens the very foundation of universal human rights norms: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1) stands in solidarity with families of the individuals who lost their lives, underwent torture, or were imprisoned for their involvement in the pro-democracy demonstrations during the spring of 1989, and the individuals in and outside of the People's Republic of China who continue to face harassment, intimidation, and imprisonment for their ongoing efforts to expose the truth regarding the massacre by the Government of the People's Republic of China against its own people on June 4, 1989; (2) reaffirms its steadfast support for the courageous activists, lawyers, civil society representatives, members of ethnic and religious minority groups, journalists, and other individuals who continue to advocate for the rule of law, political and economic freedom, the preservation of the unique identities of the ethnic and religious minorities and groups of the People’s Republic of China, and human rights; (3) condemns the Government of the People’s Republic of China for the egregious human rights abuses against Chinese citizens inside the border of the People's Republic of China, transnational repression against activists, and systematic efforts to undermine human rights within and outside of the United Nations system; (4) calls on the Government of the People’s Republic of China— (A) to cease censoring information and discussion within the People’s Republic of China and globally about the Tiananmen Square Massacre; (B) to allow for a full, independent, and transparent investigation into the events of June 4, 1989; (C) to cease harassing, intimidating, and imprisoning individuals who attempt to expose the truth regarding the Tiananmen Square Massacre; (D) to cease the systematic and egregious suppression of the human rights of the citizens of the People’s Republic of China; (E) to release unconditionally all human rights defenders, lawyers, scholars, journalists, members of religious and ethnic minorities and groups, and other individuals who have been unjustly detained or imprisoned on politically-motivated charges for exercising internationally recognized fundamental freedoms, including Ilham Tohti, Ekpar Asat, Go Sherab Gyatso, Xu Zhiyong, Li Yuhan and Ding Jiaxi, those who protested the zero-COVID lockdown and the rising repression in the People's Republic of China under Xi Jinping, such as Peng Lifa and Li Kangmeng, who were nominated by Members of Congress for the Nobel Peace Prize, those in Hong Kong, such as Jimmy Lai, Joshua Wong, and Chow Hang-tung, and family members of activists abroad who the Government of the People's Republic of China imprisoned to pressure their family members into silence, including Gulshan Abbas; (F) to reverse policies and actions in Xinjiang that have led to widespread atrocities against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic and religious groups in the region and that threaten the preservation of Uyghur identity, and to allow independent and unfettered access to the region by United Nations human rights mechanisms and other international observers to conduct a transparent investigation into the atrocities of the Government of the People’s Republic of China in Xinjiang and seek accountability and justice for victims; (G) to reverse policies and actions in Tibet that violate the human rights of Tibetans, threaten the survival of Tibetan identity, interfere in the ability of Tibetan Buddhists to select their religious leaders, including the Dalai Lama, and denigrate the environment and ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau and the traditional livelihoods of Tibetan nomads, and to allow independent and unfettered access to the region by United Nations human rights mechanisms and other international observers to document abuses; (H) to uphold international legal obligations to Hong Kong under the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, done at Beijing December 19, 1984 (referred to in this resolution as the Joint Declaration ), restore independent democratic representation to the people of Hong Kong in line with the One Country, Two Systems arrangement set forth in the Joint Declaration; (I) to cease undermining the high degree of autonomy promised to Hong Kong in the Joint Declaration; (J) to end the coordinated campaign of transnational repression against Chinese citizens overseas; and (K) to cease coercing, intimidating, and pressuring member states within the United Nations and other multilateral fora in service of the goal of the Government of the People's Republic of China to reshape the international order according to an authoritarian worldview and undermine the universality of human rights under international law; and (5) calls on the United States Government— (A) through high-level unilateral and joint statements with partners and allies, to honor the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and urge the Government of the People's Republic of China to immediately initiate a full, independent, and transparent investigation into the events of June 4, 1989, lift censorship restrictions around discussion of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and cease harassing, intimidating, and imprisoning individuals who attempt to expose the truth about June 4, 1989, and seek justice; (B) to meet with participants of the Tiananmen Square protests and the families and friends of the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre based outside of the People’s Republic of China, and publicize such meetings when appropriate; (C) to seek the unconditional release of political prisoners in the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong; (D) to use credible resources, such as the Political Prisoner Database maintained by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, to enhance information regarding political prisoner cases in the People’s Republic of China; (E) to hold accountable officials of the Chinese Communist Party and of the Government of the People's Republic of China complicit in genocide, crimes against humanity, transnational repression, the undermining of the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong, and other violations of human rights, including through sanctions, visa restrictions, and other tools; (F) to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States at the United Nations to seek urgent discussions of the human rights record of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, including on matters related to Hong Kong at the United Nations Security Council and at the United Nations' Human Rights Council; and (G) to make clear that the people of the United States support the ability of the citizens of the People’s Republic of China to exercise their human rights without fear, and that action by the United States Government to hold the persons complicit in human rights abuses accountable are undertaken in solidarity with the people of the People's Republic of China and their aspirations.