CHINA ON THE RISE?

Recent media event calls attention to problems the world cannot ignore

opinion by Hannah Lee

Shoppers in November of last year may have noticed some unusual commotion in downtown Seattle's Westlake Park. Drawing both stares and questions from passers-by, strewn along the curb, were shocking visual displays of some of the recent human-rights violations happening under the Chinese Communisit Party (CCP). Members of various groups from the area gave speeches about the importance of understanding this aspect of China's troubled history.

The event was put on by local affiliates of the Epoch Times--a Chinese international newspaper based in New York--to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the release of the book Nine Commentaries. Based on comprehensive interviews with former government officials and citizens and extensive research on the history of the CCP and its reign up to the present day, the book has inspired and mobilized millions since the Epoch Times first distributed copies of the publication in Hong Kong last year. Over five million Chinese have denounced the CCP since its release through letter and internet, and the figure continues to rise even higher.

The message of the Nine Commentaries event was simple: the CCP needs to go if China is to transcend its domestic, civil, and political strife.

The tenor of President Bush's recent visit to China remained strictly one of business. Save the occasional mention of human rights and religious freedom, the conversation centered almost entirely around trade issues and nuclear nonproliferation. In protest of lip service to universal human rights, writers from the Epoch Times, concerned activists, and Falun Gong practitioners convened in downtown Seattle--among other places that same weekend--to tell the world that serious work remains to be done in the People's Republic of China. [Editors note: The Epoch Times is associated with the Falun Gong movement, but has been supportive of many other critics of the Chinese government as well.]

Recent years seem to confirm there is a growing problem. The last few years have seen a gradual rise in state-sanctioned persecution of religious minorities and Falun Gong adherents in China under the guise of "the rule of law." The problem in such a case is that the Chinese constitution and the criminal code themselves preclude the exercise of most liberal freedoms, including rights to press, religious freedom and assembly. Such persecution has taken place in the form of massive arrests, confessions through police beatings, extortion, long-term imprisonment, and arbitrary sentences without trial that may include execution or "re-education through labor" in prison camps designed to reform citizens through brainwashing and torture.

Since President Hu's rise to power in 2002, instances of the systematic silencing of most media--other than the state-approved Xinhua News Agency--remain at an all-time high. The notorious arrests and torture of Falun Gong adherents by labeling them as a subversive threat to the social order persist in spite of western protest.

Street theater at a protest against the Chinese Communist Party in downtown Seattle in November 2005. Photo by Sophia Lung

China is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICCPR), the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The question then follows: Where is the follow-through? Answer: International law is covered with more holes than cheese--in the form of winks from the West and promises to Asia that "punishment" for universal human rights violations will not be meted out in the form of economic sanctions. Yet we have no problem slapping sanctions on Burma for the same. Given the United States' crucial trade relationship with China, any truly corrective measures on the matter of human rights violations are near impossible.

In light of pressing domestic problems, the world is slowly coming to see and understand a nation not on the rise but assailed by legal problems and civil unrest. With the transition to a free market economy and China's surge to prominence on the global stage, the rights of political dissidents and the marginalized poor in such places as rural Sichuan province will continue to take a backseat to economic interests. But soaring unemployment rates, a rise in youth crime, an aging population and an increasingly disillusioned and angry citizenry are pressing burdens that the Chinese government will not and cannot continue to ignore.

Indeed, there is a role for us in the problems facing China, and events such as the rally in November seek to convince us of our continuing obligation as citizens of the free world. Said Epoch Times writer Michael Green: "Terror is something that strikes at the core of all of us, and is painful whether we live under the CCP or in free democratic societies." As such, we are all accountable to one another as citizens to learn about this changing and growing nation, and to our governments to act in accordance with their words. The world is already watching.

To learn more, see Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch annual reports on China at http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/asa/china?Open and http://hrw.org/doc/?t=asia&c=china. Human Rights China is a Hong Kong-based international organization; their website: www.hrichina.org. The Nine Commentaries may also be found online at the Epoch Times website, www.ninecommentaries.com.