[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 326 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 326
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 6, 2004
Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the arbitrary detention of
Dr. Wang Bingzhang by the Government of the People's Republic of China
and urging his immediate release.
Whereas Dr. Wang Bingzhang is a permanent resident of the United States and his
sister and daughter are United States citizens;
Whereas Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. at McGill University in Canada in coronary-
arterial research and is a well-respected leader of the overseas Chinese
pro-democracy movement and the founder of China Spring magazine;
Whereas Dr. Wang is currently serving a life sentence in prison in the People's
Republic of China and is suffering from gastritis, varicose veins,
phlebitis, and depression;
Whereas Dr. Wang was abducted in northern Vietnam in June 2002 after meeting
with a Chinese labor activist;
Whereas Dr. Wang was driven to the border between Vietnam and the People's
Republic of China and forced back to China by boat;
Whereas Dr. Wang was blindfolded and bound and held in various places in Guangxi
Province and his captors demanded a $10,000,000 ransom, which Dr. Wang
was unable to pay;
Whereas Dr. Wang although provided his captors with the names and telephone
numbers of his relatives, they were never contacted;
Whereas Dr. Wang was finally taken to a Buddhist temple in Fangchenggang City in
southern Guangxi Province where his abductors unexpectedly left and
moments later he was ``rescued'' by the Chinese police;
Whereas Dr. Wang was detained by the Chinese police and then transported to
Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province;
Whereas Dr. Wang was held incommunicado for six months, during which time the
Government of the People's Republic of China denied any knowledge of his
whereabouts;
Whereas on December 4, 2002, the Chinese Government reversed itself, admitting
that Dr. Wang had been in its custody since July 3, 2002;
Whereas on December 5, 2002, Dr. Wang was charged with ``offenses of espionage''
and ``the conduct of terrorist activities'';
Whereas on January 22, 2003, Dr. Wang was tried by the Intermediate People's
Court in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province;
Whereas Dr. Wang's trial lasted only half a day and was closed to the public
because the Chinese Government indicated that ``state secrets'' might be
revealed, thereby precluding family members, supporters, and reporters
from attending;
Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang declared himself innocent of all charges;
Whereas at the trial, the Chinese Government refused to release any evidence of
Dr. Wang's wrongdoing;
Whereas at the trial, Dr. Wang was denied the right to due process, specifically
the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to adequate time
and facilities to prepare for his own defense, the right to a fair trial
before an independent and impartial tribunal, the right to call
witnesses on his own behalf, the right to cross-examine witnesses
testifying against him, and in general, the lack of other due process
guarantees that would ensure his adequate defense and a full hearing;
Whereas Dr. Wang's trial represented the first time the Chinese Government had
brought charges against a pro-democracy dissident under its new
terrorism laws;
Whereas although Dr. Wang was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on
February 10, 2003, Dr.Wang's lawyers stated that there was insufficient
evidence to convict him;
Whereas Dr. Wang's lawyers immediately appealed the court's verdict, but the
appeal was rejected on February 28, 2003;
Whereas a human rights petition was submitted on Dr. Wang's behalf to the United
Nations Arbitrary Working Group of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights;
Whereas the petition claimed that Dr. Wang was being arbitrarily detained and
that the judicial standards employed in his trial fell far short of
internationally recognized standards for judicial proceedings under
provisions of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group noted that Dr. Wang is
an internationally recognized pro-democracy activist as opposed to the
Chinese Government's characterization of Dr. Wang as an individual who
advocates violence and suggests the use of methods such as kidnapping
and bombings to achieve his goals, and that Dr. Wang had boasted of
carrying out many violent terrorist activities;
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group further noted that the
Chinese Government offered ``no evidence of any specific occasion on
which Wang made the alleged calls to violence'' and that ``[o]ther than
the kidnapping of which Wang himself was a victim, as the Government
itself acknowledges, no information has been given about other
kidnappings or acts of violence initiated by Wang'';
Whereas in its opinion, the United Nations Working Group further stated that
``Wang, during his first five months in detention, did not have
knowledge of the charges, the right to legal counsel, or the right to
judicial review of the arrest and detention; and that, after that date,
he did not benefit from the right to the presumption of innocence, the
right to adequate time and facilities for defense, the right to a fair
trial before an independent and impartial tribunal, the right to a
speedy trial and the right to cross-examine witnesses'';
Whereas in conclusion, the United Nations Working Group declared that ``the
detention of Wang Bingzhang is arbitrary, being in contravention of
articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' and
requested ``the [Chinese] Government to take the necessary steps to
remedy the situation of Wang Bingzhang and bring it into conformity with
the standards and principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights'';
Whereas the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China made the
following recommendation in its 2003 annual report: ``The President and
the Congress should increase diplomatic efforts to hold the Chinese
government to [its commitments on human rights matters during the
December 2002 U.S.-China human rights dialogue], particularly the
release of those arbitrarily detained'';
Whereas the report also stated the following: ``The Chinese [G]overnment has
also taken advantage of the global war on terrorism to persecute . . .
political dissidents. In February 2003, Wang Bingzhang, a U.S. permanent
resident and veteran pro-democracy activist, was convicted of `leading a
terrorism organization' and `spying' and sentenced to life
imprisonment''; and
Whereas the report finally noted that ``[i]n July 2003, the UN Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention declared that Wang's arrest and imprisonment
violated international law'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That it is the sense of Congress that--
(1) Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a permanent resident of the United
States, is being arbitrarily detained in the People's Republic
of China in violation of international law;
(2) the United States Government should request the
Government of the People's Republic of China to release Dr.
Wang, permitting him to immediately return to the United
States; and
(3) the President should make the immediate release of Dr.
Wang by the Government of the People's Republic of China a top
priority of United States foreign policy.
Passed the House of Representatives May 6, 2004.
Attest:
JEFF TRANDAHL,
Clerk.