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Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human... (Placed on the Calendar in the Senate)

HCON 28 PCS

March 16, 1999

Received and placed on the calendar

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China has signed two important United Nations human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights;

Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China recognizes the United Nations Universal Declaration of

Human Rights, which calls for the protection of the rights of freedom of association, press, assembly, religion, and other fundamental rights and freedoms;

Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China demonstrates a pattern of continuous, serious, and widespread violations of internationally recognized human rights standards, including violations of the rights described in the preceding clause and the following:

(1) restricting nongovernmental political and social organizations;

(2) cracking down on film directors, computer software developers, artists, and the press, including threats of life prison terms;

(3) sentencing poet and writer, Ma Zhe, to seven years in prison on charges of subversion for publishing an independent literary journal;

(4) sentencing three pro-democracy activists, Xu Wenli, Wang Youcai, and Qing Yongmin, to long prison sentences in December 1998 for the announced effort to organize an alternative political party committed to democracy and respect for human rights;

(5) sentencing Zhang Shanguang to prison for ten years for giving Radio Free Asia information about farmer protests in Hunan province;

(6) putting on trial businessman Lin Hai for providing e-mail addresses to a pro-democracy Internet magazine based in the United States;

(7) arresting, harassing, and torturing members of the religious community who worship outside of official Chinese churches;

(8) refusing the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights access to the Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima;

(9) continuing to engage in coercive family planning practices, including forced abortion and forced sterilization; and

(10) operating a system of prisons and other detention centers in which gross human rights violations, including torture, slave labor, and the commercial harvesting of human organs from executed prisoners, continue to occur;

Whereas repression in Tibet has increased steadily, resulting in heightened control on religious activity, a denunciation campaign against the Dalai Lama unprecedented since the Cultural Revolution, an increase in political arrests, the secret trial and sentencing of former Middlebury College Fulbright Scholar and Tibetan ethnomusicologist Ngawang Choephel to 18 years in prison on espionage charges, and suppression of peaceful protests, and the Government of the People's Republic of China refuses direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives on a negotiated solution for Tibet ;

Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, provides a forum for discussing human rights and expressing international support for improved human rights performance;

Whereas during his July 1998 visit to the People's Republic of China, President Clinton correctly affirmed the necessity of addressing human rights in United States-China relations; and

Whereas the United States did not sponsor a resolution on China's human rights record at the 1998 session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the United States--

(1) should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; and

(2) should immediately contact other governments to urge them to cosponsor and support such a resolution.

Passed the House of Representatives March 11, 1999.

Attest:

JEFF TRANDAHL,

Clerk.

Calendar No. 40

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

March 16, 1999