THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS: EXAMINING THE SIGNIFI- CANCE OF THE 1989 DEMONSTRATIONS IN CHINA AND IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY HEARING BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JUNE 4, 2009 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 51–191 PDF WASHINGTON : 2009 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:52 Nov 03, 2009 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 U:\DOCS\51191.TXT DEIDRE VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:52 Nov 03, 2009 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 U:\DOCS\51191.TXT DEIDRE CO N T E N T S Page Opening statement of Hon. Byron Dorgan, Chairman, Congressional-Execu- tive Commission on China ................................................................................... 1 Walz, Hon. Tim, a U.S. Representative from Minnesota, Member, Congres- sional-Executive Commission on China ............................................................. 3 Barrasso, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Member, Congressional- Executive Commission on China ........................................................................ 4 Smith, Hon. Christopher H., a U.S. Representative from New Jersey, Ranking Member, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................................ 4 Pitts, Hon. Joseph R., a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania, Member, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................................................ 6 Wu, Hon. David, a U.S. Representative from Oregon, Member, Congressional- Executive Commission on China ........................................................................ 7 Lord, Hon. Winston, U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, 1985–1989 ............................................................................................................. 8 Levin, Hon. Sander, a U.S. Representative from Michigan, Cochairman, Con- gressional-Executive Commission on China ...................................................... 10 Link, Perry, Chancellorial Chair for Teaching Across Disciplines, University of California-Riverside, and Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies, Princeton University ............................................................................................ 11 Shirk, Susan, Director, University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Ho Miu Lam Professor of China and Pacific Affairs, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of Cali- fornia-San Diego, and Arthur Ross Fellow, Asia Society Center on U.S.- China Relations .................................................................................................... 13 Yang, Jianli, Tiananmen protest participant; President, Initiatives for China; Fellow, Harvard University Committee on Human Rights .............................. 15 Kaptur, Hon. Marcy, a U.S. Representative from Ohio, Member, Congres- sional-Executive Commission on China ............................................................. 23 APPENDIX PREPARED STATEMENTS Lord, Winston ........................................................................................................... 32 Link, Perry ............................................................................................................... 33 Shirk, Susan ............................................................................................................. 35 Yang, Jianli .............................................................................................................. 39 Dorgan, Hon. Byron ................................................................................................. 44 Levin, Hon. Sander .................................................................................................. 45 Smith, Hon. Christopher ......................................................................................... 46 SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD Tiananmen Prisoners—Representative Cases of Persons Currently Imprisoned or Detained Who Are Connected to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, submitted by Senator Byron Dorgan .................................................................. 48 China’s Charter 08, translated from Chinese by Perry Link, submitted by Perry Link ............................................................................................................. 50 Prepared Statement of John Kamm, Executive Director, The Dui Hua Foun- dation .................................................................................................................... 54 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:52 Nov 03, 2009 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 U:\DOCS\51191.TXT DEIDRE VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:52 Nov 03, 2009 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 U:\DOCS\51191.TXT DEIDRE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS: EXAMINING THE SIG- NIFICANCE OF THE 1989 DEMONSTRATIONS IN CHINA AND IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. POL- ICY THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA, Washington, DC. The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 10:33 a.m., in room 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman, presiding. Also present: Representative Sander Levin, Cochairman; Rep- resentatives Tim Walz, Christopher Smith, David Wu, Marcy Kap- tur, and Joseph Pitts; and Senator John Barrasso. Also present: Charlotte Oldham-Moore, Staff Director, Congres- sional-Executive Commission on China and Douglas Grob, Cochair- man’s Senior Staff Member. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON DORGAN, A U.S. SEN- ATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA, CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL- EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA Chairman DORGAN. We’re going to begin the hearing today. This is the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s first hearing in the 111th Congress. We have a distinguished group of witnesses before us today and they will help us examine the significance of the tragic events that occurred in 1989 in China. They will also help us explore the impli- cations of the 1989 Democracy Movement on U.S. policy toward China today. We are honored to have a number of Tiananmen student leaders and others who participated in those demonstrations with us in the hearing room today. I want to welcome one person in particular, Mr. Fang Zheng. I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Fang Zheng, I believe, the day before yesterday over in the Capitol. Mr. Fang was an athlete at the Beijing College of Sports. On June 4, 1989, he participated in the protests in Tiananmen Square. Tragically, his legs were crushed under a tank during that dem- onstration. He later was expelled from school because he refused to publicly deny the source of his injury. Mr. Fang later went on to become China’s wheelchair discus and javelin champion. Earlier this year he moved to the United States with his family. We wel- come Mr. Fang for being with us today. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:52 Nov 03, 2009 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\51191.TXT DEIDRE 2 Twenty years ago, peaceful protesters like Mr. Fang gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, calling for the elimination of corrup- tion and for political reforms. They asked for the right to speak freely and for other freedoms that we now take for granted in this country. Those protesters included not only students, but govern- ment employees, journalists, workers, in some cases the police, and even members of China’s armed forces. Chinese authorities repeatedly tried to persuade the protesters to leave Tiananmen Square, but they refused. Thousands of armed troops carrying automatic weapons in large truck convoys moved in to clear the square and the surrounding streets of demonstrators. Then soldiers and columns of tanks fired directly at citizens and into the crowds, inflicting a very high civilian casualty rate. Twenty years later, the exact number of dead and wounded re- mains unclear. The wounded are estimated to have numbered in the thousands. Detentions at the time were also in the thousands, and some political prisoners who were sentenced in connection with the events surrounding June 4 still sit in Chinese prisons today. I ask to be included in the hearing record a representative list of Tiananmen Square prisoners who remain in jail today. This list was developed from the Commission’s Political Prisoner Database, which is the largest publicly accessible database of China’s political prisoners. Relatives and friends have a right to mourn their sons, their daughters, their colleagues, and their friends publicly, and they have a right to call, even now, for a full and public accounting of the wounded and the dead. They have a right to call for the release of those who remain in prison. But for attempting to exercise these rights, relatives and friends of those killed in 1989 have instead faced harassment, they have faced arrest, suffered many abuses, and today we express our sympathy with their cause. Most of all, we honor the memory of those whom they loved whose lives were lost. Chinese authorities frequently tell us today that the Chinese peo- ple enjoy greater freedom to express themselves. At the same time, they repeatedly show the world how the government silences some who work for fundamental rights for all the