WASHINGTON, DC –Today, U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced Senate passage of S. Res. 451, a Senate resolution to mark 25 years since the government of China used violent suppression to injure and kill peaceful demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
S. Res. 451 expresses sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their participation in the peaceful democratic movement. The resolution also condemns China’s history of human rights violations—including the harassment, detainment and imprisonment of Chinese citizens exercising their freedom of expression, association and religion.
“Our bipartisan resolution ensures that the world does not forget about the victims of this horrible tragedy and the hardships faced by their families,” said Barrasso. “The United States has a long record of championing liberty and freedom around the world—and this resolution sends a strong message to China that their ongoing human rights abuses are unacceptable. We will continue to call on China to stop the harassment, detention and imprisonment of Chinese citizens exercising their freedom of expression, association and religion.”
"Chinese authorities continue to refuse to address the events that took place 25 years ago in Tiananmen Square. Instead of acknowledging this blood-soaked stain in its history, the Chinese government has been trying to scrub any remembrance of that brutal repression of peaceful protesters from Chinese society,” said Rubio. “It’s important that we bear witness to what happened in Tiananmen Square and continue making it clear to the Chinese government that a great power does not repress its people’s universal desires to be free."
A copy of the resolution is below.
S. RES. 451
Recalling the Government of China’s forcible dispersion of those peaceably assembled in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago, in light of China’s continued abysmal human rights record.
Whereas, in 1989, Chinese citizens involved in a peaceful democratic movement gathered in Tiananmen Square to call for the establishment of a dialogue with their government on democratic reforms, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly;
Whereas, on June 4, 1989, Chinese authorities ordered the People’s Liberation Army and other security forces to use lethal force to disperse demonstrators in Tiananmen Square;
Whereas the number of peaceful protesters killed or injured by the forcible dispersion remains unknown to this day;
Whereas, 25 years after these deaths, there has been no accountability on the part of the Government of the People’s Republic of China in disciplining involved officials;
Whereas there remain imprisoned to this day individuals who expressed their desire for democracy in China 25 years ago in Tiananmen Square;
Whereas the Department of State’s most recent human rights report on China found that `citizens did not have the right to change their government’;
Whereas, even in recent weeks, the Government of the People’s Republic of China has detained those who attempt to peacefully commemorate the events of June 1989, including activists such as Pu Zhiqiang and Wen Kejian;
Whereas the Department of State’s most recent human rights report on China found `extrajudicial killings’ remained a problem in China;
Whereas the Department of State’s most recent human rights report on China found the government continued to target `for arbitrary detention or arrest’ `human rights activists, journalists . . . and former political prisoners and their family members’; and
Whereas June 4, 2014, is the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate–
(1) expresses sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their participation in the democracy gathering on June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China;
(2) commends all peaceful advocates for democracy and human rights in China;
(3) condemns the ongoing and egregious human rights abuses by the Communist Government of the People’s Republic of China;
(4) calls on the Communist Government of the People’s Republic of China to–
(A) release all prisoners of conscience, including those persons still in prison as a result of their participation in the peaceful pro-democracy gatherings of 1989 and those detained for their commemoration of these events;
(B) allow those people exiled on account of their activities to return to live in freedom in China; and
(C) cease the harassment, detention, and imprisonment of all Chinese citizens exercising their freedoms of expression, association, and religion; and
(5) calls upon the United States representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council to introduce a resolution in that forum calling for an examination of the human rights practices of the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
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