[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 715 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 715
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
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
Resolved, 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.
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