CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS—NOV. 21, 1991 105 STAT. 2441 CHINA-HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Nov. 21 1991 [H. Con. Res. 216] Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China maintains up to 5,000 prison, labor reform, reeducation, and juvenile detention facilities holding a large number of political prisoners, including thousands of young men and women jailed after that government's June 1989 suppression of the prodemocracy movement in China; Whereas many Chinese prisoners are sent to Chinese prisons without any judicial hearing whatsoever and others are forced to stay on after their sentences expire; Whereas forced labor is an integral part of the Chinese prison system, and Chinese prisoners are forced to labor under extremely inhumane and dangerous conditions with little or no compensation for their work; Whereas the recent investigations by Harry Wu, a former Chinese political prisoner, and by independent human rights organizations such as Asia Watch, clearly demonstrate that Chinese prisons seek to export forced labor products to the United States, and have devised numerous methods to evade United States laws; Whereas numerous Chinese government publications explicitly describe the export of forced labor products, and encourage all Chinese prisons to sell their products on the international market; Whereas Chinese forced labor exports threaten American jobs in many sectors of the United States economy, including the shoe, toy, garment, handtool, and electronics industries; and Whereas China's $10,000,000,000 trade surplus with the United States in 1990 can be partly attributed to Chinese forced labor exports: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That (a) the Congress finds that the Government of the People's Republic of China— (1) systematically exploits the labor of prisoners in the Chinese gulag to produce cheap products for export; (2) detains many prisoners past the expiration of their sentences in violation of internationaly recognized human rights; and (3) holds many prisoners in conditions that fall below international standards for the treatment of prisoners. (b) The Congress— (1) urges the Government of the People's Republic of China to— (A) allow international inspections of places of detention that are suspected of producing export goods in order to ensure that such production does not take place; (B) release the texts of any government directives, regulations, or policies regarding the exportation of products made in Chinese prisons, other than the October 10, 1991, joint declaration by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the Chinese Ministry of Justice banning prison-made exports; (C) detail publicly the steps it will take to enforce the joint declaration of October 10, 1991, and any other policy
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