SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
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71–429 DTP
2001
HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA; REGARDING THE
2008 OLYMPIC GAMES; CONCERNING TAIWAN'S PARTICIPATION IN THE WORLD HEALTH
ORGANIZATION; REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS
IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H. Res. 91, H. Con. Res. 73, H.R. 428, and
H. Res. 56
MARCH 28, 2001
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Serial No. 107–11
Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
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COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
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EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
AMO HOUGHTON, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
NICK SMITH, Michigan
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
DARRELL E. ISSA, California
ERIC CANTOR, Virginia
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
BRIAN D. KERNS, Indiana
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia
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ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida
EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
JIM DAVIS, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director
DANIEL FREEMAN, Counsel/Parliamentarian
LIBERTY DUNN, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
Markup of H. Res. 91, Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human rights situation in Cuba
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Markup of H. Con. Res. 73, Expressing the sense of Congress that the 2008 Olympic Games should not be held in Beijing unless the government of the People's Republic of China releases all political prisoners, ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and observes internationally recognized human rights
Markup of H.R. 428, Concerning the participation of Taiwan in the World Health Organization
Markup of H. Res. 56, Urging the appropriate representative of the United States to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to introduce at the annual meeting of the Commission a resolution calling upon the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in China and Tibet, and for other purposes
APPENDIX
Statements Submitted for the Record:
The Honorable Henry J. Hyde, a Representative in Congress from the State of Illinois, and Chairman, Committee on International Relations: Prepared statements on H. Res. 91, H.R. 428, H. Res. 56, and H. Con. Res. 73
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida: Prepared statement on H. Res. 91
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The Honorable Robert Menendez, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey: Prepared statement on H. Res. 56
The Honorable Sherrod Brown, a Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio: Prepared statement on H. Res. 56
The Honorable Robert Wexler, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida: Prepared statement on H.R. 428
Bills and Amendments
H. Res. 91
H. Con. Res. 73
Amendment to H. Con. Res. 73 offered by the Honorable Tom Lantos, a Representative in Congress from the State of California
H.R. 428
H. Res. 56
HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA; REGARDING THE
2008 OLYMPIC GAMES; CONCERNING
TAIWAN'S PARTICIPATION IN THE WORLD
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HEALTH ORGANIZATION; REGARDING
HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PEOPLE'S
REPUBLIC OF CHINA
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2001
House of Representatives,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:32 p.m. in Room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry J. Hyde presiding.
H. RES. 91, EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CUBA
Chairman HYDE. The meeting will come to order. Because of the absence of certain Members who are concerned with some of these bills, we are going to go out of order for the time being. So pursuant to notice, I call up the resolution, H. Res. 91, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human rights situation in Cuba, for purposes of markup. Without objection, the resolution will be considered as read and open for amendment at any point.
I now recognize the Subcommittee Chair, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, to strike the last word to explain the resolution.
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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your help.
I would like to take this opportunity to speak in support of House Resolution 91, a resolution which documents and condemns the systematic repression of the Cuban people by Cuba's totalitarian regime and urges the member countries of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights do the same.
I wish there were not a need for this resolution and that the Cuban people were free from the shackles of tyranny. I wish that they would be able to exercise their rights as free human beings, but unfortunately, as all of us know, this is still a dream. The crackdown on dissidents, the detentions, this harassment, intimidations, physical and psychological torture, all of them have intensified.
Pax Christi, Freedom House, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and our own State Department all provide ample evidence of this grim reality. The intensification of abuses prompted Amnesty International to send a letter in February of this year to the Cuban authorities expressing its concerns at the serious escalation in the arrest and the harassment of political opposition in the island.
Amnesty's letter read: The increasing number of people jailed for peacefully exercising their rights of freedom of expression clearly demonstrates the level to which the government will go in order to weaken the political opposition and suppress dissidents. In just the first week of November of this year, 27 independent journalists and dissident leaders were arrested. Over the weekend of December 8th, 100 dissidents were arrested by the Cuban state security to block activities coinciding with World Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thousands of others continue to languish in squalid jail cells devoid of light, of food, and of medical attention.
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Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, an Afro-Cuban dissident and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, has been in prison since March 1990. He has been beaten, tortured, his hand and feet bound to each other, and attacked by dogs that have clawed into his flesh. He continues to protest the regime's human-rights abuses from within his jail cell, conducting hunger strikes and writing testimonials which document the atrocities committed inside Castro's prisons.
That is the case also of Maritza Lugo Fernandez, vice president of the democratic movement, Trente de Noviembre and Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, who continued to suffer in a small, humid cell without windows, a solid-steel door, with excrement and urine on the floor.
The recently released State Department Human Rights Report underscores that prison conditions continue to be harsh and life threatening. Prison guards and state security officials subjected human-rights and pro-democracy activists to beatings and threats of lengthy periods of isolation as well as to detention and imprisonment in cells with common and, indeed, violent criminals, sexually aggressive inmates or state-security agents posing as prisoners.
Religious persecution has intensified, with the minister of the interior engaging in active efforts to control and monitor the country's religious institutions, including surveillance, raids, eviction, and harassment of religious worshippers. Doctors and nurses who also choose a religious vocation are prohibited by law from rendering any type of medical assistance because of their Catholic beliefs. The regime maintains strict censorship of news and information, both domestic and foreign, with accredited foreign media facing possible sentences for up to 20 years in prison if the information that they broadcast is not acceptable to the regime.
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In the last year, Castro has arrested and interrogated Latvian pro-democracy activists, Romanian, Polish, Swedish, and French journalists, a Czech member of Parliament, and a former foreign minister, and numerous others because they met with dissidents and with opposition leaders. These foreign visitors did not allow themselves or their actions to be controlled by the dictatorship. They chose to shine the light of truth on Cuba.
We have an opportunity to do the same today, Mr. Chairman. This resolution we are considering gives the Cuban people a voice that has been denied to them by the tyrannical regime that continues to oppress them. It serves to empower those who are struggling to bring democracy to their island nation of Cuba. It also sends a clear signal to the world, and specifically to the member countries of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, that the United States Congress stands firm in our commitment to human rights and freedom, that the U.S. supports the Cuban people, and condemns the abhorrent behavior of the Cuban regime. And I ask my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Menendez.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank the Chair for calling up this resolution. Mr. Chairman, Cuba is a totalitarian state controlled by Fidel Castro. The government's human-rights record remains a poor one. It continues to violate systematically the fundamental civil and political rights of its citizens. Citizens do not have the right to change their government peacefully.
The government retaliates systematically against those who seek political change. Members of the state security forces and prison officials continue to beat and otherwise abuse detainees and prisoners, neglecting them, isolating them, and denying them medical treatment. The authorities routinely threaten, arbitrarily arrest, detain, imprison, and defame human-rights advocates and members of independent, professional associations, often with the goal of coercing them into leaving the country.
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The government severely restricts worker rights, including the right to form independent trade unions. It requires children to do farm work without compensation during their summer vacation. Political prisoners are estimated between three and 400 persons. Charges of disseminating enemy propaganda can bring sentences of up to 14 years. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international reports of human-rights violations, and mainstream foreign newspapers and magazines constitute enemy propaganda. The government controls all access to the Internet, and all e-mail messages are subject to censorship. The department of state security often reads international correspondence and monitors overseas telephone calls and conversations with foreigners. The government also monitors domestic phone calls and correspondence.
All media must operate under party guidelines and reflect government views. The government attempts to shape media coverage to such a degree that it not only exerts pressure on domestic journalists, but also keeps up a steady barrage of pressure on foreign correspondents, including official and informal complaints about articles and threatening phone calls. The government strengthened its ability to control the foreign press by ceasing to issue multiple-entry visas to foreign journalists who reside in Havana. Such journalists are now required to apply for a new visa each time they seek to leave the country.
The law punishes any unauthorized assembly of more than three persons, including those for private religious services in a private home by up to 3 months in prison and a fine. The authorities have never approved a public meeting by a human-rights group. The government continues to restrict freedom of religion. The government prohibits with occasional exceptions the construction of new churches. Violence against women is a problem; however, the police do not act on cases of domestic violence.
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Mr. Chairman, these are not my words. They are not the words of the Cuban-American National Foundation. They are the dispassionate words of the State Department Human Rights Report.
Now, there are other points worth noting about the facts of daily life in Cuba. One is that this is just some of what is in the 17-page, small-type report of our government. And there are similar reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Press Association, and others.
I could go on and on. Instead, I will close with two specific accounts of Cubans who suffer under Castro, and make a final point. Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a doctor and an Afro-Cuban, human-rights leader, was imprisoned for ''disrespect,'' creating a public disturbance by hanging a Cuban flag upside down and encouraging others to break the law by also expressing civil disobedience. He was protesting Cuba's forced-abortions policy.
He has been beaten and during several prolonged periods placed in punishment cells and isolation, prohibited from receiving visitors, food, clothes, and books, including the Bible. This is worse than even the treatment given to Nelson Mandela as a prisoner.
Dorick Asespidis, a reporter for Independent Havana Press, was told by the director of her daughter's day-care center that the toddler could no longer attend. The authorities had instructed the director not to care for the child due to the mother's counterrevolutionary activities.
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Dr. Biscet has been called the Martin Luther King of Cuba. Ms. Asespidis could be any one of us, a parent trying to make a living and raise her child in a life of truth and justice.
Mr. Chairman, totalitarianism, no matter where it is and from what perspective it is encountered, from the left or the right, is totalitarianism. We have seen it for decades before in other parts of the world.
And that brings me to my final and most important point. I recently took a look, Mr. Chairman, at the cosponsor of various Cuba-related bills in Congress. Of the many Members who signed onto legislation that would vastly change our policy, only two of them, and I am proud to say one of them is Mr. Lantos, cosponsored the human-rights resolution introduced the same year. One cannot have it both ways. One cannot say that they want to lift part of the embargo for the good of the Cuban people and then neglect to cosponsor a resolution that cries out for human rights for the Cuban people. That is simply not right.
There is no reason for any Member of Congress not to sign onto this reasonable, just, and important resolution. Whatever a Member feels about our policy toward Cuba with regard to economic sanctions, there is no excuse for not signing on to a resolution condemning the human-rights practices of the Cuban government. I commend the gentleman from New Jersey for bringing it up. I am proud to be an original cosponsor, and I hope that the Committee will unanimously endorse this resolution. Thank you.
Chairman HYDE. Thank you. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Gilman.
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Mr. GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be brief. I strongly support this resolution, which expresses the sense of the House regarding the human rights situation in Cuba, and I commend the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Smith, for introducing the resolution. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle join in cosponsoring the resolution, particularly the gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, the Ranking Minority Member, the gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos, and the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Menendez.
With the rise of democratic dissent in Cuba, Fidel Castro has been forced to increase his efforts to isolate courageous dissidents from their international supporters. But it is becoming increasingly awkward for one of the last surviving Communist dictatorships on earth. When Germany's foreign minister, Mr. Fisher, made an issue of this case and announced his intention to meet with dissidents, his visit to Havana was abruptly canceled by the Cuban government. Foreign journalists in Cuba have come under increasing pressure in recent months. Mr. Castro has lashed out at several foreign leaders for criticizing his outrageous conduct.
It would appear that Mr. Castro is willing to sacrifice his carefully packaged international image in order to prevent fellow Cubans who are opposed to the regime from receiving moral support or even having contact with citizens of democratic nations. Next month, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights will consider a very important resolution regarding the human rights situation in Cuba. It is very important that that resolution be approved.
Moreover, we must not accept any attempts to insert language in that resolution seeking to draw moral equivalency between Castro's regime's systematic repression of the Cuban people and our embargo, which is intended to pressure that very same regime to free the Cuban people.
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Accordingly, Mr. Chairman, I urge our colleagues to support this bipartisan resolution. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. Who is seeking recognition?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Smith, New Jersey.
Chairman HYDE. Mr. Who?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Chris Smith.
Chairman HYDE. I understand, but I want to go to the Democratic side now.
Mr. LANTOS. We are happy to yield to Mr. Smith, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. All right. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Lantos, for that courtesy.
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Members and colleagues, just let me say how very happy I am to be sponsoring this legislation, along with a list of individuals from Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, the Chairwoman of the Committee; Mr. Lantos, DeLay, Menendez, Armey, right on down—a good, bipartisan list of sponsors who believe very strongly that human rights need to be promoted and promoted aggressively in Cuba.
The time clearly has come to bring a new and reinvigorated focus on the pervasive, gross mistreatment and abuse of the people of Cuba by the dictatorship of Fidel Castro. H. Res 91 puts the House clearly, unmistakably, on record in condemning the present, and we all know of the past, but these are present, egregious, human-rights abuses by Cuban authorities. They have been well documented, and, frankly, we only know a tip of the iceberg. The country reports on human-rights practices routinely suggest that there are anywhere from three to four to 500 political prisoners. That number is probably on the low end. There are many more hundreds that are characterized for having committed other crimes, which is really a pretext to put them into prison for their political briefs.
Today in Cuba there is no freedom of speech. There is no freedom of the press, assembly. There is no freedom of religion or of movement. Hundreds of political prisoners, again, languish in Castro's gulags, where they face daily torture, mistreatment, and deprivations of every kind.
My friend and colleague from New Jersey mentioned a moment ago the courageous Dr. Oscar Biscet, who is a true champion of human rights and who helped reveal the coverup that is again pervasive, and the utilization of such things as forced abortion in Cuba. For that he has been imprisoned, and he continues to be severely subjected to mistreatment.
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Members might know that when he suggested that he might fast to bring attention to the loss of life as a result of the sinking of the tug boat the 13th of March for that he received 42 additional days of solitary confinement. It just shows you the harshness, the cruelty, of the Castro regime, that simply because this champion wanted to fast to remember those who had lost their lives, as the water cannon knocked young children off of that boat to a drowning death, for that he gets 42 additional days in solitary confinement.
Last year, when people were debating the merits or lack of merits, as I would suggest, of the repatriation of Elian Gonzales, we convened in the Subcommittee on Operations And Human Rights a hearing on children's rights in Cuba. It was a most revealing hearing. We found out, as some of us had known but it was further amplified at that hearing, that the state has assumed the right to interfere in the lives of citizens, even those who do not actively oppose the government and its practices.
The mass organizations, ostensibly for purposes to improve the citizenry, which is what they say they are doing, actually have their goal is to promote conformity and also the Marxist ideology. The authorities utilize a wide range of social controls. The interior ministry, for example, employs an intricate system of informants and block committees, ''committees for the defense of the revolution,'' they are often called, to monitor and control and report on suspicious activity, and this is even of the citizens who are supposedly loyal to the regime. They are watched, their every move.
We also found out that state control over the lives of children in Cuba is more pervasive than ever. As part of article 5 of the Children and Youth Code of the Republic of Cuba, it requires that all persons who come in contact with children and youth must be an example to the formation of the Communist personality. Article 11 requires that teachers show a high mission, the highest mission, to the development of a Communist personality in children. Article 23 limits eligibility for higher education to children who demonstrate proper political attitude and social conduct, and it goes on and on, mutually reinforcing the idea that if you do not get a certain outcome, those children are ostracized and are hurt.
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I encourage all Members of the Committee and all Members of Congress to read the country reports of human-rights practices and the Cuba section, 19 pages of documentation of the ongoing, pervasive, human-rights abuses in Cuba. And I will not read them, but I would make part of it, at least, part of the record, and I do ask that my full statement, Mr. Chairman, be made a part of the record.
And finally, just let me say we have good news. The Bush Administration, and we are working with other delegations in Geneva, is trying to get a resolution passed at the U.N. Convention on Human Rights in Geneva to solidly put the international community on the side of the oppressed and the champions of human rights like Dr. Biscet. Good news that Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen has just revealed—I asked her to announce it, but she said, let us just get the information out—is that the Polish and Czech delegation which we thought were going to have a resolution that included a condemnation of our sanctions—our response to oppression was going to, as Mr. Gilman pointed out, somehow be on a moral equivalency with this horrible, horrific behavior by the Cuban government. They have now dropped that, and there will be a clean condemnation resolution offered, which will be promoted vigorously by the United States and hopefully by other freedom-loving nations.
This is a very, very substantial diplomatic step forward. We hope that this resolution passes. The second part of our resolution encourages——
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY [continuing]. That this language be adopted in Geneva, so I ask passage of this resolution. Thank you.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos.
Mr. LANTOS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Before I say a word about the resolution, let me publicly thank members of both the Democratic and Republican staffs for doing an outstanding job in preparing this meeting, and let me thank you for the extraordinary civility and cooperation with which you have conducted yourself as the new Chairman of this Committee.
Mr. Chairman, everything has been said on this subject that needs to be said. I strongly commend all of my colleagues who have spoken, and I strongly urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Texas.
Mr. PAUL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to thank the Chairman for bringing these resolutions to the Committee for discussion. Not too infrequently, resolutions of this sort arrive on the floor without much knowledge before they get there. I, too, would like to express my condemnation of what is happening in Cuba.
Certainly, under the resolve clause, I certainly wholeheartedly agree that the House of Representatives should condemn the repressive and totalitarian action of Castro and what is happening in Cuba. However, I have some reservations about the resolve, number two, and I have a couple of questions for the sponsors of the resolution in that regard.
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First, I question whether or not we, as a people and as a government, have the authority to be involved in the internal affairs of another nation, just as a point of authority. I also question the ability of a nation to interfere in foreign lands, because we have been an activist nation as an interventionist in many parts of the world, and we have been in Cuba, and when we were the most activist, we had the greatest amount of failure. So it is good to be well intended, but that does not necessarily give us good results.
But I would like to ask the question, not only is it not true that we have been very activist, and why should this be different, and why should we have better results than we have had for the past 40 years because our policies have not done all that much good, but the other question is, in the ''A'' part of the resolve, where it says, the phrase, ''to strengthen the forces of change,'' I gather this is referring to changes within Cuba. Exactly what does that mean, and what kind of authority is this that we are talking about? Could somebody clarify that for me, please?
Mr. LANTOS. If the gentleman will yield, I will be happy to clarify.
Mr. PAUL. I will be glad to yield.
Mr. LANTOS. Throughout our history, and as a student of the subject, I will be happy to supply my colleague with historical references going back well over a century, the United States Congress has publicly condemned abuses of human rights ranging from czarist Russia to apartheid South Africa. And while my colleague is correct that the results are not instantaneous or automatic, the progress toward respect for human rights globally is clearly observable.
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The Soviet Union no longer exists. The oppressive Communist regimes of central and eastern Europe no longer exist. The apartheid regime of South Africa no longer exists. And in our own hemisphere, Castro's Cuba is the only stain of totalitarianism still in existence.
Now, we have a great deal of literature in the field of international law concerning the rights of governments certainly to express their views and, more importantly, to take active steps to deal with human-rights abuses, but——
Mr. PAUL. Let me reclaim my time for a followup on the question.
Mr. LANTOS. Surely.
Mr. PAUL. I am really concerned about what is meant by ''strengthening the forces within Cuba.''
Mr. LANTOS. I will be happy to respond to that, too.
Mr. PAUL. Okay.
Mr. LANTOS. If I may use an analogy in response to my friend's question, ''strengthening the forces of change in the former Soviet Union'' meant supporting the dissidents and the Refusniks, the inhabitants of the gulag, the millions of Russian and other citizens who were deprived of all human rights, starved, beaten, and in millions of instances, killed. We are supporting the forces of change in Cuba who would like to see a democratic Cuba.
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Mr. PAUL. Excuse me. Let me reclaim my time because it is about to run out. But let me suggest that when you support the dissidents, it still raises more questions. Do you send weapons, and to what extent does this support go? So it does open the door rather than being precise.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. PAUL. I yield.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. It is very clear that the language of this resolution is to support in a moral sense those who are struggling for democracy. We do provide monies in other venues in other bills for Radio Marti to try to get the message of hope and the truth to the people of Cuba, and really the threshold question is whether we ever speak out on human rights.
We have tried in this Committee to be consistent, whether it be on Sudan and the great work that Tom Tancredo does or any of the other areas around the world, to speak about fundamental, universally recognized human rights. Cuba is a signatory to, or has acceded to, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and they were signatories to other conventions and treaties. So they have said, we will abide by these rules. When they depart seriously from them, as they have done, we believe we have every right and a moral obligation to speak out.
Mr. PAUL. And let me quickly conclude that I do support you in condemning these violations of human rights. It is the question about what we might do in the future and what we might not be looking at. Thank you.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman's time has expired. The gentleman from California, Mr. Berman.
Mr. BERMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Initially, let me say that I do not think any of the proponents of the resolution—and I consider myself one, I am a cosponsor—consider this to be an authorization under the War Powers Act or unstated for the use of force or for the supplying of arms. I am sure the drafters of the resolution would agree. That is not to say that there are not actions called for here that involve financial assistance and promotion of democracy and human-rights protection, but this is not a call for support of an armed struggle at this particular point.
The second point I want to make is that I think this is an important resolution because everything in the resolution and everything that I have heard in the debate regarding what goes on in Cuba is true. There are some folks in the United States who have, I think, highly romanticized notions that in the name of promoting better health care and better education in Cuba there have been some limitations on freedom and liberty, but it is for an overall good cause.
And the fact is, whatever attainments may have been achieved in any of those areas over the past 40 years, the consistent pattern of that regime is totalitarian. It kills, tortures, and imprisons political dissidents. It denies all fundamental, political liberties that we think are not just American in nature but are human in nature, and should be condemned, and I think our representatives at the U.N. should try to get that organization to record that fact.
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The reason I asked to speak on this is because there is one aspect of our policy that, I think, undermines just what this resolution calls for and is unique to Cuba and should be changed, and hopefully, if I have the opportunity, I will offer the Committee a chance to change that policy, and that is the travel ban.
I say that for three reasons. One, it does not work. Huge numbers of Americans end up going to Cuba through Mexico, through Canada, not having their passport stamped and a variety of other ways.
Secondly, it undercuts the goals of this resolution. It labels those people we license to go to Cuba as people involved in humanitarian or pro-democracy or pro-human-rights issues in a fashion that allows Castro to engage in surveillance to nail the people that they are making contact with. It becomes a tool in his repression of his own people and is totally inconsistent with our historical track record.
In the height of the Cold War, whether it was Stalin or Breshnev, we did not restrict, and did not want to restrict the ability of Americans to go to the Soviet Union to establish contacts with political and religious and ethnic dissidents and minorities. It is now illegal for any embargo that we apply in the future to ever restrict travel only because this was part of a law that has no longer any effect and has been grandfathered in.
Does it still apply to Cuba? North Korea, a country where you can say exactly the same things, we have a general license that allows any American who wants to travel to Korea. We have a comprehensive embargo on Iran and do not seek to stop Americans from going there. The cause of human rights and democracy building is enhanced by this.
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And finally, I think it is an unfair and undue restriction on the American civil liberties, on an American's right to travel. Let us quit designating this. If we want meaningful political connections with dissidents and financial support, the worse thing in the world to do is to restrict travel because you then give Castro a paper trail of just who is engaged in those activities.
I heard my friend in New Jersey, in his accurate and passionate comments about what is going on in Castro's Cuba, talk about the monitoring of telephone calls. Again, when you get rid of the restrictions on travel, the ability of even that totalitarian regime to monitor the kinds of contacts would be useful. So I would just ask Members of the Committee to think about one can be both absolutely possessed with what Castro really is and what he is really doing and the totalitarian nature of that regime. Secondly, we should believe in the embargo or in most of the embargo in order to try and restrict the economic and commercial development of that country and still come to the conclusion that it is wrong to restrict the Americans' right to travel to this and only this country.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. BERMAN. Thank you.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman's time has expired. The gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a new Member of the Committee, I would like to ask a couple of questions that maybe somebody can help me better understand. Do we have something in law or in policy that would suggest that if there are free and open elections in Cuba that are monitored satisfactorily, that we would lift the embargoes? Can I yield to somebody to answer that question?
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Mr. BERMAN. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. Yes, Mr. Berman.
Mr. BERMAN. I believe that both in the Cuban Democracy Act and perhaps even in the Helms-Burton legislation there are provisions for the end of sanctions at that particular point.
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. So it is in law, is your suggestion.
Another question that I would have, it seems to me, and maybe to the sponsor or one of the cosponsors, Mr. Smith, of the resolution, in my 8 years in Congress it seems that maybe we have passed this kind of resolution of condemning the human-rights activities in Cuba several times, I guess I would like to know what is expected of the success of this resolution—is it to motivate what happens in Geneva?
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, certainly.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. If the gentleman would yield.
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. I yield.
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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I think this resolution has had a wonderful effect already. In fact, as Mr. Smith of New Jersey has pointed out, just met with delegates of the Czech and the Polish Republics, who had given us the good news that thanks to the resolution that we are debating today, they have decided to divorce the two issues of the embargo language which we have seen here does stimulate a lot of discussion which deserves to be separate from the egregious human-rights violations of Fidel Castro.
Thanks to the resolution being discussed today, we had that meeting right before our hearing so that we could announce that those two issues are divorced. So already this resolution and the discussion that has ensued this morning has had a positive resolution. Today at noon, and we invite all of the Members to be with us, we will be meeting with representatives of the different countries that will be representing their countries in Geneva to discuss this resolution, and we are going to thank them and ask them for their support before we thank them. And I think that this resolution already has had a very positive effect.
We hope to get it to the floor before the resolution is discussed in Geneva. So it is one of those signals that the United States Congress sends that to us may mean nothing, but it means a lot in conventions and in delegations such as the ones that we are going to be participating in in Geneva. It sends a strong message of support also to the oppressed Cuban people.
This is a message that will be played in TV and Radio Marti, and one of those cameras that you see to your left is from those transmissions, and, in fact, this very hearing is being fed to the people of Cuba, and it lets them know that we are with them, that we stand solidly with them. So it already has had an effect, and it will have a positive effect in encouraging others to join us.
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Mr. PAUL. Thank you, and I would yield to Mr. Smith for a comment. Past resolutions that are in this regard; is there some seeable effect that they have had in the past?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Without a doubt, the persistent principle, especially in human rights, cannot be overemphasized. If you just say something and walk away from it and do not stay with it year in and year out, day in and day out—we hoped, at least on the margins, to mitigate some of the pain of those who are being tortured and cruelly incarcerated by Castro's regime. It does work. It gives hope to those who are being held behind bars that they are not forgotten and have not been abandoned.
So I think there is a real, tangible impact, especially when coupled with the sanctions and the other things that are already in place that we have not forgotten and that we will increase rather than decrease the scrutiny that has brought on abusers. Abusers like nothing more than to be forgotten.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman's time has expired. Mr. Hastings of Florida.
Mr. HASTINGS. I thank the Chairman for bringing this matter to the floor, and I thank the gentleman from New Jersey, my good friend, Mr. Smith, for offering this legislation.
To underscore what Mr. Smith said earlier regarding the fact that it is bipartisan, although two of the Members have come in, I intended to enumerate those other than Mr. Lantos. As Mr. Smith pointed out, Mr. Berman, Mr. Ackerman, myself, Mr. Engel, Mr. Wexler, and Mr. Crowley are also cosponsors as well as other Members.
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Mr. Chairman, I wanted to support the language of a person that I think is going to be a major force in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in light of President Bush's and his relationship, from the language of the resolution an admonishment that came from Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo during the last Ibero-American Summit in Havana. I would think that this will travel with the Mexican government in today's world, that there can be no sovereign nations without free men and women, men and women who can freely exercise their essential freedoms: freedom of thought and opinion, freedom of participation, freedom of dissent, and freedom of decision.
I think that that pretty much sums up the attitude of almost all of us in Congress, particularly those of us who travel the world and speak to others regarding how we would have the world look with reference to freedom.
I do believe that the United States should continue to raise Cuba's human-rights record in Geneva at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. In my view, it is simply intolerable that a country that is guilty of serious human-rights violations is sitting on that Commission, and at a minimum, the United States should urge the Commission on Human Rights to appoint a special rappateur for Cuba who could give an independent and objective view of conditions on the island.
I would say in response to Mr. Smith's very well-put question, for 42 years now Fidel Castro has withstood resolutions of this kind, and I do believe that he will successfully negotiate the ramifications of this one. It does not minimize the fact that we undergird those who are mindful of what transpires in the American Congress as well as those of us that speak on this issue. But this resolution aside, we need to reexamine what it is we are doing with reference to Cuba. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentlelady from California, Ms. Lee.
Ms. LEE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, let me just say, it is no secret that I have visited Cuba many times, and I have also met with many dissidents under the auspices of the United States mission in Cuba. And each time I talk with them they all, barring none, a hundred percent of them, indicated that the best way this country could help with human-rights conditions in Cuba is by normalizing relations by ending the embargo.
Having said that, let me just say, it is important that we do condemn human-rights violations, whether they occur in Cuba, China, or here in our own country, and as a minority woman, as an African-American woman in America, I certainly understand what that is about within the United States.
In this resolution we talk about going back to the model during the Reagan Administration, and I believe, Mr. Chairman, that the Cold War has ended and that those strategies and those policies that worked then possibly may not work now. This is 2001, and so this resolution, to me, takes us back to a time when we all agreed that maybe that was a time that we want to bring back now. Some of you may think that.
But I do not believe we should move forward on any foreign policy based on a return to the past. That does not seem to be a very positive or a very, I would say, a very strategic way to move in terms of U.S. foreign policy, and it does not seem to accomplish much when we go backwards. We have got to look at new ways of doing things. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
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Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Will the lady yield? Just to clarify. I thank the gentlelady for yielding. The reference to Ronald Reagan's policy was a reference to freedom and democracy. Thankfully, during those years, when Solidarity was in emergence, and Charter 77 in the former Czechoslovakia—and all of the other Helsinki-type, emerging, human-rights-oriented organizations and individuals who suffered immensely for their beliefs—we are trying to replicate that kind of solidarity. There was not a time when the secretary of state would not go to Moscow and not meet with Refusniks and other dissidents, contrary to all of the wishes of the dictatorship then in the USSR. So that is what we are seeking to replicate here.
Chairman HYDE. Mr. Blumenauer of Oregon.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I strongly identify with the comments of Mr. Berman and Ms. Lee. I think it is a tragedy that we still have the evil of Mr. Castro in control in Cuba, but it seems clear that our policy over the last 42 years has been less than compelling. If we free the right of Americans to travel openly to Cuba—and I am stunned at the number of people I encounter in my own community who have visited this island—if we open these flood gates so that they can see for themselves the contradictions of the island, the problems, but yet the warmth of the Cuban people and the opportunities to build bridges, there is no doubt in my mind we will erode Castro's power much more rapidly. We will hasten the day of freedom for the Cuban people.
If we can take these dramatic steps with China, I think we should do no less for the people who are in America's doorstep. So I appreciate the sentiments of the resolution. I think, frankly, it falls short by not calling for us to deal in a realistic way with the rights of Americans to see for themselves and to make it harder for the dictatorship to operate. I hope that before we wend our way too far through this that we will make appropriate action so that we can help encourage a more responsible foreign policy on the part of the United States, and I yield back my time.
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Chairman HYDE. Thank you. The Chair does not want to foreclose anybody from speaking, but we do have four bills, and they all concern human rights, so I just thought I would throw that on the table. Mr. Tancredo of Colorado.
Mr. TANCREDO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In response to, I think, the very important question that Mr. Smith posed about the effect of such a deliberation here today and the effect of such a resolution, let me say that I have often thought about the same thing. As a relatively new Member of the Committee, as a sophomore in Congress now, I have posed that same question and wondered about our deliberations.
But let me say that I have come to the conclusion certainly that there is a significant and important role for us here, and why I think that we should move ahead with this quickly is that it is exactly the fact that Cuba is one of the last, and certainly the most prominent, Communist dictatorships on the globe, and that fact ironically has provided a shield for Castro for all these years.
It is a shield that has been built for him by a sympathetic media, mostly in the West, as Mr. Berman pointed out, that we have a tendency to portray, especially in the popular media, as an idyllic—somewhat like a paradise of health care and education benefits, without focusing in on the real nature of this despicable regime.
The fact is that Cuba is perhaps the last ember smoldering in the ash heap of history to which Communism has been relegated. As a result of that, it does get a sympathetic treatment by a lot of people, I think, inappropriately so. And so if for no other reason than to bring to the attention of the American public, our colleagues in the Congress, and those people around the world who do pay attention to what this Congress says, we should do this. To make them know for sure, let the world know for sure—again, those who would listen—that there are those of us here in the Congress of the United States who do, in fact, know what the system is in Cuba, who do feel deeply about the pain and the suffering of the Cuban people, and who, if nothing else that we can do today, can say we do share that pain. And that is, if nothing else, Mr. Smith, a purpose for us to do this today.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Hilliard.
Mr. HILLIARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I believe this is the fifth time that I have had the opportunity to vote on such a resolution, and I do not know how I voted those other times. Mr. Chairman, first of all, let me congratulate those that brought this resolution before us, not because of the resolution, but because it gives us an opportunity to really reexamine where we are with the Cuban situation.
I am one of those who have been to Cuba, and I have talked to the opposition under the auspices of the Americans, and I have examined the problems we say that the Cuban people have from a first-hand basis. I do not consider myself an authority on Cuba, but I am one of those foot soldiers, one of those persons that marched behind Dr. King back in the sixties and the seventies, and I know repression. I see it all the time, and I am sure that it exists in Cuba, as it exists here and in other countries.
But we really need to look at what we wish to achieve with the Cuba situation. I do not think that this resolution would put us in the position of trying to achieve democracy in Cuba. Our policies with Cuba are outdated, and they have been outdated for perhaps the last 20 years, and that is the reason why we have not made the progress with democracy that we should have made. And this resolution does not serve the purpose nor the objective of creating democracy in Cuba. In fact, I think what it does, it creates a situation that shows us as an enemy of Cuba rather than one promoting the peace.
Now, I have a tremendous problem with asking our government to assist organizations in another country that will promote democracy. You see, there are many ways of promoting democracy, from a positive standpoint or through the efforts of the CIA and others that use methods that are not democratic in trying to achieve certain objectives. I do not think that our government ought to be supporting persons who may use those types of methods that we would frown upon in this country as being not democratic.
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So, Mr. Chairman, I think this resolution is really out of order in terms of the objective of what the sponsors would want to achieve. You know, the greatest weapon we had in the civil-rights movement was having people from other parts of the country and other parts of the world come South and see what happened themselves. And unless we can provide that for Cuba and the Cuban people, we are not going to do any good with passing meaningless resolutions, and this is one that because of its history, shows that it is meaningless. It has not done any good in the past, and I suggest that if we pass it today, it will not do any good in the present nor the future.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. HILLIARD. Yes.
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. You know, I just want to take very strong exception to suggesting that this resolution makes us an enemy of Cuba. We are the enemy of a dictatorship that systematically represses and tortures and kills its people. We stand with the Cuban people against the oppressor with the oppressed. And if the gentleman reads the plain text of the resolution, the next-to-the-last ''whereas'' talks about providing assistance through appropriate, nongovernmental organizations to help individuals and organizations to promote nonviolent, democratic change and respect for human rights and Cuba. And as you go through the body of the language, as well as the resolving clause, it is all about empowering people and empowering those who stand up against repression.
We are not the enemy of Cuba. We take great exception to the government, which wages war and repression against its own people.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman's time has expired. Mr. Houghton from New York.
Mr. HOUGHTON. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I will be very brief. I would like to associate myself with Mr. Hilliard. I am going to vote for this, but I do so with a feeling that it is not a particularly effective approach.
We really dilute our currency by year after year after year after year making these motions and having these resolutions without any teeth, any backup. There is nothing there, and I respect the people who have proposed this, and I know how emotional they feel, and I do, too; and nobody can agree that Mr. Castro is doing what we would like. He is not a proponent of democracy. He tortures people, and everything like that. But I think of the effectiveness of something like this, and I really question it. How is he going to receive this? What is he going to do different? What is going to happen differently?
So, therefore, I will support this thing, but I do so with sort of a tepid feeling. Thank you.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Would the gentleman yield for a moment?
Mr. HOUGHTON. Time, absolutely.
Mr. MENENDEZ. I appreciate your support for the resolution, but since I have heard various choruses of what will it do, I just want to very briefly say there are many of my friends, for example, who feel very strongly about what is happening in the Sudan, and we could choose not to speak out on Sudan because the Sudanese just will not change or in China because, in fact, notwithstanding all of the resolutions we have passed and the speeches that have been made, the Chinese will not change. And I could go to different parts of the world.
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The point is, having spoken to many of the people inside of Cuba who struggle for its rights as basic, fundamental, human rights, not American rights, they believe that this opportunity of casting a light upon their struggle and creating an international sense of what it is, because what the Congress does, clearly has reverberations beyond the confines of the House floor, make for them, give them a glimmer of hope that the world community will begin to pay attention, even if they disagree with our policy, as to what is happening inside of Cuba.
And the Czechs are a perfect example of that, who are leading the resolution at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. They heard what was coming in this debate, and they moved in a direction that I think is positive. So I think there is value to this.
Will it change Fidel Castro? No. He is intransigent, has been unwilling to change under any set of circumstances for the benefit of his people. Will it help those people struggling every day, some who languish in jail, others who risk their life and liberty? Yes. Will it help people in other parts of the world say, maybe we should join in this struggle as we did with Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel and others in what was the former Soviet Union? Yes. And I think that is the powerful opportunity we have today. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. HOUGHTON. If I have just a bit more time, I would like to just respond to that. You know, I do not agree with you, and I think statements and support and sort of symbolic indications that we are behind people are important, but, you know, this is an important Committee, and we sit around, and we pass resolutions, and then we go on to some other issue. If we are serious about this, we ought to do something about it.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Meeks.
Mr. MEEKS. I will be brief also. I just wanted to add my voice. I think that we have unanimous consent that we all want the form of the government in Cuba to change. We want a democracy. The question is, how do we reach that?
Well, clearly, the policies that we have implemented or continue to impose against Cuba for the last 40 years have not worked. Indeed, when the policies were set forth during the Cold War, there were other reasons. One, with the Soviet Union and the threat to our nation with arms, et cetera. But the Cold War is over. The policy did not work, and the reason that we had the policy implemented in the first place is over. So, therefore, I think that we have to reshape and rethink how we want to reach our objective, and, clearly, just sending resolutions is not what is going to do it.
Some, it seems, and many of us in this House, we voted to change with reference to our trading relations with China, another government that is very similar to Cuba. I took a trip to China, and I saw the American influence, by us being physically present there. Then, I had an opportunity to walk and talk to some of the people who walk the street, with the aid of an interpreter, and they felt that our presence had made China change tremendously, and the more we were involved, the more China would change, and the more their human rights would be respected, and it would further put a spotlight on the government.
So in my visits to Cuba, I think that the exact same thing occurs. If we really want to change the government that is there, if we really want to put a focus on it, then we should change our policies. The embargo has not, will not, work, and the best thing that we can do, I think, for the individuals that may be incarcerated, for the individuals that may be suffering in Cuba, is open and change our policies toward Cuba, not just debate resolutions that may harden what the government does to some of the dissidents there. And so I think that this does not help us reach our goal.
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We need to change and understand. I know emotions are high on this issue, but we want a goal. We need to change the way that we have been working toward Cuba because clearly it has not worked and move to something that works. We might as well try diplomacy and engagement.
Chairman HYDE. The Chair will entertain one more 5-minute speech, and then we will go to amendments. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Engel.
Mr. ENGEL. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will not take the whole 5 minutes. I served on this Committee for many years, and it is good to be back on the Committee. I want to commend Mr. Smith because through the years he has really stood up for human rights, as have many people on this Committee.
I am a sponsor of this resolution, and I think it is very important to continue to state our opposition to the repressive regime in Cuba and also to continue to speak out for human rights. I am under no illusion that this resolution is going to change what goes on in Cuba, but I think to not pass this resolution would send a wrong message to Cuba. It would send a message to Castro that somehow or other we were regressing or backing off from our stronger condemnation of human-rights violations, and I think that we should not do that. This is a statement. It is a statement that is strong and a statement showing our disdain for what goes on in that island.
I want to also say that while we know that the situation in this country is far from perfect, and we always need to strive to improve human-rights violations in this country, I think that any kind of inference that somehow or other the policies of this country are somehow equated with Cuba, that there is injustice here and injustice there, I think, are really off base.
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We have to continue to strive for less injustice in this country, but to somehow liken it to what goes on on that repressive island, I think, is totally off base. That has been a dictatorship for years and years of the worst kind, and I think that this Committee is absolutely right to condemn it, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman HYDE. Are there any amendments? The Chair moves that he be requested to seek consideration of the pending resolution on the suspension calendar. All in favor, say aye.
[A chorus of ayes.]
Chairman HYDE. Opposed, nay. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Further proceedings on this measure will be postponed. Without objection, the staff is directed to make any technical and conforming changes.
H. CON. RES. 73, EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES SHOULD NOT BE HELD IN BEIJING UNLESS THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA RELEASES ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS, RATIFIES THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, AND OBSERVES INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED HUMAN RIGHTS
Chairman HYDE. Pursuant to notice, I now call up Resolution H. Con. Res. 73, relating to the Olympic Games in China for 2008, for the purposes of markup. Without objection, the concurrent resolution will be considered as read and open for amendment at any point. I now recognize the gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen.
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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I congratulate Mr. Lantos for his excellent bill. As all of us know, China is an authoritarian state which continues to systematically violate the fundamental human rights and civil and political liberties of its citizens. State security personnel are responsible for numerous abuses, such as political and other extrajudicial killings, for lengthy, incommunicado detentions, and the use of torture.
National, racial, and ethnic minorities remain subject to intense persecution and discrimination. The authorities frequently launch campaigns to crack down on opposition and pro-democracy groups. Freedom of movement, speech, assembly, and association are severely restricted. The controls on religious worship have intensified, with harassment of church leaders and other faithful, including fines, detention, physical abuse, and torture. Many houses of worship have been destroyed. Trafficking in persons and mainly women and children for forced prostitution or illegal, forced labor continues, placing this segment of the population in constant risk of slavery.
This picture is of profound and widespread violations of internationally abused people, and it is against the human-right norms that we uphold. The People's Republic of China must be held accountable for its actions. Consistent pressure from the U.S. and the international community is vital if any improvements are to take place in China. And for all of these reasons China should not be rewarded with the 2008 Olympic Games.
As someone who firmly believes in requiring change and adherence to fundamental legal standards and internationally recognized norms first before rewarding Communist, nondemocratic regimes, I am proud to be a cosponsor of Mr. Lantos' House Concurrent Resolution 73. As someone who believes in the need to support dissidents, democracy advocates, and families of political prisoners, I urge our colleagues to support this resolution.
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This measure is a well-thought-out resolution which clearly demonstrates how China's ongoing and widespread human-rights abuses violate the spirit and the letter of the Olympic Charter and run contrary to the principles and guidelines upon which the Olympic movement is based. H. Con. Res. 73 also contains a contingency plan, should efforts to keep the 2008 Olympics out of China fail, and it establishes a clear course of action to maintain pressure on the PRC.
I urge our colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution. I have, and will continue to support, resolutions condemning violations in China, in Sudan, in Iran, and support any people who are oppressed and enslaved. If the U.S. does not have a leadership role and send a message to the world, then who will? As the global leader, the U.S. has the responsibility and the moral obligation to carry forth our message of freedom to the oppressed people everywhere. And I thank Mr. Lantos for presenting this resolution to our Committee, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos?
Mr. LANTOS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me thank my good friend and colleague from Florida for her powerful statement.
Mr. Chairman, let me begin by saying that I very much look forward to the day when the Olympics will be held in Beijing. China is one of the world's great civilizations, with a rich and many splendered culture. I have the deepest admiration and respect for the Chinese people, who deserve the games; but China's repressive regime does not.
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It is the leadership in Beijing which, of course, will benefit from the Olympics, should it be held there. They will benefit in terms of increased legitimacy and prestige, both at home and abroad. They will be granted the opportunity to showcase their economic progress, while sweeping their human rights abuses under the rug.
Let me look back just a few years, Mr. Chairman, to 1993. In 1993, I sponsored a similar resolution, calling on the International Olympics Committee not to grant Beijing the right to hold the Olympics in the year 2000.
How lucky we all were that the Olympics were held in a free city, in a free country, in Sydney, Australia. Australia benefitted enormously from the reflected glory of the Olympics, as it should have.
Not always do we have such a fortunate outcome. The 1936 Olympics held in Hitler's Germany gave enormous prestige to Hitler's regime.
We see on the monitor, the New York Times reporting on that event. The New York Times says, in 1936, ''The Olympics Leave Glow of Pride in the Reich.'' ''A piece of perfect German pageantry.''
The article goes on to say, ''Foreigners who know Germany only from what they have seen during this pleasant fortnight, can carry home only one impression. It is that this is a nation happy and prosperous beyond belief, and that Hitler is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, political leader in the world today.''
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As one who lived in Hungary during the 1936 Olympics, I remember those Olympics vividly. I remember being glued to the radio. There was no television. I was excited as a young boy at this marvelous event, as were, in fact, hundreds of millions of people across the globe.
The State Department Human Rights Report spells out a tragic story of Chinese suffering in China today. The human rights record in China has worsened during the last year. The well-known persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement is but the most publicized example of the outrageous human rights abuses perpetrated in China today.
Christians, Muslims, students, journalists, you name it, all are suffering under the yolk of a totalitarian regime.
When I was last in China in December, I was received by the Deputy Prime Minister, who was President Bush's guest, just a few days ago, and several of us here met with him. I pointed out to him that we want nothing but friendship with China, but we have no excuse for not condemning this outrageous pattern of human rights abuses, which continues unabated.
Now the Olympics is, first and foremost about sports; athletes from around the globe, uniting in their love of the game, and in their commitment to free and fair competition.
But human rights, Mr. Chairman, is also central to the Olympic ideal. The Olympic Charter clearly states, ''Respect for universal, fundamental, ethical principles.'' Universal, fundamental, ethical principles are part and parcel of the Olympic ideal, and today's China clearly does not live up to universal, fundamental, ethical principles.
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We are providing an opportunity for China to get the Olympics in 2008, if it releases political prisoners, and if it stops persecuting people, whether Buddhists in Tibet, practitioners of Falun Gong, Christians of the home churches, and others.
I would be thrilled to call for a reversal of this resolution, should these marvelous developments unfold. But until they do, to bestow upon this dictatorial regime the tremendous glory that being hosts to the Olympics offers would be unconscionable.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support this resolution. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Chairman?
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Gilman.
Mr. GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to commend the Ranking Minority Member, the gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos, for introducing H. Con. Res. 73.
This resolution expresses the sense of Congress that the 2008 Olympic Games should not be held in Beijing, unless the government of the People's Republic of China fulfills the following conditions: releasing political prisoners, ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and observing internationally-recognized human rights.
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Mr. Chairman, according to the State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for the year 2000, China's human rights record is abysmal, and it has become even worse.
China's illegal occupation of Tibet and East Turkistan is marked by increased suppression of the universal right of freedom of religion. Christians throughout China, who look toward the Vatican for spiritual guidance, are arrested, are jailed, tortured and, on many occasions, executed, on trumped-up charges.
The peaceful Falun Gong meditation practitioners are being hunted down like animals, and political dissidence is met with swift and severe punishment.
To award the dictators in Beijing with the enormous global prestige and legitimacy that comes from holding the World Olympics would be perceived as the world's approval of their actions, and would set the stage for further atrocities.
Such approval would encourage other dictators around the world, and would be a serious body blow to the promotion of the universal values that all these people hold dear to themselves.
Accordingly, Mr. Chairman, the Congress needs to make certain that the leaders of the People's Republic of China understand our Nation's commitment to these values by strongly supporting this resolution.
I yield back the balance of my time, and I thank the gentleman.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Leach?
Mr. LEACH. I thank the Chairman. I have very deep respect for the offeror of this resolution. But I, frankly, know of no more counter-productive resolution that this Committee has heard in a long time.
This is a true distinction between premises and conclusions. The premises about human rights violations in China are real. The conclusion that China, therefore, should not host the Olympic Games is unreal.
Frankly, I believe this resolution misunderstands history and misunderstands human nature. The offeror has cited a New York Times article saying that perhaps legitimacy was offered to Hitler in 1936. On that type of premise, it is awfully difficult to be in a position to oppose this kind on resolution.
On the other hand in 1936, an American named Jessie Owens, with four gold medals, put four nails into the coffin of aryan supremacy. It is extraordinary what the Olympics symbolized in that regard.
If we look how others look at it, because I am very concerned of how this issue is being presented and perceived, I called the President and said, how do you stand on this: opposition, no support for this resolution.
All of us have people from differing perspectives that are constituents, that have one view or another. I have a constituent who, from one perspective, may be a little bit above the rest of us, a chap by the name of Dan Gable, who won the 1968 gold medal in wrestling. He is one of the legends of the sport.
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I asked Dan his view. He said, you know, in 1980, President Carter called for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics. He said, as a citizen, I did not like it, but I wanted to support my President, and I did. But he said that upon reflection, there were hardly any of us that did not come to the conclusion that that was a mistake.
He said, now you are saying to me that Congress wants to deny the Chinese people the right to told the Olympic Games. He said, that is nuts. The Olympics are above politics, and they should be always above politics.
It is intriguing to note that sports is about rule-based competition; exactly what we want to advance. There is a huge distinction between governments and civilizations, and between policies and what might be considered to be culture. In my view, culture is stronger and wider than government.
This is an assault to the culture of China. It is an assault to the Chinese people. I am sure one can find a few Chinese that might say they should not hold the Olympic Games, but I doubt if there are very many.
I just think that this kind of resolution is saying we, in the people's house, do not believe the people of China should host the Olympic Games. I think it is wrong.
If one is opposed to the human rights situation in China, and I think most of us are, it is appropriate to make speeches in the House for it. It is appropriate to do all sorts of discussions of one kind or another with Chinese leaders. But to deny China the right to hold the Olympic Games, I believe, is completely inappropriate as anything I can think of.
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Finally, let me just say that the history of the U.S. and China has been one of the open door policy. In the 19th century, it has been one that has had a whole variety of approaches in this century.
But it appears that every approach that we have taken to China, that has been one of trying to isolate China. It has been counterproductive. Approaches that tried to open up China have been somewhat more positive.
China still has enormous numbers of problems, but let us not be so foolish as to think that denying Beijing the right to hold the Olympic Games is an offense to the government of China and not to the Chinese people.
Let us not be so foolish as to think it will not have an enormously counterproductive result, and symbolize the United States talking ourselves into enemies, into a new Cold War that is thoroughly and completely and utterly unnecessary.
So I would hope that this Committee would, with great care, turn back this resolution.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos, is recognized for purposes of an amendment.
Mr. LANTOS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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In clause 6 of the Preamble, I am asking for a redesignation of various paragraphs. I am asking for the insertion of the following language.
''During the year, there were numerous credible reports of abuse of Falun Gong practitioners by the police and other security personnel, including police involvement in beatings, detention under extremely harsh conditions and torture, including by electric shock, and by having hands and feet shackled and linked with crossed steel chains.''
Chairman HYDE. Is there further discussion?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Chairman?
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New Jersey?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you. I deeply respect the statement that has been made by Mr. Leach, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, and there are two competing views on this. But I would strongly urge the Committee to adopt this resolution for a number of reasons.
One, the human rights situation is appalling in China. We know it. Read the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for this year. It starts off by saying the government's poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses.
It includes serious crackdowns on religion; and in Tibet, it intensified its harsh treatment of political dissent, and it goes on and on. Forced abortion continues to be a major egregious abuse.
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The use of torture is not only widespread, but it is absolutely commonplace. Over the course of the last 6 years, Mr. Chairman, we held in our Subcommittee approximately 18 hearings and markups on every aspect of human rights violations in China. To realize that it is bad and, as the Country Reports points out, it has worsened, is frightful.
Let me just say one thing. The Chairman of the Committee made an interesting point about the Olympic Games. This is about venue. This is not about participation.
Where it will be held is what we are talking about; not whether or not there will be an Olympic Games, not whether or not the Chinese athletes, who did exceedingly well in the last, and I am sure will do well in the future, participate. They are entitled to participation. It is the place that we are talking about.
In the past, world gatherings in Beijing and elsewhere in China become a propaganda tool for the dictatorship. I led the delegation, along with Connie Morella, to the World Beijing Women's Conference, the UN Women's Conference. I had argued vigorously, and failed, to say it ought to be moved. It was the venue, not the conference that I was concerned about.
As a result, for several days, the Chinese dictatorship extolled itself to its own populace about how the world had come to pay homage to the great gains that had been made by the Chinese dictatorship: forced abortion, forced sterilization; woman in Laiguy or goologs. This will be a propaganda tool.
Finally, when the Asian Games are held, another athletic event that is not dissimilar from what we are talking about, what do they do? They continue this inability of people to talk to people.
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There is a cording off the athletes. There is a round-up of the dissidents to ensure that they do not have access to the media and others who accompany the athletes.
That likely will happen. That is why the conditionality of this resolution is so important. We are calling on the Chinese government to release those prisoners, and amnesty, and to take steps in the area of human rights. Then, fine, let us have the Olympic Games potentially in Beijing in 2008.
Rounding up of dissidents is commonplace, prior to any international event. It happened with the Beijing Women's Conference, and it will happen here, unless we take some action.
So I think it is a reasonable resolution. Again, I think Mr. Leach makes some good points, but I think, on balance, the overwhelming weight is in favor of the resolution.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Paul?
Mr. PAUL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make a brief comment. I do not think this resolution will achieve what the authors would like to have it achieve.
I would like to point out though that those of you who are concerned about the public relations believing that there was a public relations coup for Hitler in 1936, I think they are sadly mistaken.
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I think exactly the opposite occurred. The only thing I remember about 1936 and the real coup was Jessie Owens, winning all those gold medals, right in front of Adolph Hitler, displacing all these false beliefs that Hitler had. So I think that is the public relations coup.
I think this will backfire. It think this will not achieve it. There is no way you can enforce this and go and inspect. I mean, it just implies that we will march in there and know exactly what China will do. We are talking big, but we have no stick at all.
I think it is well motivated and well intended. It would be nice if it would happen, but it is not going to happen. I think the public relations coup will backfire. They will achieve a lot more than we will, if we impose a resolution like that this.
I yield back.
Ms. HASTINGS. Mr. Chairman, if you are ready for a vote, I will forego any further comment. Mr. Chairman, I did not know whether we had a quorum yet or not.
Chairman HYDE. Yes, we do, I am told.
Ms. HASTINGS. I will forgo any comment at this time.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman is a gentleman.
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The question occurs on the amendment offered by the gentleman from California. The Clerk will call the role.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Gilman?
Mr. GILMAN. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Gilman votes yes.
Mr. Leach?
Mr. LEACH. Is this just the amendment?
Chairman HYDE. It is just the amendment offered by Mr. Lantos.
Mr. LEACH. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Leach?
Mr. LEACH. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Leach votes yes.
Mr. Bereuter?
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[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Smith?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Smith votes yes.
Mr. Burton?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Gallegly?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen?
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen votes yes.
Mr. Ballenger?
Mr. Ballenger. Yes.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Ballenger votes yes.
Mr. Rohrabacher?
Mr. Rohrabacher. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Rohrabacher votes yes.
Mr. Royce?
Mr. Royce. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Royce votes yes.
Mr. King?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Chabot?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Houghton?
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Mr. Houghton. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Houghton votes yes.
Mr. McHugh?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Burr?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cooksey?
Mr. Cooksey. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cooksey votes yes.
Mr. Tancredo?
Mr. TANCREDO. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Tancredo votes yes.
Mr. Paul?
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Mr. PAUL. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Paul votes no.
Mr. Smith?
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Smith votes yes.
Mr. Pitts?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Issa?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cantor?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Flake?
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[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Kerns?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Davis?
Ms. Davis. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Davis votes yes.
Mr. Lantos?
Mr. LANTOS. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Lantos votes yes.
Mr. Berman?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Ackerman?
Mr. ACKERMAN. Aye.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Ackerman votes yes.
Mr. Faleomavaega?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Payne?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Menendez?
Mr. MENENDEZ. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Menendez votes yes.
Mr. Brown?
Mr. BROWN. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Brown votes yes.
Ms. McKinney?
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[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hastings?
Ms. HASTINGS. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hastings votes yes.
Mr. Hilliard?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Sherman?
Mr. SHERMAN. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Sherman votes yes.
Mr. Wexler?
Mr. WEXLER. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Wexler votes yes.
Mr. Davis?
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Mr. DAVIS. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Davis votes yes.
Mr. Engel?
Mr. ENGEL. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Engel votes yes.
Mr. Delahunt?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Meeks?
Mr. MEEKS. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Meeks votes yes.
Ms. Lee?
Ms. LEE. Yes.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Lee votes yes.
Mr. Crowley?
Mr. CROWLEY. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Crowley votes yes.
Mr. Hoeffel?
Mr. HOEFFEL. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hoeffel votes yes.
Mr. Blumenauer?
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Blumenauer votes yes.
Ms. Berkley?
Ms. BERKLEY. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Berkley votes yes.
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Ms. Napolitano?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Schiff?
Mr. Schiff votes yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hyde?
Chairman HYDE. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hyde votes yes.
Chairman HYDE. How is Mr. Flake recorded?
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Flake is recorded as not having voted.
Mr. FLAKE. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Flake votes yes.
Chairman HYDE. How is Mr. Cantor recorded.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cantor is not recorded.
Mr. CANTOR. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cantor votes yes.
Chairman HYDE. The Clerk will report.
The Clerk will withhold. How is Mr. Issa reported? He wishes to be reported.
Mr. ISSA. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Issa votes aye.
Chairman HYDE. Now the Clerk will report.
Ms. BLOOMER. On this vote, there are 32 ayes and one no.
Chairman HYDE. The amendment is agreed to. The question now occurs on the adoption of the resolution. The question occurs on the motion to report the resolution H. Con. Res. 73 favorably, as amended.
All in favor, say aye.
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[Chorus of ayes.]
Chairman HYDE. Opposed, no.
Chairman HYDE. The ayes have it.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I ask for a recorded vote.
Chairman HYDE. A recorded vote has been requested and will be allowed. The gentlelady clerk will read the roll.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Gilman?
Mr. GILMAN. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Gilman votes yes.
Mr. Leach?
Mr. LEACH. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Leach votes no.
Mr. Bereuter?
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[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Smith?
Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Smith votes yes.
Mr. Burton?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Gallegly?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen?
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen votes yes.
Mr. Ballenger?
Mr. BALLENGER. Yes.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Ballenger votes yes.
Mr. Rohrabacher?
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Rohrabacher votes yes.
Mr. Royce?
Mr. ROYCE. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Royce votes yes.
Mr. King?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Chabot?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Houghton?
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Mr. HOUGHTON. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Houghton votes no.
Mr. McHugh?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Burr?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cooksey?
Mr. COOKSEY. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cooksey votes yes.
Mr. Tancredo?
Mr. TANCREDO. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Tancredo votes yes.
Mr. Paul?
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Mr. PAUL. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Paul votes no.
Mr. Smith?
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Smith votes no.
Mr. Pitts?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Issa?
Mr. ISSA. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Issa votes yes.
Mr. Cantor?
Mr. CANTOR. Aye.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Cantor votes yes.
Mr. Flake?
Mr. FLAKE. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Flake votes no.
Mr. Kerns?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Davis?
Ms. DAVIS. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Davis votes yes.
Mr. Lantos?
Mr. LANTOS. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Lantos votes yes.
Mr. Berman?
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[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Ackerman?
Mr. ACKERMAN. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Ackerman votes yes.
Mr. Faleomavaega?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Payne?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Menendez?
Mr. MENENDEZ. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Menendez votes yes.
Mr. Brown?
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Mr. BROWN. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Brown votes yes.
Ms. McKinney?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hastings?
Ms. HASTINGS. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hastings votes no.
Mr. Hilliard?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Sherman?
Mr. SHERMAN. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Sherman votes yes.
Mr. Wexler?
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Mr. WEXLER. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Wexler votes yes.
Mr. Davis?
Mr. DAVIS. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Davis votes no.
Mr. Engel?
Mr. ENGEL. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Engel votes yes.
Mr. Delahunt?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Meeks?
Mr. MEEKS. Pass.
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Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Meeks passes.
Ms. Lee?
Ms. LEE. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Lee votes yes.
Mr. Crowley?
Mr. CROWLEY. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Crowley votes yes.
Mr. Hoeffel?
Mr. HOEFFEL. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hoeffel votes yes.
Mr. Blumenauer?
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Blumenauer votes yes.
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Ms. Berkley?
Ms. BERKLEY. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Ms. Berkley votes yes.
Ms. Napolitano?
[No response.]
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Schiff?
Mr. Schiff votes yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hyde?
Chairman HYDE. Before I vote, the gentleman from New York, Mr. King?
Mr. KING. Yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. King votes yes.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Kerns, have you voted?
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Mr. KERNS. No.
Chairman HYDE. Do you wish to vote?
Mr. KERNS. No.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Kerns votes no.
Chairman HYDE. And I vote aye.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Hyde votes yes.
Mr. MEEKS. How did I vote?
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Meeks, you passed on this vote.
Mr. MEEKS. I would like to vote yes.
Ms. BLOOMER. Mr. Meeks votes yes.
Chairman HYDE. The Clerk will report.
Ms. BLOOMER. On this vote, there were 27 ayes and 8 nos.
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Chairman HYDE. The ayes have it. The motion to report favorably is adopted. Without objection, the bill will be reported favorably to the House in the form of a single amendment in the nature of a substitute, incorporating the amendment adopted here today.
Without objection, the Chairman is authorized to move to go to conference, pursuant to House Rule XX. Without objection, the staff is directed to make any technical and conforming changes.
H.R. 428, CONCERNING THE PARTICIPATION OF TAIWAN IN THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION; H. RES. 56, URGING THE APPROPRIATE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS TO INTRODUCE AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE COMMISSION A RESOLUTION CALLING UPON THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO END ITS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CHINA AND TIBET, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Chairman HYDE. Without objection, the Chairman is requested to seek consideration of H.R. 428 and H. Res. 56 on the suspension calendar.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown. I thank the Chairman, and I will be very brief. As I understand, the morning has already been long. I would like to thank Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos for addressing this important bill on the Committee today.
This bill H.R. 482 directs the Secretary of State to create a plan to help obtain observer status, and observer status only, for Taiwan and the World Health Organizations Annual Assembly.
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Observer status in the World Health Organization does not require statehood. The Palestine Liberation Organization, the Order of Malta, the Valtican, and Rotary International all have observer status at the World Health Assembly.
Taiwan deserves at least observer status. The observer designation would simply enable Taiwan to observe the Global Health Conferences, participate in those conferences, and represent the interests of its citizens.
This bill is an important first step in fulfilling the commitment that we made in the 1994 Taiwan policy review to more actively support Taiwan's membership in organizations such as the UN and the World Health Organization.
Mr. Chairman, at the appropriate time, I would Like to offer a technical amendment that contains changes suggested by the Department of State.
I thank the Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. I am advised by the Parliamentarian that the amendment will be done in the manager's amendment on the Floor, because we have passed that point.
Mr. BROWN. That is fine, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Chairman HYDE. All right, did someone else seek recognition?
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Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Chairman?
Chairman HYDE. Mr. Gilman?
Mr. GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will be very brief.
I strongly support our colleague, Mr. Brown, in his initiative concerning Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization.
I want to commend the Subcommittee Chairman and Ranking Minority Members of International Operations and Human Rights in East Asia and the Pacific for permitting this resolution to be expeditiously brought to the Full Committee's attention.
Secretary Powell, when he appeared before us, noted that there should be ways for Taiwan to enjoy the full benefits of participation in international organizations, without being a member.
H.R. 428 only calls for the Secretary of State to initiate a U.S. plan to endorse and obtain observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Organization. Along with many of my colleagues, we are disappointed that Taiwan is not a full member of the U.N. and all international organizations, yet it has a democratically-led government and wishes to join.
Although this resolution does not address this concern, I think it is a first step in addressing the problem that Taiwan now faces. Accordingly, I strongly support H.R. 428. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Leach?
Mr. LEACH. Just very briefly, I want to congratulate Mr. Brown for bringing this resolution. But I would like to stress that nothing in the resolution implies a change in America's one China policy, which is based on three communications in the Taiwan Relations Act.
This is a symbolic step underscoring that where sovereignty is not in question, that Taiwan ought to be brought into as many appropriate international organizations as possible. It is already a member of the Asian Development Bank, as well as APEC. I think this is a constructive and thoughtful participation for the Taiwanese government.
Finally, let me just stress that arguably, at this juncture in history, one might suggest that the greatest issue in the world may be disease control; whether we are looking at the issue of AIDS or TB or even smallpox. What the WHO symbolizes is a people-oriented concern for control of disease.
To exclude anyone from something as humanitarian as health would be a major mistake. So this resolution, in a very symbolic way, and it is a very modest resolution, simply suggests that Taiwan ought to have observer status. Other groups have observer status at the World Health Assembly. I would urge its adoption.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Crowley?
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Mr. CROWLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I strongly support House Resolution 428 introduced by my colleague, Representative Sherrod Brown.
Taiwan and its 21 million people should have meaningful participation in the World Health Organization. Observer status in WHO would allow the government of Taiwan to not only benefit from WHO activities, but also to provide valuable input.
Taiwan has made significant strides in the field of health. Their participation in WHO would be of value to that organization. I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this important resolution.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Meeks.
Mr. MEEKS. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just want to add my voice, similar to what Mr. Leech had indicated. I think that we are talking about health, global health. Clearly, the health of the Taiwanese is important so, therefore, their status there with the World Health Organization is good.
Furthermore, Taiwan has a lot to contribute to the global health forum, since it may serve as a model in Asia for its achievements in increasing life expectancy levels, decreasing maternal and infant mortality rates, and the eradication of certain infectious diseases.
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Again, it does not change our policy with reference to China. I do not think that, therefore, there is anything that should antagonize China. I think it is just a good policy, and it should be something that includes health. We are talking about global health. Therefore, I compliment Mr. Brown on bringing this bill forward.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New York, Mr Engel?
Mr. ENGEL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I very strongly support this resolution. It has been United States policy since 1994 to support Taiwan's participation in international organizations.
Taiwan has 21 million people. Many countries with less than that have full status in the World Health Organization, let alone observer status.
In 1998, WHO was not able to assist Taiwan with an outbreak of a virus, which killed 70 children and infected more than 1,100 Taiwanese children. The situation is really unacceptable.
Furthermore, the WHO could benefit enormously from Taiwan's more active participation in WHO. Taiwan has made enormous achievements in the field of health. WHO should have full access to Taiwan's technical and financial assistance.
Taiwan's offers to provide aid in the past have not been accepted. I think it is incumbent upon the Congress and the United States to strongly support Taiwan, in this instance. I think that Taiwan certainly deserves it, and we ought not to perpetuate this outrage any further.
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from Huntington Beach, Mr. Rohrabacher.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, let me note that today we are voting on this Committee to put Taiwan in the World Health Organization, at least as an observer, and to take communist China out of the Olympics. I think that bodes well for this session of Congress, when we have that type of priority in this Committee.
The practical end of this resolution is that Taiwan, which has a great deal to contribute, will at the very least be given observer status in the World Health Organization.
They do have a lot to contribute. They are a model for democracy, I might add, and let us always remember that. What is going on in Taiwan is a model for democracy on the mainland of China.
They have a two party system there, and actually more than two parties, that are fighting it out. They have a freedom of the press and religious freedom, et cetera, that puts them on the level with western-style democracies.
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But they also have very much to contribute in terms of the health care of their own people. They do have a very high health standard there. Their standard of living, as well as their longevity, is a model for developing countries.
They, for example, in 1997 and 1999 had an infection of hoof and mouth disease, which threatened their livestock. They managed to stop that disease, without it creating total havoc in that country.
What they did to help contain that disease outbreak could be of great help to other countries throughout the world, right now, that are suffering from outbreaks of disease among their cattle and sheep and poultry.
So for practical reasons, we need to put Taiwan into the World Health Organization. I would think they should have more than just an observer status.
But let me just add this one note. This is symbolic, as well. Let there be no mistake about it. The United States of America stands for freedom and liberty and justice. We find more of those traits in Taiwan than we do on the mainland of China.
This is symbolic, yes, in that we recognize that they have 20 million people in Taiwan, trying to live as best they can within a democratic government, and respecting human rights.
The regime on the mainland of China does not respect any of these human rights. It is in no way a democracy, and it persecutes its citizens. Thus, when we vote for this resolution, we symbolically stand with those people who are fighting for democracy and against the tyrants. Thank you.
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Chairman HYDE. If my colleagues could hold themselves to about 1 minute each, all who want to speak can speak before we leave, because these bills have been passed. This is sort of a codicil to the debate.
So Mr. Smith of Michigan, try to do it in 1 minute.
Mr. SMITH OF MICHIGAN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to associate myself with the comments of Mr. Wexler and Mr. Leach in supporting the legislation, and I yield back.
Chairman HYDE. That is great. Mr. Wexler of Florida?
Mr. WEXLER. I, too, would like to associate myself with those same comments, and simply add that it has been our policy in America, since 1994, to support Taiwan's participation in international organizations.
We should continue to do that in this resolution. It is the next logical step. There is no legitimate reason not to pass this resolution. Thank you.
Chairman HYDE. Mr. Lantos?
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, a few decades ago, Taiwan was a destitute dictatorship. Today, it is prosperous democracy.
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This is a symbolic move, but it is also a substantive move. We are making WHO capabilities available to the people of Taiwan, and we are making Taiwan's resources and technical knowledge available to the rest of the world.
I strongly commend Mr. Brown, and I strongly support this resolution.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Gilman.
Mr. GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will observe your caveat.
I wanted to note my strong support of the resolution that our Nation has presented to the annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, calling on the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in China and Tibet.
I want to commend the Administration for its decision. Regrettably, Beijing manages, year after year, to muzzle the Human Rights Commission in Geneva by passing a no-action resolution. We hope that we will have a different approach this year.
I am especially concerned that Beijing has continued to stonewall on meetings with His Holiness, the Dali Lama. Unless they reach out and grasp that olive branch that he offers, then the regional instability will continue to grow worse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. Mr. Paul?
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Mr. PAUL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have a very brief question for Mr. Brown, the sponsor of the bill. I have a summary of legislation here. It says the Administration views are that they are likely opposed to it. Could you tell me why they are likely opposed, and are they worried about some type of relations with Communist China?
Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Paul, the last Administration signed this legislation. I would guess this Administration probably also will sign it. I mean, they signed a similar bill. My guess is they will also sign this.
The issue then is, will the Administration do what we hope it does and what we direct it to do, to go to Geneva and take the right position in support of Taiwan's observer status of WHA? They seem to recoil from that, perhaps because of angering the mainland.
So I am hopeful this Administration will be different. We have not seen those signs yet, but we will work with them.
Chairman HYDE. The gentleman from New Jersey?
Mr. SMITH. Very briefly, Mr. Chairman. H. Res. 56 puts us solidly on the side of human rights in the People's Republic of China.
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I urge all Members to read the Country Reports. The human rights record has worsened. Forced abortion continues to be an outrage. As a matter of fact, it has now morfed into an other egregious abuse, and that is with women. Girl babies have been killed with such impunity since 1979, as part of the one child per couple policy.
Trafficking, which we addressed last year, and will continue to address, is exploding, because the availability of women has gone down so much for brides. So one problem leads to another. This puts us on record in favor of human rights.
Chairman HYDE. I appreciate the Committee's cooperation, and we stand adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:20 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE HENRY J. HYDE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, AND CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
H. RES. 91, HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA
I strongly support the Smith/Lantos/Ros-Lehtinen resolution on human rights in Cuba.
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After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of its former satellite states became democracies. Even those Communist regimes that clung to power generally adopted at least the trappings of reform. It is hard to find a thoroughly unreconstructed Stalinist dictator anywhere in the world today. But Fidel Castro has persevered. His resistance to freedom and democracy has hardened over the last ten years.
This one-man government shocked the world in 1995 when it shot down four innocent civilians in international airspace. But that was nothing new for the Castro regime, which for many years has employed gunboats and land mines to kill its own people when they try to escape. This is the government that has imprisoned Dr. Oscar Biscet, in part because he called public attention to the government's practice of forcing girls and women to have abortions when their unborn children are considered unhelpful to the interests of the state. And George Orwell would surely have found it interesting that when the Castro government arrests and imprisons political and religious dissenters, it is often for a crime called ''dangerousness.''
I am happy that our government is working with the Czech Republic—whose people know what it is like to live under Communism and then to be free again—on a U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution condemning the Cuban government's egregious pattern of gross violations of human rights. Passage of the resolution that is before us today will make clear that the President and the Secretary of State have the full support of Congress and the American people in this noble endeavor.
H.R. 428, CONCERNING TAIWAN'S PARTICIPATION IN THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
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I'd like to commend the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Brown, for offering this legislation, H.R. 428, directing U.S. support for observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Organization (WHO).
We should support this legislation for at least two reasons. First, Taiwan's participation in the WHO will advance the cause of public health worldwide. In January, Taiwan played an important role in providing relief to earthquake victims in El Salvador. By gaining observer status at the WHO, Taiwan will be able to participate more meaningfully in meeting our global health challenges of the future. Disease and natural disasters know no borders.
Second, we should promote Taiwan's participation in international organizations as much as possible. Taiwan thrives economically and politically. Its democracy is a model for the People's Republic of China and other nations struggling under communist or authoritarian domination. To arbitrarily exclude the 23 million people of Taiwan from the international community is an insult to our own values of democracy and human rights.
Again, I commend the gentleman for this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
H. RES. 56, REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
I strongly support H. Res. 56, the Lantos-Wolf resolution regarding human rights in China.
The ''whereas'' clauses in the Lantos-Wolf resolution consist almost entirely of direct quotes from this year's China section of the State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Unfortunately, the report reads like a laundry list of egregious violations of the most fundamental human rights. Virtually every form of brutality that has ever been practiced by any tyranny in the history of the world is being practiced right now by the government of the People's Republic of China, from torture and the suppression of political and religious dissent, to the unspeakable horror of forced abortion.
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I am proud that the Bush Administration has rejected the view that Beijing is our ''strategic partner.'' And we can all be especially proud that in identifying the factors that prevent such a partnership at any time in the foreseeable future, President Bush singled out the Beijing regime's consistent pattern of violating the fundamental rights of its own people.
This leaves the question of what we can do to improve the situation of the Chinese people. We all hope free trade will have the long-term effect of opening up Chinese society, but infusions of Western capital will also have the effect of enriching and empowering the government. Perhaps even more dangerous is the risk that a close economic and political relationship with Beijing can be misconstrued as a seal of approval by the United States government. This is why it is so important that our government not shrink from telling the whole truth about what is happening in China.
The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices represent one important occasion for truth-telling. The United Nations Human Rights Commission, which is meeting in Geneva as we speak, presents another.
By introducing the resolution on human rights in China, and by fighting hard for its passage in Geneva, the United States government will send a message to persecuted Christians and Tibetan Buddhists, to Uighur Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners, to pro-democracy prisoners of conscience, to victims of torture and forced labor and coercive family planning practices, that the free world has not forgotten them. So many of these people have shown such breathtaking courage. We owe it to them to bear witness, and we owe them the truth.
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I urge a unanimous vote in support of the Lantos-Wolf resolution.
H. CON. RES. 73, REGARDING THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES
I commend the gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos, for a well-crafted resolution concerning the possibility that the 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing. In my view, it deserves the strong support of this committee.
The Olympic Games are a treasure for all of humanity. Through friendly athletic competition, the Olympic Games promote peaceful society and the dignity of man. We should interfere with the Games only under the most serious of circumstances.
Nevertheless, the Olympic Charter describes the Olympic spirit as ''mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.'' Today, we cannot say that the Olympic spirit is compatible with the Government of the People's Republic of China.
The government of the People's Republic of China continues to engage in a consistent pattern of arbitrary violation of the rights of its own people. Muslims, Buddhists and Christians are among the victims of the government's crackdown on religious practices. In contravention of Olympic ideals, there is no ''fair play'' in China today.
Again, I urge the Committee to support this resolution.
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA
Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to speak in support of H. Res. 91—a resolution which documents and condemns the systematic repression of the Cuban people by Cuba's totalitarian regime and urges the Member countries of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to do the same.
I wish there weren't a need for this resolution and that the Cuban people were free from the shackles of tyranny, able to exercise their rights as free human beings.
Unfortunately, that is still a dream. The crackdown on dissidents; the detentions, harassment, intimidation, physical and psychological torture have intensified. Pax Christi, Freedom House, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and our own State Department all provide ample evidence of this grim reality.
The intensification of abuses prompted Amnesty International to send a letter in February of this year to the Cuban authorities expressing its concerns at the serious escalation in the arrests and harassment of political opponents inside the island.
Amnesty's letter read: ''The increasing number of people jailed for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, clearly demonstrates the level to which the government will go in order to weaken the political opposition and suppress dissidents.''
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In just the first week of November of 2000, 27 independent Journalists and dissident leaders were arrested. Over the weekend of December 8th, 100 dissidents were arrested by Cuban State Security to block activities coinciding with World Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Thousands of others continue to languish in squalid jail cells devoid of light, food, and medical attention.
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, an Afro-Cuban dissident and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, has been in prison since March 1990. He has been beaten, tortured, his hand and feet bound to each other, and attacked by dogs who have clawed into his flesh. He continues to protest the regime's human rights abuses from within his jail cell, conducting hunger strikes and writing testimonials which document the atrocities committed inside Castro's prisons.
There is the case of Maritza Lugo Fernandez, Vice President of the democratic movement ''30 de noviembre—Frank Pais,'' and Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights who continue to suffer, ''tapiados'' in a small, humid cell, without windows, a solid steel door, with excrement and urine on the floor.
The recently released State Department Human Rights report underscores that prison conditions continued to be harsh and life threatening. Prison guards and state security officials subjected human rights and pro-democracy activists to beatings and threats of physical violence; to systematic psychological intimidation; to lengthy periods of isolation; as well as to detention and imprisonment in cells with common and violent criminal, sexually aggressive inmates, or state security agents posing as prisoners.
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Religious persecution has intensified with the Ministry of the Interior engaging in active efforts to control and monitor the country's religious institutions including surveillance, raids, eviction and harassment of religious worshipers. Doctors and nurses who also choose a religious vocation are prohibited by law from rendering any type of medical assistance because of their Catholic beliefs.
The regime maintained strict censorship of news and information, both domestic and foreign, with accredited foreign media facing possible sentences of up to 20 years in prison if the information is not acceptable to the regime.
In the last year, Castro has arrested and interrogated Latvian pro-democracy activists; Romanian, Polish, Swedish and French journalists; a Czech Member of Parliament and a former finance minister, and numerous others because they met with dissidents and the opposition.
These foreign visitors did not allow themselves or their actions to be controlled by the dictatorship. They chose to shine the light of truth on Cuba.
We have an opportunity to do the same today,
This resolution we are considering today gives the Cuban people a voice that has been denied to them by the tyrannical regime that oppresses them. It serves to empower those who are struggling to bring democracy to their island nation of Cuba.
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It also sends a clear signal to the world and, specifically, to the Member countries of the UN Commission on Human Rights, that the United States Congress stands firm in its commitment to human rights and freedom; that the U.S. supports the Cuban people and condemns the abhorrent behavior of the Cuban regime.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ROBERT MENENDEZ, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you also to Ranking Member Lantos and to Congressman Wolf for bringing this important resolution before US.
I am proud to be a cosponsor of this resolution. Mr. Chairman, earlier this morning, in speaking about the deplorable human rights situation in Cuba, and the need to seek an appropriate resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission meetings going on now in Geneva, I argued that whatever members felt about trade sanctions, they have no reason not to condemn state-sponsored human rights practices that insult and degrade humanity.
Now, on the question of human rights practices in China, the need to condemn is just as strong. And the argument is just as valid. Even if you believe that engagement is the best policy, even if you want good relations with China for trade and other reasons, there can be no excuse not to agree to this resolution, which seeks a resolution in Geneva that condemns China's human rights practices.
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I am one that believes that trade does not in and of itself bring human rights and democracy. I voted against PNTR for China. I don't believe China deserves that recognition. But, Mr. Chairman, even if one believes that China deserves PNTR, deserves to be treated as an equal trading partner and a country in good diplomatic standing, they must agree that China has a long way to go to become a nation in good standing with regard to universal human rights.
I won't catalogue the abuses—the resolution states many of them, and there is a 50-page report on China alone in the State Department's Human Rights Report.
Suffice it to say that we insult the millions of Chinese who want a better, freer future for themselves and their children; indeed we insult humanity if we don't ask that the United Nations seek to recognize and deplore China's human rights abuses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I urge unanimous adoption of this resolution.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SHERROD BROWN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO
I commend Congressman Lantos for introducing this resolution, and I am proud to be a cosponsor. As we strive to encourage democracy throughout the world, we should not create a double standard by overlooking the human rights violations committed by China.
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Each year, China's human rights record gets worse.
The State Department's recent human rights report cites crackdowns by China on freedom of speech, belief, and association.
Since 1993,, when human rights were de-linked from the requirements of most-favored nation status, China's tolerance for individual freedoms has deteriorated severely.
And our response has been to reward the Chinese economy by importing more goods and passing Permanent Normal Trade Relations.
Now, the world's most notorious human rights abuser enjoys a strong trade advantage over the United States. As China's human rights practices spiral downward, the U.S. trade deficit with this country is exploding upward.
China is influenced by three groups of decision makers: The Chinese Communist Party, which controls all of the government-owned industries, The People's Liberation Army, which controls a significant amount of the businesses that export to the U.S., and western investors.
Which one of these three want to empower China's citizens?
Does the Chinese Communist Party want the Chinese people to enjoy increased human rights? No.
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Does the People's Liberation Army want to encourage the freedom to assemble? No.
Do Western Investors want Chinese workers to bargain collectively? No. None of these groups want the current situation in China to change.
All three profit too much from the status quo to want to see human rights and labor rights improve in China. China will not change if its actions are not confronted.
We must take the lead in organizing multilateral support at the UN Human Rights Commission and call upon the People's Republic of China to end its human rights abuses.
We need to support this resolution.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ROBERT WEXLER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA
Mr. Chairman:
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 428, legislation requesting Secretary of State Powell to initiate a plan to endorse and obtain observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Organization during the annual World Health Assembly in May, 2001, in Geneva.
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I believe that Congress and the Bush Administration must lead international efforts to ensure that Taiwan is able to participate in international organizations, including the World Health Organization.
It is imperative that the people of Taiwan have access to the medical resources of the WHO. The United States has promised its support in the past, and unfortunately we have failed to live up to our obligations. In the 1994 Taiwan Policy Review, the United States declared its intention to support Taiwan's participation in international organizations. However, Taiwan is still barred from membership in the WHO.
Both Taiwan and the international community will benefit greatly if Taiwan is an active participant in the WHO. As one of the world's most technologically advanced countries, Taiwan has much to contribute to the international community in the field of health including technical and financial assistance. Unfortunately, their offers of assistance have not been accepted and the international community and the people of Taiwan are unable to mutually benefit.
The time to act is today. At the dawn of a new century, it is unconscionable that twenty one million residents of Taiwan are being denied the medical benefits of the WHO. As our democratic ally and friend, Taiwan deserves our support and full assistance in her effort to obtain observer status in the WHO.
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