Twenty Years Later, Still Calling for Freedom in China

Twenty years ago today, thousands of Chinese students, workers, and citizens marched in peace in Tiananmen Square. They called for democratic reform, freedom of speech and assembly, and an end to corruption. The People's Liberation Army, the People's Army, was used against the people, crushing demonstrators in Tiananmen Square and crushing dissent throughout China -- killing thousands. Today, the spirit of Tiananmen lives on in those continuing the struggle both in China and around the world.

Last week, I led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to China. While China has made great economic progress in the last twenty years, it is a country that remains full of contradictions and complexities. While its leaders have astonishing political power, they continue to censor the internet, lock up citizens who organize peacefully, and try to prevent 1.3 billion people from learning the truth about history.

The topic of human rights was discussed in our high level meetings and in my speeches. In Shanghai, our first meeting was with Catholic Bishop Jin to discuss the status of religious freedom in China.

In Beijing, I delivered a letter calling on the Chinese government to release certain prisoners of conscience. One of those individuals is Liu Xiaobo. Liu spent five years in prison and in re-education-through-labor camps for supporting the Tiananmen students and questioning the one-party system. Late last year, Liu was again arrested for being one of the organizers of Charter '08, an online public petition for democracy and the rule of law that called for new policies to improve human rights and democracy in China. About 5,000 people signed it. Imagine the courage of those who signed such a petition. Liu continues to be held without charges, and is reportedly under residential surveillance at a location outside of his residence, in violation of China's Criminal Procedure law.

In Hong Kong, we met with democracy, human rights, and labor leaders. But what I saw in China last week is that despite continued repression, the spirit of Tiananmen continues to inspire people there and abroad. Throughout China, workers and farmers are fighting back. They might not know about June 4th, as the Chinese government continues to censor news on the news (Wired's Threat Level blog compiled sites authorities have blocked which include Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, and the Huffington Post, among others), but they have similar concerns.

Two of the issues which have been priorities of my service in Congress -- promoting human rights and protecting the environment -- are coming together in the discussion about China. Environmental damage adversely impacts the poorest people in the world and this is especially true in China. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 protests each year in China and the number continues to increase.

My friend Han Dongfang, one of the heroes of Tiananmen, explained to me that the Chinese people aren't fighting under a banner of democracy this time. They are defending their land from unlawful seizure. They are fighting corruption at the local levels. They are fighting against the poison that is being dumped into their air, land, rivers, and lakes. They do not have the proper channels to address their grievances. They are calling for a government that is accountable to the people. They are calling for openness and transparency. They are calling for justice. All of these things are what we mean when we talk about fighting for human rights.

As a Member of Congress in 1991, I visited China and unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square dedicated to those who died for democracy there. That was one of the proudest moments of my career. It was my opportunity to express the concern that I had for the human rights situation in China and Tibet. On last week's trip, as Speaker of the House, I had the opportunity to speak directly to the President of China and other top leaders on the issues of freedom and human rights.

On Tuesday, the House passed a resolution recognizing the 20th anniversary of the brutal suppression of protesters and citizens in and around Tiananmen Square -- expressing sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned in connection with the protests, calling for the Chinese government to allow full and fair investigations and to release those imprisoned for participating in the 1989 demonstrations.

With this, the United States Congress says to the people of China and freedom-loving people everywhere: Your cause is our cause. We will never forget, and we will continue to push for freedom in China, so that one day the world's most populous country can finally be called the world's largest democracy.

Comments

[FairTalk]

I have a completely different view of China than you do. Perhaps that is because I lived in China. (I am noy Chinese) I would like to share this video with you, because this is what life in Tibet is really like, not the nightmare oppression you describe. I am including some of the information I found on the video , I hope yu find it enlightening, (pun intended.)

"The Chinese government are following a deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country. It may be obvious, but Tibetan should be the official language of Tibet. The world must act. Time is running out for Tibet." --some clueless Tibet activist

This is raw footage of Purba Rgyal (Pubajia 蒲巴甲), winner of the Chinese version of American Idol in 2006. The public voted through their cell phones (SMS text messages).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNCnILrwQWY

[viper234]

We need to restore and protect our civil liberties in the US and the House should not be wasting the People's time passing resolutions denouncing the supression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, "expressing sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned in connection with the protests," when the US regularly supresses demonstrations and has tortured detainees, some murdered as a result of torture in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of those tortured were rounded up and held in detention centers without ever being charged with a crime and with no access to legal counsel. The US has lost its moral standing in the world because it has made itself an exception to the rule of law.

[FairTalk]

Part 1

In 40s we made the biggest ever foreign policy mistake, and we are still at it. I am refering to China policy. "Human rights' is a club we use against China, and is is code for breaking China into parts. I''m tired of the China Lobby and the China bashing press. I want the US to cease and desist from funding "dissidents" in China, and militant seperatist movements. If we have something to say about how China is handeling things, lets show themm a good example. So far we haven't been able to.

Here is an exerpt from a book that demonstartes my point.

http://books.google.com/books?id=dc7NOiTSgM0C&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=vineger+joe+stilwell+china
&source=bl­&ots=DBQkZ­f8JSR&sig=­Q0jq9XhUtk­q7PP7SnC7x­reBLFkY
&hl=en&ei=­Hz4sSsTxCp­ncMdnVyNAJ­&sa=X&oi=b­ook_result­&ct=result­&resnum=8

War and Nationalism in China, 1925-1945 by Hans J. Van de Ven

"The US government adopted Stilwall's belief that the US had done it's best but the Nationalist's had caused their own defeat to defend its China policy. In Augyst 1949. weeks before Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People's Republic of China, the State Department published the China White Paper. Following the failure of George Marshalls mediation efforts to end the Civil War, the White Paper justified US withdrawal of support for the Nationalists in terms of the latter's incompetence and corruption. The publication of the White Paper took place just after the unexpected democratic victory in the 1948 elections, when Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress.

[FairTalk]

Part 2

In his letter of transmittal, Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, argued that Chaing Kai Shek's government had 'lost the confidence of its own forces and its own people'. Intervention would require 'the expenditure of even greater sums than have been fruitlessly spent thus far' as well as US command of Chinese forces and the participation of huge US armies.

Because the Chinese Lobby in Congress, which supported the Nationalists, had made US policy toward China a major political issue, the White Paper was an attempt to close the debate on China, or at least take the political sting out of it, by letting, as Lyman Vanslyke put it in his introduction to the Stanford Universary Press edition of 1968, 'let the record speak for itself'.

It did not do so. The American media again threw itself upon the China issue, and questions about ommissions, distortions, and falsifications were raised in the House of Representatives.

Senator Joeseph McCarthy exploited the China White Paper to press his pursuit of Communists in the Department of State. As Ambassador to China, Patrick Hurley had come to blows with China specialists in the Department of State such as John Service and John Carter Vincent..."

[woundedduck]

Hey Nancy, we're going to be saying the same thing about you in 20 years: why didn't you impeach?

[dan-o]

China will never change because of the wealth brought into China by US and International Corps. We(the American consumer) are making a success of a system that would of failed if not for the trillions of dollars sent to China.

[HyperInfluential]

Madam Speaker, before we say anything to China about their country, please prosecute the War Criminals in our own previous administration. Children were raped as part of the so-called "enhanced interrogation" torture program. Please give them justice.

We know you may have had some indirect knowledge of the program, but even if you face an ethics investigation over it, nobody will condemn you for not confronting the criminals while they were in power. We wouldn't want to be shot in the face by Cheney either. Please just demand prosecution now, use all powers available to you, do whatever it takes to give these victims their fair day in court for what was done to them.

We're coming to Washington June 25 to demand prosecution. Please make it a celebration march instead of a protest one. http://www.impeachbush.org/site/News2/206740480?page=NewsArticle&id=5365&news_iv_ctrl=1281

[HyperInfluential]

I apologize for misspelling "Madame," no offense was intended!

[timned]

No problem, your post was offensive enough!

[timned]

I never thought I would be supporting Speaker Pelosi, but those of you who cry about your freedoms at home should spend one month in a real communist country and see what the Chinese worker must endure every day. We have the greatest freedom and middle class in the world. There is no country that provides the freedom of choice and opportunity for success, no matter what your background is. Not the case in China and Speaker Pelosi needs to keep up the pressure. How is an American worker to compete against .80 cents an hour? This can only happen when the Chinese worker is free to negotiate, organize, as well as one choice we all have here, quit our jobs. When freedom comes to the Chinese worker the day of forced labor is over. Keep the pressure on the Chinese Madam Speaker, you just won over a conservative American.

[valkyrie607]

Here is an example of illogical thinking. Just because one decries the breakdown of the American legal system does not mean one supports Chinese political oppression.

[sounder55]

Amen. It happens a lot! It is the same as a teenager saying "we'll everyone's doing it!". There must be some name for it in psycology.

[glockman]

Two hundred and thirty some years later and still calling for freedom in America.

[moonflowerjewelry]

... still calling for freedom in america...
freedom for all to marry the person they love
freedom of religion (ask newtie what he thinks about wiccans these days)
freedom from religion

[epiphany1234]

As a citizen of the US, I would much prefer you work for ensuring freedoms at home....like the freedom to be without health care anxieties, and the freedom to secure a good education without bankrupting oneself and one's family, and the freedom to know jobs will remain within these borders and the freedom of not being dragged into unjustified wars, for starters.

Your plate is full here -- and so far you have woefully not delivered.

[blastocyst]

The stigma attached, formerly, to bankruptcy is all but dissolved.
If it's good for Trump and others of his strain it has to become the new 'black'.

Don't worry, be happy.

[sounder55]

Freedom is so damn misunderstood! You do not have a right in this world to see a doctor or go to school. Who do you loot from to attain these "rights"? The successful? The Able? What happens when they are tapped? Do you go after the upper middle class? You work, use your mind and strive to achieve these things. No person is turned away at the hospital. They may be in debt, but they are healthy. People work there way through school every day. Is it to much to ask for someone to work for a value? We can not live a month without food and water. Should this be a "right" granted to us by the government? Those thing are more essential that education and healthcare. Soon you ARE China. You confuse freedom with coddling.

[HyperInfluential]

But then again, this land, all the concrete pavement stretching on to infinity, USED to be a habitat that a human could go off by himself in, and actually go do that, just live by his own bootstraps. Fish and hunt, make clothes from skins, everything.

All that STUFF, the water, the food, the shady trees, all of it USED to be there. But before anyone living now was even born, it was all divided up and paved over. If you want to just take off on your own and not participate in society you have to eat leftover food out of the garbage. It's just not the same. You can visit a park, but you can't live there.

I say the descendants of the people who paved the world DO owe food and water to everybody else. That stuff used to be there for the taking, and now it's not, because of their ancestors' actions.

[TJCole]

That's because they are a Communist country Nancy...why did we make them so rich..?

[blastocyst]

The antithesis to the fearfulness of the domino theory.
What a wretched bit of bother that Viet Nam police-action.

[blastocyst]

But access to that sweet slave-labor's a hard habit to break.
You must understand.
At any rate, the illusion of the quest for Democracy's just as important as having the murky brand we sell.

[Realization]

The best thing we can do is to focus on eliminating the trade deficit and excess foreign borrowing and, i the process, rejuvenate American industry and technology. Don't have any leverage on other issues while we are beggars driving straight to the poorhouse - while making China stronger and stronger.

[betterus]

Ms. Speaker, how about more real freedom here at home from the special interests that are ruining US? Healthcare, financial reform, on and on... It is simple, just act like a real representatives for people again.

[sounder55]

I am with you in condemning the special interest and pressure groups. Everyone should understand where special interest comes from, though. A Gov't that provides for "the public good" creates them. Who is the public? Being only a collection of independent entities, the "public" hasn't any rights. Therefore, groups must fight to become "the public". This comes in the form of special interest, pressure groups, bribery, conspiracy and all other forms of corruption. When you ask for Universal Healthcare, you are asking for something for the "public good". Beware of what you are inviting.