Transcript of Congressman Barney Frank’s Comments on Third Anniversary of Yang Jianli’s Detention
April 26, 2005
Washington, D.C.

Rep. Barney Frank

Jared said actually that I represent Yang Jianli's family. But more important is that Yang Jianli represents all of us who believe in democracy. This is a man of considerable professional achievement, a wonderful family, who put himself in jeopardy, not to do anyone any harm, but to advance the cause of democracy and human rights. And I've acknowledged that he was technically in violation of Chinese immigration law. And the Chinese government was within its power to expel him. And a period…a brief period of detention...well, they had a right to it, and we would not have objected.

But for all the imprisonment and mistreatment of a man whose only crime was caring too much about democracy . . .and going back to . . .and not just about democracy but about China. This is a man born in China who has maintained his commitment to that nation. And who went there to try to bring to his fellow Chinese the kind of rights he had come fully to understand and enjoy here in the U.S. And I am absolutely baffled why the Chinese government, which has every expectation, given its size and its economy, given its potential military power, given its culture and its history, this is a country which has every right to be treated seriously as a member in good standing among a community of nations. But it will not happen as long as they engage in this kind of barbarism.

There is simply no justification for the fury with which they have turned the massive power of this large nation on one man who was guilty only of commitment to principle. And I think it is important for the Chinese government to understand that as long as they continue this brutal mistreatment of Yang Jianli, as long as they keep this man from his wife and his children, and as long as they demonstrate that they fear, that they fear a simple statement of the validity of basic human rights, they will not have that place in the world community to which they aspire.

And many of us, indeed a majority of us in the U.S. Congress, will continue to oppose efforts by the Chinese to get us to overlook these kinds of abuses. I should add that as I condemn what the Chinese have done, and as I noted it is far worse than anywhere I have seen, I would also add I have want as an official of the American government to have the moral standing to be critical of this kind of abuse. And that is why, in a related context, I fight so hard to see that my own government shows the kind of respect for human rights that I want others to show. I don't mean to equate this with what’s happened with the mistreatment of Yang Jianli, but neither have we been as fully respectful with regard to immigration issues and of basic rights and as we should be.

So yes, this is a major problem between the Congress of the United States and the People's Republic of China, and they should understand that. But I will continue to work as I can to let the Chinese government understand that they are paying a price for the abuse of Yang Jianli that can't possibly be in their interest.

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Source: "yangjianli.com".