Text: Lawmakers Introduce Measure on 2008 Olympics, Human Rights
(Olympics in China would be conditional on improved rights)Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution September 28 on the consideration of Beijing as the venue for the Olympics Games in the year 2008.
House Resolution 601 (H. Res. 601) expresses "the sense of the House of Representatives that without improvement in human rights the Olympics Games in the year 2008 should not be held in Beijing in the People's Republic of China." The bill has been referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
The resolution was formally introduced by Representative Tom Lantos (Democrat of California), co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and a member of the House Committee on International Relations. Co-sponsors of the bill include Representatives Christopher Cox (Republican of California), chairman of the House Policy Committee; John Porter (Republican of Illinois), co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus; Christopher Smith (Republican of New Jersey), chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights; Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California), chairman of the Congressional Working Group on China; Dana Rohrabacher (Republican of California), a member of the House International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific; and Frank Wolf (Republican of Virginia), a member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
Following is the text of a press release on the resolution from the Office of Representative Cox:
(begin text)
Policy Chairman, Rep. Lantos Lead Bi-Partisan Effort to Make 2008 Olympics in Beijing Conditional on Human Rights Improvement
WASHINGTON (Thursday, September 28, 2000) -- House Policy Chairman Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) introduced legislation today to put Congress on record that the 2008 Olympics should not be held in Beijing unless human rights conditions in the People's Republic of China improve.
"I'm pleased to join Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), John Porter (R-Ill.), Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), and my other colleagues on the bi-partisan Congressional Human Rights Caucus once again in support of freedom in China," Chairman Cox said. "Human rights in the PRC must remain a bi-partisan concern of U.S. foreign policy. In the few days since Congress has approved expanding trade with the PRC through the World Trade Organization, there has already been backsliding. Conditioning any future Olympics in the PRC on compliance with Olympic principles will help increase international pressure for human rights improvement."
"The brave Chinese people who have refused to be silenced by official censorship, a one-party state, intimidation, imprisonment, and torture in the PRC should know that human rights will remain a focus of attention in Congress and around the world," Chairman Cox added.
Chairman Cox noted that the PRC today named Wei Jingsheng, the founder of China's Democracy Wall movement, in its well-publicized attack on human rights advocates. Two weeks after President Jiang Zemin's visit to the United States, in December 1997, the PRC forever exiled Wei from China, permitting him to be released from 14 years in prison only on condition that he travel to the United States and never return. Two months later, on February 4, 1998, Chairman Cox was Wei's host in the Speaker's Dining Room in the Capitol, where Wei was introduced to the Congressional Leadership.
"We wanted to encourage Wei to keep up the battle for freedom in China," Chairman Cox said, "but he didn't need any encouragement. The PRC's rulers are concerned today because they know that when the United States works with people like Wei, we can achieve great things in behalf of human rights.
"Another advocate for freedom in China-Wang Dan, to whom I had the honor to present the National Endowment for Democracy Human Rights award in absentia while he was still imprisoned by the PRC in February 1998-can also wear recent criticism from the PRC as a badge of honor," Chairman Cox said. Chairman Cox presented the Human Rights Award to Wang Dan in person before the U.S. Capitol in May 1998, following his release from prison and his banishment into permanent exile. Wang was one of the leaders of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement. Wang Dan this month filed a lawsuit against former PRC premier Li Peng for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In response, the PRC government has in recent days claimed that the massacre was "fabricated."
"We will continue to speak out until the PRC acknowledges the crimes against humanity at Tiananmen and begins to respect individual human rights," Rep. Cox said. "I look forward to working together with my colleagues, Republican and Democrat, to make sure that U.S. policy toward China brings about the collapse of Communism there-and helps lead China into the free market democracy its people deserve-well before the 2008 Olympics."
The legislation introduced today states that the House of Representatives "looks forward to the day when the House can support a proposal of the People's Republic of China's to host the Olympic games at a time when the Chinese people openly enjoy the tolerance and freedoms espoused by the high ideals of the Olympic tradition." It also "directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives to transmit a copy of this resolution to the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee and to the United States representative to the International Olympic Committee with the request that it be circulated to all members of the committee."
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Return to The United States and China.Return to IIP Home Page.