>> i'm not going to read that the 25,000 word series. they told me i could, but i want to thank the team that helped me put this together. the first is david, the editor of slate. he forces each of us to do, to take a month out of the year to write about something other than our day-to-day journalism.

forces us to think in different ways and more expansive way. that is a dream for any journalist to do once in a lifetime. he forces us to do it once a year which is a joy. my two editors, michael and will, or here. michael helped me start this project. will wrestled it to the ground and made it a lot clearer than when it arrived in his computer. they are both great listeners, great thinkers but they also happen to them trimming pacing in office and speaking from out on the road when i was out there for cbs, and slate which i think makes him, laws psychiatrist. and then finally the women in my life, my mother, the late nancy dickerson. a lot of these questions come from the work that she did, she did it smarter and in high heels. and then my wife. the editors get to go home at night. but she has to deal with the low-level kind of madness that

these kind of series produce where you have to go and get extended monologue and talk about the presidency and not whatever seems to be happening in the house. so she didn't lock me out as the former president got locked up, and i appreciate that, so thank you, dear. [applause] >> thank you. bed at such a love affair with newspaper business, in particular. and i remember as a kid growing up every morning he would start with a stack of five newspapers. he would have big national papers and "new york times" and the "l.a. times" and stuff but he always finished with his local hometown papers, grand rapids press. and i would ask them. i said dad, you start becoming to go back down to the local paper. i asked them why. he said well, the local paper would always tell me if all

those big federal programs that got pushed through ever made back to my hometown. and the red like that until his dying day you tediously picking up a newspaper every morning. it is my on her now to give out the award, the general -- gerald r. ford testing was reported on national defense. and in 2012 it is hal bernton. let me read to you what the judges wrote here. the judges were pleased to select hal bernton from the "seattle times" for the 20 to gerald r. ford award for distinguished reporting on national defense. his insightful series on the u.s. army, army's review of reverse diagnosis of soldiers with post-traumatic stress syndrome, ptsd uncovered a multifaceted complex issue regarding the many challenges that both medical professionals

and soldiers face in dealing with the aftereffects of combat. although there's been a lot written about ptsd over the last several years, this series uncovered a largely hidden issue. the man and which diagnosis were handled that resulted in real world effects on military personnel, their families, and the organizations designed to serve them, and society at large. mr. bernton's writings approach is refreshing and is returned to traditional hard-nosed news reporting of complex issues coupled with the general enterprise journalism that personalizes the human impact of military actions in afghanistan. the stories were broadly sourced with verified data, and written with brevity and clarity. but this was just not a set of in theater stories.

mr. bernton also placed the spotlight on issues of local importance at lewis-mcchord as well as addressing the national reverberation that such decisions have as american veterans transition into military retirement. his stories about the problems of tracking hidden improvised explosive devices in afghanistan showed his skill at finding a new, unique, and human angle on a widely reported topic. as a decade of war now winds down with millions of veterans returning home from service in afghanistan and iraq, the issue of ptsd and how the army and other organizations address this rolling implications would be felt for years to come. mr. bernton's distinguished work will help the american people

and leaders and politicians better understand how truly complex and difficult ptsd diagnosis really is, and the impact it exerts on the lives of soldiers and their families. mr. bernton's contribution to the discussion stood out among the many, many excellent submissions and in an opinion of the judges best captured the spirit of the gerald r. ford awards. [applause]

>> i started realize a lot of my reporting that a lot of the wounds of war sometimes we think if we just get the right diagnosis or the right treatment, the right care, everything will be all right. and i guess one of the things i'm learning as i go on and the wars go on, no matter what happens, things are not all right for some folks. i also wanted to just note that i got this award that gerald ford, president ford had a big impact on my life when i was just out of college. i headed west and i was basically in eastern washington, thinking i could get a job, but president ford had what he called the job opportunity program and there was a sign up

at the employment trailer saying, we need people to build trails in the north cascades national park. so i took the job. i was able to get the job. i had a great time, watched the whole fall come over the cascades. i went back east for a few years i really just did not want to stay east after that. so i went back west and i've been there really ever since my whole career has been in the northwest and alaska. it's been really an amazing thing. and i just wanted to end by thanking really my editors, my newspaper. it is certainly, like a lot of newspapers, regional newspapers, taken a lot of hits, a lot of layoffs, but remains a very strong, a very vibrant place i think to do good work. my editors, dave and jim, supported me over and over again when i wanted to go off to afghanistan or basically not

necessarily stick close to home to report stories and really supported me. i really appreciate that. and want to say again that times really endure the really great regional newspaper. lastly, just would to thank my wife and family and my parents here who have been very supportive of me over these years. and thanks so much. [applause] >> thank you. it is now my honor to introduce congressman fred upton, who is now the proud university of michigan grad, like my father. and fred was first elected to congress in 1987 and represents michigan's sixth congressional district, which is part of my dad's old district that he represented in southwest

michigan for close to 25 years, 13 terms. in 2010, congressman upton was selected by his house colleagues to serve as chairman of the committee on energy and commerce, which has jurisdiction over matters concerning energy, health care, environment, telecommunications, congress, manufacturing, trade and investigation. prior to his election to congress in 1987, congressman upton work for president ronald reagan in the office of management and budget. and i can tell you from our family we are very pleased that in march of 2011, congressman upton sponsored the house resolution which allowed the placement of a statue honoring my dad in the capitol rotunda. the resolution was cosponsored by all 14 members of the

michigan congressional delegation, and passed unanimously, bipartisan support. so it's my privilege to ask fred upton to say a few words about my dad's centennial year. [applause] >> you know, as steve said, i'm from southwest michigan so if you're from michigan, hold up your hand so here's where you are. [laughter] i do represent some the same constituents the former president ford represented when he was the republican leader in the house. in fact, i can remember a town meeting in a little bait and tackle shop one saturday morning where i had i think about eight people show up. the proprietor of the shop took

me inside, and yet a black and white picture, and there was jerry ford as a congressman and yet hole, he had like 80-100 boy scouts that at a campfire in the middle and they're all circled around him as he was holding court and talking about what it was like to be in the congress. jerry ford was a boy scout. that is for sure, and i was a scout, too, not an eagle. as you hold up your hand and recite what a scout does, the scout law, all those applied to him. and if you go to that wonderful library in grand rapids where i was, passed by it on friday, you will see that so much of there is really tied discounting from all around the country. and you know, our country needed him right, at the right time. watergate and the antiwar,

pickets and trouble that we had, all of the double-digit unemployment, double-digit inflation. so many double-digit interest rates. they all were really a tough time for the country, and he provided the steady hand and trust. and he really did restore the country to where we needed to go. because we were torn apart, and he was the right guy at the right time. so not only did he put the country ahead of his own personal politics, costing him by all estimates the 1976 presidential election, he started the healing that our country so needed. and for me, i got to know him a little bit. i drove my boss, then a freshman

congressman, to the white house on the last day he was president of the united states, the last full day, genuine 19th, 1977. dash in january 19, 1977. i had a number of conversations with him, on trade, on defense to back them with cell phones that were as big as your shoe, and i would pull off on the road when he would call me. we talked about our favorite sports teams, whether it be schemes are certain the michigan wolverines. this last friday i spent the weekend with john dingell who, this week, will serve as the longest serving member of congress in our history, a record that i think will never fall. if you know john dingell, you know any historian, i'm sure that he will be on everyone's top 10 list as one of the most, one of the greatest members that ever served in the united states

congress. and i asked john about his friend, jerry ford, and he said he was the most honest, decent guy you'll ever meet. he brought that respect not onto the republican leadership in the house, but obviously to the presidency at a time where we needed it most. and when you think about it, jerry ford in the 10 month stand went from a member of congress to the vice president to the oval office as president of the united states. our country certainly benefited from his unquestioned leadership. frankly, from both him and his great wife, betty. there were a couple that because of the steady hands and faith help stabilize a country that was so desperately needing the skills and human touch to get out of the crisis that really

threatens our 200th birthday. remember, 1976 was a 200th anniversary of our country, and it stretched the fabric to no end. he and betty were both public servants from start to finish, pure and simple. and he left a wonderful mark on washington, to the love and joy of so many people around the country. i'm delighted to know the ford family a little bit, and i'll tell you, there's not a time that i strolled through the capital that it don't give him a big smile and a big salute, because it is really a marvelous statue, if you have them into the rotunda of the congress. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, chairman upton. moving onto our second speaker today. how many people do you know who afford for presidents ford,

nixon, reagan and clinton? anthere may be only one, our gut today, mr. david gergen. with experience in for administration on both sides of the out, it's no wonder his political commentary is highly sought after. in addition to serving as senior political analyst for cnn, mr. gergen is a professor of public service and director of the center for public leadership at the harvard kennedy school. starting with the macneil/lehrer "newshour" in 1984, mr. gergen has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 28 years in the late 1980s he was chief editor of u.s. news and world report, a native of north carolina, mr. gergen is a member of the d.c. bar, a veteran of the u.s. navy, and a member of the council on foreign relations. please join me in giving a warm national press club welcome to david gergen. [applause]

>> hello. it's good to see all of you here. it's wonderful to be with fred upton. i know why we have such a big crowd here today to the word got out that fred was going to bring his niece. [laughter] she's not here but the rest of us have each other's company. she's now of age, isn't she? [laughter] make sure dickerson knows that. i also want to congratulate john dickerson and halliburton for their award this year, -- to bernton. jerry ford may seem like part of a distant past, let me just say this luncheon emphasizes how relevant his presidency and he personally remain today. i was in the nixon administration and i remember what it's like to have a war on the press. i remember the wiretaps and the

way so many, they used to tell us, graham is wrong. this is a conspiracy by the left to bring us down. i knew bob woodward. we went back to school together way back when and i had to agonize through some conversations on some evenings about what was going on, how the builders of the government seemed to be shaking and might come down. so much of that originate in sort of the tensions, the hatred, the animosity, the paranoia if one may call it that towards the press. and one of the reasons that jerry ford was important was he called off at war. because he did have a very different view what democracy is about. and understood, of course when government there are times when you're angry about the leak. of course, some these leaks

endangered nashe security, but if you look at the balance, the need for the government to have secrecy versus the imperatives of the first amendment and having a free society, that balance is often struck in the wrong place. we were going through a period now in which it appears to many of us at the balance has been struck in the wrong place. and we have to first stand up and say wait a minute, the press is of morton. we all live better off when we have a watchdog and the press. we do need watchdog. we don't need rottweilers, you know? [laughter] and they can go too far but we need watchdogs. all of our freedoms are protected when we have the. and president ford understood that. and brought in, right in the beginning, they had a falling out over the party. and then what did you?

came in from television land. he turned to david, a photographer for "time" magazine but who understood the ways of the press. joined in and the white house to make imagine what it is more trusted advisors because not only did issue a good sense of humor, but ford had a decent and strong core to it. the president valued his advice. one of the previous winners of this award. tommy, i chairman of the exact history but we kept trying to him, would you coming out of the press and work in the ministrations? we would love to have the. here he sits for time but has remained a pillar of the free press for a long, long time. and i think the fact that president for surrounded himself with people who came out of the press, and they didn't always agree with both heads and sometimes, you know, there were times when it was extreme and comfortable as when the morley

safer indicated betty ford, and betty ford in her usual frank, candid and wonderful way said we have an 18 year old daughter. would i be alarmed if she had an affair? know i wouldn't. and president ford was sitting there watching it on "60 minutes" and he said, i think they told it would cost 10 million votes. he said no, 21. but nontheless, understood that even in the most uncomfortable moments, a vigilant press is extraordinarily important in success of the republic. and when there are leaks, it's totally a vertical after who the leakers are, but to think that we might start criminalizing reporters for asking tough questions as was seen in its recent affidavit that was filed, a goes way beyond where the ballots ought to be struck. so this is an important moment that we renew in the national

press club what, what makes our society work, what goes into a democratic society that makes the vibrant and whole? as i can tell you, i've been in government. i know what the temptation is to lie. i know how overwhelming that temptation is. as someone who sometimes spoke to the press over half of the ministrations i was lied to you at times. the temptation is powerful, but the fact that you know there are people out there who are going to hold you accountable is what gets governments to tell the truth. that is a good thing. that is a good thing. [applause] so it's appropriate that we remember jerry ford. for his presidency was the shortest in the 20th century. the shortest in the 20th century. and many fields it was a result of, that's exactly wrong. it is true that jerry ford started out with some stumbles. he wasn't prepared to be president but who could have

imagined that? he never aspired to present a key wanted to be speaker of the house but when he realized he wasn't going to get there he told his wife, i'm going to retire. in 1976. i won't run again. and then lightning struck in these golden, and he did the best he could. there were some early stumbles but if you look at the overall record and have strengthened, how he gathered himself together, how he began to understand the job and want even if, he was a person who understood that if you going to be a strong and effective leader, always go out and find people who are better that -- better at than your at what they do. you'll have a much, much better team. if you look back to what president ford did overpressure praided time, he hired eight out of the 11 new cabinet officers, he replaced eight of the cabinet officers and replace in every case, put in a perfect person to one of them is here today. carla hills. answer my judgment, from my

perspective, afford cabinet wound up to be the finest had no we've seen in modern times. didn't last long but if you look pound-for-pound, people like ed leavy was over justice, i thought rumsfeld it turned the job at the defense in those days. kissinger at state. he had a very, go down to the list, he had jim lynn who was in that group, it was a very fine group of people. overtime to accomplish a lot of things. he did help and the war, which is really important for america. but just as importantly, he pursued the helsinki accord. he pursued a new relationship with the soviet union which put us on a better path and helped to hasten the end of the cold war. he also had a very sensible approach to budget hearing. he was a guy who believe you cut taxes by doll you ought to cut spending by a dollar. and did have a heavy growth way, you can cut taxes some more. that it was one for one. and i always thought that was the right idea.

that was not very popular indeed administration i worked in, the reagan administration, but i was thought the ford approach made a lot of sense. but most of all he brought healing to the country. a sense of integrity returning to the white house, that he was a square shooter. and that made a great deal of difference to americans because it wasn't just watergate that it brought confidence in government crushing them. it was a whole series of things stretching back to vietnam, all the line that went on. sending kids to their deaths for no particular good purpose. lying about what was happening. watergate came along. the government, there was a sense in the late '70s that made we can no longer govern ourselves. and maybe we need a constitutional amendment. maybe we need reform this and make it more like a parliamentary system. and jerry ford helped put things are right. it took wadia fully back on path but help put things right and that was an enormous

accomplishment. the truth is that as result of that he had such a strong pull, he started coming back to washington on his birthdays in june. and this marks another one of those birthdays, and he had a reunion every year of all votes who worked for them. that was a wonderful gallantry and annual gathering that brought people together who hadn't seen each other for a while, but were proud that the worked for him, and shared that pride. and this is another one. i happened to be just one of the representatives of the alumni group speaking to you today. and it was a sense, if i may borrow a phrase from george w. bush, that president ford was always ms. underestimated. [laughter] -- ms. underestimated. and, frankly, i must tell you that we on the staff i think ms. underestimate. i have experienced a few months

after less off the of receiving a call from his office in the afternoon. saying that the president has got the speech draft, a speech he spoke to get into or three days. he would like you to read it. can he call you at home to after that a chance to read? i century. so they faxed it to me. i read the speech. it was a gorgeous speak to very complex, rich, interesting, a lot of theoretical point, a lot of words, three, four syllable words. it was a just, one of these speeches that just saying and do so thoughtful and interesting. but it wasn't at all the way he spoke but it wasn't at all the way we wrote speeches for him. there was this fear in the white house staff, if you give them a complex speech, he will stumble over the words, he won't understand, it will begin. and, therefore, you to give them the sort of see spot run sort of speech. so i read the speech and i thought what he wants to do is put in his style, he once paid to turn into the what he

normally speaks. so he called me that night, and he was drawing on his pipe, and he said well, did you get the speech? yes, sir. did you read it? yes, sir. it's a gorgeous speech, but do you want me to work on it a work on it a little bit, put it more in your style? and i could hear him start to chuckle a little bit. i said mr. president, i'm not sure this issue. then i heard him chuckle samore. he said let me say something. this is the first time i've had a pool of silence in which i could write my own speech. and i wanted to try it on that when. and i realized this man was capable of giving far better speeches than that crap we gave him a. [laughter] you know? i'm serious. and it was embarrassing to think, why didn't we understand? and i think now in the rearview mirror of history we have started to understand but i think he looked better and better as president, as a human being. he was a midwestern.

the last of the reunions are remember, it was his 90th birthday, george w. bush is in the white house and very generously gave a dinner for him in the white house, and he and betty with a bit and at dinner, president ford said when he got up to speak on he said when i was young, my mother taught me three basic rules. and they have served me well all my life, even here in washington. work hard, tell the truth, and come together on time. i thought, that's so forward. that just so captures who he is. now, i don't want to spend much more time, fred and i will take a few questions, john interested in jumping, that would be great. but if you want and with this. for many, many years people after george washington served asked what would george washington do in these circumstances? and then that faded a little bit and then answer many, many years

after what would abraham lincoln have done under the circumstances? historian david herbert donald said there's a long time in american presidency people told each other get right with aid. tried to make sure you can form the way you behave, the way you lead him and the moral standards you set to lincoln. .. >> i think he would stand up and say, don't got defense. you may think you're in a period

of peace, figure out what your strategy is, and make sure you fund it. don't make it a play thing in terms of the budgetary wars. i don't think there's any question that he would say you've got to get spending and taxes under better control and more discipline. this is irresponsible to keep going the way we are. but i think he would argue we have got to get back to a way of governing, is and with people could work across the aisles. and with respect, with understanding, of the kind that john dingell had toward jerry ford, of the kind that tip o'neill -- many of us that worked for reagan are proud of the tip/reagan relationship. you go back and read tip o'neill's memoirs, and what you find is he loved gerry ford. he could always count on him, and i'll just close with this one story. jim cannon has left us a new book on gerry ford, "an

honorable life." in an earlier book, he told this story which i always found so interesting. and that is when richard nixon was president and spiro ago knew resigned in disgrace, nixon needed a new vice president. he wanted john connolly. john connolly of texas had just recently converted to republican. but he had to get him through the senate, so he called the leadership of the house and senate, two democrats; senator mike mansfield, bless him, a wonderful man. mike mansfield had all the glories and the honors in the world, but when he died, he asked to be buried in the enlisted plot up here in the national cemetery. that's the kind of person he was. and carl albert was the other. he was the speaker of the house. and president nixon called them both in and said, gentlemen, we have to figure out who the vice president was.

everybody in the room knew there was a better than 50/50 chance nixon wasn't going to survive, and they were selecting the next president of the united states. so nixon said i'd hike to put john -- i'd like to put john connolly in, and they said, mr. president, please do not do that. he is slippery, we don't trust him, he's not a man of his word. and he said, well, who would you like? both of them said, both of them volunteered and said, please, put gerald ford in the presidency. we can work across the aisle, and we will have a better country with gerry ford there. the congress, the democrats made gerry ford president, and i think that's a remarkable tribute to him and why we continue to celebrate him today. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mr. ger again. i will invite both you and chairman upton to join me up

here, and we have a number of questions, some of you posed to one of you specifically, and some to both or either. we'll start with the most common theme which you addressed in your remarks, mr. gergen, and can that's bipartisanship or lack thereof. why has congress become so polarized? why isn't there as much compromise, this questioner asks, and what do you see as the biggest roadblock within congress for legislation getting done? this one -- we'll start with you, mr. upton. >> can i go first? >> please. >> well, thanks. let me just say when i was elected pack in '87 -- back in '87, we had a member of our leadership team, lynn martin, i think she was the secretary of the republican conference. so she addressed the new freshmen, and she said, folks, we're republicans, we're in the minority, so two things happen. if you've got a good bill, it's either going to be defeated, or

it's going to get stolen. you have no -- that's just the way things go. so for me, i decided that i on virtually every piece of legislation i would seek out a democratic sponsor, and we would try to work to get things done. so one of my very first bills, i'm going to get to your question here in a second. one of my very first bills was to get -- [inaudible] a freshman colleague of mine, represented the inner city of baltimore, me mother-in-law, frankly. and we passed a bill that provided a tax credit for small businesses that had to make structural changes to comply with the americans with disabilities act. we got the black caucus, we got just about all the republicans, rostenkowski grabbed me and caid, hey, i think we're going to move your bill. and we did. and he came back to me and said, fred, you've ruined my reputation. this is now hailed as the most important piece of legislation

impacting small wiz. the chamber's given great kudos. i was a zero, and now i am bigtime in my scores. what have you done for my reputation? but we've got to work together. and for me, i'm a relatively new chairman. i changed one of the rules in our markups. we take up bipartisan amendments first, they go ahead of the queue. and i've told the are palins and democracy -- republicans and democrats we're going to see if we can get things done. this afternoon we're going to take up legislation regarding the pharmaceutical industry. john dingell was one of my best supporters. we intend to have it passed by a voice vote a little later this afternoon. but you look at what we've tried to do, and i've always been a policy over politics guy. last congress we passed 80 bills on the house floor that came out of my committee. out of committee. all but four or five had democratic support, and 40 of

them the president signed into law. that a's not a bad record. d that's not a bad record. it's not a record that maybe folks like to hear on these talk shows that are out there, but we have to work together. there are a lot of great members. i was at the white house earlier this morning on this mental health conference. there are a lot of great members who care passionately about where our country's headed. we have divided government, we have to recognize that, but let's work together. we've tried to do that in our committee, and i know dave camp on the ways and means committee and my other colleagues have that same type of attitude, but the margin is small. we have 233 republicans in the house. 218 controls the house. we have a margin of 15, so we've got to work together. we've got to govern together is what this is all about. >> it's a complex subject. tom mann and norm ornstein in their book, i think, described many of the contours of this

subject. and you can find, i think, many different reasons, you can allocate the hollowing out of the middle. when howard baker was there, there were usually about 30 senators representing both sides of the aisle that you could count on to try to work something out, and they could often influence the final and bring you to a successful final conclusion. a lot of that -- that number's dwinld led a great deal. you've got the redistricting problems in the house, various rules, you can go on and on with all the rules. but i also think it's partly a cultural issue and where we are as a country and the generational changes that have taken place in the country. i had the privilege of coming here when the world war ii generation was running things. mostly people that have come of age during the war. kennedy through bush sr. wore a military uniform. and they came back to washington believing that they were the civic general ration, that they were strong democrats or

republicans, but first and foremost, they were strong americans, and they worked together. and that has been lost since that generation has left the stage. i don't think it's hopeless. what i do think is we need to be electing new people like fred, the spirit he represents, and that we have a generation that's younger still that's coming that is very different. and i think in many ways the millennials who are coming through now -- contrary to what time magazine put on its cover a few weeks ago -- i find this generation that's coming is very idealistic and very hopeful of changing the country. they are flowing into nonprofits. teach for america, i happen to be on the board, what wendy kopp has done with that organization is extraordinary, tapping into the idealism of the young people. and the other group that we should be very hopeful about and it's the silver lining of 12 years of war, are the young people coming back and taking back their uniforms after serving in iraq and afghanistan. some of those people, yeah,

there are no question that there are mental health issues in some of the veterans coming back, but a good number of these people coming back are absolutely wonderful, and they're going to restore that spirit of bipartisanship one day. it's going to take a while, but we'll get there. [applause] >> there's, of course, a lot of scandals going on right now at the current white house, but we're here at the national press club, so i'd like to hear the take from pote of you on the secret -- from both of you on the secret probes that were conducted at the associated press and fox news. is this an infringement on freedom of the press? >> i don't know where things are necessarily headed on this. i do think that there are more than capable chairs and committees that are beginning an investigation into this. we've got counsels, i'm not an attorney, but we've got an oversight investigation subcommittee, and we've got the lawyers, we've got the

capability to ask for subpoenas and information, and we need to find out what the truth is. we need to follow the trail and find out where it takes us. and i'm quite confident that you'll see that happen on the irs with dave camp as chairman of ways and means, darrell issa as well. we'll get the answers. and, you know, as my dad always said, gerry ford certainly believed, tell the truth the first time, you don't have to worry about it the second. [laughter] >> yeah, look. listen, i've spoken on this, so i won't belabor the point, but there's no question in my mind that we crossed a line when the fbi filed an affidavit and called this fellow, mr. rosen, a potential co-conspirator. and a criminal co-conspirator. as a reporter simply asking questions. and you cannot put the press in that situation. and we have to -- that's why it's so important to push back and make sure we get on the right side of this line, not on the wrong side of the line. on the ap it's hard to assess

unless you're there, but it does seem excessive how many different people they swept into a net. and i want the government, the government has become very powerful. what we need to ask of our leaders is restrain. restraint in the use of power. restraint when we send our forces abroad, where we plunge into in war and restraint in how we treat each other. you know, it seems to me that what unites the irs and the press issues are the sense of a lack of restraint. and there's got to be some -- you've got to -- people inside government have to sort of treat fellow citizens with a certain dignity and understanding. this is a complex society, and we have to be respectful of certain standards. it's not just a question what the laws are, a question of what the standards are. [applause] >> and mr. gergen, from serving in so many administrations looking at these things from the inside, how would you assess the

effectiveness of this president's communication in the midst of these scandals? >> i think this president has a capacity to be one of the finest communicators we've had in the white house. the speech in philadelphia he gave during the 2008 campaign, if bill sapphire were alive today and continued to compile his, you know, lend me your ear anthology, it would be a star entry in that. i think this president has often inspired in the way he has addressed people, especially the young. and we should respect that, and he should be given credit for that. i must say i think on the question of, that what has been apparent, and john dixon and i were together here recently on "face the nation" on this question, i think they've been more effective with their communications in campaigns than they have been in governing. and for reasons that have been

mysterious to me, they've been a little ham fisted on whether it's benghazi or the irs. one of the first things you learn in damage control, and i've been through a lot of damage control in government -- [laughter] many, many years. i started with, i started with watergate and wound up with white water, so it's -- [laughter] one of the first things you learn in damage control is it's really important to get your story out fast. but first, it's important to get your story straight. and understand what it is you're dealing with. you have to do -- and it's not always easy because everything, things get so lawyered up so quickly inside government. when i first got into government, lawyers were not omnipresent when you dealt with these questions, and they didn't tell you, oh, no, no, you can't release that. you can't let anybody see that. but now they're so heavily lawyered, the political side has

to push back and say, no, wait a minute, we've got a responsibility to get this stuff out. >> and one question on current events in congress for mr. upton. the public, if congress is to believe, has expressed a profound disinterest on sequestration. this questioner says why is that, and how do you get this perception problem solved, the person asks. >> well, a couple of things. i got my stripes working for ronald reagan who cared so much about the deficit, as we all do. and a lot of battles, i worked for david stockman and jim moyer who was there. that was one of the primary reasons i ran for office. you might remember back in the early '90s we had this thing -- early '80s -- no, i guess it was mid '80s, graham-rudman. what was that? across the board cuts if congress didn't do its work. i was in that first meeting with graham and rudman and others,

and that was almost how this thing was devised. and in the house i was a member of the supercommittee -- turn that off. i don't know where it is. [laughter] i hear it over here. no, it's not my wife, because i've already turned off mine. in the house i was on the supercommittee, and it broke my heart that we didn't get it done. it really did. we had a group of 12 people, you might remember, divided between the house and senate, republicans and democrats. and we had, sadly, an equal number versus a majority that really wanted to come out with a solution. some democrats, some republicans on both sides of this thing, and at the end they said, well, we'll do this sequestration, and that'll force congress to actually come up with something to yet it done. -- to get it done. and at the end of the day, it didn't work. in the house last year we passed two different bills with r5e8 offsets to the she quester and didn't get, didn't get anything

out of the senate. although we passed it in may last year and then again i want to say it was in september or october. i can remember sitting with lee job pa panetta the day that president obama was swore in for his second term. the house and senate leadership, a number of committee chairs meeting with the administration. leon panetta, i was serving next to leon, and i served with leon when he was in the house before he became secretary of defense, and he said you guys aren't going to let this sequester go through. i said, oh, yes, it is. we've passed a bill to offset that, and the senate hasn't done anything. it's coming. it's coming. and, you know, at the end of the day, you know, this is not, certainly not the best way to do it. it isn't. we wanted to make the -- let the individual departments come up with their own choices, set their priorities for how to deal with these different things. we did it with the air traffic controllers. ended up they took money from the airport improvement fund to

offset those layoffs that otherwise would have come, but we've got to get serious about the deficit. and the fiscal cliff issue was revolved. again, that kicked in automatically as well. revenues are up. the sequester was going to kick in automatically, and the senate fail today take action. so it is not going to change for the balance of this year. but at the end of the day, i am hopeful that we can sit down as republicans and democrats and figure out the fiscal path that we have to be on, including into entitlements. 10% of the budget when ford was president, today it's a third. you can't deal with these deficits unless you look at the whole picture, and i'd like to think that we might be able to do that this fall when we really get up to the point of facing yet another debt ceiling extension that comes up probably in october. >> we are almost out of time, but before wrapping up, we've got just a couple housekeeping matters to take care of.

i'd like to remind you about our upcoming luncheon speakers. tomorrow, on june 4th, we'll host chile's president. wednesday, june 5th, u.s. agriculture secretary tom vilsack, and on july 1st, carly fiorina, currently chairman of good 360. second, i would like to present both of our guests today with our traditional national press club coffee managers. [laughter] mugs. [applause] >> this is in accord, i think, with the house standards on ethics. [laughter] >> the old thing was you could accept any gift that you could drink in one sitting. [laughter] >> i won't tell you the value, of course, it's very great, but, yes. i'm quite sure it's within congressional ethics. thank you to both of our guests

for being here today. i'd also like to thank our staff including our journalism institute and broadcast operations center for organizing today's event. finally, here's a reminder, you can find more information about the club at our web site, press.org. if you'd like a copy of today's program, you can find that there. thank you all for coming, we are adjourned. [applause] >> up next, chinese political activists testify about human rights in china. the senate's back in at 10 eastern for more work on the farm bill. live senate coverage here on c-span2. >> top pentagon officials will testify today about sexual assaults in the military and will weigh in on legislation that the senate armed services committee is working on. you can watch live coverage at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span3. >> up next, a house panel looks

at human rights in china since the 1989 tiananmen square student protests. we'll hear from two of the demonstrators who took part in the 1989 beijing protest. this house foreign affairs subcommittee hearing on global human rights is just over two hours. >> and good afternoon to everyone. today and this week the world remembers the dream that was and is tiananmen square protests of 1989 and deeply ohioans the sacrifice -- honors the sacrifice endured by an extraordinary, brave group of pro-democracy chinese women and men who dared to demand fundamental human rights for all of china and for all chinese. 24 years ago today the world watched in awe and wonder as it -- as hundreds of thousands of mostly young people peacefully petitioned the

chinese government to reform and to democratize. china seemed to be the next impending triumph for freedom and democracy, especially after the collapse of the dictatorships in the soviet union and among the warsaw pact nations. but when the people's liberation army poured into and around the square on june 3rd, the wonder of tiananmen turned to shock and tears, fear and a sense of helplessness. on june 3rd and 4th and for days, weeks and years right up until today, the chinese dictatorship delivered a barbaric response; mass murder, torture, incarceration, the systematic suppression of fundamental human rights and cover-up. the chinese government not only continues to inflict unspeakable pain and suffering on its own people, but the cover-up of the tiananmen square massacre is without precedent in modern history. even though journalists and live television and radio documented

the massacre, the chinese communist party line continues today to deny, obfuscate and to threaten anyone who deviates from that line. in december of 1996, the operational commander who ordered the murder of the city yangmen protesters visited washington, d.c. as the chinese defense minister. see, he had gotten a promotion. minister chu was welcomed by president clinton at the white house with full military honors including a 19-gun salute, a bizarre spect call that i and others on both sides of the aisle strongly protested. why do i bring this up? minister chu addressed the army war college on that trip, and in answer to a question said: not a single person lost his life in tiananmen square, closed quote. and claimed that the people's liberation army did nothing more violent than the pushing of

people during the 1989 protest. imagine that, not a single person lost his or her life. are you kidding? the big lie, that big lie and countless others like it is the chinese communist party line. as chair of the foreign affairs human rights committee at the time, i i put together an emergency hearing within a couple of days on december 18th of 1996 with witnesses who were there on the square including dr. yang, a leader and survivor of the massacre, and including "time" magazine bureau chief dr. david aikman, two of today's witnesses. we also invited anyone from the chinese embassy who might want to come and give an account. he and they refused. i guess minister chu thought he was back in beijing where the big lie is king, and no one ever dares to do a fact check. a few days ago the u.s.

department of state asked the chinese government to, quote: end the harassment of those who participated in the protests and fully account for those killed, detained or missing. the response? the chinese foreign ministry acrimoniously said that the u.s. should, quote: stop interfering in china's internal affairs so as not to sabotage u.s./china relations. sabotage relations because our side requests an end to harassment, because we request an accounting? sounds to me like they have much to hide. president obama, as we know, is scheduled to meet with chinese president zinn ping on friday and saturday to discuss human rights abuses in china. it must be on the agenda and not in a superficial way. it is time to get serious about

china's flagrant abuse. the chinese government's appalling record begs the question even for the topic that's at hand: can a government that crushes the rights and freedoms of its own people be trusted on trade and on security issues? china today is the torture capital of the world, and victims include religious believers, ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and political dissidents. hundreds of millions of women have been forced to abort their precious babies pursuant to the draconian one-child policy which has led to gendercide, the violent extermination of unborn girls simply because they are girls. the slaughter of the girl child in china is not only a massive gender crime, but it's a security issue as well. a witness at one of my earlier hearings, valerie hudson, author of a book called "bare

branches," testified that the gender imbalance will lead, inevitably, will lead to instability and chaos. and as she postsitted, even war. she quotes that the one-child policy has not enhanced china's security but demonstrably weakened it. it does not bode well for its future and noted that nick ebber stat has famously phrased what are the consequences for a society that has chosen to become simultaneously more gray and more male? i hope policymakers both here in washington and elsewhere pay close attention to our witnesses, pause tiananmen square -- because tiananmen square and the massacre that flowed there was a tipping point, and the lessons learned and employed ever since by the chinese government require much better understanding and due diligence on our part and a more

effective response on our part. we still don't get it, what happened post-tiananmen square. one of our witnesses, dr. yang, will testify that soon after tiananmen, the communist party embraced the ubiquitous code of corruption to enrich the elite at the expense of the general public believing that, as he says in his testimony, economic growth means everything to the survival and the sustainability of the dictatorship. all of this, as he says, was made possible thanks to the city yangmen square massacre and the political -- [inaudible] that was imposed on the country in the years following. many of us on both sides of the aisle and americans throughout this country and really people who believe in freedom around the world will never forget what took place in tiananmen 24 years ago. the struggle for freedom in china continues. someday the people of china will enjoy all of their god given

rights, and a nation of free chinese women and men will someday honor and applaud and thank the heroes of tiananmen and all those who sacrificed so much and for so long for freedom. i'd like to now yield to my friend and colleague, ms. bass, for any opening comments. >> mr. chairman, thank you for convening today's hearing. i think it's pretty remarkable to hear you say that you were here when this happened and you held a hearing a few days later. as you noted, this week marks 24 years since the world watched the bravery and courage of the chinese people in the violent events that took place in tiananmen square in 1989. like most people around the world, i remember exactly where i was when those events took place. that's why the images of tiananmen square are forever etched in our memories. it's important to note that there were other protests taking place across china as students and demonstrators of all ages

took to the streets, and there was very little coverage about what was happening outside of beijing. there were images of those brutalized, those bloodied and of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in their demand for greater freedoms, government accountability and an end to corruption. yet it is the image of a man standing in front of a line of tanks that we remember so well. this lone protester embodied that of all demonstrators in china and for many around the world in the days, years and more than two decades since. that one seemingly plain individual could stand with such strength is and will ever be a remarkable and truly humbling moment. i will always remember this image because of what it represents; the struggle of people everywhere against insurmountable odds, yet it was a brave individual who showed that a single act of protest was bigger and more powerful than propaganda, instruments of war and unspeakable violence. i want to thank today's witnesses for participating in this hearing and reminding this committee of the important be

events of tiananmen square in the summer of 1989. >> with thank you, ms. bass. i'd like to now yield to mr. meadows. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank each of you for being here today for being here to testify. look toward to hearing your testimony and certainly the lessons that we need to continue to learn as we address human rights across not only in china, but across the world. it's hard to believe that it's some 24 years ago that we are now looking back at city yangmen square -- tiananmen square, and yet the tragedy is one that should not easily be forgotten. it's one that we must keep fresh in our minds, it's one that we must learn from. obviously, the protests there were sparked by the death of a reformer, someone who called for greater government transparency, freedom of speech, economic reforms. and, you know, that's a story that we've seen before. you know, china itself has freed up much of its economy, it's

seen explosive growth. but yet the human rights record is still abysmal. we need to make sure that we hold them accountable. we wouldn't stand for that here in our economy, and as we are part of a global economy, we can't stand for it in some of our greatest trading partners. in the middle east in the last two and a half years, we have seen unrest happen across the middle east following what some would call the arab spring. but really in a large part that unrest has the same underlying premise as tiananmen square. an oppressed people will eventually rise up, and they should. that is why this hearing is crucial, and the lessons from tiananmen square have clearly not been learned in china or abroad. and so i look forward to hearing your testimony and what we can learn from what has happened and what is happening and what,

hopefully, will happen in the future and how we can highlight this particular problem to bring the end to the oppressive actions that continue to take back. and with that i yield pack, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, mr. meadows. mr. stockman. >> yeah, mr. chairman, i request i can give you my remarks so that you don't have to sit through the whole thing. >> okay, without objection. >> but i'm going to say one thing though. i remember watching on television as many people have, and it was really heart warming when i saw the rep hi calf of -- replica of the statue of liberty and all that it stood for. and all i can say is as we saw the tanks rolling in to roll over those people as they were screaming for help and screaming for the rest of the people to cry out for freedom, i mean, i just -- it broke my heart. and for all those that are still fighting for freedom in china, they represent one-quarter of

this world population, and yet we seem to turn our backs on them again and again. and i am glad that the people here in this room stand up for freedom and stand up for those. and i'll always remember that photograph. yield back the balance of my time. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. stockman. i'd like to now introduce our very distinguished panel. beginning first with mr.-- [inaudible] who has served two jail sentences totaling more than 18 years in china for his pro-democracy, pro-human rights work. a father of the democracy movement,-chang who literally posted an essay, the fifth modernization which he entitled democracy, and he had the courage to literally sign it -- a lot of those postings were anonymous, he signed his. and for that he was incarcerated. i met with him very briefly when he was briefly let out in 1994

when the chinese government was seeking to get olympics 2000. they eventually got olympics later on, but they thought one high profile political prisoner would be enough to make possible their getting olympics 2000. that's how highly regarded he was and is to this day for his democracy promotion and human rights promotion. in 1998 he founded and became the chairman of the overseas chinese democracy coalition after he was exiled, of course. he's also president of theway gin chang foundation and the asia democracy alliance. he regularly speaks about human rights on a number -- in a number of fore rah and media. we'll then hear from ms.ling who was a key student leader in 1989 at city yangmen square during those fateful days. when the military brutally crushed the protest on june 4th,

she was named to the government's list of the 21 most wanted students. she escaped from beijing ten months later, she secretly was hidden in a cargo box for 105 hours to escape china as she made her way to hong kong. she has since gotten an mba from harvard. she also is the founder of a group called all girls allowed which speaks out on behalf of the girl child who is so viciously victimized inside of china as part of the one child per couple policy, and she is also on the -- [inaudible] foundationing -- foundation which supports humanitarian efforts for student leaders through grant opportunities. we'll then hear from dr. yang li. dr. yang is also a city yangmen -- tiananmen square survivor.

he is a founder of the initiatives for china's citizen power for china and founder and organizer of the interethnic, interfaith leadership conferences in the online publication of china e weekly. he co-authored a democratic constitution for china in 1993 and co-chaired the geneva internet freedom declaration in 2010. he has been elected at the top 100 chinese public intellectuals in each of the past four years. he has also represented mr. saw bow at the nobel peace prize ceremony, and we welcome him and thank him for his influential writing and leadership. we'll then hear from dr. david aikman who reported for 23 years for time magazine in more than 50 countries, including china. in 1989 he was in china reporting on student democracy protests and was present when the city yangmen scare massacre

took place. he was born in the united kingdom but in 1992 became a u.s. citizen. he left "time" in '94 and has since written several books and newspaper columns as well as lectured at numerous places around the world. he is currently a professor of history at patrick henry college. and i would note when he was with time magazine in beijing, he was the bureau chief for "time" magazine. we'll then hear from dr. sophie be richardson who is the director of human rights watch, the author of numerous articles on domestic chinese political reform, democratization and human rights in many asian countries. she has testified before the european parliament and u.s. congress -- including my committee. i thank you and welcome you again. she's the author of "china, cambodia and five principles of peaceful coexistence: an in-depth examination of china's foreign policy since the 1954

geneva conference." so thank you all for being here. i'd like to now churn to mr. chang. >> translator: it has been 24 year since the june 4th massacre. i want to testify here about people's view on this massacre after 24 years and the impacts on chinese politics due to people's widespread view. [speaking chinese] >> translator: the current widespread representative view of the chinese people is different from the view more

than 20 years ago. at that time the most widely-held view was to ask for the redress of the june 4th massacre from the chinese communist party. however, now more than half of the people's concern is not the issue of redress, but the investigation of the people responsible for the crime and the demand for the communist party to plead guilty for this massacre. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: this change of attitude illustrates that people have gradually lost the illusion to the communist party. a so-called redress is the wrong

thing to be collected. in the past people ask for redress because they still had illusion about the communist party and they had the misconception that communist beijing is a reasonable government. now people have changed their minds. this change illustrates that the people no longer consider communist beijing as a reasonable government in other wars. the chinese government has seriously lost its legitimacy in eyes of the chinese people. [speaking chinese] >> within the communist leadership, the massacre 24 years ago is changing.

there are often rumors that the government will address the massacre. there is a -- [inaudible] the communist party has the habit of using rumors of political struggles. some of those rumors are also very accurate which can reflect closed door struggle within the communist party. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: before the anniversary of june 4th the

communist government is very nervous. to prevent people taking to the streets, the regime dispatch a large number of police, and they put dissidents and civilians under house arrest. this action results in lots of pressure over the communist party. the main cause of this pressure is due to the public opinion of the chinese people. the pressure of the public opinion from the international community is another important reason. over the years, those two pressures have become important reasons for the poor image of the chinese communist government both inside china and internationally. this is a serious burden to the chinese government, and it is considered to be one of several reasons for people to incite a revolution. [speaking chinese]

>> translator: when the communist leaders who participate in the massacre were still in power, those leaders considered this burden as one they must bear, but now the leaders who did not participate in the massacre has come into power, and -- [inaudible] as an unnecessary burden. under the premise that this burden distresses them both diplomatically and internally. removing this burden and reduce the hidden risk of social instability has become issue that the new leadership must consider. [speaking chinese]

[speaking chinese] >> translator: some in the chinese communist leadership were naturally -- [inaudible] for imitating success for international experience. to ease people's lasting resentment against this massacre by way of redressing and the reparations for the june 4th massacre. that's reduced the instability factors made by the previous leaderships. but the other people in the leadership -- [inaudible] consider concessions to the people as reducing the authority of the communist party that will bring new instability. so they oppose redress and reparation. those two views are causing new conflicts within the communist party, and they have increased the division within the

communist leadership. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: of course, to the communist party this seems not the most urgent -- [inaudible] as the chinese economic crisis looms, as its -- [inaudible] with neighboring country intensify improving their image by -- [inaudible] it's not a particularly pressing problem. it does not appear that the communist regime still considers this as a historical problem that can be resolved by suppression. for the time being, we do not

have a motivation to -- [inaudible] the guilty accountability and reparation of the june 4th massacre may have -- the collapse of the communist regime in china. [speaking chinese] >> translator: thank you to the chairman and thank you to all the representatives. >> mr. wei, thank you very much for your testimony and for your extraordinary leadership. ms.ling, chairling. >> well, thank you to the honorable chairman and all the members of congress, thank you for your support with us in this difficult journey and battle. and particularly congressman chris smith, thank you for your tireless everyday to uphold human rights for all people in china, around the world. i'm deeply honored to be given the opportunity to share the message of hope and redemption through christ jesus on the 24th anniversary of tiananmen square tragedy and massacre. my message is a summary of

lessons learned from a 47-year-of-life journey of growing up in china having led the city yangmen square movement and now living and observing in america for the past 23 years the longer, fuller version of these lessons are in my book called "heart for freedom." the message is for all the distinguished congressional leaders and foreign affairs policymakers like yourself and also for american president obama and china's new president, xi jinping and also for church leaders in both countries and also for tiananmen square students, dissidents, victims, families and people at large. and i believe by the constant act of terrorism, threats coming from the middle east, the turbulence around the rest of the world -- [inaudible] between america and china hold the key to a stable, peaceful and prosperous be -- world to

understand the truth of tiananmen square is a beginning to forge this partnership. allow me to now elaborate on my view here. it feels like, just like yesterday. on the morning of june 3, 1989, beijing, china, the sun was rising over the newly-set-up tents and thousands of protesting students. tiananmen square was waking up to a soft female announcer's voice declaring the arrival of a new china. and a soldier came across the golden water bridge to raise the chinese flag. for a moment the students, the soldiers, the square, the rising sun and the misty pink blue sky all coexists in peace and harmony in great anticipation of hope for a new china. then night, all of this brought to an end by a brute almas kerr all of you -- massacre all of you witnessed. ms. bass, as you said earlier, you remember exactly where you

were, and so do we. i was there with my last 5,000 students stood in the square surrounded by tanks and troops. we stood until the last hour when we had to leave the square about five to six a.m. in the morning. there was much loss, death, injury and imprisonment for all sides; students, citizens and soldiers. it is a wound that even 24 years later remains wide open in so many millions of chinese people's hearts. and is some are still paying the price with their loss and grief like the mothers of the victims. others are paying with their freedom such as -- [inaudible] many others are still in prison. and i and many others today are paying with the price of living in exile unable to go back to the country we've grown up with for the past 24 years. and after ten months in hide l after being put -- hiding after

being put on, i was put on the most wanted list, i eventually came to america. i spent 20 years tirelessly searching for the truth behind the massacre, trying to understand what could have happened, what could have been dope differently to stop it, and what is the hope for china. and it was not until december 4, 2009, when i finally give my life to jesus i found both. it was in pain and sorrow i involved the truth behind the -- i discovered the truth behind the massacre. it was -- [inaudible] fear of reality conspired to justify by killing. the leader who ordered the massacre had his memory triggered by the peaceful student movement at city yangmen square which reminded him of his pain and suffering of previous political movement. i learned that a few other elder leaders were also triggered by the same kind of pain and suffering, and they all joined the conclusion that if we do not

stop the movement, we will have nowhere to back down sorriesing breaking our families and losing our loved ones. so the prime minister in china that time and together with the military executed this massacre and used brutal force to gun down those peaceful protesters which they labeled as anti- revolution theirs who aimed to overthrow the government. because i was in such a key place, played such a key leadership role in leading the movement and from my perspective, their perception and decision point could not be further from the truth. as a student leader, i had very little interest to either joining or overthrowing the chinese government. at the time i was already applying to study in america. all i wanted was to be safe, to not have to relive hue millation, isolation i

suffered -- humiliation i suffered when i tried to overcome -- [inaudible] many other students were inspired by similar desires for simple justice and freedom from fear. a key student leader of the movement was motivated to overcome his own fear and terror he experienced when he was imprisoned for 18 hours in 1987. and li lu was there to overcome his grandfather's fate who died as a rightist in prison, inside china's prison under mao's regime. so that unhealed pain and misperception led -- [inaudible] to believe only a massacre would rescue and secure the power. he was convinced the only option was to kill his own people. and a decade before 1989 he was also the same leader ordered the china's one-child policy out of

fear that it was needed in order to prevent starvation. a belief of many chinese people still believed to defend the policy as of today. unfortunately, it's exaggerated power without any democratic process and to order both the killing that took place in tiananmen square and the even larger, ongoing massacre for innocent women and babies with the one-child policy. it was in november 2009 at your, another hearing, congressman chris smith, that my eyes were opened up to the truth and brutality of the one-child policy. one woman testified how she had to be dragged out from a hiding place, and they inject poison into her tummy. her baby struggled and died. my eyes were opened up, and i realized i was trying to overcome the trauma i sustained under the city yangmen mass kerr in my life, there was today and

still ongoing tiananmen massacre that's still taking place under the daily one-child policy. the most vulnerable unborn chirp and their mothers -- children and their mothers n. the past 30 years, over 400 million babies were killed through forced abortions. later on i came to realize three of those 400 million babies were mine. the root of the killing people to solve problem, the common way the chinese government has been using over and over again based on not understanding and respecting the sanctity of life. i never learned what it means -- [inaudible] googled, and the word comes back with the state or quality of being holy, sacred or saintly, ultimate importance and -- [inaudible] and that's what it meant. how precious life is and should be treated. so it was in that moment i

realized we were confronting something much big or than what i had previously understood, much bigger than the chinese government and individual leaders. we're confronting against a huge evil that could kill 900 million -- 400 million babies yet still make the entire world almost blind to this horrific crime. the evil scheme was exposed by a few faithful leaders and individuals. congress spank chris smith, yourself, and congressman frank wolf. thank you for all your effort in the past, 30-plus years fighting the policy and defending the victims from tiananmen massacre. and it was your extraordinary perseverance and dedication to many of your leaderships, it was your perseverance to defend human rights for all people became the key that led me to the truth. it was this revelation of the true face of evil led me to god

and jesus christ on december 4, 2009, and helped me discover the true hope for china and for the people and for the leaders and for the victims and for myself. congressman chris smith, as you said earlier, it was a sense of hopelessness that even one would feel, and when the massacre took place, we all reacted with shock and horror even fight back. still deep in our heart there was a sense of hopelessness -- [inaudible] good who's much bigger than that. we finally are able to receive and embrace that hope. and many of you growing up in america have heard the story god created heaven and earth, god created man and woman -- sorry, i'll be very quick. and if his image, man and woman to trust and disobey god through this sin humanity fell. jesus came to the earth and offers life on the cross all the way to death, and humanity was, therefore, redeemed through us

accepting jesus as our god and savior. however, when we come from china, come to america, we have never heard or allowed to hear this truth. many leaders in china does not know this precious truth. how do we know in 1989 our struggles not against flesh and blood, but against the authority, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in -- [inaudible] have the heeders accept this truth -- leaders accept this truth. we may be able to avoid the city yangmen massacre, the one-child policy. it's not too late to start a new beginning. and god is not slow to keeping his promise as some understand slowness. instead, if he is patient with us, not wanting everybody to perish, but even to come to repentance. and this is the same hope i have for america as well. and so i know my time is limited, so i do like to say as

president obama and president jinping, my request for them is to reverse -- [inaudible] verdict against tiananmen square processer, to end the one-child policy, to end abortions in china and in america, to end the imprisonment of political dissidents -- [inaudible] and to end the persecutions of churches and believers in china and in america. and i do at this time when many people after 24 years have not seen the city yang men massacre being ended and to to be revers, they may be in the process of giving out hope, but we know we have a hope and a future that cannot be shaken because god has promised he will wipe every tear

from our eyes, and there will be no more death, no more sorrow, all these things are gone forever. and i will be their god, and they will be my children. so with this promise my prayer today is, father god, do -- [inaudible] in jesus' name we pray, thank you. >> thank you very much for your testimony and, again, for your extraordinary leadership over these many years. >> thank you. >> i'd like to now yield to dr. yang. >> thank you, mr. chairman and member obviously -- of this committee for hosting this important and timely hearing. on the night of june 3rd, 1989, the chinese government ordered people's liberation army to clear tiananmen square. the center of the peaceful democracy movement that had been carried out by student and civilians in china's major cities for nearly two months. it is now 3:40 in the morning on

june 4th in beijing. exactly 24 hours ago when in the early hours of june 4, 1989, troops opened fires at armed students and civilians and cleared the square. during these hours i was near the square and saw with my own eyes more than 30 people killed including 11 students ran over by tanks. ..

>> and other related questions. first, let me pass along a message from the head of the chairman mothers. here is her letter. dear chairman, i want to first only half of chairman mothers express my deep gratitude to you and the u.s. congress for your concerned support for the families of the victims of that tiananmen massacre. since 1995, the tiananmen mothers have received 36 open letters to two congresses of china and china's leaders, calling for the reverse of the governments of verdict on the tiananmen incident, and demanding truth, compensation, and accountability. but we have not received any reply from the government. we ask the u.s. congress to urge president barack obama to demand our president xi jinping in

their summit that china fulfill its international and domestic obligation. according to the centers of humanitarian principles and universal value, and bring the crimes against unity committee, to trial and reach just, fair resolution as soon as possible. it took the lives of our children 24 years ago. and it has been described as a right to freely mourn our beloved. please ask president obama to urge president xi to respect our basic rights as human beings. in the past 24 years, 33 members of the chairman mothers have passed away yearning for justice. and the rest are in despair.

[inaudible]. time is particularly precious. it is in nobody's interests of president xi to continue to be locked in his china's dream. instead, we hope the awakens to the stern reality and address this -- [inaudible] sincerely, on behalf of chairman mothers, end of the letter. what can we say today about basic of facts concerning the? according to human rights in china, more than 2000 people died in various chinese cities on june 3 and june 4 and the days immediately following. the chairman mothers have adopted the names of 202 victims. and following up to june 4, more than 500 people were in prison in beijing number two prison

alone. an unknown number were present in other chinese cities. additional unknown numbers were executed. however, the total number of dead, imprisoned and executed remains unknown because the china comment has refused to carry out a thorough investigation of events. the government's persecution of the chairman participants continues today. hundreds -- [inaudible] of that tiananmen massacre have been blacklisted. six of them have died overseas, and an unknown number should not pay their last visit before the parents passed away or attend their funerals. a student leader of 1989 has not been able to see his parents for 24 years. much less documented is the lives of the ordinary participants in the chairman

prisoners. they and their family members have endured unspeakable suffering in the last 24 years. most of them constantly subject to harassment -- have founded extreme difficult to hold a regular job and to support their family. some of them were later forced to leave the country. today, one recently who came to united states is with us. i want to emphasize here that chairman events is not just one time event. for the 24 years following the massacre, china has never stopped a human rights violation. and considering its record we need look no further than these individuals, groups, events and policies. [inaudible] forced abortions,

forced evictions and forced disappearances. i urge u.s. congress and the congress to stay alert to severe human rights violations, and put pressure on china's government to change their ways. in february 2011, colonel gadhafi justify his blood action by pointing to what china did to those people on tiananmen square. this show how ignorant crimes in one place only encourages them to spread elsewhere. the good news is that the u.n. suspend libya's membership on the human rights council for

killing its own people. these same human rights standards should be applied by the u.n. to all of its member countries, including china. the chairman mothers and meetings of victims of the china's addict leadership -- [inaudible] to strongly oppose and oppose against china retaining membership in the u.n. human rights council, and it's encouraged other democracies to some really vote against it. thank you. >> thank you very much for your leadership, for your very concrete suggestions, and for reminding us that tiananmen square massacre continues to this day. doctor aikman? >> mr. chairman, and honorable members, 24 years ago today one of the most brutal assaults on any government of modern history on peacefully protesting

protesters began around 10 p.m. in the evening, asian time. by the time the assault was over several hours later, hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent civilians, including students, had been murdered by bullets of the chinese people's liberation army or crushed under the tracks of tanks and armored personnel carriers or how do we know? he does scores of chinese and foreign eyewitnesses photographed the event and reported on it. i was one of them. the killing of innocent civilians is always a tragedy, and sometimes it is a crime. most countries in the world have been guilty of this at different times in their history, including my own country, the united states. over a few centuries we treated

with great cruelty africans brought over to this country as slaves and native americans. but we came to recognize these faults and to express contrition and an apology for them, and even ask forgiveness for them. china is a great civilization and culture and has contributed innumerable blessings to the human community. china has also suffered much in recent centuries from foreign invasion and aggression. the result is that chinese feel a deep sense of grievance when information about past and present injustices is suppressed or that sense of grievance is alive in china debate about the events of june 3 and 4th, 1989. what does it say about a great nation that it has to forbid internet searches for the words

tiananmen incident or june 4, or even candle, or, most incredibly, even the numerals 535, which point not then they having 35 days but to the date june 4? how can the authorities in power in china hope to have the respect of the world when they go through this medieval contortions to suppress information about chinese own histories? all that truth respecting people all over the world are asking for is for china to start being honest about its own past and present and to investigate in a transparent manner what happened 24 years ago. china claims that hooligans were

responsible for june the fourth. that is nonsense. some hooligans no doubt were present, just as some hooligans perhaps were present when martin luther king, jr. set in motion the civil rights march on washington in 1963. but only a complete idiot today would assert that the civil rights march on washington was an event organized by hooligans. china, today, is experiencing a multitude of protests by citizens experiencing injustice. that multitude is growing annually at a rate that even arms the chinese government. sooner or later, if not addressed honestly, those grievances will coalesce into a social and political movement which could cause a national turmoil in not just china, but

in some of china's neighbors. for the sake of honesty, of sanity, and even regional peace, the chinese authorities need to tell the world the truth. china claims to respect truth because it respects science, which requires truth to be respected. it will be a tragedy if china continues to hobble along dragging its civilization and its recent history behind it, like an ancient war veteran -- and injured were better. greatness of civilization requires truth, honesty and modesty, not continued countenancing of lies like this over regime of joseph stalin. every chinese and everyone in the world will feel a sigh of relief if china begins to be honest about its internal grievances, especially those

stemming from june 3-fourth, 1989. a wise man said 2000 years ago, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. >> doctor, thank you very much for testimony, for being here today. dr. richard? >> thank you, mr. chairman and members of the subcommittee. it is always a pleasure to be here. take you so much for your devotion and your leadership on these. mr. wolf, i'm used to being humbled industry. i'm especially so today by being on this panel. it's hard to add to our improve upon what's already been said. i think my task this happiness try to put some of the events in all a bit of a struggle context that and it's a fairly basic idea that chinese government denial and repression of that tiananmen and 19 and nine make it impossible for the vote of tiananmen to heal that the trust the chinese government.a

we see intiananmen the origins for pathology of many of the human rights abuses and broader problems that continue to plague china today. what did him in mean and 89? difft people. at a time when it see woulbe a real possibility of political reform commitment people actually could challenge the government, that they could try to exercise rights to expression, some association with a guitar invalids able to process that still allows them no formal role. for some of the lines of tiananmen come some who are sitting here today, some of whom continue to fight for the rights from campuses and jails across china, this was the formative experience. the chinese government's reaction, on the other hand, made starkly clear that the site some signs of impulsive and economic front, no dissent was to be done public amounted to a position that hasn't changed much today. for the international community

the events in force in 989 were shocking insight into what the, was like at a point in time when there had been somewhat limited contact, there's a debate particularly about whether the chinese government could do i wd be more than a trading partner. what does tiananmen me mean now, but for usually? i think the chinese governments active to holy a sponge kinnaman from history books and persecute survived in victim's family members let alone to provide justice means that china so they cannot in some ways move forward. and that until the government is willing to investigate those events come it also has to be viewed with skepticism as a partner. chinese activists, so many of the issues at stake than inform their work know whether it's rule of law, holding officials to account, transparency, corruption, rights to protest. and many of them continue to confront precisely the same kind of problems, official destruction, government, denial. it's offer to -- as many

panelists have described them its are difficult to know about the events themselves. the "washington post" had an extraordinary article this morning, i recommend all of you to reading it, that's an effort to speak to survivors about how they have, whether they have broached the subject with their children, and there's one paragraph i'd like to be because i think it quite nicely summarizes the conundrum they face. william wrote it comes down to choice between protecting the children in the past by passing dangerous and bitter truth about the authoritarian society they continue to live under. for the international community, i think tiananmen continues to be especially for governments to either seek do or feel obliged to have closer ties with the chinese government, kinnaman becomes a very uncomfortable truth. it's there, it hasn't been dealt with, they don't want to talk

about, some issue statements, sometime not too. periodically the eu tries to detach its arms embargo from accountability for tiananmen. but there isn't a clear path forward or a clear message from all of those governments that have to do with legacy. what can be done about this? we are of course deeply appreciative of the efforts made by members of congress, although it's certainly my hope that as interest among members in china generally grows, the more people will take an active interest in human rights issues as well. while we certainly appreciate, i think is appropriate to describe him as "allez jet" statements that the state department issued on the anniversary, i think it is not easy for them to do that. since they face resistance from other parts of the administration. and that alone is certainly not enough. i think this statement really remains from president obama on down whether the u.s. is going to help fight a long hard fight

for truth and justice and accountability for tiananmen and for other human rights abuses. we are at a in time now with the u.s. has pushed hard for accountability and justice injuries parts of the world. we now have you in commission of inquiry's into human rights abuses in north korea. we have the acting yet we're left wondering what exactly is on president obama's human rights agenda for later in this week when he meets with president she. what he asked for the release of political prisoners as was once absolutely standard practice? will president obama explained to xi jinping that officials have been responsible for tormenting family members shouldn't bother trying to apply for visas to come to the united states under the new executive order? would president obama asked xi jinping to investigate the events of tiananmen and perhaps most important in this week, to allow victims family members to mourn their dead? xi jinping a spoken about coming to the united states to try to establish any relationship with

the u.s. i think that's going to be very difficult to do until such time as the chinese government seeks to study a new relationship with its own people, one in which finally willing to answer the questions about 1989. thank you. >> dr. rich them, thank you very much. pick up on your last point about the upcoming summit on friday and saturday with president obama and president she, what will president she's take away be if human rights are not discuss? if in such a case the, you mentioned, right where you're sitting a few weeks ago and made a passionate appeal for his nephew and other family members who are being retaliated against. his nephew is really a surrogate for them. he is now free, relatively speaking, and his family, immediate family, but his other members of the family are being tortured, including his nephew.

and a fellow nobel peace prize winner just like president barack obama continues to languish in prison, and you know, his wife pretty much under house arrest, it seems as you said can be used to be standard practice that there would be political prisoners, religious prisoners and others who would be released when summitry whitacre. it seems to me that at the very least our site, our president needs to make a very strong and aggressive diplomatic but aggressive appeal to these people who are suffering such impunity. anyone like to handle that? >> yeah, this hearing is timely because we all know there's going to be a summit between president obama and president she. i strongly believe that president obama should set the

tone of u.s.-china relations in this summit for his new administration and for the new leadership of china. if this is a crucial moment the signal to the leadership of china that the quality of its relationship with united states largely hinges on how it treats its own citizens. and whether it leads by the universally accepted human rights norms or international and domestic policies. on president obama's part to speak up and address the human rights concern will send wrong message to the leadership, the new leadership of china about the u.s. priorities. and it may encourage the new

leadership, the new chinese leaders, to allow the human rights abuses to continue. while we don't oppose united states with china, with the chinese garment on other issues, including economic relations, trade relations, north korea and other security issues, we believe and hope president obama will engage with the vigor on human rights issues. i think very good opportunity for him to reach a very important case of prisoners as mr. chairman just mentioned -- [inaudible] all these prisoners of conscience. we are not forgetting them.

and president obama should read the cases in the meeting. >> yes. [speaking chinese] >> translator: i think in the past few decades, the human rights department for the united states has escalated very reputable image of the united states. [speaking chinese] >> translator: not only with good image, it's also produced very effective results, which ultimately resulted in the collapse of the communist click. [speaking chinese] >> translator: the representatives here may be

still remember since pass of presidents national trade relationship with china, the human rights in china situation has been rapidly deteriorating. [speaking chinese] >> translator: i think for perspective to have good image of the united states, or this soft power for united states. the united states, holding up this ticket of human rights begin. [speaking chinese] >> translator: i agree with doctor jane that the right to

giving -- dr. yang, the meeting between president obama and president she, we should do something regarding human rights. [speaking chinese] >> translator: however i feel more important for the united states congress and the administration to design a new strategic and to put the human rights on the frontier and for the future. [speaking chinese] president obama says human rights and the universal value is a big advantage for united states. if so, why don't you take advantage, instead of waste your

time and reached economy searching for other issues? [speaking chinese] >> translator: site hope more that the united states will have new strategy, new policy. [speaking chinese] >> translator: i heard european politicians to me, what's the department -- the policy of the next it's? they don't have one. because if you do not take advantage of your universal value, then indeed you do not have advantages. spent let me say briefly, i was actually in beijing and had dinner with them. he said something that i will never forget. he said when american officials can any official but especially

american officials, especially the president of the united states speaks precisely, transparently, boldly about human rights, they beat us last when we're in the gulags of china. when you're vacillating and week and dismissive of the human rights agenda, they beat us more. it gets right down to that level to the prison guards and to the prison wardens. i'm going to come you know, for us to miss an opportunity to speak out boldly and aggressively on the have of these dissidents were being tortured and harassed and every, to greater in every way imaginable, for us not to take that come with the panelists agree with the assessment that we need to have a more muscular human rights policy? and secondly, dr. yang, you made mention in your statement, and i thought it was very interesting,

that 60 peaceful transitions to democracy have come as a surprise to the united states. because policymakers did not pay attention to students, to the victims come to the activists. but we're focused like a laser beam, regrettably, on the political elite to a very little regard to the human rights of other people. you also may point and i thought it was very profound, and i stayed and hoping that economic growth means everything, that they have in china among the elite a corruption that is indescribable, and that's what keeps them afloat as you put in your testimony, your written testimony. and i wonder if any of our panelists would like to speak to that? the conventional wisdom is that if we somehow trade more with china they will matriculate from dictatorship to democracy. but as you've laid out, doctor

yang, precisely the opposite has been occurring, especially since most favored -- that we are actually keeping the dictatorship afloat because they have carved out the elite. they reward the elite, and through corruption and gross human rights abuses, especially to torture, they're able to keep the dictatorship intact. if you would like to speak to that. >> thank you, thank you. i think -- mr. chairman, thank you. i think the chinese government would learn a lot out of taking a few pages of history from south africa. when the south african apartheid regime fell, many black africans were very, very angry at the way they had been treated by the regime that had just been overturned. and the with the south african government decided to do was to have a truth and reconciliation committee. one of