Over the past year, the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China has deteriorated badly. Perhaps the most egregious example of the PRC government's contempt for the rights of its own citizens has been the unrelenting campaign of repression against practitioners and defenders of Falun Gong. All of us who cherish fundamental rights of conscience must denounce the Beijing regime's stated intent to "smash" Falun Gong.

According to international news media reports, at least 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and detained, more than 5,000 have been sentenced to labor camps without trial, 400 have been incarcerated in psychiatric facilities, and over 500 have received prison sentences in cursory show trials. Detainees are often tortured and at least 33 practitioners have died in government custody. I was sickened by the recent Wall Street Journal account of the death of Chen Zixiu, a 58-year-old retired autoworker from Weifang, China. Ms. Chen was killed by torture at the hands of government officers after she refused to renounce her faith in Falun Dafa.

Practitioners like Ms. Chen suffer this kind of extreme mistreatment simply for peacefully exercising their beliefs, a right recognized by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and guaranteed by China's own Constitution. It is particularly disturbing that Chinese officials have publicly defended these atrocities on the spurious ground that Falun Gong is a "cult" that is allegedly destabilizing the country. In the past, Beijing has made similar statements about Christian "house churches" that refuse to submit to government oversight and direction. Indeed, Communist officials in China and elsewhere have recently begun defending their persecution of peaceful political and religious dissidents of all persuasions on the ground that these people are common criminals and that their detention and imprisonment is simply a manifestation of the "rule of law." Too often, international interlocutors attempting to "engage" Beijing have responded to these outrageous assertions with silence or equivocation rather than with the forceful condemnation they deserve.

As Rabbi David Saperstein, the immediate past Chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, has stated: "Falun Gong has almost become the symbol for the struggle for religious freedom. And when thousands and thousands of people have been arrested . . . , imprisoned . . . , tortured, when people have died in prison, it is impossible for countries to say they are deeply committed to human rights and remain silent. And that is why we have urged the United States government to speak out."

I and my colleagues will continue to speak out on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics loyal to the Pope, Protestant "house church" members, and other Chinese people of faith who are under siege by the Beijing regime. I was proud to introduce House Concurrent Resolution 218 earlier this Congress, expressing the sense of Congress that the Chinese government should stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. That bill was passed unanimously by the House on November 18 of last year. Last week, I sent a letter to President Clinton -- cosigned by over 80 of my colleagues, from both sides of the aisle -- urging him to personally condemn the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the strongest possible terms, and to urge President Jiang Zemin to release all practitioners currently being held in jails and mental institutions. I will continue to use my position as Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights to bring light and scrutiny to this issue. I have invited Dr. Jimmy Zou, a Falun Gong practitioner and former detainee in China, to testify at our hearing this Thursday afternoon on "The State Department Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2000."

The human rights situation in China is bleak and deteriorating, but I hope and pray for positive change. The Beijing regime must understand that it is not Falun Gong or political and religious dissidents who are destabilizing China, but rather the Chinese Government's brutal reaction against its own citizens.