2008 Summer Olympics Part 4 - China’s Human Rights

To believe that the Olympics in todays world is a mere sporting event is naive. Beijing was awarded the Olympics as a political gesture allowing them to prove themselves. Now it is up to China to prove to the world they are up to the task of living up to international human rights standards. Everyone MUST be so bold to declare ANYTHING less will negatively impact any recognition China hopes to achieve from these 2008 Olympic games. Everyone must be held to the same international human rights standard, including the United States.

China’s Civil Rights Abuses as a Sovereign Nation

• population control thru forced abortion or sterilization
• denial of basic rights of peaceful assembly
• censorship of press & internet
• arbitrary arrest & detention
• restriction on freedom of movement
• harassment of political dissidents
• sub standard labor conditions
• excessive punishment for criminal offenses
• self-appointed repressive government with political tenure

The biggest single step China must take to restore civility to their government over all Chinese citizens and visitors would be to recognize and conform to the “due process of law “, which is essentially based on the concept of “fundamental fairness.” This one single step “due process of law” has extremely broad implications and if vigorously implemented and enforced by the Chinese government, would align human rights in China to most international standards. Recognition and vigorous unequivocal enforcement would be the requirement of human rights moving forward in the twenty first century in China. See a comparison here between China and the United States Governments to get a perspective of the specific differences that U.S. citizens for the most part take for granted.

Human Rights Watch directs journalists working inside China to use available technologies for circumventing government internet censorship and enhancing the security of their email communications.

These tools must be set up prior to arrival in mainland China: a Virtual Private Network which creates a “tunnel” between the user’s computer and a remote network (e.g., WiTopia Personal VPN); Tor software to help counter surveillance of visited websites; or Psiphon, an open source web proxy designed to help bypass content-filtering systems.

China was removed mysteriously from the 2008 U.S. State Dept. Annual Human Rights Report. Was it because conditions have improved in China, because other countries have simply gotten worse – or because the Olympics will be held in Beijing this summer? Or is the U.S. looking for ways to improve cooperation with Beijing on such issues as North Korea’s nuclear program and Iran’s nuclear programs and the Darfur conflict in Sudan?

To better understand the complexity of China’s brutal human rights abuses, please see Human Rights Watch’s - Report on Unrest in Tibet here.

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that the decision “occurs at the worst possible time, just when the situation is worsening prior to the opening of the Olympic Games.” Calling the report a “major setback” for the work of human rights organizations in China, the group cited the reported arrest of about 100 Tibetan monks and the detention of activist Hu Jia “and dozens of other freedom of expression advocates” as examples of continuing abuses in China. See Human Rights Watch’s -China Forbidden Zones here.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution on Wednesday asking China to correct its poor human rights record before the Olympics Games.

The measure, HR 1370, passed by a vote of 419-1 a day after U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) revealed that he obtained a document from China’s Public Security Bureau ordering hotels in Beijing to install monitoring technology to “spy on and censor visitors and journalists who will be in China for the Olympic Games.”

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In remarks after the vote, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) condemned China’s violation of its pledge to promote the Olympics spirit of “a peaceful society,” and its position to “support the genocidal regime in Sudan and the military junta in Burma.” China has been exploiting the African continent for natural resources for over 3 decades and the Chinese Government has even completely paid the moving expenses to relocate and settle nearly 1,000,000 Chinese citizens there into Chinatowns. Taiwanese immigrated to South African in the 80’s, with other Chinese populations found in the Reunion and Madagascar, islands off the southeastern coast of Africa, and Mauritania in western Africa. Official Chinese government sources indicate 800 Chinese companies operating in 49 countries throughout Africa, where they work in infrastructure, public works, oil, and mining operations. Modern Chinese immigrants to Africa can be divided into roughly four different categories: temporary labor migrants linked to Chinese development work in Africa, small-time entrepreneurs, in-transit migrants, and agricultural workers.

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During the 1960s, 19 African countries had official ties to Beijing and to help cement new diplomatic relations, The Chinese Dictator Mao sent a number of Chinese workers to the African continent including 150,000 technicians working in agriculture, technology, and infrastructure. Most Chinese immigrants during Mao’s rein returned to China after completing their foreign contracts. In Angola, many Chinese are contracted for Chinese companies financed by an oil-backed loans China granted to the Angolan government. 18 million Chinese who have left China since the economic reforms of the late 1970s - just over half of the approximately 35 million Chinese who live outside of China in what has become known as the Chinese diaspora. Political scientist Emmanuel Ma Mung estimates the number to be between 270,000 and 520,000, Chinese that are living in Africa with between 70,000 and 80,000 contract migrants. However, Xinhua, China’s official news agency, estimates the total population to be significantly larger — as many as 750,000 Chinese working or living “for extended periods” on the continent of Africa.

Is this what some call foreign aid to a African continent with many countries in such desperate need. Foreign Aid has been redefined in an interesting article here. See the latest ranking (U.S. ranks 22nd, of foreign aid by country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), (not total sum), here and analysis here.

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The U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also urged U.S. President Bush, who will be attending the opening ceremonies of the Games, to use his “tremendous leverage” to speak against China’s human rights abuses and “the barriers to U.S. products going into China here and here and here that are hoisted upon our children and the American people by the lack of China’s safety in the production of food.”

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao proclaimed that the resolution was an attempt to “interrupt and sabotage” the Games and that the United States should keep the “”odious conduct” of its anti-China lawmakers in check. See Amnesty International’s China Human Rights Press Release here.

In route to the Summer Olympics, President G.W. Bush made a human rights speech in Thailand denouncing China’s repressive actions - “The people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings,” Bush said in Bangkok. “America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists.” See the full text here .

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Flawless Shine-
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