shanghaiist.com/2006/06/15/we_love_foreign.php
She started yesterday's press conference with no fuss, no muss: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As a new spokesperson, I hope we can establish congenial work relations in the future. She then set about teaching the slam down (still no luck on that slang) to several questions: Q: The human rights group Amnesty International issued a report early this week, saying that weapons exported by China to Myanmar, Sudan and Nepal fueled the local conflict. A: The accusation of relevant group is groundless and does not comply with fact ... China is the smallest weapon exporter among the major countries. Q: Yesterday, the US House of Representative passed a resolution, accusing China of suppressing religious freedom.
he resolution passed by the US House of Representatives is a groundless attack and vile slander on China's human rights and religion. It violated the basic norms governing international relations and grossly interfered with China's internal affairs. China expresses its strong concern and firm opposition ... Chinese people enjoy human rights and basic freedom according to law. We advise the US Congressmen to take care of the problems in the US and think more about how to redress the grave human rights violation in the US. They should stop interfering with China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights and religion. Does anyone else want to be paddled by her, or is it just us?
Yes, China has a dispicable human right's record, which the world needs to address urgently, but looking at her words literally they are true - the USA, whilst it looks not so bad compared to China, it is responsible for some truly shocking human rights violations of its own - case in point Guantanamo Bay. No-one likes a hypocrite and they dont come no bigger than the US. Also, one thing I really, and completely and wholeheartedly agree on is the Chinese government's attitude to religion. It's nothing but superstition and the government is doing everyone a favour by driving it underground, because that is where it belongs - a personal choice between one person and their god which can be practised in the privacy of one's home. It's great to see all these Christians getting booted out of China for trying to brainwash and convert its already brainwashed population, then whining to the US government about "religious freedom". Can you imagine if a load of CHinese went over to the states and starting trying to spread communism?
shanghaiist is doing its readers a disservice by supporting her lies, whether in an attempt at humor or irony." China has a bad human rights record but NO WORSE than the US (and the UK, taking history into account and the Iraq war). The Chinese government printed 14 million bibles last year. Americans I speak to tell me that Bush won the presidency on two main issues -- no gay marriage and anti-abortion.
But I agree with Jian Yu, the US has to stop meddling with Chinese issues, and focus their energy on US-related issues, like Gitmo Bay. Having said that, China does still have a long way to go with social liberties.
the US does this every year, and China is not the only country that receives some forms of censure for human rights abuses. Much of this really boils down to a formality--a he said she said type of thing. This is just what governments do to make it seem as if they're busy on the human rights front. THe words belie the fact that the real work on human rights is often done by NGOs and other organizations--the ones that mount campaigns, that keep track of what's happening. The Chiense peopel that suffer from human rights abuses--take the housing rights folks that i talked to and posted about in august of last year--they believe in the universality of human rights. They want attention, that's why they pose in front of teh western press whenever they get a camera pointed their way. The "non-interference" policy is one formulated by the Party-state and not by the victims of human rights abuses, i think that this is a point we ought to keep in mind. I am an American, i know about the human rights abuses that America has perpetrated in its history. But perhaps i ought to reiterate the obvious point that many people would rather choose to live in teh US than in China. There are reaons why people like my father left China/Taiwan for the US--academic and intellectual freedom, which is part of our quality of life. Gitmo bay human rights abuses are different from the human rights abuses that affect normal US citizens. The US would only be a real hypocrite if it denied or did not pay any attention to Gitmo bay--but it doesn't. Americans are more blind to the poverty and uncertainty of america's working poor, which is much less "hot" in our media, than they are to Gitmo bay or other higher profile news stories. I wish there were a moral calculus that one could employ to weigh all these different types of human rights violations, but there isn't--and thus i find it hard to make judgments on these things beyond specific cases. You can tell Americans to shut up about China's human rights abuses--or perhaps find a more "delicate" or nuanced way of saying the same thing--but if its' a choice between blunt statements and silence, i would prefer the former.
And I do believe that any government would feel aggrieved - basically pissed off - if a country such as America blamed them for human rights abuses. The whole Iraq war is a human rights abuse (also perpetrated by the UK, Australia, Italy, Spain et al). admits it is happy about tapping phone lines all across the USA, and wants to control wombs and homosexual minds. Therefore I would be annoyed if I was Chinese and being preached to.
It's not as if the only reason that the Chinese reject human rights criticism is the preachy tone of warmongering Americans. Just because the Americans are making war now and have committed human rights violations in the past isn't, ipso facto, reason to reject the criticism. If that criticism is largely based on factual evidence and research, then perhaps there is something to be learned and gained from it. If Zimbabwe came out with a report about China's human rights, China would have the same reaction. If Luxembourg's gov't passed a resolution censuring China, what would China say--"hey you guys are OK, we can accept criticism from you guys." The point is, of course, that China categorically rejects human rights criticism. And this is a legacy of a suspicion and distrust of foreign powers--a mantlepiece of the CCP ideology. If we take the ability to accept criticism without it inflicting undue damange onto the ego as a sign of individual maturation, why not make it a principle by which nations conduct themselves? those in CHina suffering from human rights violations, that are aggrieved. I think some of them would welcome more international attention on the issues that affect them. It really depends on who you talk to--certainly the Shanghainese kids bouncing to the beats at Bon Bon don't care, or might feel aggrieved. But the people that i interviewed about housing told me flat out: the problem with China is the CCP. These are people, in their 40s and above, that grew up in China. America might seem oblivious to criticism--it went on with a war despite the opposition of a good chunk of our population plus most of the world. A travesty, yes, but don't forget that the culture of dissent in America, waxes and wanes but never disappears. Some of the most vociferous and eloquent critics of American policy are americans. My pride in the US is not based on the rejection of relevant criticisms or dismising someone because they are preachy--it's based on the very fact that in our best moments, we have the ability to be self-critical--more interested in truth than in lies. The spokeswoman's position does not represent the position of Chinese people under all circumstances and for all time. I think there will be a day when China can accept criticism from other nations, b/c it is a member of the community of nations, it is a UN member, and we live in a globalized world where information has no borders.
If we are talking about governments, then a big big big no for ...
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