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“THE RIGHTS OF MAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S7812-S7814 on July 22, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, last week, my friend Tim Hutchinson, the Senator from Arkansas, took the floor to lend his voice to a growing chorus of disapproval over the state of United States-China relations. I commend him for his actions. While his efforts to pass a sense of the Senate resolution against most favored nation status for China were unsuccessful, his actions were the very essence of what it means to be a leader. He set out to achieve noble aspirations, and then dedicated his energies to achieve those objectives. Leadership is ascertaining noble objectives and working hard, intently and sacrificially. Such efforts push us toward our highest and best. The highest and best to which Senator Hutchinson called us is an end to which we must all aspire.
Teddy Roosevelt said it this way:
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
Twenty-two Members of the Senate had the courage to say that the tainted flow of Western currency into China must end, not because the exchange of goods between sovereign nations is injurious, but because we have in China today a ruthless regime that does not deserve unfettered access to United States markets, a regime whose brutal repression at home betrays its intentions abroad.
America is a place that has cared always for what Thomas Paine called the ``rights of man.'' The United States has always been a country that gave no quarter to tyranny or tyrants. Teddy Roosevelt put it a bit differently, cautioning that America must not become ``an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond.''
But, Mr. President, does not the vote on the Hutchinson amendment suggest that Teddy Roosevelt's worst fears are being realized? For the message being sent from China today is as unmistakable as it is disturbing. Beijing believes that life is cheap and cheaper still when that life opposes the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party.
The State Department, in its most recent human rights report, states that ``all public dissent against the party and government was effectively silenced'' in China. ``No dissidents were known to be active at year's end.'' Beijing has used imprisonment, exile, and summary execution to quiet the voices of those who cry for freedom.
China's 1982 Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech, the press, and religious belief. And yet, the hollowness of that document becomes more apparent with every passing day. Chinese authorities routinely resort to torture, the denial of due process, forced confessions, prison labor, and extrajudicial killings to crush Chinese citizens who stand up for liberty and defy Beijing.
As Nina Shea notes in ``The Lion's Den,'' China has more Christians in prison because of religious activities than any other nation. This morning's New York Times detailed a State Department report due to be issued today--and I have a copy of it here--which is sharply critical of Beijing's efforts to suppress religious worship. The report, which is entitled, ``U.S. Policy in Support of Religious Freedom,'' says, ``The Government of China has sought to restrict all actual religious practice to government-subsidized religious organizations and registered places of worship.''
The report goes on to detail the story of four underground Roman Catholic bishops who have been imprisoned or detained. They are not alone. Many other Catholic priests, the Times notes, ``have been searched by government agents and their religious articles have been seized.''
Consider the case of Bishop Su. Hung from the ceiling by his wrists, Su was battered time and again about the head until all but unconscious. He was then placed in a cell filled with water where he was left for days unable to sit or to sleep. His high crime? His treason? A fidelity to God and a desire to exercise that devotion.
It is true that the official Catholic Church in China is registered with the Government and claims as many as 4 million members. However, the official church does not recognize the authority of the Pope, so all Vatican-affiliated Catholics are viewed by Beijing as unregistered. Moreover, as the State Department report suggests, ``Communist Party officials state that party membership and religious belief are incompatible,'' placing a serious limitation on believers.
And who, Mr. President, will denounce the mounting persecutions of Christians in China? The administration has not made a sound. Well, I would respectfully remind them that to sin by silence when one should protest makes cowards out of all men.
America must not trade civil liberty for the false idol of foreign commerce. We must be willing not just to sound historic, but we must pursue policies which are historically sound. We must be willing to condemn religious persecution both in China and around the world.
The disturbing trends revealed in the State Department report due today are not without precedent. In June 1996, the Far Eastern Economic Review reported that ``Chinese police had destroyed at least 15,000 unregistered temples, churches and tombs'' in the Zheijang province alone in just 5 months. Those church leaders who dared to resist were tortured, beaten, and killed.
Is it any wonder then that the future of Hong Kong has been the subject of great concern. At the beginning of this month, all eyes were turned toward the British colony as it reverted to Chinese control. I sincerely hope that our eyes will remain focused there, for constant vigilance is the key to exposing and resisting Chinese encroachment on freedom in the former colony.
Although China wants Hong Kong to remain a vibrant financial center and serve as an example for unification with Taiwan, Beijing has not hesitated to undermine Hong Kong's political autonomy in spite of its pledge in the 1984 joint declaration to honor one country, two systems.
China has declared the elected Hong Kong Legislature invalid and has appointed a hand-picked provisional legislative body. China's appointed chief executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee-hwa, promises that new elections will be held in 1998 but has drawn the electoral districts to limit the influence of Martin Lee's Democratic Party.
Mr. Tung has recently unveiled new measures to restrict civil liberties in Hong Kong. Public protests will have to receive prior approval and could be banned to protect so-called ``national security.'' Political organizations will be required to register with the government and prohibited from seeking or receiving funds from overseas sources. Under Tung's definition, international organizations that expose China's human rights abuses will also be banned from receiving foreign funds.
Unfortunately, the administration's Hong Kong policy has been about self-preservation rather than promoting self-government. Political activist Martin Lee got a hero's welcome on Capitol Hill, but the administration met only reluctantly with Lee. Vice President Gore conveniently forgot Hong Kong on his recent trip to China, and much to the dismay of Martin Lee and other Hong Kong Democrats, Consul General Richard Boucher attended the inaugural ceremony of China's hand-picked legislature--the legislature which replaced the freely elected body that Martin Lee had worked so hard to preserve.
Mr. President, the preservation of liberty for the 6.3 million people in Hong Kong is about more than the immediate fate of its residents. The battle for civil liberty in Hong Kong could very well be the battle for civil liberty in China. As George Will has written, China has just swallowed ``a radioactive isotope'' of Western culture in taking over Hong Kong. Hong Kong serves as a shining example of democracy and free market economics, and the effective removal of that model would set back the march of freedom in China.
In a world that is increasingly open and free, there still exist totalitarian governments which cling to political repression and deny their people the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. Beijing claims that the Chinese people are more concerned about social cohesion and domestic order than the growth of civil liberty--that Western democracy is a Western phenomenon and not necessarily applicable to China, that it is somehow foreign to Far Eastern culture.
But what does Beijing think about the growth of democracy in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea? How do China's leaders explain away the deaths of perhaps thousands of students who were willing to risk everything for liberty in Tiananmen Square? How does Beijing respond to heroes like Wei Jingsheng and Harry Wu who continue to fight against oppression in spite of intimidation, imprisonment, and torture? Troublingly, Beijing cannot answer these questions. Tragically, these are questions that the West is often afraid to ask.
Mr. President, I look forward to a U.S. foreign policy that calls the community of nations to their highest and best. America for her part must be willing to stand for freedom as she has since her first days. When the Chinese people eventually rid themselves of Beijing's tyrannical leadership and embrace democracy, just as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan have done before them, let it be said that America stood with them, stood with them and for them in their cause for freedom.
Despite the troubling revelations of the State Department report and the defeat of the Hutchinson amendment last week, I believe that we must continue to press on. Teddy Roosevelt was right; it is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. The right of man to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield is at the core of what individual liberty and dignity means, and it is at the core of the values we regard highly in America. It is a message of hope and calls this country to its highest and best. It is a message that America must proclaim if the coming century is to be defined by the growth of liberty and not surrendered to those who would stifle freedom.
China has been abusive to its own citizens and signals an ominous cloud over the Far East, a cloud whose poison could spread well beyond its own borders and taint the opportunity for freedom around the world. China's total disregard for religious liberty, China's contempt for the liberty of individuals in the political system, and China's willingness to require the registration of religious groups whose members would worship God freely without subservience to the government, signals to us the need for America to stand up clearly--not as an enemy to the Chinese but as a friend of those people who seek liberty from tyrants.
I believe the Chinese people seek liberty and will respond constructively to freedom just as people around the world have wherever the grace of freedom has been made available to them. The United States can no longer suggest that we might cease to be the city on a hill whose light is a beacon for freedom. We have a responsibility to maintain the commitment to freedom that those who began this Nation had, and I submit that it is time for us to signal our commitment to freedom clearly and unmistakably to those who would enter the community of nations. China seeks and wants to enter that community, and the United States must speak clearly to China about the rights of man we have always defended. I think it is time for the United States to have its voice heard and to be a contributor to the cause of liberty and freedom around the globe.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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