Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman and Representative Sander Levin, Cochairman of the
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China
invite you to a roundtable discussion on
“The Financial Crisis and the Changing Role of Workers in China”

Friday, June 19, 2009
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Rayburn House Office Building, Room B-318

At this CECC Roundtable, a panel of experts will discuss the impact of the current financial crisis on the lives and rights of workers in China. Panelists will also examine the changing role that workers, including migrant workers, are playing in shaping the future of economic, legal, and political reform in China.

Panelists:

Leslie T. Chang, Author of Factory Girls (Spiegel & Grau, 2008); former China correspondent, The Wall Street Journal

Robin Munro, Research Director, China Labour Bulletin

Erin Ennis, Vice President, US-China Business Council

Earl Brown, Labor and Employment Law Counsel and China Program Director, Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO

CECC Roundtables are open to the public. No RSVP is necessary.

CECC Quick Brief
June 4, 2009

      
United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China     

CECC Quick Briefs provide short, general overviews of core human rights and rule of law issues in China today. For more detailed analysis, please visit www.cecc.gov.

* Announcement *

CECC Chairman Byron Dorgan and Cochairman Sander Levin invite you to attend a hearing titled “The 20th Anniversary of theTiananmen Square Protests: Examining the Significance of the 1989 Demonstrations in China and Implications for U.S. Policy" on June 4, 2009, from 2:15 to 4 p.m. in Room 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building. Witnesses include Hon. Winston Lord, Dr. Perry Link, Dr. Susan Shirk, and Dr. Yang Jianli. This hearing will be simultaneously webcast.

CECC Quick Brief:
The 1989 Tiananmen Demonstrations

The Protests

After the death on April 15, 1989, of Hu Yaobang, a popular reformist Chinese Communist Party leader, Chinese students began to stage peaceful protests in Tiananmen Square and in other parts of China.
Protesters in Beijing called for the establishment of a dialogue with government and Party leaders regarding their demands, which included eliminating corruption and accelerating economic and political reforms, especially freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. As protests spread across China, more and varied demands emerged.
By early May, protests had expanded to over 50 cities in China. Protesters included not only students, but also journalists, workers, government employees, police, members of the armed forces, and other citizens.
Protests around the country, which were overwhelmingly peaceful, included marches, boycotting of classes, worker strikes, posting of pro-democracy wall posters, and hunger strikes.
At the height of the demonstrations in Beijing, protesters were estimated to number more than 1 million. Protests expanded to at least 131 cities in China, as demonstrators took to the streets in each city in numbers ranging from a few thousand to 120,000 at various times between mid-April and late May.

Chinese Government Response to the Protests

On May 20, 1989, having failed to persuade demonstrators to leave Tiananmen Square, Chinese leaders placed Beijing under martial law. People continued to fill the Square, and protests in other parts of China intensified, apparently in response to the declaration of martial law.
Late in the night of June 3 and continuing into the morning of June 4, tens of thousands of soldiers in columns of armored tanks outside of Tiananmen Square fired directly at unarmed Beijing citizens and indiscriminately into crowds. Tanks crushed some protesters and onlookers to death.
Chinese authorities issued an official report at the end of June 1989, which stated thousands of civilians "were wounded and over 200, including 36 college students, died during the riot." An initial report by the Chinese Red Cross estimated that 2,600 people had died, but this estimate was soon withdrawn. After 20 years, the exact number of dead and wounded remains unclear. Estimates of those who died as a result of the lethal force used by the government on June 3-4 range from the hundreds to a few thousand.
Although there is no independent confirmation, the Chinese government reported that 1,500 people had been formally arrested for participating in the protests. Tens of thousands more were likely briefly detained. Over forty executions have been documented.

U.S. Government Response

In June 1989, in response to the Chinese government's crackdown on the protesters, President George H.W. Bush suspended all high-level U.S. Government exchanges with P.R.C. officials and suspended U.S. Government and commercial military sales to, and contacts with, China. President Bush also announced that the government would review sympathetically any requests by P.R.C. students in the United States to extend their stay.
President Bush sent Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger on a secret trip to Beijing in December 1989 to brief Chinese leaders on President Bush's summit meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and to explore possibilities for developing a "road map" toward better relations.
In January 1990, the U.S. Congress passed what were referred to as the "Tiananmen Sanctions" (P.L. 101-246), designed to codify and expand the scope of President Bush's actions. While providing authority for presidential waivers, P.L. 101-246 prohibited a number of activities, including sales of military equipment and weapons to China (an embargo adopted by the European Union and still largely in effect in 2009); exports of U.S. satellites for launch in China; and export licenses to China for crime control and detection equipment.

Information Blackout

Chinese citizens today still face great difficulty accessing unofficial accounts of the 1989 Tiananmen protests and crackdown. Officials continue to censor information about the protests in news media and on the Internet. Citizens searching for information on the Internet find that search results are heavily censored and links to related articles are blocked. Censorship of the Internet typically tightens up in the weeks leading up to June 4. This year, censorship has intensified, with reports indicating that numerous discussion boards have been shutdown and discussion related to Tiananmen and its 20th anniversary have been heavily censored.
Officials prohibit Chinese media from publishing all but the official version of events surrounding the protests and punish journalists and editors who try to slip photos or veiled references to the June 1989 crackdown past censors.
In 2005, the Chinese journalist Shi Tao received a 10-year sentence for exposing officials' attempts to censor media coverage around the 15th anniversary of the protests.
At a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press briefing on May 19, 2009, a spokesperson indicated that the official verdict declaring the demonstrations "counterrevolutionary" had not changed. In response to questions about the recently published secret memoir of former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who had opposed the use of force against students, the spokesperson was reported as telling journalists that:

               "concerning the political storm at the end of the 1980s and related issues, our
                party and government has drawn an unequivocal conclusion.... China has
                scored remarkable success in its social and economic development—facts
                have proven that the socialist road with Chinese characteristics that we pursue is
                in the fundamental interests of our people."

Ongoing Repression Related to the 1989 Protests

·       Chinese citizens still are serving prison sentences in connection with the 1989 demonstrations. For a list of representative cases, click here.

1       Citizens who attempt to publicly discuss or commemorate June 4 have been subject to physical attacks, harassment, surveillance, and detention. For example:

·       In March 2009, Zhang Shijun, a former soldier at the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 who published an open letter to Hu Jintao asking for an official reassessment of Tiananmen, was detained by authorities and remains in custody at an undisclosed location.

1       In April, Sun Wenguang, a 75-year old retired professor in Jinan city, Shandong province, was physically assaulted on his way to pay respects to Zhao Ziyang, the now deceased reformist leader who was purged in 1989 for maintaining that the Chinese government should engage in dialogue with student protestors in Tiananmen Square.

2       At the end of May, a former Tiananmen prisoner from Zhejiang province, Wu Gaoxing, and four other citizens wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao seeking compensation for those who had been jailed after the crackdown on June 4. Wu was subsequently detained.

3       Police are stationed around the clock at dissident writer Jiang Qisheng's home in Beijing. Jiang was imprisoned for four years in 1999 in connection with his efforts to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, and recently released a detailed report based on interviews with individuals connected to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

·       Ding Zilin, the central figure in the Tiananmen Mothers group—a loose network of about 150 family members of June 1989 victims—was prevented by security forces from leaving her home in May 2009 to attend a private gathering to mourn her son and others who were killed in Beijing 20 years ago. Chinese authorities asked Ding Zilin to leave Beijing in advance of June 3, but she refused. She is under strict surveillance.

·       The Chinese government selectively denies entry into China to students, workers, and others who fled China after June 4, including entry for family visits in some cases. International law prohibits arbitrary denial of the right of a citizen to return to his or her home country. A number of individuals active in the 1989 protests have been repeatedly denied entry. In recent months, Yi Danxuan was denied entry.

Recommendations

Urge the Chinese government to review the cases of those still imprisoned for participating in the 1989 demonstrations for compliance with internationally recognized standards of fairness and due process in judicial proceedings.
Call on the Chinese government to cease harassing, interrogating, and detaining citizens who seek to mourn and remember the Tiananmen victims, and who seek to document the identities of those injured and killed in June 1989.
Urge the Chinese government to allow protest participants living in exile in the United States and elsewhere to return to China safely and without risk of retribution.
Support Chinese citizens' calls for an official Chinese government accounting and reassessment of the events surrounding June 4, 1989.

Download a full copy of the Commission's 2008 Annual Report here.

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLRHC)

Schedule of Events

Around the 20th Anniversary

of the Tiananmen Square Crackdown

        June 3rd and 4th 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Below is a list of events on or around Capitol Hill that will be held in commemoration. We hope that you will be able to attend some of these events (additional events may be added in follow-up notifications).

Wednesday, June 3:

4 - 6 p.m., CVC H-215

Briefing and press conference.  Sponsored by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation http://www.weijingsheng.org/

6:30 p.m., Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY:

Preview screening of “Portraits of Lives Lost and the Quest for Justice.” This screening is sponsored by Human Rights in China. http://hrichina.org/public/contents/category?cid=1068

Thursday, June 4:

All Day, Rayburn HOB Foyer:

Turnley Photo Exhibit sponsored by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and the Laogai Research Foundation

8:45 am to 9:45 am, 4th Estate Restaurant, National Press Club:

1989 Tiananmen Massacre Survivors’ Reunion. Press conference held by survivors from all over the world to commemorate the movement and victims of Tiananmen Square. http://npc.press.org/

9:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., Dirksen SD-124:

Undermining Democracy- 21st Century Authoritarians.  Sponsored by Radio Free Asia.  http://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/june4/

10 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., West Lawn, Capitol:

“Remembrance and Reconciliation” rally. A Gathering at replica of the Goddess of Democracy to commemorate the events of June 4th and call for reconciliation. Sponsored by Initiatives for China. http://initiativesforchina.org/tiananmen-20th-anniversary-commemorative-events/

10:30 a.m., Rayburn HOB Foyer:

Press conference with former Tiananmen protestors Lu Decheng, Yu Dongyue, and Yu Zhijian, with statements from members of Congress. Sponsored by the Laogai Research Foundation. http://www.laogai.org/news2/newsimg/2009/05/2009-05-3368-671.jpg

2:15 - 4:00 p.m., Dirksen Room 628:

The 20th Anniversary of Tiananmen: the Significance of the 1989 Demonstrations in China. Sponsored by the Congressional Executive Commission on China. http://www.cecc.gov/pages/hearings/2009/20090604/index.php

5 - 6:45 p.m., CVC Orientation Theater North:

Screening of the Frontline documentary “The Tank Man.” Sponsored by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

7 – 9 p.m., National Presbyterian Church 4101 Nebraska Ave NW:

Repentance, Reconciliation, and Re-Formation: Re-commissioned after 20 Years. Sponsored by ChinaAid, God Bless China Foundation and Washington International Church

Sunday, June 7:

2:30 p.m., Newseum, Knight TV Studio, Level 3: 

Inside Media: Twenty Years After Tiananmen with special guests Bob Deans (Cox Newspapers) and Bernard Shaw (former CNN Anchor), who reported live from Tiananmen Square.  Sponsored by the Newseum. http://www.newseum.org/events_edu/upcoming/about.aspx?item=TIAN090514&style=a   

We look forward to seeing you at these events. If you have any questions please call Hans Hogrefe (Rep. McGovern) or Elizabeth Hoffman (Rep. Wolf) at 202-225-3599.

James P. McGovern, M.C.                         Frank R. Wolf, M.C.
Co-Chair, CHRC                                        Co-Chair, CHRC

The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, with co-sponsors, Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Uyghur American Association, and the Utah Valley University invite you to:

“Yusuf of Balasagun: 11th Century Political Philosopher from Present-day Kyrgyzstan”

Featuring Dr. S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, CACI, SAIS; Dr. Rusty Butler, Associate Vice-President, International Affairs and Diplomacy, Utah Valley University; three winners of a contest on Yusuf of Balasagun’s Kutadgu Bilig; and an Uyghur historian (TBA)

Wednesday, 10 June, 2009

5 to 7 PM

The Rome Auditorium, Rome Building

1619 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. 

Washington, DC 20036 

Yusuf Has Hajib of Balasagun (11th century ) was the first major writer in any Turkic language and the author of a classic guide for rulers, Kutadgu Bilig, which has just been republished by the Utah Valley University and the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. Yusuf, who lived at the time of the Karakhanid dynasty, resided at one if its capitals, Balasagun, on the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. His book is a compendium of early Turkic thinking about politics and society. It is written in a language most closely resembling modern Uyghur, but which resonates with all the Turkic languages today.

This Forum will present the new publication. Featured speakers will be Dr. S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, CACI,  and Dr. Rusty Butler, Associate Vice-President, International Affairs and  Diplomacy, Utah Valley University; additional,  brief remarks will be offered by three UVU undergraduates, winners of an essay contest on the subject of the Yusuf of Balasagun’s  book. An expert on Uyghur history (TBA) will also comment.

Light refreshments will be served at 5 PM.   The program will begin promptly at 5:30 PM and conclude at 7 PM sharp. Please send an RSVP with your name and affiliation, latest by 10 AM, June 10, to caci2@jhu.edu    For more information about the event, please call 202-663-7723.

The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute is the primary institution in the United States for the study of the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Caspian Region. The Institute, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, forms part of a Joint Center with the Silk Road Studies Program, affiliated with the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. Additional information about the Joint Center, as well as its several publications series, is available at www.silkroadstudies.org.

Monday February 23 at 7 pm
American University Ward Hall
(Ward 1 – T Floor)
Ward Circle, 4400 Massachusetts Ave.

Bus service from Redline: Tenleytown Metro stop.

The Uyghurs (Wee-gurs) are a Muslim ethnic group in western China persecuted by the Chinese government.

Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur Democracy Leader often called “Mother of the Uyghur People,” will discuss the situation of the Uyghur people in China and introduce you to DC’s thriving Uyghur community. Ms. Kadeer spent 6 years in prison for criticizing China’s human rights violations and has actively campaigned for the Uyghur people since arriving in the U.S.

The Uyghurs have been in the American news recently because there are 17 Uyghur prisoners at Guantanamo, all of whom they Bush Administration conceded were not “enemy combatants.” U.S. District Court Judge Urbina ordered them released in to the U.S. in October, 2008, but because the Bush Administration appealed this decision, they remain imprisoned. They cannot return to China, where they would be persecuted, and the Chinese government has pressured other countries not to accept them.

The 100 Days Campaign urges the Obama Administration to drop the Bush Administration’s appeal and allow the 17 Uyghurs to be released into the U.S. For more on their efforts,
see: http://100dayscampaign.org/uighurs

The Uyghur American Association (UAA), led by Ms. Kadeer, has been working for the release and resettlement of the Uyghur detainees. They are ready to open their homes to these men and work with refugee agencies to settle them here. UAA promotes the preservation and flourishing of Uyghur culture, and supports the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, democratic means to determine their own political future.

The event is sponsored by Witness Against Torture’s 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End Torture, and the American University chapter of Amnesty International.

Coalition for Human Rights in Asia:  Congressional Forum

Deteriorating Human Rights in Asia

Join the Members of the 111th Congress,
a panel of experts from Congress,  and NGOs of human rights and religious freedom,

and a panel of Asian leaders of concerned human rights or ethnic groups,

on the discussions of deteriorating human rights and freedom

in China, Vietnam, Burma, and other troubled regions in Asia and the world.

Location:  Room B-318, Rayburn House Office Building, US Congress

Date/Time:  Thursday, February 12, 2009, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Sponsors:  Honorable Representatives Thaddeus McCotter, Frank Wolf, Jim Moran, Loretta Sanchez, Dana Rohrabacher, Joseph Cao,       Lincoln Diaz-Balart

*** Forum Program ***

Welcoming Remarks: Dr. Quan Nguyen, On Behalf of The Coalition for Human Rights in Asia.

Opening Remarks: Honorable Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (TBC)

Members of Congress & VIP Guests, and VIP Recognition:  As they arrive. 

Panel – I: Experts Panel ( Government, U.S Congress and NGOs)

   Moderator: Dr. Binh Nguyen, President, The Non-Violent Movement for H.R. in Vietnam

Sophie Richardson, Director, H.R. Watch, DC; Topic: Current Situation on H.R. in Asia

Scott Flipes, Asia Sr. Analyst, US Commission for International Religious Freedom;   Topic: Issues of Religious Freedom in Asia

T. Kumar, Director, Amnesty International in USA; Topic: Obama’s Challenges on H.R. in Asia

David Young, Foreign Policy Advisor/Person Fellow Office of Congressman Jim Moran

Topic: Legislative and Executive Branch Actions to Support H.R. in Asia

 Panel – II: Asian delegations Panel:

   Moderator: Prof. Sen Nieh, Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners      

Burma: Mr. Aung Saw Oo, Chairman, National League for Democracy, USA Chapter

Mr. Jeremy Woodrum, Campaign Director, U.S. Campaign for Burma

China:    Mr.Wei Jingsheng , Prominent HR Activist; President, Wei Jingsheng Foundation

Dr. Dayong Li, Exe. Dir., Global Serv. Ctr. for Quitting Chinese Communist Party

Vietnam: Mr. Anh Hong Do, Chair, Vietnamese American Community in DC, MD, VA

Tibet:    Pema Chhinjor, Former Minister, The Tibet Government in Exile

Uyghur: Rebiya Kadeer, Alim Seytoff, Gen. Sec., Uyghur American Association

Special Recognition: Delegations from Sudan/Nubia, Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, Khmer Krom and Chairman Jun Wang of China Democracy Party World Union 

 Questions and Answers

Closing Remarks: Dr. Quan Nguyen, On Behalf of The Coalition for Human Rights in Asia

The East Asia Program
of the National Endowment for Democracy
invites you to a panel discussion on
            
Ethnicity with Chinese Characteristics?
The Chinese State and Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongol Identities
 
 
Featuring

Alim Seytoff, Director, Uyghur Human Rights Project
Rinchen Tashi, Deputy Director for Chinese Outreach, International Campaign for Tibet
Enhebatu Togochog, President, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
David (Dahai) Yu, Publisher, Beijing Spring

Moderated by
Dr. June Teufel Dreyer, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami
 
Friday, December 5, 2008 – 2:00 - 4:00 PM
NED Main Conference Room
1025 F St NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004
 
Please RSVP with name, affiliation, and e-mail address to amandaw@ned.org or call (202) 378-9685 by Wednesday, December 3.
The 2008 Olympic Games brought a burst of international media attention to rising ethnic tensions in China, focusing on the wave of Tibetan protests and subsequent crackdown, and Chinese security forces' violent clashes with alleged Uyghur terrorists. The dialogues between Beijing authorities and the representatives of the Dalai Lama seem to have reached a dead end. In this context, how should we understand the basic, long-term strategy behind China’s overall minority policies and their impact in practice? Economic marginalization, coercive cultural assimilation, and political repression add up to a discouraging environment for Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols in China. Concentrating on the question of identity from a generational perspective, our panelists will help us understand what it may mean to be Tibetan, Mongol or Uyghur in the future, if current policies continue, by addressing relevant questions such as: How do the restrictions, regulations, and policies on ethnic minorities enacted in the previous year relate to policies of the past? What is the impact of these policies and practices on minorities’ well-being? On their distinct identities? What options do ethnic minorities have in striving to create a political, social and cultural environment free of coercive restrictions?
 
About the speakers:
 
Alim Seytoff is General Secretary of the Uyghur American Association (UAA) and Director of its Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP).  Mr. Seytoff has been campaigning for the human rights and religious freedom of the Uyghur people since he came to the United States in 1996.  He has written many articles on the political situation in East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and briefed State Department officials.  Mr. Seytoff holds a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Xinjiang University, and another B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Southern Adventist University.  He holds an M.A. in Political Science from the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and a J.D. from Regent University School of Law.
 
Rinchen Tashi joined the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in 2001 and currently serves as the Deputy Director for Chinese Outreach.  Born and educated in Tibet, Mr. Tashi continued his studies in China and in the United States.  He is the editor of Liaowang Xizang, a leading journal in Chinese focusing on the Tibet issue, and also helps to staff ICT's website, including creating and managing the Chinese-language section. 
 
Enhebatu Togochog is the founder and president of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), a New York-based human rights organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of Mongolian people in China.  He was born and educated in Southern Mongolia (also known as Inner Mongolia) and holds a B.A. in Mongolian Linguistics & Literature from Inner Mongolia University.  He arrived in the United States in 1998 and was granted political asylum in 1999.  He also received a B.S. and M.A. in computer science from the City University of New York.
 
David (Dahai) Yu grew up in Tianjin and graduated from Beijing University.  As a college student, he took part in the competitive local elections of 1980.  He co-founded the Chinese Economists Society (USA) and served as its first president (1985-86). He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and taught at several U.S. colleges. He has been affiliated with Beijing Spring and its predecessor China Spring since 1989.  He visited the Tibetan community in Dharamsala, India, in 1999.
 
June Teufel Dreyer is a professor of political science at the University of Miami and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.  She received a Master’s in East Asian Studies, and a joint Ph.D. in Government and East Asian studies, from Harvard University.  Professor Dreyer has done field research in China, Taiwan, and Japan, and has served as Chief Far East Specialist for the Library of Congress and as Asia Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations.  She has published numerous books and articles on topics such as ethnic minorities in China, the Chinese military, and Asia-Pacific security.  She is the author of China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition, now in its sixth edition; China’s Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People’s Republic of China and the co-editor of Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region. She is now preparing a book on Sino-Japanese relations.