[Vision2020] China and Human Rights

Tue Aug 19 11:12:56 PDT 2008

Good Morning Visionaries:

Here is my radio commentary for KRFP for tomorrow.  The version below will also go to the Idaho State Journal and the Los Cabos Daily News for later in the week.

The full version is attached.

Nick Gier

PLEASE REGISTER HERE TO PROTEST, BUT WE MIGHT ARREST YOU IF YOU DO

To give the impression that China actually does respect human rights, the government has set aside three city parks for protestors during the Beijing Olympics.  Permits are required, but so far none of the 77 applications have been approved.  

Two applications were rejected because they were incomplete, and one was dismissed because it violated "national, social, and collective interests."  With regard to the 74 other requests, officials were happy to declare that the problems had already been addressed and presumably resolved, thank goodness.

In 1992 I was invited to participate in a conference on Christianity and Confucianism in Beijing.  Over one hundred scholars from around the world had been invited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

When I arrived, I learned that the conference had been cancelled, and that the event's organizer had resigned in protest.  He told me that the government decided that holding the conference would have encouraged the illegal "House Church" movement in the country.

The House Church movement is a loose alliance of Protestant and Catholic congregations, which have refused to register with the Chinese government. The best estimate of total numbers is 14 million Roman Catholics and 39 million Protestants.  It is illegal for Chinese Roman Catholics to pay allegiance to the pope, and thousands of them have been arrested, tortured, and killed over the years.

On March 5, 2008, 270 House Church Protestants were arrested in Shandong Province, and 21 pastors were sent to labor camps with sentences ranging from 15 months to three years. This was the most extensive repression of Christians since China's "Strike Hard" campaign against "illegal" Christians in 1983.

When I was in Beijing, I visited many Buddhist temples and I talked to as many monks as I could.  Without exception the monks appeared listless and unmotivated. I knew better than to ask any of these monks about the Dalai Lama.  In contrast to my experiences in Tibet in 1999, I did not see a single picture of him in the major Chinese cities that I visited in 1992.  

Most Han Chinese have bought the party line that the Dalai Lama is an evil "splitist" and that he should be condemned. Government officials are patiently waiting for his death, so that they can announce their own replacement and further tighten their control over Tibetan Buddhism.

Muslims in China are allowed to practice their faith as long as their mosques are registered. Although their exact numbers are in dispute, the best figure is about 20 million.  Many of China's Muslims, called Uighurs, live in Xinjiang, the westernmost province comprising one sixth of China's landmass. 

Recently some militant Uighurs have used the rhetoric of jihad and there are reports that they have made an alliance with Al Qaeda.  On August 4, 2008, just before the Olympics began, 16 Chinese police were killed by Islamic terrorists in the Silk Route city of Kashgar, and all of Xinjiang has been put under tight security. American officials doubt the Al Qaeda connection and suspect that China is using that as an excuse to crack down on legitimate protests to their harsh rule in the province.  

The most disturbing religious repression has come down against Falun Gong, a new Chinese religion closely connected to a very ancient and highly respected practice called Qigong, sometimes called Chinese Yoga.  Founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, who received praise and support from the government's Qigong Science Research Society, Falun Gong numbers grew rapidly to 70-100 million. The trouble started over a dispute about Li's decision not to charge a fee for Qigong instruction, and after that the government turned against the Falun Gong with a vengeance.

Since 1999 there has been severe repression against Falun Gong members.  It is said that 66 percent of all torture cases in China has been against Falun Gong members.  They may comprise half of the population of China's notorious re-education camps.  Two Canadian human rights activists claim to have verified the practice of harvesting organs from hapless Falun Gong prisoners.

I firmly believe that the Olympic Games should not be politicized, but as we are inspired by the performances of the athletes this week, let us remember that the host government is one of the world's worst human rights violators.

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