WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on democracy, human rights, and global women’s issues, have written to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in advance of President Trump’s meetings this week with Chinese President Xi. The senators urge Secretary Tillerson to “make human rights a top priority, both publicly and privately” in the discussions.
They also urged China to do more to improve the cultural and spiritual plight of Tibetans, not just their economic status. “The continued anguish of the Tibetan people and especially the series of self-immolations by young Tibetans are deeply distressing,” they wrote.
The letter further notes “The crack down on civil society and deterioration of rule of law in China in the past few years appears to signal a systematic effort by Chinese Communist Party leadership to tighten its controls on free expression and undermine the will of its own people, including the rights of its ethnic minorities guaranteed under China’s own Constitution,” Cardin and Rubio wrote. “[T]he United States should not simply stand idly by as these universal rights are abrogated and the Chinese people suffer the consequences. A failure of U.S. leadership on these issues is not a good message for the United States to send to China, our allies in the region, and the world.”
“As you know, the past several years have seen an alarming crack down on civil society and lack of respect for the rule of law in China, including documented cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of human rights lawyers and defenders. The State Department’s 2016 Human Rights Report on China finds that “repression and coercion of organizations and individuals involved in civil and political rights advocacy as well as in public interest and ethnic minority issues remained severe.” As such, we urge that you raise the human rights cases of Xie Yang, Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang, Li Chunfu, Wu Gan, and Jiang Tianyong in your meeting with President Xi, all of which and hundreds others are featured in the Political Prisoner Database maintained by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. We also request that you raise the cases of Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who remains imprisoned for peacefully calling for change in China, and his wife Liu Xia, who is under de facto house arrest. These cases remain a black mark on China’s record.”
“We were surprised and disappointed to learn the United States had declined to join the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and other nations on a letter urging China to investigate torture claims against lawyer Xie Yang and others, and raising serious concerns about human rights in China. The United States should never be silent or absent when universal values are in question. When we shy away from supporting human rights issues in China, we betray our own interests and values. While China remains a highly repressive state, many of China’s democracy activists and human rights defenders have repeatedly told us that U.S.-led support for their cause has made a substantial impact on conditions on the ground.”
“The crack down on civil society and deterioration of rule of law in China in the past few years appears to signal a systematic effort by Chinese Communist Party leadership to tighten its controls on free expression and undermine the will of its own people, including the rights of its ethnic minorities guaranteed under China’s own Constitution. We hope you will urge China to do more to improve the cultural and spiritual plight of Tibetans, not just their economic status. The continued anguish of the Tibetan people and especially the series of self-immolations by young Tibetans are deeply distressing.”
