; Whereas the Communist Party of China faced its first existential threat to power in June 1989, the same year the Berlin Wall collapsed, when students and professors peacefully demonstrated for democracy at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China; Whereas hundreds of the protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lost their lives at the hands of the Government of the People's Republic of China after the government sent troops and tanks to sweep the square clean; Whereas Liu Xiaobo, a visiting lecturer at Columbia University in the United States, left the United States to help lead the protest at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China; Whereas Liu Xiaobo initiated the Tiananmen Four Gentlemen Hunger Strike, which lasted 3 days; Whereas Liu Xiaobo is credited with saving the lives of many students by helping negotiate evacuation of the students from Tiananmen Square; Whereas Liu Xiaobo was detained and jailed from 1989 to 1991 for his role in the protest at Tiananmen Square, and then jailed again in 1996 through 1999 for advocating that the Government of the People's Republic of China redress its wrongdoing in the student protest; Whereas, in 1996, Liu Xiaobo married Liu Xia, who has stood bravely by his side as a partner and fellow activist; Whereas, on December 9, 2008, a diverse group of more than 300 Chinese scholars, writers, lawyers, and activists issued Charter 08, a manifesto calling on the Communist Party of China to abandon authoritarian rule in favor of democracy, the guarantee of human rights, and the rule of law; Whereas Charter 08 boldly declared: The New China established in 1949 is a people’s republic in name, but in reality it is a party domain. The ruling party monopolizes all the political, economic, and social resources. It has created a string of human rights disasters … causing tens of millions of deaths, and exacting a disastrous price from both the people and the country.