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“DEMANDING THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA IMMEDIATELY RELEASE MARK SWIDAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S1587-S1588 on May 10.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
DEMANDING THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND THE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA IMMEDIATELY RELEASE MARK SWIDAN
Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, a few months ago, I spoke on this floor about Mark Swidan, who has been unjustly imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party for over a decade. Mark is from Luling, a small city in my home State of Texas. His mother, Miss Katherine Swidan, still lives in Luling. And for the last 11 years, Mark has endured a living hell, trapped in a Chinese prison. He is exposed to extreme heat and extreme cold. He is deprived of sleep. He is subjected to physical abuse. Mark has also been denied access to his family and to American diplomats.
And in 2019, a Chinese court sentenced Mark to death. Mark is being unjustly held by the Chinese Communist Party as a hostage. The CCP tells us that China is a great power, but this is how Third World thugs and dictators act.
I called for Mark's immediate release and called on the Biden administration to use any and every available means to secure Mark's freedom.
I am deeply distressed that since my speech on the floor a few months ago, Mark's plight has deepened. Recently, a Chinese court reaffirmed the death sentence imposed on him with a suspension for 2 years.
That is wrong, and it is outrageous. We need Mark to come home.
It is worth revealing how breathtakingly, infuriatingly unjust all of this is. How did it happen? On November 13, 2012, Mark was abducted by China's Public Security Bureau while he was in China on a business trip. A witness to the abduction said that Mark was detained because Chinese officials wanted to view the contents of his cell phone.
The Chinese officials accused Mark of being part of a criminal conspiracy to manufacture and traffic drugs with 11 other individuals--charges that Mark has denied and which have been debunked over and over again.
Chinese officials tried to coerce Mark into confessing. Mark refused and pleaded not guilty in a trial in November 2013. During the trial, the prosecution didn't produce any forensic evidence to back up their allegations, and no drugs--zero--were ever found on Mark or in his hotel room. Mark's passport and other records show that he wasn't even in China at the time of the alleged offenses, and the 11 other individuals indicted in relation to this alleged drug conspiracy--none of them could identify Mark. The charges against Mark were completely bogus and false.
Meanwhile, Mark's mom Katherine is aching to see her son again. Her heart is breaking. This is a mom who wants to hold and hug and care for the son she loves.
I have been working with the Biden administration, and I have been pushing Chinese officials at a senior level to release Mark, but more needs to be done, and it needs to be done much more quickly.
Now, Secretary of State Blinken was planning to travel to China in February, and we had been pressing the State Department to make Mark's case a major priority for the Biden administration on the trip. Then what happened? A Chinese spy balloon came over the United States, and Secretary Blinken canceled his trip.
It is time to apply more pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to let Mark go and let him come home to Texas.
Madam President, the Chinese Communist Government is a tyrannical government. They don't like it when you turn up the heat. They don't like it when you shine a light on their atrocities. There is power in shining a light, and there is power in unity.
We need to bring Mark home. In a moment, I am going to propound a live UC request on a resolution I have introduced with my colleague from Texas, Senator John Cornyn. When it passes, the Senate will, with one unanimous bipartisan voice, reiterate these declarations.
The resolution calls on the CCP to immediately release Mark. It condemns China from withholding from Mark access to his family, to diplomats, and to proper and independent medical care. And it calls on the Biden administration to prioritize efforts to secure Mark's release, both in their conversations with Chinese diplomats and in international forums.
No opportunity should be lost in urging Chinese officials, at every level of engagement, to release Mark. The Biden administration must use the voice and the vote of American diplomats to highlight his case.
This resolution has already passed the House. It will now pass the Senate. The United States Congress is with a united and unanimous voice condemning and calling to end the unjust imprisonment of Mark Swidan by the Chinese Communist Party. Enough is enough.
Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 53, S. Res. 23.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 23) demanding that the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China immediately release Mark Swidan.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the resolution.
Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 23) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
(The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in the Record of February 1, 2023, under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
Mr. CRUZ. I yield the floor.
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