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Tuesday, April 06, 2004 |
NO TRADE WITH CHINA WITHOUT HUMAN RIGHTS
German Politician: A State Lacking Human Rights is Economically Unstable
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
FRANKFURT (ANS) -- The severe human rights violations in China must have an impact on trade relations, according to speakers at a convention of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). Politicians and human rights activists called attention to the large number of labor camps and executions, the restriction of religious freedom and the lack of democracy.
Sybille Pfeiffer, a Christian Democratic member of the German Parliament, emphasized that a state lacking in human rights had to be considered economically unstable as well. Another speaker at the convention meeting in Koenigstein near Frankfurt, Germany, April 3 – 4, was the Chinese dissident Harry Wu.
The 66-year-old Catholic spent 19 years in labor camps. After his release he fled to the United States but returned later to investigate the camps as well as Chinese organ trade and the repression of religious minorities. In 1995 he was arrested for “stealing state secrets” and sentenced to 15 years forced labor. As a result of international pressure he was deported.
Wu lives in the United States, where he is in charge of a foundation, which seeks to provide information about Chinese labor camps, the so-called Laogai. There are more than a thousand of these camps according to Wu.
Prisoners are exploited, tortured, brainwashed, even executed. Wu accuses the Chinese authorities of trading with organs taken from prisoners’ corpses. Also, large proportions of merchandise originating from China and sold in the West are produced by forced labor – such as clothing, toys and electronic equipment.
The Chinese policy of birth control has led to “mass murder”, according to Wu. The authorities had ordered the death of millions of unborn children through forced abortions. No Chinese woman was allowed to give birth without official consent. After the second child each mother is forcefully sterilized, claims Wu.
The Communist policy on religion has changed completely since 1979, according to Wu. Previously the authorities aimed at eradicating religion. Since this strategy had failed they resorted to embracing religious communities and using them for their purposes. The Party was fostering “government priests”. State registered churches had to conform to the regime, the others are declared illegal. That is “religious freedom in a cage”, according to Wu.
Emily Lau, one of 24 freely elected members of the Hong Kong regional assembly, hopes for a gradual democratic reform in mainland China and the former British Crown Colony. The seven million inhabitants of Hong Kong have never had democracy, she explained, but a functioning independent judicial system.
The Basic Law, in force since the handover to China in 1997, allows for the first democratic elections in 2007 and 2008. Beijing is afraid, according to Emily Lau that their candidates will not do well. A standing committee was set up to interpret the law without any Hong Kong representation. The committee ruled that Hong Kong must get Beijing's permission before debating democratic reform.
3:08:35 PM 
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© 2004 Radio Free China
Last Update: 5/1/2004; 10:24:53 AM
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