in 2000 he was the leading in a class action suit against the premier of china during the massacre for crimes against humanity. he served as the president of the chinese democracy education foundation. then we'll hear from mr. chen qinglin, an advocate for democracy in china, a student at the time of tiananmen square massacre. he was imprisoned for six years for attempted to form an opposition party following the massacre. ..

to deal with the emotional scars of those who bear unbelievable torture at the end of the chinese to cater ship has helped many, many people get some normality back to their lives. they lived in china in 2014 and when he came to the u.s. to continue his academic pursuit. if you could begin. >> mr. chairman, thank you for this hearing. as far as i can remember, this is the 16th hearing you host on human rights issues in china. thank you very much for your leadership. and your statements and your words and actions and that of other congressional leaders made

clear that we have been fighting not alone. thank you very much for your leadership and support. today i will not repeat myself for my personal account of the tiananmen massacre. instead i will try to provide you, mr. tribune and other congressional leaders, a window to reach that will probably help you understand better the political situation in china and the direction that is taken. 25 years ago, the chinese students and citizens in beijing and across china demanded the government and the freedom of expression and media. but today, the foundation in these areas are much worse than before in many ways. for example, when the new leadership took power in 2013,

it issued a secret document which voiced onto this and i quote, we must not permit the dissemination that oppose the party. the publication of views that represents the central leadership or the spread of the political rulers to see the image of the party or the nation. it sounds like something from the dark ages, but it is happening in china. china has now fallen into its own dark age. not only has the party started systematic mafia style come team to silence any dissenting voice by physically removing through democracy and human rights activities through massive arrests for the severe

sentences, but more seriously, it has launched an ever big campaign to control the chinese people's minds. the chinese party announces the american and political system which we all cherish and eradicate the perils that in danger the party states over the role of china" in the western constitutional democracy, the universal values of the human rights committee independent press and civil society, the pro- market neoliberalism. this is to reject the western ideas. it's actually an essential part of the chinese dream. it is much worse and farther reaching than the pollution campaign during the mid-1980s which the students demanded it

over ten or 25 years ago. mr. tran, i have -- mr. chairman i have to report to you that they are charged in the docume document, whom you may already know, and a gentleman and an author of several influential books and the highest ranking official in the crackdowns. there was a chance 25 years ago for political reform and a peaceful transition to democracy within the chinese communist party, but with the total rejection of that universal value and the democracy and his denial of free thoughts, the opportunity is now down. the key question that the united states must ask our ten the

party state that ruthlessly kills its own people silence any opposition voices and the intellectual freedom rights peacefully? what danger does it pose to the order? to me the answer is pretty clear. china has already extended its domestic brutality and ruthlessness into the international arena and without the democracy it will not arrive peacefully. finally i asked to submit the document for the record without objection.

>> we will may cut a part of the record and i would like to thank you. i would now sealed to the major. >> thank you sir. good morning. thank you for inviting me to join you here today. i would like to take a moment to reiterate that i inherited a in my personal capacity and what i see today represent the view of the army or the defense. chairman smith, ranking member, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. you remember the events of

tiananmen square in june, 1989. my own experience remains vivid in my memory. on the evening of june 3 in 1989, i was in a beijing university listening to the border cast that describes the event taking place and it offered higher on the citizens and the students. immediately a friend and i rode our bicycles towards the square. after three and i else whe miled by the people's universities, we saw thousands of people in the students holding hands to form the war and people were passing them.

they shouted at people to break through. don't go. they will kill you. so eventually, my friend and i forced ourselves past the barrier and continued towards the square and we went. we found that more people had formed the human war and tried to persuade anyone to go towards the danger. however, i felt i had to go. i was one of the student leaders that initiated the democratic moment. so, to force our way through the people, we had to abandon our bicycle and make our way. as we approached, they had a tank, vehicle from th, troop, mg into tiananmen square.

soldiers with helmets and ak-47s were randomly shooting at a protester as they chanted a slogan so my friend and i were in front crying of the tank playing together. and as we move forward we saw her thick scene -- her horifficd feeling helpless as the people cried out of assistance. i knew i needed to report the events taking place, so i called my wife and asked her to go to the beijing university radio station to tell the truth.

that a soldier opened fire on the students and citizens and a hundred were killed. i continued to relay information to the radio station on till the early morning, early hours of the morning. after the protest was broken up, i was put on the list of one of the few theaters and for my capture by edward a. nearly two years in a chinese prison. with the help of the church member i became a leader in god and began my journey in the christian faith. i arrived in the united states in 1982 and two weeks later was able to celebrate the fourth of july. i saw then the meaning of freedom, the freedom of

religion, and the freedom of fear that all americans enjoy. so i took my baptism as a christian and i also found the freedom that of knowing god will provide. as a commissioned officer in the united states, i serve to protect this freedom. my job is to assist my commander, to ensure that all members of army families receive their religious support they need to freely exile their faith according to the constitution. as we mark the 25th year of the tiananmen massacre i'm very thankful that the united states continues to remember and honor the lives that were lost, and continue to promote the struggle

for democracy and freedom in our world. it is in my prayer that the lives taken in tiananmen square will remain in our memory and inspire to continue working to work a better world free from the tyranny and persecution that upholds the rights and freedoms for all the people. thank you all. >> chaplain, thank you so much for the testimony. i would now like to yield. >> thank you, chairman smith and honorable members of the committee of foreign affairs. thank you also for holding this hearing. chairman smith, thank you for your tireless effort in upholding human rights for all of the people in china and in

the world, and today we have a new name and that is chris smith. i want to thank my lord jesus christ, my savior, and it is him that led me to the truth that i can be testifying today on the hope for a new china into that message is a chinese dream through jesus. i want to thank my husband and our board member claimed to be cok--quinn and our staff to supt me on this unique anniversary date. i will testify the following three points, what kind of freedom did we want for china 25 years ago in tiananmen? is our hope todait is our hope r freedom, and how can the china dream be achieved?

the dream and freedom they wanted for china 25 years ago as the freedom of fear, freedom from and justice, freedom from lies to be sikh, freedom from prison and false accusations. i want to use three stories of real people's lives to illustrate what it was like without the freedom. this is a young woman who was sexually assaulted by her family members, became homeless and sold as a bride, bullied and beaten and raped by her of user and was beaten until half dead. for self-defense she told her abuser but instead, she was being executed at a young age of 20. another case is a young woman who was 20-years-old, that accused of carrying drugs for her boyfriend and she was killed at such a young age and became

the youngest female in china executed in the past 50 years. the third case is a story on june 2, 2012 she was dragged into a forced abortion and clinic, poison injection in her tummy and her baby was killed in her womb. she was devastated. and so that is not just these three women stories, these stories were for every chinese woman come into their struggles still continue to sit china free. even though 25 years later, still no accountability for the leaders that ordered the killing of thousands of people on june 4, 1989 even though 25 years later the accountability for the people who killed over

400 million babies and are still continuing to do so today. even though 25 years later no accountability for the communist party officials or the family members who have enriched themselves at the expense of the hard-working chinese people that war into the days of injustice is coming soon. so why do i say so i as? what is our hope for freedom today? twenty-five years ago, china's former leader was advocating for three reforms and economic look on the political, and spiritual. however they only allow china to have one. so china today has evolved into an economic dictatorship with no political reform. however, despite the brutal oppression for the forced abortion and religious persecution, the chinese are going through a powerful and unprecedented spiritual bible. the human heart can't be satisfied by the materialism

alone. man doesn't live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of god. even the president recognized china's modernization has left a moral vacuum filled with materialism, corruption and greed. however the prescription for these things, the new dream is just more like the same building on the sacrificing of the individual rights, communism despite its beautiful promises for a quality and happiness that only delivers death and destruction. that is the painful truth that we discovered on the night of june 3 and on the morning of june 4. no society built on the naïve gods precious creation can bring life or hope.

nevertheless we do rejoice when we hear the president talk about the new chinese dream about the great revival of the nation of china. when he first came to power, he instructed his team to study how to transition china into freedom and democracy. but for some reason unknown he lost his way. so today, i want to come along to offer the president truth that i have discovered after spending 48 years of searching is a great cost and many sacrifices, and that truth is jesus is the way the truth and the life. no one comes to god except through jesus. my journey through this research and discovery has been retained into my book a heart for freedom. anyone here that is interested can have a free copy. the vision that we have for the

chinese dream is not established by god and will look like the following. it will be like when life under god. one church in one community under god. one nation under god about one world under god. and i want to be clear this is not a forced religion on anybody and allow people to freely choose god and exercise our belief. and we explain the picture and details and have up to the opportunities that the cornerstone of this society will be love. love ourselves as we love others. it is one of the ten commandments. so how can we achieve the dream? today they have a great opportunity to achieve this great dream. they are reportedly standing up

against the massacre and the several reforms on the human rights practices including the emerging national population of the family planning committee and the ministry of health which some say is the way to abolishing the family planning army. they pull into the two children policy and encourage to remove to allow the policy and the systems. in the past 25 years or hope was misplaced on the various leaders and actions but not anymore. let this year marks a new beginning that our hope is no

longer rooted but in god alone because it is the will to free china and he alone can accomplish that and indeed, god speaks about the idea 967 he said for to us a child is born and a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called the wonderful counselor, the mighty god, prince of peace and of the peace that will be no end. he will establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness from that time on it forever. they will accomplish this. that child is jesus. he was born 2,000 years ago. the promise of the nation is not depending on any free will between good and evil, the on

the faithful and trustworthy almighty god. that is where our hope relies on come and indeed they have accomplished it. when jesus died on the cross his last word was or is it is finished. so today the task of a free china is finished. it is no longer in the hands of any leader but in the mind of every chinese people who hear the good news and who chose forr themselves whether they want to choose jesus and three and make that decision for an hal him toe years ago. my good friend took me on a prayer meeting event on the june 4 anniversary 20 years ago and six months later the offered in god allows things to happen. on december 4 exactly six months later he brought me to him.

but i can testify despite the fact that today. it hasn't changed despite the fact they still remain uncertain and unknown, but jesus has set me free and i am pretty indeed physically, emotionally, and spiritually. god has no fear. the same choice is available to all where the spirit of the lord is, there is liberty. the prayer also chose freedom and embraced the political and spiritual reform for there is no force on earth that can stop the work to bring forth the people. the pharaoh cannot do that and the chinese communist is no match for the will of the

almighty god. they can continue to choose to do nothing -- >> we are going to have to -- >> yes, i know. i'm sorry. >> i will finish the rest later. hispanic i appreciate your testimony. anybody ask if you could proceed. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to this event. this is a day for remembrance and celebration. i would want to thank this committee for being such a powerful voice of freedom in china not only today but for many years in the past.

and especially to mr. smith. my name is joe and me and my family had agreed to follow the freedom that we enjoy as americans i was deeply involved in organizing the demonstration on tiananmen square. it was the greatest honor of my life that of the communist government, which made up of its list of its so-called tiananmen number of me number five on the list after chai ling. that was the first time i name showed up in any media. i did not receive that honor for there were many others that i

know that honor and thoughts more briefly, but i and organizing the protest i was responsible for building the night works that provide the medical support there was an ambulance every five minutes, and there was no traffic accident ever. and through that network, many people for the first time in their life were able to speak up their hope for freedom and democracy that was a fistful of hope and freedom. that is what i will never forg

forget. i belief in the history books are written, the protests will be seen as a major respect in bringing china to freedom in a democracy i know that will come. that is why for many years in the last 25 years every year, there are people in china that would risk their life and their freedom to commemorate the dream and the sacrifice of the prote protest. the freedom which i believe you and the members of the committee would bring about just as they state the soviet union we not only bring freedom to people in

china, perhaps even more importantly, they will be to the pc and the freedom that it will bring for the people of the world. the greatest issue that will define the 21st century will be the question of whether the democracy and the freedom come to china. the 21st century would be defined by the competition to see who builds better cars and computers but if they remain a dictatorship, it could be even more than the 20th century. so, the fight we fight here today is not only the fight for the people of china but for the freedom of our children, the fight for whether our children will lead in the world of peace and the freedom in the world of censorship.

these are the questions that we are dealing with but there are some countries that this congress can take to help his china closer to freedom and democracy. .. technologies that help

circumvent the firewall. will bring truth to china. every year i've met young chinese, this year many teenagers, who talked to me. the first thing they did arriving in the united states was to look for information about what happened 25 years a ago. and we will change because of that. they will see hope and dreams. and there's a lot we can do. specifically, i would ask you to allocate 10% of its funding to the technology that will circumvent the internet firewall.

second, globalization was a major -- in protest. but for chinese, ordinary chinese, has been taken as hostages and trade and investments has been used as a tool to promote censorship, and corrupt universal value. many chinese companies, a de facto government of a region, and through such arrangement they became powerful monopolies which shareholders may lack to invest in. but in doing such, we have

become, we are allowing commerce to be part of the trends that come in this is committing. -- communist is committing. promote free trade and free market. third one, recently the our lot of reasons for foreign journalists in china. this will no doubt create censorship, self-censorship for first foreign journalists. at the same time more and more chinese state media are setting up shops in the united states to broaden the reach of the brainwashing. this issue can not last for the

media alone. for example, bloomberg which reported of the ruling families that admitted that they will never do that again. and the journalists who were trying to probably such a report, had to leave. at least u.s. should firmly reach the issue of reciprocity at a strategic option a journalist visa. fourth, u.s. should reject visa entry to perpetrators of human rights violators. with the help of the internet we are able to gather information who are actively and waiting,

including those who killed protesters in 1989. not able to name one other person for the attack that run over people on the morning of june 4. as we know, doctor of current president -- daughter of current president and, is rejecting entry visa will be a powerful way to help the freedom fighters in china. thank you. >> thank you so very much, mr. zhou. i'd now like to ask mr. chen. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: chairmen and members of the committee -- >> could you bring the microphone closer to you, please. >> translator: good morning mr. chairman and members of the committee. thank you for having me testify before congress today. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: in the early hours of 1989, june 4, i witnessed girl student in boston were killed and shot on the avenue in beijing. and the workers, legs, were crippled. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: this bloody tragedy leaves a huge trauma in my heart that has never been

healed. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and on june 4, 1990, in peking university, my friend at the university were arrested for the first anniversary activities on campus. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and i was summoned by the police for harboring a suspect in my university dorm. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: on june 6, 1992, a man and a few other dozens including me were arrested and put in prison for three years on the charge of political assembly and party establishment.

[speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and again, october 1997 i was put behind bars again for 40 years for publishing materials in relation to the 9099 democracy movement. 40 days. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and in june 1999 i was summoned many times by the police for participating the 10th anniversary of the 1989 movement, along with others. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and in 2006, a group of the 1989 generation

were expelled out of the city, beijing, for establishing environmental ngo called regarding homeland, and these victims included a few others. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and in 2008 i was as one of the first signatories of charter '08, and i was summoned by the police. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and on february the second, 2014, we participate for the 25th anniversary of the massacre of 1989 movement, and i was in memory of those

victims, i was summoned twice and threatened with arrest. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and on may 5, 2014, as soon as i landed in this country on the petition for the 20th anniversary activities here, i learned of the arrest of my friend, and others were arrested. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and scholars and lawyers were also arrested for the first time. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: and some of my best friend, and a few others were either under house arrest or forced to be on the road or summoned or being want with things during this period. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: it's been 25 years since the violent crackdown of 1989 democracy movement. the regime has continued crude efforts to repress generation and why, we want to know why. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and the reality

of the past 25 years has proved that the ruling communist party, after the june 4 massacre come has no respect for god, no respected for them massacre and no historic sense for the future generations. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and following the mask of june 4, the ruling regime there has utilized resources to crash the chinese strength of democracy and the rule of law. and the government ruled out a possible of a peaceful, democratic transition through peaceful dialogue. and has continued its rule that

a strongman which has dramatically made that chinese a huge costs of governance. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and in these years that activities from all walks of life in china has been arrested, they include priests and lawyers and college teachers, as well as business people who has never given up their dream for a democracy for which the chinese people has been fighting over 100 years. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: these generation including ours, has been fighting for over, for 25 years and they never give up the hope. and i hope that the international community and those of justice shall not appease the evildoers while show their support for the forces of good. >> god bless the united states. god bless china. thank you very much. >> thank you so very much. we have an hour-long series of votes coming up at 11:15-11:30. i thought what might be an idea, have always asked a series of questions, and it is still time would go to a second round, but an hours worth of votes plus, we

will conclude after that and reconvene. i thought i would lay out some questions, ask my colleagues to do likewise but if you would mind answering those questions, would that be agreeable to the members? i wouldn't want to run out of time so we could get to everybody. let me ask first a threshold question about missed opportunities. frank wolf and i traveled in 1991, a couple of years after tiananmen square, went to beijing prison number one. there were 40 tiananmen square activists of their at-bat terrible blog inside of beijing. they wouldn't let us meet with them. they looked with their shaved heads like auschwitz inmates. it was a terrible, terrible observation that both of us made while we were there. about the mistreatment. candidate bill clinton when he ran against president, who became president bush, made the point that he thought that bush,

the first president bush, was coddling dictatorship. brent scowcroft make a quick trip over to beijing after tiananmen, ushered them in ways that i find totally unseemly and appalling. so i say this as a preference that i always don't see this as a partisan issue, but if somebody on one party side or the other enables, wittingly or unwittingly, these horrific abuses, they need to be called to task. when bill clinton got into office we have the votes to take away most favore favored nations away from china because of tiananmen square and human rights abuses that was proliferating and getting worse by the day. he said don't vote on that. i'll issued an executive order and there was a great executive order that listed all the human rights benchmarks, including significant progress in each of those areas. halfway through the year of review, i traveled to beijing

and i was told bluntly by chinese leaders that they're getting msn with no conditionality. i didn't live and i had a letter signed by one of members including mr. wolf, and nancy pelosi. 100 democrats, republicans, presented it to them and the chinese official with whom i was meeting looked at it and laughed. he said the fix is in. sure enough, in june, late me i should say, as a matter fact, -- late me i should say. on a late friday president clinton took his executive order to rip it in half and said it's no longer operative. we lost the ability to pass msn removal and the chinese government got away with murder. as i said earlier with regards to dr. yang, a few years later the butcher of beijing was at the white house being -- full

military honors. like you said he should've been sent to the hague to prosecution for crimes against humanity and was treated and carried around on a pillow. i say all this because now we have a situation where in december we had five daughters sit where you said, all of their dads are being tortured in china, and they said we are appealing to beijing, let our fathers go. then they turned around and said our appeal is the president obama. meet with us. you have two daughters. you will understand. our dads are being tortured. we love our debts. we want to be with them. we send over a letter, multiple phone calls, and would back was president obama doesn't have the time to meet with a five daughters. which i find to be and continue to find appalling. meanwhile, when hu jintao came to the united states, he met with the president and was asked questions about human rights at a joint press conference, and

the "washington post" did a scathing editorial in which they wrote, president obama makes hu jintao look good on rights. and as was observed by the "washington post" on january 19, 2011, the most significant statement of a joint news conference of obama and president hu jintao came in response to questions of the human rights. they point out that hu jintao was more forthright, that it was our president hu defended the situation in china. mr. obama retreated to the administration's approach to minimize the issue. he says there's been an evolution in china over the last 30 years. yes, it's been a deterioration. different economic gains, definitely military and security gains at the expense of fundamental human rights. dr. yang, you made an excellent point as far back as 1992, that the three realities, the third when you say was to rely on capitalizing on the dark side

and evil side of human nature, spoiling the elite in exchange for their loyalty. so give them money and they are the colonels to take off their uniforms and run a business on the side and they make money hand over fist, and repress the people. they also pointed out that the president never mentioned the nobel prize -- nobel peace prize winner and is a scathing editorial. without objection i will put it in the record. but missed opportunities. he would meet with a $5. i don't know what he will say. isn't the leader of the free world, and nobel peace prize winner and it seems to me, and again mr. wolf and i time and again, when george bush had is eight years in the white house, when he wanted to go to the olympics, we demanded that he meet with the dissidents before he went to the olympic games. we went over and raised human rights with everyone with whom we met. missed opportunity. we can't enable dictatorship. sadly i think president obama

and hillary clinton, her first trip to china, i'm not going to let it interfere with global climate change and selling the united states. so the post, hardly a conservative newspaper, takes the president -- hope is eternal. you can change. our president needs to speak boldly and he has not done so and hope maybe will. the 20th anniversary certainly is a great time for them to do for. one other point and then you'll to my colleagues. you mentioned, mr. zhou, about jesus. i wrote a lot in 2000 that says that we withhold visas to those who were involved or complicit with forced abortion policy of the people's republic of china. we checked with the congressional research services, how many visas have been denied? is a 28 years of george w. bush as well. less than 30. so again we have an example not of the law that is not being enforced and our people who are abusing women, the likes of

which you've never seen, who we can at least deny a visa to and send a message that we will not tolerate that kind of behavior. i will yield. >> thank you so much, chairman smith. major xiong, thank you for your service. >> thank you, sir. >> what an amazing passages you've had, dedication and leadership that you gave your own country, surviving tiananmen square and being in prison and, of course, coming to the united states, and after two years there, serving in our military, and now a chaplain. what an amazing story. i would like to better understand, of course you will were very much involved in the church, for which i've been a part of for many, many years but i would really like to understand the movement towards democracy and the freedom of religion and what america can do to better encourage that.

i have spoken out extensively, met with some of the chinese leadership your, even at a dinner last night. this is very much in my heart. as i said earlier, america has her own problems. so i don't want to come in the spirit of being condescending. ronald reagan said it well. we have our own evil to do with. but nontheless, the church has grown exponentially in china under enormous suppression. it hasn't decreased from what i've observed. i would really like to know further what we as americans can do to help those fellow leaders in china? >> thank you, sir. >> just so we don't miss with about -- take notes if you would.

>> major, you said in your comments, your disclaimer up front was the views you are about to express were your own and not the united states army, and my question is, how in the world do we get those views to be expressed by the united states army? and even more deeply held that kind of commitment to freedom and passion that you hold. so don't ever apologize for that, as long as i'm around because i think you are onto something. i appreciate that. i think you said that -- you spend some time in jail. so my question to you today is how did you feel the first few days when you spend time in

jail, were your efforts in vain? did you have any way of knowing you would be -- did you think are you believe good beer today? how did you feel a month later, and then a year later? and are you able to share that back home with people who might be getting discouraged? i'm going to let it go at that. we are short on time, mr. chairman, and i would just let it go at that. i'm very interested in debt. thank you. >> i'm very interested actually that you're talking about the internet and i was interested in your opinions about united states giving up control to russia and china. i can, as you are aware or maybe not aware, that we decided abdicate our responsibility over going to allow china and russia to help control the internet. also i'd like to know what kind come what companies in the united states, which i know i

think others have given routers and systems to track down dissidents in china. i'd like you, if you could anybody here on the panel, could describe which of those countries, companies in the united states are hoping the pla suppressed individual rights. thank you. >> thank you very much. chairman rohrabacher? >> i'd just like to express my solidarity with you again, and you should never feel that year alone. and i send this message to the people of china through you, that we are, some of us, i share your christian faith, but i think you could be atheists or the buddhists or other faiths as well, because what we're talking about is the basic freedom for people to make those choices, spiritual choices that really

count. and i am embarrassed that some people in my own party put money and profit over those values that our country stands for, but believe me, there are many, many other americans who are willing to sacrifice even economic profit in order to reach out and stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters who are struggling for liberty and justice in china and elsewhere. so i just wanted to express that solidarity to you and to the people of china through you. thank you spent thank you very much. i'd like to yield to the chairman of the commerce justice and science committee, mr. wolf. >> who, by the way was on the floor until past midnight last night with his appropriations

bill after what, 15 hours of debating amendments to that? so grateful that he was able to make it today. >> thank you. i don't have a question. i just want to thank you for your tenacity and her bravery and your courage and your testimony, fascinating and really i just want to thank you. i want to thank you. and secondly i want, and this idea came from mr. rohrabacher i want to thank mr. smith. mr. smith should be nominated for the nobel peace prize. mr. smith has done more on these issues than any other member of congress that i have ever served with a, so i just want to thank mr. smith for being tenacity and just say, and i think a great idea, members ought to circulate a letter nominating mr. smith for the nobel peace prize. but again, thank you for your courage.

>> mr. wolf, thank you very much for that. but, frankly, we're here to hear from the five heroes of tiananmen square. dr. yang? >> thank you. i totally agree with you, congressman wolf, about congressman smith, our great leader here. and i want to respond to your comment about the missed opportunity. truly there were missed opportunities in the aftermath of the tiananmen square massacre. as we can remember, just not long after the end of cold war, china was very weak, was in much more, almost everything from western democracies, especially united states, economically, politically. and china was very isolated

because of the massacre. but i think there was theory relating and even it is relating today that if china's economic progress and trade would inevitably result in more political freedom and guarantee basic human rights. ..

viable democracy movement and international support. of course there was a political crisis for the regime, and the democracy movement that time at least was very viable and enough time ithenext time it was a strh international support. the international community did not realize.

and the moment was there but over the past 25 years. the international capitalists have also been co-opted. china now has hope and also [inaudible] and this comes back to their own countries for example the u.s. acting as an apologist and lobbyist for the chinese government.

the human rights are never a partisan issue. so this is a great sign that the leaders of the two parties come together to get the right message across to china and the rest of the world and that we remember what a her the hero din china and we know that their demand has not been fulfilled in china. the americans should openly and expressly express the support

for the activities in china and as my friend said, the u.s. congress should pass the bill to have trouble on those individuals human rights violators in china and in the last year that congress passed the law which imposed the abusers and a freeze off assets and we should have a similar bill about china got in many ways it's much worse human rights abuser. so i think we have a lot to do together to improve china's human rights situation. thank you mr. chairman and.

>> i would point out before going to be other answers we are working on a bill that would do just that but we've called on the obama administration to call on the law that orders visas to those that are complicit in the heretic forced abortion policy. and they have not enforced the law. but we will follow up and i know that we are working on that and it is a great idea. thank you mr. chairman. >> good morning, sir, thank you so much for the encouragement. i'm very grateful to be here today and i'm very grateful to the u.s. citizens. i am so proud to serve our country. however, by god's grace and with your help, someday i will come back and fight for the democracy, human rights and the freedom of course.

to answer the question to say what can we do for helping the other religious groups what can we do? when you have the authority and the wonderful inference on china they pay attention to you and when you say one word, they are going to deliver the better tradition. i have some suggestions for all of you to prosecute any religious group but by god's grace a lot of people know the creator is not of the communist party or of the political party if the creator of the people for more people they turn to god so

they can pay to those that are persecuted and i think that maybe we can get a little bit more to come to the usa in this country and the religious training. of course we still pay more attention to those that are persecuted right now in jail. that is a lot of good influence on the world.

they've recall is that a moment of a pay attention to the students in jail so relatively it is much better than if we do not. i know in the case now when we do not pay attention, the present conditions are hard rubble. physical abuse, physical torture, visible torture, you can kind of imagine. so please can you imagine they were put in jail again

[inaudible] so you can serve them come and another thing, another question that i would like to answer and talk about, i love the u.s. army and i was so proud to serve as the army chaplain major. but they still give me the floor and still encourage me with a via opinion or the view today i just represented myself. i have one personal story. they have a different way. like myself i didn't see my mother for many, many years. a couple of years ago anytime i wanted to call my brother she would repeat one question.

my son when are you coming to see me and i would say very so soon. but recently she does not ask that question more she would hang up the telephone and my father would tell me she has lost most of her memory and cannot recognize me anymore. my mother would recognize me and say that's my son. i would say that's my mother. that's our hope. but a lot of tragedy. as my best friend would say the experience as we all listen. when we have a voice here, the channel will be changed. thank you so much.

>> thank you. >> i would like to address the two questions. do we have missed opportunities coming up with is the second one? how can america do more to support? yes america in deed missed an opportunity from the very beginning on the ninth of june 4. i was there with my last 5,000 students at tiananmen square and my position at the time of the commander-in-chief on the kennedy while my colleague was on the street. we were there until 6 a.m. in the morning hoping that americans would come to help us and they never came. i was heartbroken after ten months in hiding and spending on hundred five hours in a cargo box until i was able to come to america and ask why.

i didn't get an answer. later i went to the former ambassador of china who came back and i went to see him and i said sir, why did america not come? and he set of said off the recoy do not care. i was heartbroken. but that was the unfortunate truth because of the time, president george bush sent immediately to visit not the people of th or the victims in , not the victims families, but the dictators who ordered the massacre. we visited and expressed my deep regret and disappointment. he apologized and said we are sorry. but that was not enough.

that was one nation under god. that's the america that we knew and that we had hoped for. that's not the america that i knew in the past 25 years. so today is a new day. start from yesterday when the speaker came to christmas you came together. you came in together representing an amazing nation to support those who struggle and fight for freedom from who e and given hope up. the most beautiful thing is even though america hasn't come, god has come to america. god has come to each one of us would have done shaking hope. i love what you just said in your belief.

i would encourage you all to speak about your belief to the chinese and two americans. i do not understand the amendment to prohibit the government to promote a religion but also it should not prohibit any relation. i came to america for 19 years and never heard from princeton and harvard, i went through the entrepreneurship wall street consulting firms, i came to the congress and met read media reports and heard about god and jesus with a story of a chinese leader who was persecuted in china over and over again. he was put from food and water for 70 days god didn't let him buy that restored him to life.

his two legs were broken and he cried out. how can i do that? he said get up and go. he got up at eight in the morning facing all of the machine guns. but they stopped him and came to the streets of the cab driver to say where do you want to go. they said the lord gave us the newnews that you would be coming here we shall prepare a hiding place for you. let's go there and within half an hour they were in a safe house and they realized that his legs were healed. i realized this god is the god that i have been searching all of my life when i was being rescued by the greatest people

in china because they belief to save lives about all they didn't even want to kill mosquitoes. that's why they risk their life to save me. he became the first two people expending 200 people network that during the ten month search in hiding great rewards now these families betrayed me. and so i thought i was healed that day. i was finally given the chance to know this god and i do encourage all of the american leaders to exercise your freedom of speech and freedom of real agenda and to not only share your faith, but also welcome your face with your policies and decisions and with your support. thank you. >> and god bless you my sister. i'm honored to be called your brother in christ and apologize for how we have gravely

disappointed you and many other believers and i hope we can do better. better. >> thank you so much. i am also a singer so i forgave the american leaders and the police into those that have told us, that was god i have hope for truth and reconciliation when they. >> i can hear your spirit and i sense that from the spirit of the forgiveness and understanding of those that hurt him in the past as well. >> talking about lost opportunities, i think that china was a major event, and prior to that after a few months after the tiananmen massacre they move to the events toomey

and i think basically changed the landscape of a lot of things. i was released on the first debate in the nation in the united states the first year after the tiananmen massacre a week before that and together many others were released. in china we joined the wto leverage that was lost completely. and for now, i think the international committee has not figured out a way to deal with this corrupting global trade in the regime in which you trade the investment to promote their values, and you have the u.s.

policy that's not dealing with it. for example, microsoft in their search will buy something completely irrelevant just because it is very remotely related to the image in china. this is a u.s. company following the dictatorship of beijing. and you also have the companies like google who refused to do business in china and stand up for its principles. talking about lost opportunities, i reflect on this a lot. i think that for our protesters, there were a lot of opportunities. the massacre was a tragedy that a small fraction clustered with

the massacre. without the proper procedure even in the communist party, and it overruled even its own majority of its own people. for example, they stayed with the protesters indiana and squar--tiananmen square and saii don't think the troops will come. also this year i had the honor of meeting with the official that openly reject the massacre and lost his position and what's even more encouraging is that

two or three years later. when there was an election even in the party controlled assembly to vote down some level that waits the clearing and vote for the people that are against it. so, it was a losing opportunity for the chinese. so it is a small portion of the ruling class that overruled the people's will and you and the majority of the communist, and

even today, the tiananmen protest remains one issue that can unify the chinese for a better china. this is where there is a majority support from the ordinary people and anyone who is sincere about the reform in china >> are there any final comments from my colleagues? about eight years ago i chaired a series of hearings with microsoft, google and yahoo! because they were infamously censoring practically every thing that went on the internet and doing other things helping

with the ability for the command control which was a terribly enabling. i showed on the tv we did a live demonstration using the search engines and we got nothing but pretty pictures. even on the image is par the imn the search engines for news or website information all blocked by u.s. companies and a series of questions they couldn't give me a reason why they were doing it other than following the chinese law so that remains a problem. you want to briefly speak to the fact that people in china still don't know who are brought up in a totally propaganda country where the internet and the great firewall precludes that information. how do we pierce that wall to

get the information. they said that china suffers moral decay yet the persecutions of christians particularly the underground christian church, the muslims and the buddhists have gotten exponentially worse in the last few years and it was already bad. yet frank wolf, the commission of the chairman testified may 22 right here and said we have not had a designation of the country of particular concern and egregious violators since 2011 and that means china and the enforcement in the bill there are approximately 18 enforcement actions which are very significant and are off being applied anywhere else as a direct result of that and we

practically begged the administration to get serious including china but they have not even renewed the designations of the countries currently that were on the list and the other eight that ought to be on it according to the commission. would you speak to that? and again you mentioned the internet. do my colleagues want to make any final comments? >> china like all of the hypocrisies continue to lie and violence and corruption.

so the controlling information as the major strategy that helped continue. so information is the power. it's very important. but what i want to say first before i get to the internet is that people do not have to know the massacre to know the truth of their government because they live this government in their everyday life so they understand the nature of the government and the demand for freedom so they don't have to know the truth about the massacre to know the situation in china. but anyway, the information will help them to stand up for their rights. so i heard the bill was

introduced in the house about helping the internet of freedom in china with a big budget, and at this moment we want to call on all of the congress shall members and leaders to realize the importance of internet freedom for the people on the ground and in china and of these resources can help people develop technology that is needed and necessary for people to get around the firewall to get information provided by the government. i am not naturalized.

i'm not a u.s. citizen. i may chinese citizens still, and i don't think that i'm in the position to be criticized by the government and the american people for not giving enough of us. so the democracy movement must be homegrown. what i want to talk about is not that. some people believe that the united states cannot approach china on human rights issues because while the u.s. seeks the corporation on the economic national security on the national interest of the u.s.. when they are talking about the national interest of the u.s. and the economic business opportunity for the american capitalists in china.

so if americans do not cooperate in the government, others will go as well. but i often urge my american friends have you ever had a calculation, how much american taxpayers money would be saved if china became a democratic? so remember, china is a dictatorship with economic growth in southeast asia it is really disturbing. so, i want you to ask this question again, having any calculation of how much money would be saved if china becomes the democratic national interest in this country, not about

chinese citizens. thank you. >> we are out of time regrettably with the votes. i would ask unanimous consent that we have a statement for the record and his objection would've been a part of the record. i've alway always belief that is two essential elements to prosper and that is the concern of the information propaganda and the police. and when we enable either of those coming and we have enabled without any reasonable doubt that propaganda aside, we have done a great injustice to the chinese people. we are out of time i deeply grieved grabbed that i want to thank all of you for your extraordinary humanitarian service to your fellow sufferers

in china because i'm sure the burden that you carry is very deep and very strong. but also to the rest of the world because china is spreading its bad governance model on how they are enabling dictatorships like in sudan and many others, so the free democratic china will be the force to good not just for the chinese people but the rest of the globe and i think we have to double our efforts as never before and in the anniversary i disagree with president obama that they have made progress in the last 30 years. they have made a significant regression and it is a race to the bottom with north korea when it comes to human rights and it's about time that this country spoke out with some boldness -- and i led the effort in the congress to name him as the nobel peace prize winner.

really all of you should be on that as well as men and women of great character. the president doesn't raise that effectively, never publicly when he is with anybody else. those days of fighting under the sand have to change and this is a new appeal and they should meethat theyshould meet with thu at the white house to talk about human rights in china and we will make that request as well. thank you. the hearing is adjourned.

>> committee members are taking a recess for votes on the house floor. in the chamber members working on a bill setting out intelligence programs for the 16 u.s. intelligence agencies for the next two years. a possible vote could come this afternoon.

soon after we had our initial success with google, another site launched, youtube, and it started growing faster. a lot faster and all of a sudden, we saw the newfound success slipping away. just after we thought that we were winning, we found out that we were losing. we were scared and confused. very quickly i have to make a tough call. do we pretend that things are

okay and try to fix them and build google video and hope that we catch up or admit our failure and look to a choir youtube, a company with no revenue, lots of legal liability. it was only a year old com, andy 1.6 billion? just as we were making the decision as if it were not hard enough, in industry vetera and d internet investor published an article saying only a moron would buy youtube. so, what's been the result when you have this classic economic holdout problem with video, you have companies doing

a game of chicken where they cut off service to customers and now they are starting to block traffic on the internet service for customers come into the ultimate result is they are up and up. you wonder why your cable bill keeps going up? one reason is the resolution of the transmission where the fcc is really hamstrung by the rules and at the way that it's interpreted the mandate to get involved. the easy result is the parties eventually agreed to the deals that raised prices and give consumers lots of channels they don't actually want, so that's what i'm afraid of. i think that's to say that internet connection happens in a private way is great and there should be room but if we get to that point i think it would be a tragic outcome. >> this weekend of the impact of the open internet from the

progressive policy institute saturday morning at ten eastern. and iraq war veteran yesterday testified that he may have gone blind because his va center doctor did not have the right medical information appearing before the house veterans subcommittee travis fugate says it was depressing. this hearing is about two hours. >> good morning. the hearing will come to order. i want to welcome everybody to today's hearing entitled assessing the adequacy's in the va data usage and services

provided to the visually impaired veterans. my name is mike coffman and i'm proud of hearing testimonies and asking questions of the witness. i ask each of you to state your name and identify who is speaking. thank you for your cooperation. now let us begin. this hearing focuses on continued problems within the va that have caused its contribution to the vision center of excellence to stagnate and allow the systems to continue to operate in noncompliance with section 508 of the americans with disabilities act and compromised other services provided to veterans with visual impairmen impairments. the creation of the vision center of excellence as we refer to as today was mandated by the

national defense authorization act of fy 2008. stay to the department of defense was required to create a facility and to collaborate with the department of veterans affairs in doing so. one of the main responsibilities required in the 2008 for the operation was to, quote, enable the secretary of veterans affairs to assess the registry and add information pertaining to additional treatment or surgical procedures and eventual visual outcomes for veterans who were entered into the registry and subsequently received treatment due to the veterans health administration the department of veterans affairs and registry which we would also

refer to as the registry today for convenience. they've done a commendable job of populating the registry with over 20,000 unique patient injuries however the more recent number. one compared to 20,000 in the october briefing that staff stated that the one entry was a test to ensure the transfer of information would work. so a sensually the va would not enter any veterans information into the registry which precludes the va from the main foley contributing to the very purpose that the registry was created.

quote, to collect the diagnosis, surgical intervention, operative procedures and related treatments and a follow-u folloh significant eye injury incurred while serving on active duty. we will hear from a veteran today who will articulate the importance of the va fulfilling its obligation to contribute to the registry. another major issue we will address today is the continued failure to bring its information systems into full compliance with section 508 of the americans with disabilities act. section 508 addresses access for people with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities into various types of technologies.

wheeler said of the ongoing problems with the va regarding section 508 compliant. both memory and a reference to the recent artists conducted by the va showed that most of the content information on the va website was not section 508 compliant. on the dashboard summary analysis of every review showed the status of less than 50% compliance with section 508 and some of the notable examples include va jobs.

they are 100% critical. the critical analysis states that the ballistic percentage is the amount of that website that is completely inoperable. they are making great strides in bringing the va systems into compliance with section 508. however, we will also hear from a blinded veteran who must actually navigate the pages himself. he may be inclined to disagree. i recognize this as kirkpatrick. >> i am ranking member kirkpatrick from district one in arizona. we are examining the department

of veteran's role in the operation of the vision centers of excellence into section 508 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 compliance as they relate to the proper accessing the services for blinded veterans. we will also hear the testimony of mr. glenn minney on the hr 1284. the bill introduced by my colleague and ms. brownlee and member of the committee on better into tears and ranking member of the subcommittee on health. this bill will expand the beneficiary travel coverage program for some veterans who are not currently eligible for the beneficiary travel, but who are in need of treatment at one of the blind rehabilitation centers or spinal cord injury locations. we look forward to hearing your testimony, and as a result of being a cosponsor of 1284.

we would greatly benefit and become capable of living independently in their own hom homes. however, some of these government are not able to receive these treatments because of high travel costs and an eligibility of the beneficiary travel under the va programs and this is a special problem in my district which is a very large district in arizona and the veterans have to go through three different veterans, hospitals depending on where they live and travel for hundreds of miles. this bill will expand eligibility for the travel so that more veterans are able to receive the rehabilitative treatments. i understand that in the current context that injuries have accounted for approximately 15%

of all of the battlefield trauma is. as many as 75% of traumatic brain injuries that can affect their quality of life. when the vision center was envisioned and established through the 2008 national defense authorization act, the department of defense in collaboration with the department of veterans affairs was tasked with prevention, diagnosis, mitigation, treatment, and rehabilitation of the eye injuries. while it took some time i understand that the center is now functioning. although problems such as staffing, funding and policy remained challenging. in addition to the center, the 2008 national defense authorization act also required the establishment of a vision

registry. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on the progress of that collaboration, especially th the emerald eyed o the seamless transfer of the vision care data to division registry. mr. chairman, while the war may be winding down, we know that if the need fothe need for the resh country and rehabilitation will remain for the eye injury veterans for decades to come. today we are also looking at the departmenthedepartment of the vs affairs compliance with section 508 of the 1973 rehabilitation act. section 508 addresses access for the disabled two different types of technology. according to the va testimony, the systems are still not compliant with the law. one of the witnesses describes the difficulty of navigating through the website because they are not 508 compliant area causing him frustration and able

to fix to that time to get the information that he is looking for. the veterans are already challenged and we should be working as fast as we can to ensure that the next encounter on the website will not be so difficult. i would like to hear from the panel what they are doing to become compliant. why is it taking so long and what resources are needed if any to become compliant? we need to get this right sooner rather than later. thank you mr. chairman and. >> think you ranking member kirkpatrick. i ask that all members weigh their opening remarks for the committee's custom. with that, i welcome the first panel on the witness table. on this panel we will hear from mr. travis fugate, national guard retired.

did i say that right clicks united states army retired and the director of the government relations for the blinded veterans association. all of your complete return statements will be made a part of the hearing record. mr. fugate, you are now epitomized for ten minutes. >> thanks to a chair man and ranking member for inviting me here to speak again. it was over five years ago that i came here to speak. only a week before the day that i spoke i've been told that my

vision was totally gone. i wouldn't see again. most people that reviewed the case agreed that the vision that i had lost -- let me explain something further. when i was injured i had some remaining vision, and i've had it for three years and then i got an infection within the va and the doctors didn't have access to the proper medical data. so, they failed to do preventative surgeries. so when i had an emergency situation, they didn't have access to the medical documentation which may have led to the vision loss that resulted after the surgery. since i was here before, i've

went on, i went to school and i've worked to improve myself and my life. i've been active in the va and the blinded veterans association trying to help other blinded veterans. i need other blinded man coming from the war every year. i'm interested in hearing you ask questions about how things have changed since the testimony in march, 2009 which i participated. some young men went to the va as i did with his doctors able to have access to electronic data

that allowed them to perform the preventative surgeries and see all the surgeries they had in the past, or she. i'm open for questions. >> [inaudible] >> mr. fugate. and mr. kebbel, you are now recognized for five minutes. as a blinded veteran i've had an opportunity to assist other blinded veterans on how to use websites. we've done a good job of describing what 508 is with compliance. we've done a good job of stating that we need to do something about it.

i want to talk about what we have done yet, okay? as i was asked to investigate the ten websites or webpages for this testimonial, i had the opportunity to design with some help from some other blinded veterans before that helped us evaluate each of those webpages. in my opinion each of those webpages failed. each of the pages failed in different areas. some were very major and some were very minor. when i get the opportunity to read a web page, i would like to be able to navigate properly. and i can do that with headings. and headings is a way for a nonvisual person like myself to navigate a webpage.

one of the pages i evaluated had no heading level on the page, which means i have to navigate the whole webpage to find out what the purpose of the webpage is. a sighted person can visualize it and see what's the purpose is right away. another page that i had the opportunity to evaluate was one with link problems coming and i was kind of interested when you said that the page failed 100%, i'm in total agreement with that one. and i went to the webpage, i listed the links on the page and there were 217 of them and these were links to forums. every one of them were named by a numerical number, they had no description on what form was. the other one was another one i

evaluated where i went to the webpage. the first one i downloaded was a form to fill in. the first one i noticed was an image file. for those of us that use the screen we know that we can't look at pictures and that is an image file. so, i cannot read that image file. the second thing is that it was a form i was supposed to be able to fill out. well if iwhile if it is an imagd there are no edit boxes on the page, i can fill in the information needed to fill out that form. so, when i hear that we are making progress on it, it's difficult for me to believe. i would like the same opportunity to read a webpage as

a sighted person. and i can do that on the webpages. i can go to the open culture from stanford university and access all of their information. i can do a lot of things on a particular webpage. i can go to the library of congress and to do the same thing. i can go to the national federation of the blind which is one of the best websites i know of and read as if i were a sighted person. what concerns me the most is that we are sitting here arguing about are we compliant or not. when i went to vietnam, i went as a volunteer. i didn't go because it was the law. i went because i thought that it was the right thing to do. and as we sit here now, i think the right thing is to do is to make it compliant whether it is

not the law or not. i think it is just an issue of that we have the right to do it. as i look back in the 20th century that it became in fact while now, 13% into the 21st century, and as far as i'm concerned we haven't made any progress, and i'm not going to be around for the 22nd century, so i don't think i'm really going to see anything happen. thank you. >> [inaudible] no different than a denial of care. mr. minney, you have five minutes for your remarks.

>> chairman coffman, ranking member kirkpatrick and other members of the house on the committee on oversight and investigation, thank you for allowing the veterans association and its members to appear before you today. the blinded veterans association is here to express our views regarding the specific issues. the issue i'm going to discuss is hr 1284 the beneficiary travel. as a director of the government relations i've already spent more hours and days with members of the house committee on veterans affairs regarding this bill. for the veterans that are currently ineligible which are not beneficiary travel, title 38 section 111 does not cover the cost of travel for those not connected to veterans to one of the 13 blind rehab centers. or to any of the 28th spinal

cord injury locations. if the law continues to stay as right hand, the veteran must bear the financial hardship of purchasing their own mode of travel to one of these rehab centers. the costs will certainly continue to discourage the veteran from traveling to a blind rehab center or spinal cord injury center. at this time, most of them on a service-connected veterans are of the age of 67-years-old, and their blindness and their vision impairment is due to the age-related conditions. ..

we're just wanting the wording -- the language to stay that 1284 covered nonservice connected veterans as well as service connected veterans. so they can have the access to the rehab centers that the va has out there. the 13 blind rehab centers and the 29 spinal cord injury facilities in a letter, undersecretary of health "d" robert jesse stated va supports the intent of broadening