"Exiled Chinese dissidents and the most powerful US labor alliance are definitely ready to fight against granting China normal trade relations with the United States even if the measure is passed by the Congress.

"The two groups rejected the White House’s latest effort to sell US lawmakers on its trade deal with China: an unprecedented five-point plan to monitor Beijing’s compliance with a landmark trade deal signed in November with China.

" ‘I’m not impressed,’ Said Richard Long, a Chinese dissident and founder of an independent e-mail service covering human rights and democracy in China...

"Long insisted enforcement of the pact would not be simple. ‘It’s not easy to implement it,’ he said, adding that once China joined the world trade body, members would bend the rules to accommodate Beijing and its huge market...

"Timothy Cooper, ambassador at large for the China Democracy Party...said Beijing was not likely to comply with any deal. ‘If China’s compliance with international covenants on human rights is any indication, I think we will have less than adequate compliance,’ said Cooper, whose party advocates political pluralism in China. ‘China has no precedent whatsoever of conforming to the rule of law in international society and there is no reason to believe they will be any more vigilant.’ "...

"Should PNTR pass, Cooper said, human rights groups will have to ‘join together to create a grand strategic alliance to exert considerable political and practical pressure on Beijing to abide by the rule of law and international human rights standards.’ "

" ‘By adding the ‘P’ for Permanent, (Congress) will remove the last effective tool to pressure the communist government to change,’ warned Lian Shengde, one of the student leaders of the Tiananmen Square movement.

"Arrested and imprisoned for his part in the student uprising, Shengde spent 19 hungry months in the notorious Quinchen prison before being released, weighing just over 41 kilos (90 pounds). He finally managed to escape to the United States in 1994 after buying a passport in Tibet.

" ‘Passage of PNTR would be a betrayal to the people still suffering in China, in jail, in labor camps,’ he told AFP, people like his parents who have been harassed for their son’s political activities and refused permission to leave the country to visit him.

" ‘What’s going on in China is very clear: thousands of Falun gong followers are getting arrested, hundreds of students are still in jail, people are still being deprived of any political rights,’ said Shengde.

"China should not receive normal trade relations unconditionally, he said, while the country is under a repressive regime... ‘We support PNTR for free China in the future. We are against unconditional PNTR for communist China today,’ he said.

"Shengde also dismissed arguments from President Bill Clinton’s administration and echoed by some Chinese dissidents that by granting China PNTR and ushering the country into the World Trade Organization, Beijing will pay heed to international rules of law.

" ‘Investors will play by Chinese government rules to make easy money from labor that does not have any protection,’ the 31-year old dissident stated.

"Wang Xizhe, a founder of the China Democracy Party, made it clear what he believes China must do to earn PNTR. ‘The Chinese authorities have to make a commitment to political reform and ratify the two international treaties on human rights,’ he told AFP.

"Wang, who lives in exile in the United States after being repeatedly imprisoned and tortured for his political writings in China, said if Congress approves PNTR, ‘the Chinese people at home will see the west as giving in to China’s authority. ‘The impact on the Chinese people is they will feel disappointed, discouraged,’ he said, speaking through an interpreter. ‘Surely, the Chinese government will become more repressive.’

Dozens of Chinese dissidents have rallied in Washington to protest U.S. efforts to extend permanent trade privileges to China. VOA’s Candace Williams has more on the demonstration, which comes one week before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the controversial bill.

"About 60 Chinese exiles marched across the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, carrying a 30-meter chain with black ribbons to symbolize what they say is political and religious repression in China.

"One demonstrator was Chris Wu, who was jailed for 12 years in China for his pro-democracy activities. Mr. Wu believes permanent trade privileges could give China the financial means to buy weapons to use against Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

‘If they make a lot of money, they will buy the hi-tech arms to harm Taiwan and the peace of the Asia-Pacific region. Don’t pass this PNTR.’

"Mr. Wu says political differences between China and Taiwan must be resolved before the trade privileges can be extended to China.

"Several U.S. lawmakers took part in the protest, including House minority Whip David Bonior. The Michigan democrat opposes extending permanent normal trade relations, or PNTR, to China, because he says the Beijing government does not respect human rights or the rule of law.

" ‘Will the China trade deal make China a freer, fairer, more democratic nation? I don’t think so. But don’t take my word for it; just ask these dissidents and exiles - the heroes here today. Ask that, and what they’ll tell you is that while this trade deal may lift tariffs, it won’t pry open the door to a single prison cell.’ "

"With just a week to go, both sides of the China trade debate ratcheted up their lobbying campaigns Thursday, with supporters drawing within striking distance of a win in the House.

"Opponents posed outside the Capitol with a 200-foot metal chain to dramatize the plight of China’s political prisoners. In a competing event, President Clinton gave Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan a Rose Garden podium to pitch the landmark legislation...

"House Democratic Whip David Bonior of Michigan, the chief opponent, and four other House opponents joined about 60 exiled Chinese human rights activists in hoisting the 200-foot chain outside the Capitol. They said it represented imprisoned human rights, religious and labor leaders in China.

" ‘Ask them and what they’ll tell you is that while this trade deal may lift tariffs, it won’t pry open the door to a single prison cell,’ Bonior said.

"About 60 Chinese critics of the Communist regime who oppose the bill gathered outside the Capitol yesterday and held a chain meant to symbolize human rights abuses. Rallying under the slogan ‘No Blank Check for China,’ they were joined by House Democratic Whip David E. Bonior (Mich.) And other congressional opponents of the bill.

"Calling China a place ‘that would do Joseph Stalin proud,’ Bonior added, ‘While this trade deal may lift tariffs, it won’t pry open the door of a single prison cell.’

Han Xiazi, who left China after the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square democracy demonstrations in 1989, said in an interview that the bill will ‘give benefits to the bureaucratic elite of the Chinese Communist Party, but 90 percent of Chinese workers would be losers.’ "

"Some 60 exiled Chinese human rights activists converged on the capital Thursday to call for the defeat of a measure granting China unconditional Permanent Normal Trading Relations, due for a vote next week in Congress.

"Carrying a long chain draped in black streamers as a symbol of the communist regime’s repression, the dissidents called on Congress to strap conditions onto the PNTR legislation which would do away with a yearly review of China’s human rights record in exchange for trade privileges.

" ‘No blank check for China,’ read the blue, white and red posters held by the dissidents, some of whom had come from Hong Kong, Europe and the western United States.

encourage China’s wrongdoing’ on human rights, dissident leader and former political prisoner Wang Xizhe said. But Wang did say his China Democracy Party– China’s banned opposition movement– could support the controversial legislation if it included the preconditions of Beijing ratifying international human rights’ covenants and implanting political reform. ‘If China refuses these simple conditions, we should vote nay to PNTR,’ Wang said through his interpreter.

"Citing the support of the United States’ strongest labor organization, the AFL-CIO, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and human rights organizations, Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi made it clear she would vote against the bill next week.

‘This is a bad idea,’ she said, applauded by fellow Democrats David Bonior, Lynn Woolsey, and Bill Pascrell...

" ‘A police state where injustice is law and brutality is order is the China we’re being asked to extend PNTR to,’ stated Bonior.

"Opponents of expanded trade ties with China have long viewed human rights as their signature issue, one of the best reasons not to do business with Beijing. But in the debate over a landmark trade agreement with China now before Congress, business groups and the Clinton administration have touted the benefits of commerce for human rights and aggressively challenged the assumption that all Chinese dissidents reject the measure.

"In advance of a House vote on Wednesday, 100 Chinese dissidents living in the United States staged a rally in front of the Capitol to dramatize their opposition to giving China permanent access to the U.S. market, a status known as normal trade relations (NTR).

" ‘Their voices remind us of a China some are telling this Congress to forget,’ Rep. David E. Bonior said. ‘It is a China where those who dare to speak out for freedom and democracy are, quite literally taking their lives into their own hands.’ "...

"Dissidents yesterday expressed outrage that business would attempt to co-opt human rights activists in the name of expanding commerce. Wang Xizhe, a co-chairman of the China Democracy Party (CDP) who fled the country, said yesterday that the party is ‘unconditionally against permanent NTR for communist China.’

"Mr. Padilla [Christopher Padilla of the Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade] counters with the example of Nie Minzhi, a CDP member under house arrest in Zhejiang, Chiha. Mr. Nie, in an interview with Radio Free Asia backed permanent NTR and urged CDP members in North America to do the same.

"But Mr. Wang scoffs at any suggestion that these statements are at all sincere."

"As political jockeying on a China trade bill entered an intensive final stretch, both the Clinton administration and its opponents claimed crucial backing today from persecuted democracy leaders in China and in exile...

"The Capitol Hill rally was intended to refute White House claims that Chinese opposition leaders support elevated trade ties. Participants argued that by ending the annual trade review, Congress would sacrifice the only real leverage it has over China’s behavior toward its own citizens.

"He said that without the annual review of China trade status, Beijing authorities might never have released him from jail.

" ‘The debate in Congress each year was one of the few things to lift my spirits when I was in jail,’ he said.

"But he acknowledged a deep split in the dissident community and he criticized exiled Tiananmen Square student leaders who support the trade bill as naive. ‘Some of us understand the Chinese people and some of us do not,’ he said."

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill, the arm twisting is intense on the eve of House debate and an eventual vote on the bill to grant permanent normal trading status to China. The Clinton administration and the business community are backing the bill. Organized labor is against it, and the vote is expected to be close.

LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: President Clinton says that the reform element in China supports the trade pact. But here in the U.S., Chinese dissident Shengde Lian makes it clear he is against it. He was a student protester at Tiananmen Square and he spent two years in jail in China before coming to the United States. He joins us now from Washington.

Good morning, thank you for being with us today.

SHENGDE LIAN, CHINESE DISSIDENT: Good morning, my honor to be here.

STOUFFER: Well, for so many Americans, this is all about business and all about money, but for you it’s all about principle. How do you explain that?

LIAN: Yes, you know, business is great here, and has probably been this way since its inception. But business is not, you know, regulated in the free world. For example, not use the slavery labor. But as you may know, in China...the whole system is a totalitarian regime. And it’s institutional labor in the slavery labor system. There, you know, labor has no protection, no rights to form independent labor unions, no pension, no welfare, no social security, etc.

So, but we believe...79 percent of polled Americans saying that the U.S. should not grant PNTR to China now. And we believe that the representative of the people should listen to the voices of the people and stand up for the principles of which make this country great, which is: freedom, justice, human rights and democracy.

STOUFFER: Well, President Clinton and the administration say that the way to make that happen is to engage China. Why don’t you think that will work?

LIAN: You know what? Engage with China should be based on conditions and principles, not unconditionally engaging with China no matter what they do. We just do business, we just put money and profit for them to build up their military parts, to build up their armed place to continue the crackdown on citizen’s rights, to continue executing religious leaders, crackdown the student democracy party and honest citizens.

So engage with principles and be realistic. If this PNTR is granted and there’s no rule of law and China has never demonstrated that they would abide by international norms, we can see that will not help the pro-democracy movement at all, and on the other hand, it will not help the workers here...

STOUFFER: Now the vote in the House is scheduled for tomorrow, it looks like it’s going to be very close. But what if it passes and China is granted permanent normal trade relations, what will you do then?

LIAN: I hope that, first of all, the representatives of the people in this great country should be very clear that PNTR should be voted down this time. And we keep up the annual review of MFN and put conditions on China’s communist government. If this is voted... I believe this is a huge mistake that this great nation is making at this time. You’re dealing with communists...a more powerful totalitarian regie, like the People’s Republic of China, militarily and economically will be very confident not only to the freedom-fighting of the Chinese people, but also for the national security and national interest of this great country which should not be supporting, stabilizing and helping this regime to grow and survive while the world is going toward freedom and democracy.

"...Shengde Lian, another 1989 protest leader now with the U.S.-based lobbying group the Free China Movement, described the proposal as ‘an equivalent to the offense of treason’ and likened China to a massive gulag in which ‘1.2 billion slaves’ live in constant fear.

"Lian argues that increased trade has not helped the cause of democracy and that granting permanent normal trade relations would only serve to support the ruling Communist party."

"With the United Nations Human Rights Commission now relegated to the status of a Trojan horse, incapable of even remotely addressing wide-spread human rights violations in China that even a schoolchild would have the good sense of roundly condemn, Mr. Clinton stands on the world stage like a schoolmaster without a paddle. In other words, only the annual MFN debate in Congress remains as a potent forum in which to decry China’s brutal regime. It may not be much, but if American’s care about the human rights conduct of nations – which they do – it is everything."

"The current president of China, Jiang Zemin, the head of the National People’s Congress, Li Peng, and virtually the entire military leadership of present-day China all were leaders in the Tiananmen repression and the subsequent dual policy of economic-military modernization combined with more stringent political controls and religious-ethnic persecution... China has chosen not liberalization but intensified political and religious repression and international aggressiveness. Therefore, the United States Congress should not approve PNTR for China. Instead, the United Stats should use access for Chinese products to our consumers (44 percent of China’s exports are to the U.S. vs. 2 percent of U.S. exports to China) as an incentive for China to: stop selling weapons of mass destruction; cease its aggressive actions and military threats; end its strategic nuclear buildup; and, implement the provisions of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights which China freely accepted."

"Chinese dissidents in the United States, bitter about U.S. congressional approval of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with China, said Thursday those who voted in favor of the bill would be responsible for any human rights abuses in China.

" ‘China will become a stronger, more powerful, more defiant human rights oppressor,’ warned dissident Wang Xizhe in a written statement here.

"Wang, who spent years in Chinese jails for his political outspokenness and is co-chair of the China Democracy Party, said that the United States ‘had lost its moral compass during the course of the PNTR debate.’

"The House of Representatives passed the measure by a wider-than-expected margin of 237-197 on Wednesday.

" ‘All of those Democrats and Republicans who voted for PNTR now bear a special responsibility for the welfare of China’s pro-democracy dissidents and religious practitioners,’ said Timothy Cooper, international director of the Free China Movement, a coalition of human rights and pro-democracy advocates. ‘Whatever happens next to victims of human rights abuse in China will be on their conscience,’ Cooper said in a statement."

"Picking themselves up after their stinging defeat in the fight against the US granting Beijing permanent normal trade relations, pro-democracy groups plan to join forces to peacefully change China’s political profile, a spokesman said Friday.

" ‘In light of the loss of the annual review of China’s human rights policies in Congress, the time has come to unite the overseas pro-democracy movement to stand against China’s systematic oppression,’ said Timothy Cooper, spokesman for the Free China Movement. The movement is a worldwide coalition of Chinese pro-democracy organizations. Cooper also represents China’s outlawed opposition China Democracy Party.

" ‘To accomplish this, we must first promote mutual dialogue and understanding among the overseas groups,’ Cooper explained in a statement. To that end, an array of human rights organizations are to meet for a two-day conference here over the weekend, focusing on human rights, democracy and religious freedom in China, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan. Conference participants will also attempt to forge an international alliance of pro-democracy activists ‘dedicated to peacefully achieving perpetual human rights and democracy in China,’ the statement said."

"Now that economic engagement with China is working to deepen that country’s economic transition toward a free market, we must implement a policy that promotes its political transition toward democracy.

"The key components of a ‘Marshall Plan for Chinese Democracy’ should include: public diplomacy that promotes debate on political reform in China; exchanges that transfer democratic ideas and values; support for democratic forces; support for the free flow of information, including e-mail and Internet projects and expansion of the China service of Radio Free Asia; and vigorous international moral and diplomatic pressure on human rights...

"Assistance for democratic forces and democratic exiles should be provided in the form of expanded funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, which works effectively in closed societies.

"Support for the free flow of information should include a major book publishing program that makes available writings of democratic activists, political movements and human rights monitors. New technologies should also be a part of the program mix. A project run on a shoestring budget called VIP Reference provides more than 1 million e-mail addresses in China with a 10-page digest of uncensored news and information on China, making it the largest free and uncensored newspaper ever to circulate inside a dictatorship. Such cost-effective programs should be aided and significantly expanded. "

President, Freedom House

"Chinese dissidents exiled in the United States launched a two-day hunger strike Saturday to mark the moment in 1989 when tanks rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to crush mass pro-democracy protests.

"Thirty activists, many of whom fled China after playing key roles in the protests, gathered outside the Chinese embassy here, chanting ‘We want freedom, we want democracy.’

" ‘We have to let the world know that the massacre of June 4 will not be forgotten,’ said Lian Shengde, a former political prisoner and prominent dissident. ‘The Chinese government still denies there was a massacre, still denies that any students were killed,’ he said.

"Soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army opened fire on unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square 11 years ago on the night of June 3-4, killing hundreds, if not thousands, of demonstrators. The protests, which called for greater democracy and an end of corruption and nepotism in government, have been labeled an ‘anti-revolutionary rebellion’ by the communist authorities.

"Another dissident at the Washington protest, Zhao Pingu, fought back tears as he remembered the events in Tiananmen Square. ‘I feel very, very bad that there are still people from 11 years ago in jail and labor camps,’ he said.

"Activists planned to remain in a grassy grove opposite the US embassy here throughout the hunger strike, which will include a candlelight vigil."

"It’s been 11 years since Lian, riding on a wave of youthful passion and optimism, led thousands of students from his university into Tiananmen Square. His action was repeated in campuses across China and within Beijing, until hundreds of thousands of students and supporters had crowded into the square demanding political reform.

"It was May 1989 and Lian, like hundreds of others in the square, had repeatedly been on hunger strike, ending up with an intravenous drip in his arm six times while trying to negotiate with the government on the reform demands.

"But the government refused to bend, and by the end of May the climate of optimism in Beijing was quickly beginning to turn.

" ‘The government was showing no signs of concession and martial law was announced,’ recalled Lian, now in exile in the United States. ‘I was in a hospital bed in Tiananmen Square talking about stopping the hunger strike.’ But it was too late.

"On June 3 the military, riding tanks, stormed in, killing hundreds of students in a shocking massacre that quickly became a symbol of Chinese government oppression. ‘I felt something like sadness, not fear, all else was gone, only sadness and a sense of powerlessness,’ said Lian, sitting in a paper-crowded office here earlier in the week.

"Now he’s planning to go on hunger strike on Saturday outside the Chinese embassy here, ‘to commemorate the victims of Tiananmen Square who senselessly lost their lives 11 years ago in a massacre initiated by the Chinese government.’

"Every detail of the days leading up to the confrontation and the months he spent in the notorious Qinchen prison afterwards are etched into this thin young man’s mind. ‘I feel guilty that I could not convince them all to leave’ the square, the former computer science major turned student activist told AFP.

"Visiting the hospitals afterward seeing the bodies piled up in the hallways, talking to the wounded, searching for survivors, an outraged Lian put his organizational skills into high gear. He mass copied press reports of the massacre and with a team of helpers gave them out to trusted people at the national train station to take into the countryside. ‘We had to let people outside Beijing know what had happened.’

"But 11 years later, it’s hard to keep the names and purpose of those who died at Tiananmen in the international spotlight, and in Beijing the anniversary is unlikely to cause much upheaval– most of the dissidents have been mopped up and thrown in jail or forced into exile. As the US ambassador to Beijing, James Prueher said in Washington recently when asked about expected anniversary commemorations, ‘I think things will be all right.’

"But Lian is not about to give up that easily. ‘Although the movement was physically crushed, many people still have the ideals, and there are still some activists advocating for changes and are brave enough to stand up in China. And we are going to speak for those colleagues who cannot.’

"Reflecting on the last 11 years and the changes in his life, he added: ‘I feel a sense of obligation to the voiceless in China, that I have to continue the fight, in a more professional and consistent way. ‘I will never forget those friends in Tiananmen Square of their ideals, although many others have.’"

Whereas, these rights are human rights, endowed by the laws of nature on individuals in accordance with the evolving standards of the world community;

Whereas, human rights inure to the benefit of individuals, not by virtue of their nationality, but by virtue of their humanity;

Whereas, human rights are universal, created for the protection of the individual against arbitrary and repressive governmental power;

Whereas, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the Convention Against Torture (CAT), constitute an emerging body of world law, which guarantee human rights under international law;

And whereas, the People’s Republic of China is bound by the provisions of the UN Universal Declaration, as a founding member of the United Nations;

And whereas, the People’s Republic of China is bound by the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under the terms of the Vienna Convention, therefore prohibiting it to act in any manner which undermines the treaty’s object and purpose;

And whereas, the People Republic of China is bound by the Convention Against Torture, as ratified by its national legislature;

Wherefore, the People’s Republic of China violates these universal human rights standards when its citizens are

1) denied the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the right of individuals to adopt a religion or belief of his or her own choosing, either individually or collectively, in public or private, and to manifest his or her religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching,

2) denied the right of peaceful assembly;

3) denied the right to freedom of associations;

4) denied the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds;

5) denied the right to hold opinions without interference;

6) denied the right to enter their own country;

7) denied the right to equal protection under the law without discrimination of any kind;

8) denied the right to equality before the courts and the right to a fair and impartial trial;

9) denied the right to due process;

10) denied the right to self-determination;

Whereas, the government of the People’s Republic of China violates international human rights standards when it practices

1) torture, or in cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;

2) slavery;

Signed By:

Timothy Cooper, International Director, Free China Movement

Joel Segal, American Director, Co-founder, Free China Movement

Shengde Lian, Executive Director, Free China Movement

Wei Jingsheng, Chinese dissident

Liu Nianchun, Chinese dissident

Richard Long, VIP Reference

William Saunders, Family Research Council

Steven W. Mosher, Population Research Institute,

Wang Juntao, Chinese dissident

Zhao Pinglu, International Association of Chinese Workers,

Shen Tong, Chinese dissidents

William Meyers, Writer/Editor & Desktop Publisher, Columbia University Press

Diva, CEO, Bew Trolls, Inc.

Wen Xing, Chinese dissident

JP Hackworth, Newstrolls, Inc.

Paul Maas Risenhoover, Board member, free China Movement

Mark Richards, Socilogist

Jennifer Ellingston, DC Statehood Green Party

Mike Binder, DC Democracy Activist

Mary Flanner, Documentarian

Natalie Liu, former NBS Beijing correspondent

Expressing the sense of the international NGO community regarding the December 21 and 22, 1998 summary prison sentences imposed by Chinese courts on China Democracy Party leaders Wang Youcai, Xu Wenli and Qing Yongming; the December 27, 1998 prison sentence of labor activist Zhang Shanguang; the January 1999 sentence of computer programmer Lin Hai; and the deteriorating health condition of democracy dissident Cheng Meng, who, while serving a 12-year sentence, contracted hepatitis, and is currently suffering from the severe effects of cirrhosis of the liver; the December 21, 1998 disappearance of Zhou Yongjun in China, the first elected leader of the 1989 Tianamen Square student protests; and the 1999 detention of Peng Ming, the first General Secretary of the China Development Union, which has over 10,000 members;

Whereas on December 22, 1998, Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate Court sentenced Xu Wenli to 13 years in prison after a three hour trial for "plotting to overthrow state power"; Mr. Xu was attempting to establish the China Democracy Party; when Mr. Xu rose to speak in his own defense, he was shouted down by the trial judge; his prison sentence was imposed in 20 minutes;

Whereas on December 22, 1998, a Wuhan court sentenced Qing Yongming to 12 years in prison for "plotting to overthrow state power"; he was attempting to establish the China Democracy Party; during his trial he was permitted no legal representation because Chinese security personnel intimidated his lawyer;

Whereas on December 27, 1998, a Xupu County court sentenced Zhang Shanguang to 10 years in prison for passing information to Radio Free Asia; the information was about farmer protests over high taxes in Xupu province, where one of the demonstrations ended in violence;

Whereas on January 20, 1999, the Shanghai Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Lin Hai to two years in prison for "inciting the overthrow of state power"; Mr. Lin supplied Internet VIP Reference Magazine with 30,000 e-mail addresses; in addition to his prison sentence he was fined $1,200; the "tools of his crime" were also confiscated, including two desktop computers, one laptop, a modem and a telephone;

Whereas, in 1995 Cheng Meng was sentenced to 12 years in prison for "betrayal of state secrets"; Mr. Chen transmitted a confidential file named "49 Especially Controlled Exiles and Members of Reactionary Organizations" to the overseas media in 1995; this action exposed the fact that the Chinese government was denying democracy dissidents the right to return to their homeland; while in prison Mr. Cheng contracted hepatitis B and C; until recently he was denied any medical treatment whatsoever; currently he is experiencing cirrhosis of the liver;

Whereas, on December 21, 1998, Zhou Yongjun, a founder of the Free China Movement and a member of the executive committee, disappeared while visiting his parents inside China; later it was confirmed by sources in Taiwan that he was arrested; Mr. Zhou had been working in New York City for the past six years; neither his family nor his friends have heard from him since the date of his disappearance;

Whereas, in October, 1998, the Government of the People’s Republic of China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the world’s leading human rights treaty, ratified to date by 137 countries, including the United States;

Whereas, under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which the Government of the People’s Republic is bound by law to observe, a State "is obligated to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty when... it has signed the treaty or.... until it shall have made its intention clear not to become a party to the treaty";

Whereas, Article 22 of the ICCPR provides that "[e]veryone shall have the right to freedom of association.... [and that] no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those which are prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national society or public safety.... or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."

Whereas, the right to freedom of association is also guaranteed under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR);

Whereas, the European Commission on Human Rights has previously held that the refusal to register an organization and, by implication, a political party, could constitute an interference with the right of freedom of association; therefore, the right to form a political party is a matter of settled international law, and therefore an implicit right guaranteed under Article 22 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, the arrests and prison sentences of Wang Youcai, Xu Wenli and Qing Yongming for attempting to register the China Democracy Party constitute a violation of Article 22 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, Article 19 of the ICCPR also guarantees "the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print... or through any other media of his choice";

Whereas, the arrest and prison sentence of Zhang Shanguang for passing information to Radio Free Asia about farmer protests, and the arrest and prison sentence of Lin Hai for supplying 30,000 e-mail addresses to VIP Reference Magazine, constitute de facto human rights violations under Article 19 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, while the arrest and prison sentence of Cheng Meng for transmitting a confidential file to the overseas media was handed down prior to the signing of the ICCPR by the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Cheng’s arrest and sentence nevertheless violates the letter and spirit of Article 19 of the ICCPR, as well as contravenes Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which asserts the right of everyone "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers"; the UDHR shrines the international human rights standards of the United Nations, of which the People’s Republic of China is a founding member;

Whereas, Article 10 of the ICCPR guarantees that "[a]ll persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity"; under Article 7 of the ICCPR, "[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"; the prolonged denial of humane and essential medical assistance to Mr. Cheng in prison constitutes de facto human rights violations of under Articles 10 and 7 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, Wang Youcai and Qing Yongming were convicted and sentenced to prison without the benefit of legal counsel; under Article 14 of the ICCPR, everyone is entitled to "communicate with counsel of his own choosing," and "[t]o be tried in his presence, and to defend himself.... through legal assistance of his own choosing"; the denial of counsel to the defendants during the course of their trials constitutes de facto human rights violations under Article 14 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, Xu Wenli rose to speak in his own defense during his 3 hour trial, the trial judge shouted him down; under Article 14 of the ICCPR, everyone has a right "to defend himself in person"; the denial of the right to defend himself constitutes a de facto human rights violation under Article 14 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, Article 9 of the ICCPR provides that "[a]nyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody.... [a]nyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful";

Whereas, the disappearance of Zhou Yongjun inside China and his subsequent arrest, and the failure of the Chinese government to bring Mr. Zhou to trial, constitutes a de facto human rights violation under the Article 9 of the ICCPR;

Whereas, the 1.5 year sentence of "detention for the purposes of education" imposed on Peng Ming by the Chinese police without due process, constitutes a de facto human rights violation under Article 9 of the ICCPR;

1) should urge the People’s Republic of China to fully comply with all articles of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it is bound to observe by the Vienna Convention;

2) should urge the People’s Republic of China to release Wang Youcai, Xu Wenli, Qing Yongming, Zhang Shanguang and Lin Hai from prison, and to support the registration and formation of the China Democracy Party;

3) should urge the People’s Republic of China to release Cheng Meng from prison on humanitarian grounds, and continue to provide him with medical assistance;

4) should urge the People’s Republic of China to reveal the whereabouts of Zhou Yongjun, and allow him the right to due process; and

5) should urge the People’s Republic of China to grant Peng Ming the right to due process;

6) should publicly demonstrate its support and encouragement for peaceful political reform in the People’s Republic of China, including the transition to a multi-party system.

A well-known student leader in Tiananmen Square in 1989, he served two years in prison before fleeing China for the US in 1993, where he has continued his activism on behalf of the China democracy movement.

Long-time human rights activist and specialist in media and lobbying efforts, he has published extensively on the China democracy movement, and represents FCM and CDP at conferences around the world, including the UN Commission on Human Rights and, most recently, the World Forum on Democracy in Warsaw, Poland. He is also the Chairman of the Free Asia Conference Preparatory Committee, a group working to find common language and cause among pro-democracy groups in Asia.

Founder and editor of VIP Reference Magazine, an on-line journal of un-censored pro-democracy news reaching approximately 1,000,000 email addresses inside China.

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World Council of Chinese Pro-democracy Organizations, Alliance for Democratic China, and their member organizations: China Democratic Party Overseas Committee, China Democracy Party New York Branch, North American Branch of China Democracy Party, China Democracy Party Co-ordinating Committee Europe, China Spring Magazine, Southern California Branch of Federation for a Democratic China, China Civic Forum, Free China Forum, Americans for a Free China, International Association of Chinese Workers, Party for Freedom and Democracy in China, Eastern American Asylum Association of Chinese, Visual Artists Guild, Freedom Forum Magazine, Zhong Shan Comrade Committee, China Spring Europe and Asia Union, China Comments Magazine, Worldwide Chinese Magazine, Human Rights Appeal (Mainland), Sino-Hong Kong Promoting Democracy Association, Long March Foundation, Modern Chinese Problem Research Forum, Hong Kong Democrats, Ma Cao Club, China Watch Magazine, VIP Reference, and Small Reference On-Line Magazine, Reforming China Network, China Liberal Democratic Party in Australia, Taiwan Straight Peace Promoting Committee, New Zealand Promoting Democracy Committee, Human Rights Union (Mainland China), Public Opinions Magazine (mainland China),Tian Nu Magazine (mainland China), China Labor Party Forming Committee (mainland), Human Rights Voice (mainland).

Former American Director of Free China Movement and staff member of Congress

(To be continued)