TEXT: REP. GILMAN'S STATEMENT AT JAN. 20 PANEL ON CHINA
(Committee Chairman rips China for rights abuses)Washington -- The chairman of the House Committee on International Relations scored China for its rights abuses at a panel he convened January 20, and said he plans to sponsor a resolution in Congress that the United States introduce a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Commission annual meeting in Geneva that will condemn China's violation of human rights.
Representative Benjamin Gilman (Republican-New York) said his resolution would call for the United States to introduce, "and make all necessary efforts to pass, a resolution in Geneva this spring condemning the government of the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet."
Last year the Clinton administration did not sponsor a resolution regarding Chinese human rights abuses.
The recent crackdown on dissent in China, Gilman said, called into question the utility of a strategy of "constructive engagement by Western democracies."
"When international pressure was high, fewer dissidents were arrested, and prison conditions were not so bad as at other times. But when the pressure eased up, the hard-line faction prevailed and conditions got worse," Gilman said, echoing the assessment of Chinese human rights activist Wei Jingsheng.
This "stark" assessment, Gilman said, leads to two important questions. "What exactly can the United States and other freedom-loving nations do to uphold justice in China," Gilman asked, "to reverse the current downward spiral in which Beijing leaders are doing and saying things that force us to remember that they were the same people who committed the Tiananmen massacre?"
Gilman posed the challenge, "Will we have the courage to do what has to be done?"
Following is the text of Gilman's statement, as prepared for delivery:
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, CHAIRMAN
BEFORE THE HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE"HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA"
The hearing will come to order. Our witnesses today include human rights experts who will testify about the state of human rights in China, and representatives from the State Department who will testify about the Administration's China policy, and particularly about the recent human rights dialogues with the government of China.
Today's hearing is a sequel to a hearing our Committee held January 8th on "Nipping Democracy in the Bud: The New Crackdown on Dissidents in China." The witnesses at that hearing were four democracy advocates and former prisoners of conscience from China. Their assessment of the prospects for freedom and democracy in China, at least in the near term, was uniformly bleak.
Wei Jingsheng testified that after he and two other prominent dissidents were released from prison and required to leave China, the international community was deceived into thinking that conditions in China had improved. He said that Western governments believed the releases were a result of their strategy of "constructive engagement."
In fact, Wei stated, the Chinese Communist Party had arrested nearly a hundred other dissidents, cracked down on activists attempting to organize an opposition party, and cruelly suppressed nonviolent demonstrations by ordinary people.
According to Wei and other Chinese dissidents, the strategy of "constructive engagement" -- by which Beijing enjoys economic and political concessions regardless of whether there is any real progress toward respect for human rights, in hopes that they will see things our way -- gets it exactly backwards.
For instance, Wei testified that during his 18 years as a political prisoner, the attitude of prison authorities toward political prisoners was directly related to the amount of pressure exerted by the international community.
When international pressure was high, fewer dissidents were arrested, and prison conditions were not so bad as at other times. But when the pressure eased up, "the hard-line faction prevailed" and conditions got worse. Wei predicted that unless the international community promptly "assumes responsibility for upholding justice" in China, then "there will soon be more and more mothers who have lost their sons, wives who have lost their husbands, and children who have lost their parents."
This stark assessment leads to two important questions: First, what exactly can the United States and other freedom-loving nations do to "uphold justice" in China -- to reverse the current downward spiral in which Beijing leaders are doing and saying things that force us to remember that they were the same people who committed the Tiananmen massacre? And, second, will we have the courage to do what has to be done?
For now, it appears that our official response to the crackdown on human rights will take the form of words rather than deeds. Last week, United States and representatives of the Chinese government met in Washington, D.C. to discuss human rights issues, resuming the bilateral human rights dialogue that the Chinese government had suspended in 1995.
On the U.S. side, the dialogue was led by Harold Koh, the new Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, who is one of our witnesses today. Secretary Koh has a reputation as a fighter for human rights, and by all accounts he was very tough with the Chinese government representatives.
We look forward to hearing in detail from Secretary Koh exactly what he told the Beijing negotiators about political and religious prisoners, torture, slave labor, forced abortion and sterilization, the harvesting of organs from executed convicts, increased repression in Tibet, and other human rights violations, and about the Chinese government's responses.
It is also encouraging that Secretary Albright spoke forcefully on human rights in her toast at a reception for the Chinese delegates. She stated that the United States is "profoundly distressed by the unjustified prison sentences recently imposed upon a number of Chinese who tried to exercise" the right of organized and peaceful political expression.
Regrettably, Secretary Albright and Secretary Koh are not the only ones in our government who are sending messages to the Chinese government about human rights. On January 1st, President Clinton wrote Chinese President Jiang Zemin to "convey the warmest wishes of the American people."
In his letter, President Clinton praised "the expansion of cooperation between our two nations" and "our achievements over the past twenty years," and expressed his "sincere commitment to increasingly cooperative and mutually beneficial relations." The President's letter said absolutely nothing about human rights or democracy.
This fact was not lost on the Chinese government, which has caused the Clinton letter to be widely publicized in their state-controlled news media. What a sad New Year's message this must have been to the courageous dissidents and ordinary Chinese people who look to the United States for some sign that they are not alone in their struggle for freedom. Even when it comes to words, our government continues to send mixed messages about whether we really care what Beijing does to its people.
The real question, however, is whether it will take more than words to change Beijing's conduct. We look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses today what the United States should do, beyond more dialogues, beyond even co-sponsoring a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, if the conduct of the Beijing government does not improve promptly and dramatically.
Finally, I want to call the attention of Committee members to an important resolution I plan to introduce, calling for the United States to introduce, and make all necessary efforts to pass, a resolution in Geneva this spring condemning the government of the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet.
Although I have said that a resolution at the Human Rights Commission is not sufficient, it is nevertheless necessary. Failure on the part of the United States to push hard for such a resolution, after the abject failure of the strategy the Administration adopted last year of foregoing a resolution in exchange for various promises by the Chinese government, would be yet another setback for freedom and democracy.
Despite all that has happened in recent months, the Administration is said to be still undecided about whether to offer a China resolution. Overwhelming House passage of this resolution will provide them with the necessary encouragement to act quickly and decisively.
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