President Bush Must Pressure China on Human Rights Before Olympics (Rep. Howard Berman)
July 24th, 2008
Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution (H. Res. 1370) calling China to account for its international behavior and its policies on human rights.
To provide a forum for discussion of these issues, the committee held a hearing yesterday on China’s behavior ahead the Olympic Games. We heard from two of the country’s foremost China scholars and a leading Chinese democracy activist.
While the witnesses differed in their approach on how to best affect change in China, all agreed that, despite commitments by Beijing to improve human and political rights, the situation has not improved — and, in some cases it has become far worse.
Likewise in the past few months, China’s international behavior with respect to despicable regimes in Sudan and Burma has improved marginally at best. Beijing remains these countries’ strongest supporter.
Because of China’s failure to improve its record on supporting human rights at home and abroad, the resolution that we approved today calls on China to take immediate, substantial and serious action if there is to be any hope that the Olympic Games will take place in an atmosphere that honors the Olympic spirit of freedom and openness.
It’s a direct call to China by the House of Representatives to:
o End human rights abuses and repression of Tibetans and Uighurs,
o Release political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who have nonviolently sought to improve the human rights situation in China ahead of the Olympics
o Honor its commitments for freedom of the press ahead of the Olympics
o Permit visitors to attend the Olympics regardless of their religion
o Guarantee the freedom of movement during the Olympics
o Guarantee access to information
o Permit peaceful political activities during the Games
o End the exploitative labor practices of some state-owned companies in China
o Enter into direct discussions with the Dalai Lama over the future of Tibet; and
o End its political and economic support of the regimes in Sudan and Burma
President Bush has decided to go to the Olympics opening ceremony. Whether one agrees or disagrees with this decision, it is clear that the President must not pass up this opportunity to make a strong statement in support of human rights, one of our central China policy goals.
This resolution calls on the President to make such a statement before and during his trip to Beijing for the Games. It also calls on him to meet with the families of jailed prisoners of conscience and to seek to visit Tibet and Xinjiang.
The House of Representatives should speak with one voice on the issue of human rights and political freedoms in China ahead of the Olympics, and this resolution accomplishes this important objective.
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