[Vision2020] China's Human Rights Violations

Sun Mar 12 08:02:11 PST 2006

Ted,

 "Some on this list seem to think that business with  China should not be linked to substantive demands (with teeth, in other  words, US based corporations who do business in China would be  more aggressively regulated by the US government to push  for, and/or not cooperate with, human rights violations) to  improve China's human rights conduct." 

  I have never met a soul that defended the human rights record of China.
  Most people agree that something should be done. However, boycotting  ONE store that buys junk from China while visiting another store  instead for selling the same junk from China seems ludicrous; almost as  ludicrous as the notion of an economic boycott working to improve the  human rights record China.

 Economic sanctions, unlike  military sanctions, do not work, unless of course your goal is to  punish the citizens of that country that are not part of the decision  making process. Did economic sanctions work in Cuba? How about Iraq?  How much suffering did the Iraqi and Cuban people endure as opposed to  that of Saddam and Castro? Some children in Cuba are so malnourished  that if they fall down their bones crumble. Did that teach Castro? Did  that improve things for Cuba and the world? No, it did not, it only  served to solidify the power and control of Castro for another 50  years. And we all know the horror stories of economic sanctions on Iraq  and how it hurt those people.

 If the US actually enforced  human rights agreements with China through economic sanctions it would  damage the citizens of China, the US economy, and the world economy  more than do anything to curve human rights violations or hurt the  leaders of Chinese Communist Party. 

 Image if you would,  ending trade with China. What a nightmare. Millions of Chinese and  American workers would be out of work. Chinese workers would have to  give up their 35 cent an hour manufacturing jobs in the city and return  to the rice fields for 9 cents an hour, giving up their medical,  housing, and ability to send money to their family members. US citizens  would lose their jobs. First, would be the people that work at the  ports and shipping yards. Then would be all the people that make goods  to be exported. Then would be bankers and private investors that have  invested in all the capital to make these goods. Next would be the  stock market. That is not to mention that the price of goods would soar  not being able to be manufactured in China or any place that violated  US standards for human rights. 

  I agree we need to fix this problem, but unenforceable economic sanctions that punish the wrong people is not the solution.

  _DJA

Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:   
  All:

  Some  on this list seem to think that business with China should not be  linked to substantive demands (with teeth, in other words, US based  corporations who do business in China would be more aggressively  regulated by the US government to push for, and/or not cooperate  with, human rights violations) to improve China's human rights  conduct.  

  I think if we are going  to follow this "free market engagement" approach, we should  know explicitly and in detail what human rights violations the US  is, in effect (not officially, of course), condoning in China.  I  find it odd in the extreme that we often find high minded moral  posturing defending the US invasion of Iraq, based on the human rights  violations that were occurring in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, yet many  in the US seem to be rather bored with the mention of the large scale  and horrific human rights abuses in China.  Much less do we  often hear anyone insisting that with haste the US should  begin rescuing the Chinese people from the totalitarian abuses of the  Chinese Communist Party.  Why is Saddam Hussein such a reviled and  hated person, yet the premier of China, leader of a government  connected to horrific human rights abuses that now owns a huge  chunk of the US debt, cannot even be named by most US citizens?  

  Toppling  the Chinese Communist government would be a military nightmare,  even more insane than our current Iraq debacle to democratize  Iraq.  But how did the USA approach the "evil empire" of the  Communist Soviet Union, to quote Ronald Reagan?  By warm and fuzzy  "economic engagement?"  No, the US fought wars, many of  them "proxie" wars, but wars nonetheless, to undermine the military and  economic power of the Soviet Union.  We weren't handing the Soviet  Union the advantages of our economic and technological developments on  a silver platter, like we are doing with China.  When it comes to  totalitarian Communist China, the multinational business sector appears  to have the US government, and even our media (why can't US citizens  name the premier of China?), dancing to their tune to allow them  access to China's "captive" labor markets, downplaying the US and free  world security risks and large scale human rights abuses, that China  presents.  Given the military t!
 hreat
 China may pose in the future,  I think a good argument could be made that in the long run,  China's WMDs, among them nuclear weapons coupled with  sophistication missile technology, present more of threat to the  stability and security of the "free world," than Iraq's WMDs ever  did.  Of course, Iraq never had, nor was ever close to,  having a nuclear weapon.  

  The  US State Dept. provides a summery of human rights abuses in China  in the"Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" that should  illuminate some of the moral concerns involved in US corporations  doing business in China: 

  http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27768.htm

  Do  you think horror of the Tiananmen slaughter by China's government is a  relic of the "old" China, before the improvements in human rights some  say have been occurring due in part to US "engagement?"  Then why  are thousands still imprisoned in China over actions during  that democratic movement? 

  "Credible  sources estimated that as many as 2,000 persons remained in prison at  year's end for their activities during the June 1989 Tiananmen  demonstrations."

  What about the  "gulags" in China, labor camps that echo the tactics of  Stalin in the Soviet Union?  Those are on the way out, given  the progress of US "engagement" in improving China's human rights,  correct?  No! 

  "Over 250,000  persons were serving sentences, not subject to judicial review, in  "reeducation-through-labor" camps. In April, inmate Zhang Bin was  beaten to death in a reeducation-through-labor camp, prompting public  debate on reeducation through labor and calls to abolish the system." 

  It  seems there is "fairly tale" mentality involved in how US citizens view  human rights in China.  We tend to think there is steady and real  progress being made on human rights in China, with the "free market"  changes being introduced.  After all, the mantra from the US  "pro-free trade engagement" model to justify not taking a more  substantive forceful approach to improving China's human rights, is  that US engagement with free trade will eventually create a climate  where China will improve its human rights of its own accord.   Really?  Then why does the US State Dept. describe what is  happening in China on various human rights issues as "backsliding?" 

  "Although  legal reforms continued, there was backsliding on key human rights  issues during the year, including arrests of individuals discussing  sensitive subjects on the Internet, health activists, labor protesters,  defense lawyers, journalists, house church members, and others seeking  to take advantage of the space created by reforms. Citizens did not  have the right peacefully to change their government, and many who  openly expressed dissenting political views were harassed, detained, or  imprisoned. Authorities were quick to suppress religious, political,  and social groups that they perceived as threatening to government  authority or national stability." 

  The  above report from the US State Dept. was released in 2004, based on  2003 information.  In case someone thinks in two years substantive  positive changes have been made in China's human rights, keep reading  below, again from US State Dept. reports.  At least the Chinese  government has "officially" removed the requirement that family Bible  studies in homes must register with the government.  

  http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2006/Mar/10-815538.html
    China Increases Censorship of Media, Human-Rights Report SaysState Department report also cites increased detention of political activists

Washington  -- China has increased its controls over political activists and the  media, according to the State Department's latest Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
  "There  was a trend towards increased harassment, detention, and imprisonment  by government and security authorities of those perceived as  threatening to government authority. The government also adopted  measures to control more tightly print, broadcast and electronic media,  and censored online content. Protests by those seeking to redress  grievances increased significantly and were suppressed, at times  violently, by security forces" in 2005, according to the report. 
  The report presented a long list of human-rights problems in China, including:
  • Denial of the right to change the government;
  • Physical abuse resulting in deaths in custody;
  • Torture and coerced confessions of prisoners;
  • Harassment, detention and imprisonment of those perceived as threatening to party and government authority;
  •  Arbitrary arrest and detention, including nonjudicial administrative  detention, re-education-through-labor, psychiatric detention and  extended or incommunicado pretrial detention;
  • Detention  of political prisoners, including those convicted of disclosing state  secrets and subversion, those convicted under the now-abolished crime  of counterrevolution and those jailed in connection with the 1989  Tiananmen demonstrations; and 
  •  House arrest and other nonjudicially approved surveillance and detention of dissidents.
  Even  if they manage to avoid imprisonment and related abuses, Chinese  citizens suffered significant curtailments of personal freedom and  privacy. The government monitors citizens' mail, telephone and  electronic communications and uses a coercive birth-limitation policy.  In 2005, China increased restrictions on freedom of speech and the  press, closed newspapers and journals, banned politically sensitive  books, periodicals and films and jammed some broadcast signals,  according the report. 
  The State Department also found  that over the course of the year, governmental restrictions continued  on freedom of assembly, including detention and abuse of demonstrators  and petitioners; religious freedom, extending to control of religious  groups and harassment and detention of unregistered religious groups;  and freedom to travel, especially for politically sensitive and  underground religious figures. 
  Other abuses listed in the report included:
  • Forcible repatriation of North Koreans and inadequate protection of many refugees;
  • Severe government corruption;
  •  Increased scrutiny, harassment and restrictions on independent domestic  and foreign nongovernmental organization (NGO) operations;
  • Trafficking in women and children;
  • Societal discrimination against women, minorities and persons with disabilities;
  • Cultural and religious repression of minorities in Tibetan areas and Muslim areas of Xinjiang;
  •  Restriction of labor rights, including freedom of association, the  right to organize and bargain collectively and worker health and  safety; and
  • Forced labor, including prison labor.
  On  the positive side, the government returned authority to approve death  sentences to the Supreme People's Court, supported local experiments to  record police interrogation of suspects and limited the administrative  detention of minors, the elderly, pregnant women and nursing mothers. 
  In  March 2005, government officials stated that family Bible studies in  private homes need not be registered with the government and said that  the law permitted religious education of minors, although problems  continued in both areas.  The government adopted amendments to the  law protecting women's rights and interests, including one outlawing  sexual harassment, and ratified International Labor Organization  Convention 111 prohibiting discrimination in employment. 
  For more information on U.S. policy, see The United States and China and Human Rights  .
  The China section of the State Department's 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices is available on the State Department Web site.
  -----------------
  Ted Moffett 

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