U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee hailed House passage of legislation calling on the Chinese government to end its brutal crackdown in Tibet (H Res 1077) and renewed his leadership efforts for greater U.S. action in response to long-term human rights abuses committed by the communist government of the People’s Republic of China. 

    “The effects of what the Chinese Government is doing will hang heavily in the Tibetan air for decades. Never, since 1959, has the Chinese Government’s tyranny over Tibet been as cruel and raw as it is right now. It should be noted and emphasized that the Tibetan people have not provoked the government into this newest wave of repression. It is the Chinese Government that has provoked the Tibetan people to protest, a protest that, perhaps because of the Buddhist emphasis on peace, has been overwhelmingly peaceful,” said Smith, who managed the floor debate for the Republicans and supported the resolution which was authored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

    “Despite the fact that there is an extensive news blackout, the grim consequences have gotten out,” said Smith, who noted that Chinese officials admit to nearly 2,000 arrests and the China Commission estimates that there are at least 1,000 more. Additionally, thousands of monks are under house arrest or lockdown and the death toll is now over 150. 

    “Beyond the murders, tortures and arrests, we don't have any idea how many more have been wounded, how many are right now lying, wounded or dying, in attics and cellars, because they know that if they go to the hospital, they will simply disappear into the Chinese Laogai,” said Smith. 

    With the Olympic Games set to begin in Beijing this summer, Smith, a longtime outspoken critic of the Chinese government’s human rights abuses expressed dismay over the decision allow China to host the Olympics. 

    “The IOC (International Olympic Committee) made a great mistake in allowing China to hold the Olympics. Who can forget when China was vying for the 2000 Olympics and they let Wei Jingsheng out. I met him in Beijing when he was let out, very briefly. As son as they didn’t get the Olympics, they rearrested him and beat him and tortured him. They finally let him out because he was close to death. But then the IOC awarded the Olympic venue to Beijing several years later. 

    “The Olympics shouldn't be held in a nation that cracks down on all kinds of political dissent and has a system of coercion where brothers and sisters are illegal as part of its one-child-per-couple policy, its forced abortion policy, and also a country that is responsible for killing so many Africans," said Smith. 

    H Res 1077 mirrors Smith’s own resolution (H Res 1075) which not only condemns the Chinese Government’s unwarranted violence against Tibetan protesters but takes it a step further by also condemning the Chinese Government’s use of Internet censorship and surveillance to control news of the protests. 

    Smith’s statement and resolution comes as 12 of the world’s leading human rights organizations including Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch publicly endorsed Smith’s Global Online Freedom Act (HR 275). 

    “We write in strong support of your legislation, HR 275, the Global Online Freedom Act of 2008. HR 275 is an important bill aimed at preventing repressive governments from enlisting US companies in their effort to transform the Internet into a tool of surveillance and repression,” the groups said in a letter of support to Smith. 

    The letter further singles out China’s Internet suppression stating, “In countries with repressive governments such as China, the Internet has given people unprecedented opportunities to communicate with each other and to lean about the outside world in ways that their governments forbid. But undemocratic government regimes are back, by making Internet and technology company’s allies in their repression. Chinese citizens using Google’s Chinese search engine now cannot even learn of the existence of information about human rights and democracy on the Internet, including that found on U.S. government supported websites such as the Voice of America.” 

    During his Floor speech in support of H Res 1077, Smith remarked, “The Global Online Freedom Act would finally give us a full and thorough accounting as to this complicity, whether it be witting or unwitting, on the part of these Internet companies, so that we are not part of this tyrannical regime that is now so brutally suppressing, murdering and torturing Tibetan people and putting so many monks into prison, rather than letting them be in their monasteries, where they want to practice their faith.”