The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“HOLOCAUST: THE CHINA PARALLEL” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H804-H805 on Jan. 24, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HOLOCAUST: THE CHINA PARALLEL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier, and I just want to take a little time after the 1-minute to really urge Members to get a copy of the Washington Post piece by Walter Reich called, ``Holocaust: The China Parallel.''
The writer is a physician, the director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He points out that what is taking place in China is parallel to the Holocaust that took place in some respects in Nazi Germany. Now, this Congress last year was going to do something with regard to China. It passed a bill with regard to putting some restrictions on China and dealing with Radio Free China. Frankly, nothing has happened to it. This year the Congress I think is obligated on both sides of the aisle to do something to deal with the issues of religious persecution and what is taking place in China.
As a couple of examples, and I will submit them for the Record, Freedom House has documented 200 Christian Leaders in prison since April 1, 1995. A Christian ministry in the United States had delegates recently to visit a house church during a recent visit to China. The leaders in these churches have to be itinerant in their own country. They cannot meet with their own families. They have no permanent home. Many leaders have been jailed, beaten, fined, tortured, or sent to labor or reeducation camps for their religious beliefs.
Quite frankly, I wish that Ronald Reagan were back in the White House whereby we could have somebody who could come out and stand up and raise these issues. Frankly, since the Berlin Wall has fallen and since Ronald Reagan has left the White House, neither the administration, the Bush administration, nor the Clinton administration, nor Republican Congresses or Democratic Congresses, have done anything with regard to human rights in China and many of the other countries.
Quite frankly, the business of the Clinton administration is business. It is not human rights. They do not care if Catholic priests are being persecuted and bishops are going to jail. They don't care if evangelical ministers are being put in prison. They don't care if Buddhists are being put in prison.
Mr. Speaker, does the Congress care? We know that Clinton does not care. We know that Secretary Christopher does not care, because we have seen no action out of the State Department. In fact, Mr. Speaker, the sound of silence that has come from the Clinton administration on religious persecution is deafening. Mr. Speaker, to be fair, the sound of silence coming from the Republican Congress on this issue is deafening.
Now, all one had to do was watch ``60 Minutes'' Sunday night where they showed Chinese children tied to beds, mainly female children, and they starved them to death, similar to what the Nazis did before World War II. Had that happened in the 1980's, had Ronald Reagan been able to see that, had Senator Jackson of Jackson-Vanick been able to see it, leaders who have fought on both sides of the aisle for human rights, this Congress would have passed a resolution on it. This Congress would have debated this issue. But frankly, Mr. Speaker, this Congress, along with the Clinton administration, has done absolutely nothing.
It would be my hope and prayer that both parties would have a plank in their platform this year for religious freedom from dissidents around the world, for persecution of all religious beliefs, whether they be Buddhist or Christian or Jews. This issue should be on the forefront of the burner of both political parties.
As I again urge my colleagues after they read the article in today's Washington Post, I will close with what the author said. He said, ``If the Human Rights Watch report can be verified by international inspections, the parallels between the Chinese orphanages and the Nazi programs that killed disabled children are alarming. These parallels remind us that human beings, including physicians and other caregivers, are extraordinarily vulnerable to inhuman acts and extraordinarily capable for justifying their behavior on what they see as rational grounds. And they remind us that countries in which democratic institutions are forcibly forbidden and human rights systematically quashed are ones in which human life becomes, quite simply, expendable.''
This issue is not going to go away. If the Clinton administration does not deal with it, I hope and pray that at least this Republican Congress will deal with it.
China Steps Up Religious Repression
December 22, 1995.--The Chinese government is subjecting unauthorized Catholic and Protestant groups to intensifying harassment and persecution as social tensions in the country increase, says Human Rights Watch/Asia in ``China: Religious Persecution Persists,'' released today.
``During the last two years, the Chinese government broadened its drive to crush all forms of dissent. In addition to targeting prominent dissidents such as Wei Jingsheng, who last week was sentenced to fourteen years in prison, all religious believers, and especially Christians, are seen as potential security risks,'' said Mickey Spiegel, research consultant for Human Rights Watch/Asia.
Chinese authorities have issued new directives requiring all congregations to register with religious authorities, stepped up pressure on evangelists, and tightened controls on contact with foreigners and on distribution of religious materials. Individuals suspected of linking religion to political activity have received the harshest treatment. The extensive crackdown on Protestants and Catholics violates both the Chinese constitution and freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As Communist ideology has lost public support, interest in religion, particularly evangelical Protestantism, has spread rapidly in China. But since the early 1990s, a new development has emerged which the country's leaders consider even more ``subversive'': a growing alliance between underground Christian churches and pro-democracy activists, many of whom have converted to Christianity in recent years. Dissident groups such as the League for the Protection of the Rights of Working People (LPRWP), some of whose members are Protestants, have been particularly targeted for official repression, with President Jiang Zemin describing the LPRWP as ``the most counterrevolutionary organization in China since 1949.'' After witnessing the role of the Catholic Church in undermining Communist power in Eastern Europe, the authorities have renewed their determination to eradicate all autonomous religious activity in China.
For example, Xiao Biguang, a thirty-three-year-old former professor of literature at Beijing University, was one of the main drafters of the charter for the LPRWP. He was arrested on April 12, 1994, and put on trial this past April 1995 on criminal charges including ``swindling'' and creating a
``negative atmosphere'' among his students at a theological seminary. As of mid-December 1995, he had not been sentenced and was still being held in a Ministry of State Security lockup in Beijing. Meanwhile, Xiao's wife, Gou Qinghui, has been continually harassed, subjected to periodic surveillance, and forbidden to continue seminary teaching or to meet with co-religionists at home. She has been detained at least four times in May 1994 and May 1995.
The most recent crackdown began in January 1994, when Premier Li Peng signed new regulations tightening the existing requirement that all church groups in China register with the state-controlled Religious Affairs Bureau. This policy, which violates international standards on freedom of expression and association, has forced Christians and other religious believers to choose between registering their congregations lawfully, which often exposes their services to intrusive surveillance and official control, or continuing to operate underground, thereby risking fines, arrests, and even prison terms. The January 1994 regulations also reiterate China's ban on proselytizing and other public religious activities by foreigners, depriving Chinese believers of their right to associate with their co-religionists from overseas.
Local authorities seeking to suppress unauthorized church groups have often violated China's own laws and regulations, acting even more brutally than the national religious policy allows. Christians in many rural areas are routinely and often repeatedly harassed through arbitrary detentions, beatings, and confiscations of property. Those considered
``ringleaders,'' especially Protestant preachers with a large popular following, are at risk of arrest and imprisonment.
In one case, Huang Fangxin, a twenty-nine-year old seminarian from Yongkang County, Zhejiang Province, was sentenced without trial to three years of ``re-education through labor'' in April 1994, after organizing a group of young people from the country into a ``gospel team'' to recruit new members to the local church. Several of his followers have since faced further harassment, including mandatory ``study classes'' at which they are lectured, fined, and sometimes physically abused.
Similar abuses against underground Protestant groups, including raids on churches and mass arrests, have been reported throughout China, particularly in Henan and Anhui provinces where the evangelical movement is especially strong. Roman Catholic bishops who maintain ties to the Vatican have also faced harassment and arbitrary detention.
Foreigners suspected of promoting Christianity among Chinese citizens have become a major target of the new crackdown, especially those caught bringing Bibles and other religious literature into the country illegally. During the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, foreign participants were warned to bring in no religious materials other than those for personal use. Leaders of Protestant ``house churches'' in Beijing were warned to avoid contact with conference delegates arriving from overseas, and one Catholic leader. Bishop Jia Zhiguo, was removed from his home and detained until the day after the conference ended.
The presence of foreigners was in part responsible for a mass arrest in Hubei Province on April 18, 1995, in which security officials, armed with electric batons, broke up a theological training class for new pastors and arrested at least sixty-seven Chinese and three overseas Protestants. The detainees were interrogated, some of them were badly beaten, and some of the men had their heads shaved.
Human Rights Watch calls on the Chinese authorities to lift all official controls on religious activities, including the compulsory registration of church groups, and to thoroughly investigate all reports of illegal mistreatment of religious believers, including beatings, ill-treatment, and torture. All those held for participating in religious activities outside the official churches should be unconditionally released, including those convicted of violating state security laws or the laws on counterrevolution.
Human Rights Watch also urges the international community to exert pressure on the Chinese government to allow greater religious freedom. The U.S., European Union, Japan, and other governments should sponsor and vigorously promote a resolution censuring China at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva next March. Among other abuses, the measure should specifically call for an end to religious repression. In addition, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance should be invited to make a second visit to China early in 1996, following his previous visit to Beijing and Tibet in November 1994; he should seek to visit those Chinese provinces where the persecution of Christians is most severe. Human Rights Watch/Asia urges delegations of parliamentarians and trade delegations to China to make specific inquiries about cases of religious activists still in custody and those detained, ill-treated then released. They should call for the immediate repeal of all official restrictions on free expression of religious belief and practice.
Copies of the report are available from the Publications Department, Human Rights Watch, 485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017 for $6.00 (domestic) and $7.50 (international).
human rights watch/asia
Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization established in 1978 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and among the signatories of the Helsinki accords. It is supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly. The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director; Cynthia Brown, program director; Holly J. Burkhalter, advocacy director; Robert Kimzey, publications director; Jeri Laber, special advisor; Gara LaMarche, associate director; Lotte Leicht, Brussels office director; Juan Mendez, general counsel; Susan Osnos, communications director; Jerera Rone, counsel; Joanna Weschler, United Nations representative; and Derrick Wong, finance and administration director. Robert L. Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W. DeWind is vice chair. Its Asia division was established in 1985 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Asia. Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is the Washington director; Robert Munro is the Hong Kong director; Jeannine Guthrie is NGO Liaison; Dinah PoKempner is Counsel; Patricia Gossman and Zunetta Liddell are research associates; Joyce Wan and Shu-Ju Ada Cheng are Henry R. Luce Fellows; Diana Tai-Feng Cheng and Paul Lall are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant. Andrew J. Nathan is chair of the advisory committee and Orville Schell is vice chair.
____________________
