Quality issues point to China's internal rot

From rotten food, to fake weather reports not to mention heavy pollution and corruption, Sushil Seth foresees the fall of communism in China.

Taipei Times: Monday, Jun 11, 2007, Page 8 Despite much of the world's fascination with China, principally because of its fast-paced economic growth, things are not quite right based on reports emerging about the deepening rot across the board. In Australia, for instance, a regional grocery chain has removed Chinese-made toothpaste from its stores because of a toxic chemical normally used in hydraulic and brake fluids as a coolant and a solvent.

It is the same chemical reportedly used in a Chinese-made cough syrup, responsible for the deaths of 300 people in Panama.

At the same time, a well-known Australian textile importer has reportedly "quarantined eight container loads of blankets that arrived from China ... following reports that the Australian Wool Testing Authority had found levels of formaldehyde almost 10 times higher than safety limits in many other countries."

There are also reports of cats and dogs in the US and elsewhere in the world dying from Chinese pet foods spiked with toxic chemicals.

China's dramatic response to all this was to announce that a Beijing court had sentenced Zheng Xiaoyu (鄭筱萸), head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, to death -- as if it were all the fault of one individual.

This is typical of China's communist political culture where scapegoats are conveniently found at the "right" time to atone for the country's systemic failure.

It defies belief that an individual like Zheng, however high and mighty, could for seven years play havoc with China's domestic and international health without his political bosses knowing about his misdeeds.

Now that he has become a hot potato, he is being made the sacrificial lamb to save the skins of his political masters.

Which is not to suggest that he was not a terrible crook. The suggestion is that it is the system that fosters and promotes such characters where Zheng and his ilk are only the tip of the iceberg.

Indeed, there is even an attempt to shift the blame on to importers of Chinese products. Lu Yuanping, a senior boss at China's food imports and exports administration, has reportedly said that 56 percent of the substandard food products imported by the US from China in a given period were "illegal products" not approved by the Chinese authorities. In other words, it was not entirely China's fault.

Then we have the tragedy of fake milk powder leading to the death of 13 babies from severe malnutrition. According to a Washington Post investigative report, "The scandal unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in eastern China and became the symbol of a broad problem in China's economy."

The problem is that: "Quality control and product safety regulations are so poor in this country that people cannot trust the goods on store shelves."

The system is so skewed that even when an official report warns of impending disaster from climate change, it still finds that China cannot afford to slacken on economic development.

Listing a litany of serious consequences for China's future from climate change, like worsening droughts and floods, the report however concludes that: "If we prematurely assume responsibilities for mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the direct consequences will be to constrain China's current energy and manufacturing industries, and weaken the competitiveness of Chinese products in international and even domestic markets."

Similarly, a government survey has found that air and water pollution in the country, combined with widespread use of additives and pesticides, has made cancer the country's top killer.

As reported by Sydney Morning Herald China correspondent Mary-Anne Toy, "The survey of 30 cities and 78 counties, published by the Ministry of Health, said deaths from cancer had risen 19 percent in cities and 23 percent in rural areas" last year.

All those who see hope in these kind of official reports that highlight China's problems, as well as critical reporting in sections of the media on non-political matters, need to realize that without political liberalization the country's systemic constraints are too overpowering to achieve any substantive and sustainable progress.

Therefore, Will Hutton in his book, The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century, is on strong ground when he essentially says that a market economy without liberal politics and free debate is basically unsustainable.

Whether or not these are Western values is besides the point. The point is that without a transparent government accountable to the people the system will tend to collapse from within, as happened in the Soviet Union.

As Hutton has written, "Their lack in China is increasingly showing through a myriad of dysfunctions and internal contradictions that will have to be confronted. The current economic model is unsustainable."

James Mann, a US journalist who covered China for the Los Angeles Times, is similarly not enamored of China's economic juggernaut. In his book, The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression, he takes issue with those US policymakers who do not take kindly to any substantive criticism of China's repressive system for fear of making China into an enemy.

These policymakers and others who support them tend to dismiss any substantive criticism of China as biased and hence "anti-China," thus arrogating to them a sixth sense about knowing the "real" China.

While internal contradictions deepen and social unrest grows, the gyrations of the Chinese stock market are proving a dangerous challenge. Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics in New York, wrote: "There is a bubble and eventually it's going to collapse."

"The Chinese have lost control of monetary policy and now it has reached the stock market," Roubini wrote.

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has also expressed concern about China's economy.

As one Australian analyst has commented: "Riots by villagers in the rural hinterland or the coastal factory zones can be isolated and suppressed. [But] widespread discontent in the big cities by investors losing their life savings could be much harder to handle."

"It could unravel the tacit bargain between the Communist Party and the urban populations, trading off political freedom for rising prosperity," he added.

Sushil Seth is a writer based in Australia.

The Real Gains in China

My letter to the Post:

WEI XIN has it wrong when he says: “Today, people of all ethnic groups in China enjoy unprecedented freedom in choosing occupations, lifestyles and migration, obtaining information, and practicing religious belief.” Wei obviously doesn’t really know what is going on in Communist China. That is the China that harvests organs from living Falun Gong prisoners of conscience, where the old and young are tortured for their beliefs and where the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. Seriously, Wei should give his head a shake--Communist China is nothing but a big jail for freedom fighters and religious believers. It is a travesty that the Games were given to this brutal dictatorship in the first place. And if it weren’t for geopolitics, the Games would be hosted by a country that values human lives more than money.

Washington Post: Sunday, June 10, 2007; Page B06 - Regarding the May 29 editorial "China's Games," ***pasted below*** accusing China of persistent human rights violations: We consider The Post's arguments to be ungrounded and unacceptable.

The Chinese government is firm in safeguarding and developing the rights of the Chinese people. Over the past 29 years, since the adoption of reforms and a policy of greater openness, the living standards of the Chinese people have improved greatly. In the meantime, China has made tremendous progress in political, social and cultural undertakings.

Today, people of all ethnic groups in China enjoy unprecedented freedom in choosing occupations, lifestyles and migration, obtaining information, and practicing religious belief. The openness and pluralism in contemporary Chinese society are self-evident to people without prejudice.

Regarding Darfur, China shares the same objective as other countries and has made unremitting efforts. China hopes the Darfur issue can be resolved politically through dialogue and consultation under the joint efforts of the international community, to relieve the humanitarian situation in the region at an early date and achieve regional peace and stability.

The Chinese people are making all necessary preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. We are confident and capable of hosting an exceptional Olympic Games. It is not appropriate to politicize the sports gala by linking it to the Darfur issue. Such attempts are irresponsible and doomed to fail.

WEI XIN
Press Attache
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
Washington

Beijing risks Games burn

The Standard: James Rose - Monday, June 11, 2007 - Even as the infamous Beijing urban haze clouds the view of the spectacular Olympic stadium, one thing is clear: the Olympics are getting very close. Yet still so far away.

With the smog, and the construction work in the Olympic precinct, it still looks like a war zone. But the fact that things are getting closer is confirmed by the growing wave of attacks on China as the Games capture the world's attention and become a handy nail on which to hang all manner of anti-China sentiment.

The Olympic torch can burn unwary holders and, as a result, China's place as a world leader is about to be tested as never before.

Already, over the past few years, Chinese authorities have had to face a barrage of world discontent over the country's poor environmental and social record.

Leaders have therefore learned the modern geostrategic shuffle: walking the necessary line between having what you want and being what others want you to be.

Joining the World Trade Organization, looking to address environmental issues, especially climate change, and shutting down small coal mines are among the myriad of measures Beijing has taken not only to placate its own masses, but also to play to the global gallery.

On most days the Chinese state media include coverage of a range of popular issues such as pollution, corruption, water quality, corporate responsibility or ethnic diversity.

It all plays more or less well internationally and internally, but no-one can rest on their laurels in this fast- moving world.

The dire situation in Sudan, where many hundreds of thousands have already died and millions are stranded in a humanitarian crisis is a case in point. Due to the inability of the Sudanese government either to control its own militias or to halt rebel groups, China, the buyer of most of Sudan's oil, has been targeted on its Sudan policy and has been pressured to do more to end the horror.

China has stalled on such action, however, arguing it has no right to involve itself in the affairs of other countries.

Meanwhile, other issues, such as the treatment of Falun Gong members and the decades-long occupation of Tibet, continue as deeper ripples across the troubled waters of China's global and domestic persona.

Whether China has a right to oppress seemingly legitimate spiritual practices within its borders or to throw its considerable weight into influencing the affairs of other countries, like say Taiwan or Tibet, in its own interests while arguing it has no right to do so in other cases, could become the subject of debate (a fairly quick one I would have thought).

But there is no debate as to whether China is open to that kind of discussion. It is not, and this is the nature of a looming problem as the Olympics get closer.

In short, Chinese government leaders are deluding themselves if they think the Olympics are like a big happy cloak which can be used to cover all manner of unsavory issues, like those mentioned above.

The Olympic torch is more than just a nice symbol, it is an indication that there are consequences of being an Olympic host.

There is no way that China can hope to hide its darker side behind the Olympic rings.

It looks like they're trying nevertheless. A case in point: Chinese state media recently reported gleefully that the United States did not support a proposal to boycott the Games due to China's Sudan policy.

It did not mention that, at the same time, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling on China to use its influence to stop the killing in Sudan. That might have been worth a line you would think.

Such attempts to head off scrutiny are clumsy and ill-conceived and will do no good for China's world image. They may yet counter its endeavors, via the Games, to be seen in a better light.

Every country has its dark spots. China's are highly visible and well- watched. Pretending they do not exist is a big, big mistake which will only get bigger as the Games get closer.

They will not go away. That's the incendiary Olympic torch China has actually volunteered to hold.

The extent to which the Beijing policymakers and bureaucrats are able to engage in, at the very least, something like an open debate on these issues is how most of the world will truly test Beijing's global credibility.

It's not the stadium. It's not the medals.

James Rose is editor of www.corporategovernance-asia.com

Challenge of China Deserves to Become Top Issue in 2008

Mort Kondracke is right on the mark.

Real Clear Politics: LHASA, Tibet — Every bit on a par with questions about Iraq, terrorism and immigration, interrogators of 2008 presidential candidates ought to be asking: What are you going to do about the challenge of China?

That’s because, I’m convinced after spending three weeks in China and Tibet, unless the United States gets its act together, our grandchildren will be living in a world dominated by the Peoples Republic.

China is simply inexorable in its pursuit of wealth, growth and power. It cares little about human rights, democracy, labor protections, fair trade rules or the environment. It is relentless in advancing its national interests.

Tibet is a microcosm of Chinese methods. What’s going on here is pure colonialism. China invaded Tibet in 1950 — ostensibly to free it from Buddhist “feudalism” — and treated it brutally for a quarter-century.

Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans — along with an estimated 30 million Chinese — died in Mao Zedong’s maniacal collectivization campaign, the “Great Leap Forward.” In Tibet, the Chinese caused mass famine by trying to change the dominant crop from barley to rice, which does not grow in high altitudes.

Tens of thousands more Tibetans were killed when the Chinese put down a nationalistic revolt in the late 1950s and almost all Buddhist temples were sacked and burned during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

In the past 30 years, the level of violence is down, although last year Chinese border guards killed a young Buddhist nun trying to escape the country. Rather, China is simply dominating Tibet economically and politically — and the presence of huge military bases emphasizes the futility of resistance.

As in the rest of China, much of what’s happening here is impressive. The Chinese have built roads, schools, power lines, irrigation systems and communications in a country that still farms with plows pulled by yaks and whose rural people rarely bathe. Cell phones work better in Tibet — even at the base camp of Mount Everest — than in Washington, D.C.

China’s crowning technological accomplishment here is construction of the world’s highest-altitude railway line, connecting Lhasa and Beijing. The train furnishes oxygen to its passengers as it crosses a mountain pass at 16,000 feet.

The modernization, though, seems to be of, by and for the imported ethnic Han Chinese population, with the benefits merely trickling down to native Tibetans. The government claimed that in 2003 Tibet’s 2.7 million people were 95 percent Tibetan and only 4 percent Chinese.

That’s clearly ridiculous. Fully half of the capital, Lhasa, and smaller cities I visited seem to be populated by Chinese. Even most of the stalls at Lhasa’s colorful Barkhor market are run by Chinese who often don’t know what the Buddhist statues they sell represent.

The Chinese have rebuilt many of the Buddhist shrines they destroyed in the 1960s, both to promote tourism and pacify the deeply devout population. But they’ve limited the number of monks, and monasteries reportedly are heavily infiltrated by spies. Displaying pictures of the exiled Dalai Lama is illegal.

I think it’s useful for celebrity-backed Western organizations such as the Free Tibet Campaign to alert the world to Chinese abuses, but there’s no realistic chance the Chinese are ever going to release their hold on Tibet, which is the source of three of China’s major rivers, supplies it with natural resources and serves as a missile testing base.

China’s attitude toward the environment is epitomized here by the example of the magnificent Lake Yamdrok Tso, which will be drained to dust over the next 10 years to supply hydroelectric power.

China as a whole reminds me of the United States in the 19th century — minus democracy, of course. Labor protections, environmental considerations, the popular will — all are secondary to economic advancement. Much as the 20th century became the American Century, the 21st could well be the Chinese Century.

China’s per capita gross domestic product still trails that of the U.S. by miles — $7,600 versus $43,000 in 2006 — but, with economic growth rates averaging 10 percent per year, China’s GDP is now the fourth-largest in the world and could catch that of the U.S. by 2040.

In one dubious respect, the output of greenhouse gases, China is scheduled to catch the U.S. this year. The central government claims to be trying to improve the atmosphere, but in practice China is following the old U.S. dictum: “Pollution is the smell of people making money.”

As the Bush administration recently has protested, China also has weak protections for intellectual property — which means it steals Western technology — and manipulates its currency to encourage exports and keep accumulating U.S. debt.

The Pentagon just reported that “China’s ability to sustain military power at a distance, at present, remains limited,” but it is developing systems and forces that could offset U.S. strength in the future, particularly in Asia.

What to do? Clearly, to me, the United States needs to vastly upgrade its education system and technology investment and resist China’s unfair trade practices. China is not an enemy, but it's definitely a rival unless and until it becomes a democracy.

It’s far from that now — ruled by a communist hierarchy that adorns the country’s currency with the image of a mass murderer, Mao. U.S. presidential candidates must say, in detail, what they’d do about the China challenge.

Mort Kondracke is the Executive Editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955. © 2007 Roll Call, Inc.

Olympics is tainted by child labour, says report

Why am I not surprised?

Times UK: 11 June 2007 - Merchandise for the Olympic Games in 2008 has been made in factories where child labour and worker exploitation is commonplace, according to a study.

As members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gather in London for a progress report on the 2012 Games, an international alliance of campaigning groups and trade unions has found appalling working conditions within companies that are licensed to produce products for the Beijing Games.

Playfair 08 conducted undercover investigations at four factories in China that make bags, headwear, stationery and other items for the 2008 Olympics.

It says that it discovered evidence that factory owners falsified employment records, forced staff to lie about their wages and conditions, and employed children as young as 12 years old. The organisation, which is represented by the Trades Union Congress and Labour Behind the Label in Britain, claims that some adult factory workers earn only 14p an hour, which is half the legal minimum wage in China, and are made to work up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: “Their actions tarnish the Olympic ideal and we don’t want more of the same when the Olympics come to London. The IOC must add respect for workers’ rights to the Olympic charter.”

A spokeswoman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games said that ethical trade matters would be an integral part of the London Games.

At a meeting in Parliament today campaigners will call on the organisers to ensure that London’s licensed goods are ethically made.

Activists Work Hard to Thwart Beijing Olympics

Pamela Sciantarelli looks at China's treatment of the people of Tibet and North Korea

Ohmynews: Ever since winning the bid to be the hosts of the 2008 Summer Olympics six years ago, China has been under more fire by human rights activists than ever. Issues of sweatshop labor, absence of freedom of speech, religious and thought persecution, and sex trafficking are just a few banners that activists are taking up in attempts to thwart success in the Games.

China also has to worry about outgoing and incoming refugees. Human rights activists recognize refugees as one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the world. Often the lack of protection and a failure to address root causes forcing refugees to flee their homelands result are systemic in the creation of further human rights problems.

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Tibet

With more than 100,000 refugees living in India and around 20,000 more in its closer neighbor, Nepal, the well-being of Tibetans has long been an international concern.

International figure and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has been a voice for Tibet's longstanding desire for sovereignty and freedom from cultural and religious persecution since he escaped Tibet through the tough terrain of the mountainous Himalayas on foot in 1959.

Yet, even with a spiritual guru held in reverence worldwide for nearly half a century speaking on behalf of his people and imparting spiritual truths on all of humanity, Tibet remains a hotbed for human rights abuses.

Most recently, the Chinese government detained four members of the student group -- one Tibetan American in exile and three Americans -- for staging a demonstration at the Mt. Everest Base Camp. A plan for an Olympic-sponsored torch relay over Mt. Everest was the instigating factor for the Everest protest.

Chinese authorities released the activists within a matter of days, but the international organization, Students for a Free Tibet, still sees the Beijing Olympics as very problematic.

"The Chinese government hopes to use the 2008 Olympic Games to conceal the brutality of its occupation of Tibet and win the international community's acceptance as a modern power on the world stage," said Lhadon Tethong, the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, from Kathmandu.

North Korean Refugees

One of the lesser-known evils of China's less than impeccable human rights track record involves the treatment of an ever-growing influx of refugees from its small, but nuclear-toting, neighbor.

An estimated more than 300,000 North Koreans that have fled the closed country to escape hunger and persecution are currently residing in China. Yet, although China has signed the United Nations' 1951 Convention Regarding the Status of Refugees that is intended to grant rights and protection to refugees, the only thing China has done for the refugees to date is send them back to North Korea.

China's rationale for sending the refugees back to North Korea rather than allowing UN-administered assistance to the vulnerable people is that they are "economic migrants" rather than refugees. Economic migrants are categorically individuals only seeking migration for financial gain rather than because of a life or death situation.

However, unlike most countries both signatory to the 1951 Convention and not, China refuses to allow the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to do its job and make the distinction between economic migrants and bona fide refugees.

The truth of the matter is, once a North Korean crosses the border they become a vulnerable group. Repatriation consequential of further persecution, imprisonment or other means of volatile suffering theoretically entitles any individual refugee protection under the Convention.

	Protester at one of the daily 444 activities.
	©2007 444 days campaign

Repatriation of North Koreans means exactly that. Numerous accounts have been recorded that upon being handed over to North Korean officials, individuals are subject to imprisonment in any of a number of work camps, ongoing torture and sometimes ultimately death.

Justice for North Korea is a Seoul-based organization taking on the Chinese government and the Beijing Olympics one person at a time. On May 23, Justice for North Korea began the 444 Days Campaign.

For the 444 days prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, Justice for North Korea plans to hold at minimum, an ongoing one-person demonstration at the Chinese Consulate in Seoul.

Although one person shouting and holding a sign may seem to have little impact on the Beijing Olympics, the ultimate goal is to heighten awareness about the often swept under the rug situation of North Korean refugees.

JiHye Pak, a founding member of JNK, has recently been suffering from a sore voice.

"Every day I'm shouting," Pak has been present at the Chinese Consulate nearly every day since its kick off a month ago.

And so have the Seoul police. Top sergeants continue to warn Pak and fellow activists that their activities may come with some consequences.

"They can threaten us, but we aren't going to back down," Pak says, "we're not going to back down because what we are doing is not against the law and because there are people going to death because of the Chinese government's failure to abide by International law. If we aren't willing to stand up for them, who is?"

The efforts of groups such as Students for a Free Tibet and Justice for North Korea may seem like drops in the bucket considering the size and strength of China. Yet, regardless of whether or not they are just weak tiger-fighters trying to tackle an untamable beast, the groups refuse to let the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics happen without a fight.

Harper warns China about democracy and human rights

Very good Mr. Harper, but why stop there? There is still the espionage issue that needs to be tackled and organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners.

Ottawa Citizen HEILIGENDAMM, Germany - June 09, 2007 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday that, as China's power grows, the country will come under "increasing pressure" from the international community on issues such as democracy and human rights.

"As it grows in importance and wealth, it will face increasing pressure from the world community on issues of democratic development and human rights, on issues like climate change and environmental protection, and on issues of corporate social responsibility, in particular the responsibilities of Chinese enterprises and commercial activities in the Third World," the prime minister said.

Harper, who has not shied from criticizing the Communist regime, met Hu on the final day of the G8 summit here in this Baltic Sea resort. China is not a member of the group of eight leading industrialized nation, but, as a major developing country, it was invited to attend, along with India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

The prime minister said he emphasized the need to "grow and deepen" the ties between the two countries, but that did not stop him "from aggressively and appropriately raising very legitimate concerns."

Next year's summer Olympics in Beijing will be a test of China's standing on the world stage, predicted Harper.

"When you open your country to the world that way and ask every television camera in the world to come in, I think it would be in your own self-interest to make that image as positive as it can be."

In Ottawa, China's ambassador to Canada, Lu Shumin, said his government is open to continuing a dialogue with Canadian officials to discuss human rights.

"I still believe the relations between China and Canada are basically moving forward," Lu told a news conference.

Harper's remarks in Germany came a day after he reproached fellow G8 leader Vladimir Putin for being unwilling to accept criticism about democratic reform and human rights in Russia.

The prime minister also ruffled feathers in Beijing last fall when he pressed China on its human-rights record. He vowed that Canada would not "sell out" its beliefs in democracy, freedom and human rights to the "almighty dollar."

His remarks drew an icy response from Chinese officials and troubled Canadian business leaders who are trying to build trade ties with the fast-growing Chinese economy.

At one point last fall, Hu cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled with Harper at a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation nations. The pair eventually met on the sidelines of the summit, but a Chinese official described the meeting as "very brief."

A major irritant in bilateral relations has been the case of Canadian activist Huseyin Celil, an Ugyur Muslim recently sentenced by China to life in prison for terrorism-related offences. Canada has pressed for more access to Celil by consular officials and lawyers. Harper said Friday he raised the case with Hu, but did not elaborate.

This week, Harper said any successor to the Kyoto accord on climate change should include the United States and fast-emerging economies such as China and India.

But China has resisted setting any "quantifiable" emissions targets, even though it is projected to surpass the U.S. in the next few years as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Ottawa Citizen with file from Mike De Souza (CanWest News Service).

A Balancing Act of Olympic Proportions

In so many words, Hu Jintao reiterates--don't push your luck folks!

Stratfor: June 08, 2007 21 31 GMT

Summary

Two days after a rare protest by hundreds of middle-class, white-collar residents in Beijing, China's State Environmental Protection Administration criticized the local government's plans to build a controversial waste plant near a residential area of the capital, the South China Morning Post reported June 8. This is the latest incident in which the central government has had to step in to appease urban protesters objecting to construction or pollution-related projects endorsed by local government officials. Beijing is treading a fine line between sticking to its Olympic deadline and containing any potential subsequent urban unrest. ...

While China's middle class forms less than one-third of its population, its economic and intellectual influence is proportionately greater than China's 800-900 million rural residents. Urban protesters are also relatively more sophisticated in their methods of coordination; a 7,000-strong, mostly white-collar protest on June 1 in Xiamen caught local authorities off guard, due to the speed with which protesters organized themselves with text messages. ...

China's urban middle class also has an interest in maintaining continued economic growth, and thus political continuity -- in other words, single-party rule. By pushing through with its Olympics agenda, Beijing is risking one of its strongest and most stable bases of domestic support. Walking this fine line between Olympic deadlines and containing urban unrest will be part luck, part skill. Beijing can give a little leeway for protests pertaining to projects that are not vital to the upcoming Olympics. For projects that are related to the Olympics, however, the central government will have little choice but to intervene. (more)

In China, press freedom under attack ahead of 2008 Olympics

CIJ: 8 June 2007 The Chinese government is backtracking on new rules that allow greater freedom to foreign journalists ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and is continuing to deny comparable freedoms to Chinese journalists, say Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).

"Arbitrary restrictions on press freedoms undermine the new regulations, and raise questions about the government's commitment to implement them in the first place," Human Rights Watch says.

The new freedoms are set out in the "Service Guide for Foreign Media," published on the website of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, http://en.beijing2008.cn. The document gives foreign reporters permission to cover the Olympics and its preparation, as well as "political, economic, social and cultural matters of China." "The freedom of foreign journalists in their news coverage will also be ensured," the guide promises. The regulations will cease to apply in October 2008, once the Beijing Games are over.

But several foreign journalists have been told there are still certain areas they cannot visit and subjects they cannot cover, says Human Rights Watch. In March, the military stopped BBC correspondent James Reynolds from reporting on the aftermath of a riot in Hunan province, telling him the new regulations were "only for Olympics-related stories." In at least four other instances this year, foreign correspondents have been stopped or detained in areas including villages of HIV-AIDS sufferers in Henan province and along China's border with North Korea. In May, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned two Western journalists warning them about their reporting on Tibet, reports RSF, calling their articles "false" and "unacceptable."

"If the government is trumpeting commitments to new reporting freedoms, but then taking those freedoms away through incremental regulations and arbitrary actions against individual journalists, then there hasn't really been any progress at all," says Human Rights Watch.

The temporary regulations intentionally exclude domestic journalists from enjoying the same freedoms, says Human Rights Watch. They don't apply to Chinese citizens who work for foreign media organisations in China, either - Chinese law does not recognise them as journalists. Domestic reporters are constrained by sweeping prohibitions against publishing material that "harms the honour or the interests of the nation." They will be further targeted after 1 July, when new rules that tighten the registration requirements of domestic print media take effect, in an apparent effort to crackdown on publications critical of the government.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), China already jails more journalists than any other country in the world, with more than 30 known cases of journalists currently imprisoned for their work.

RSF is one of nine members of a French collective of human rights organisations that launched an eight-point campaign last week to hold China to its promise that winning the Olympics bid would "help the growth of human rights."

The Collectif Chine Jeux Olympiques (JO) 2008 advocates for the suspension of all executions and death sentences, an end to government control of the media, and the release of all political prisoners, including Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist serving a 10-year prison sentence for revealing his government's orders to newspapers to censor their reporting of the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary. On 4 June - the 18th anniversary of the massacre - Tao was awarded the 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

To see a full list of Collectif Chine JO 2008's proposals and to sign a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao calling for action, see: http://pekin2008.rsfblog.org

Source : IFEX

Visit these links:
- Human Rights Watch: http://tinyurl.com/29qdo8
- RSF on Western journalists in Tibet: http://tinyurl.com/24pxa9
- RSF on Collectif Chine JO 2008: http://tinyurl.com/23sre8
- CPJ on jailed journalists: http://tinyurl.com/yac6rw
- U.S. repoter Tim Johnson's blog on the frustrations correspondents face in China: http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/china/
- WAN on Shi Tao: http://www.wan-press.org/article14359.html

Beijing boycott hot topic on Capitol Hill

What a great idea--there's bound to be a couple more such torch relays surfacing before the Games!

USA Today: June 8, 2007 - Excerpt: Savitt's (director of the Olympic Dream for Darfur campaign) group wants to organize an Olympic-style torch relay from Darfur to Beijing that will take a route through nations that have been touched by the horrors of genocide, such as Rwanda, Germany, Armenia and Bosnia.

"We want to remind China what happens when the world looks away," she testified.

US Rights Campaigner Says China's Poor Image Could Jeopardize 2008 Olympics

Isn't that a fact?
By Claudia Blume (Hong Kong) 07 June 2007

Blume report (mp3) - Download 609k
Listen to Blume report (mp3)

John Kamm stands in his office in San Francisco (File Photo)

VOA: American human rights campaigner John Kamm says China needs to improve its poor international image if it wants the 2008 Olympics to be a success. Beijing has already started to deal with its image problem ahead of the games, as Claudia Blume reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

John Kamm leads the Dui Hua foundation, a U.S.- based human rights groups focusing on China. Speaking at a luncheon in Hong Kong on Thursday, Kamm said Beijing has one major problem that could jeopardize the success of next year's Olympics: a poor international image that could lead to protests, low attendance and poor TV ratings during the games.

Kamm says there are a number of reasons for Beijing's image problem. One is international concern about China's human rights abuses. This includes the jailing of journalists and human rights defenders, the widespread use of capital punishment and the suppression of minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

In recent months, Beijing has also been criticized for its support of the government in Sudan. Western critics say China is not using its influence in the country to stop the violence in Sudan's Darfur region. Kamm says criticism from Hollywood stars in particular is shaping the public's opinion.

"Just in the last few days George Clooney has come out with a big anti-China statement in favor of intervening in Darfur," he said. "Meryl Streep has just joined the campaign, so Hollywood is now making this a major issue."

Kamm says Beijing is paying attention to world opinion and has already taken steps to deal with its image since it was awarded the Olympic Games. China has recently appointed a special envoy for Darfur and has temporarily eased rules for journalists working in China. The number of executions in the country dropped by 40 percent since China won the bid for the Olympics.

Kamm expects Beijing to implement more reforms before next year. He says a bill to reform China's re-education system, for example, is scheduled to be considered by the legislature in October.

"We haven't seen the draft, it doesn't seem to be satisfactory," added Kamm. "We will still see people put away without trials but there will be some improvements, and it is our responsibility as people who care about China to make sure that the bill is the best bill possible."

Kamm says there are a number of constraints preventing Beijing from introducing more reforms. One is the 17th Communist Party congress, which is scheduled later this year. Kamm says China's leaders do not want to appear to be bowing to Western critics ahead of the congress.

Group says China to evict 1.5 million for Olympics

Where is the harmonious society, I ask you? This slogan doesn't sit well with the poor who are even getting poorer as the Games are approaching. The IOC seems to agree on that issue (sort of) but whether or not they will do something about it remains to be seen.

"As a matter of principle, how the Olympic Games impact people's lives is an important matter for the IOC," its communications director, Giselle Davies, said in an e-mail.

Daily Star: 05/0607 - Some 1.5 million residents of Beijing will be displaced by the time it hosts the 2008 Olympics, many of them evicted against their will, a rights group said on Tuesday, prompting a sharp denial by China.

The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said residents were often forced from their homes with little notice and little compensation, as the government embarks on a massive city redevelopment to accommodate the Games.

"In Beijing, and in China more generally, the process of demolition and eviction is characterised by arbitrariness and lack of due process," the group said in a report.

After demolition, inhabitants were often "forced to relocate far from their communities and workplaces, with inadequate transportation networks adding significantly to their cost of living," the group said.

Beijing's Olympic organising committee had no immediate comment on the report, but China's Foreign Ministry said it was groundless and the figures vastly inflated.

Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said 6,037 people had been displaced since 2002 for the construction of Olympic stadiums.

"During the process, the citizens have had their compensation property settled. No single person was forced to move out of Beijing," Jiang told a regular news conference.

Across China, battles between residents and property developers have become commonplace as breakneck development swallows up swathes of rural land and as cities raze sections to make way for skyscrapers and shopping malls.

LIVELIHOODS LOST

Recourse to adequate compensation varied widely, the housing rights watchdog said, adding that those who suffer a significant decline in their living conditions as a result of their relocation could be as high as 20 percent.

"As soon as you are evicted, you lose part of your livelihood," the group cited one resident as saying.

In one neighbourhood, many who were relocated complained that even if they received compensation they could not afford to pay management fees and unsubsidised electricity and water charges.

While dislocations were common among cities around the world hosting major events, the group noted that in China, where the Communist Party keeps a tight rein on dissent, there was only a limited role for the media or grassroots groups to publicise abuses or advocate change.

Residents who spoke to COHRE's researchers also alleged corruption on the part of local governments, which they said accepted illegal payments from developers.

The group noted several cases of housing rights lawyers and activists who were imprisoned, including Ye Guozhu, who was sentenced to four years in jail in December 2004 for organising protests against forced evictions.

Particularly vulnerable to abuses were Beijing's population of poor, rural migrants, who often live in urban villages on the city's outskirts.

The International Olympic Committee said it was seeking a better understanding of how mega-events like the Olympics impact displacement through a meeting with the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing.

"As a matter of principle, how the Olympic Games impact people's lives is an important matter for the IOC," its communications director, Giselle Davies, said in an e-mail.

Copyright (c) Reuters 2007, All Rights Reserved.

Taiwan party chief threatens Beijing Olympic boycott

It's highly unlikely that the Communists will agree to let the Taiwanese team participate in the Games under the label 'Chinese Taipei'.

Daily Star: 05/06/07 -The Democratic Progressive Party, which wants more independence from China, will push for the right conditions to send athletes to Beijing but will not let China use the games as a way to downgrade Taiwan's status, said Chairman You Si-kun (who formerly spelled his Romanized name as Yu shyi-kun).

"The party hopes the country's competitors can participate in the Olympic Games, but China still uses the belittlement of sovereignty to put pressure on Taiwan, defining Taiwan as a local government in China," You said in an interview with Reuters. "This is something we have absolutely no way of accepting."

You mentioned no specific actions by Beijing but said anything that makes Taiwan appear to be part of China might cause the party to recommend a boycott.

In April, Taiwan rejected the Beijing Olympic torch because the route linked Taipei to Hong Kong, a special region of China.

Taiwan can participate in the Games as "Chinese Taipei", the result of a compromise reached in the late 1970s to allow mainland China to return to the Olympic movement.

Because of pressure from China, which has widespread diplomatic support for its demands, Taiwan cannot join the United Nations or the World Health Organisation -- restrictions that have further upset the ruling party.

China has seen self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the civil war of 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists sent their Nationalist rivals fleeing to the island. Officials in Beijing have threatened force to make Taiwan return and said it would never give up its quest for unification.

A `peaceful rise' at the expense of the people

By Shen Chieh 沈潔

Taipei Times: Sunday, Jun 03, 2007, Page 8

Despite what it calls its "peaceful rise," China is an abnormal country. The US Department of Defense has said that the Chinese military's development of long-range missiles, submarines and fighter jets exceed its national security needs.

While China's military technology is highly advanced, most of its people live in poverty.

The quality of life is low and some of the country's exported food and toothpaste products are even toxic.

China espouses a peaceful rise and the creation of a wealthy country with a strong army. Although these are legitimate goals, the problem lies in China's definition of what a wealthy country and a strong army mean.

China also pursued these ideals toward the end of the Qing Dynasty (清) but failed to take the needs of the public into account and in the end the dynasty could not be saved from itself.

The US became a superpower after the end of World War II. It built a wealthy country and a strong army based on a democratic liberal system.

On the other hand, the Soviet Union adopted a communist dictatorship at the cost of freedom, with the result that neither the country nor its people prospered.

The Soviet Union did manage to build a strong country, but it nevertheless collapsed.

Japan and some European countries adopted democratic, liberal systems without vowing to become rich countries with strong militaries and still managed to prosper.

China has adopted a dictatorial communist political system and an economic system with some capitalist characteristics. This mix contains both the strengths and the weaknesses of the two systems.

On the one hand, China's long-range missiles are capable of threatening the US and are able to shoot down satellites.

On the other hand, China seems incapable of resolving its serious environmental issues, such as water pollution, mining disasters, rampant corruption and food safety challenges.

China relies on cheap labor and foreign investment to mass produce products it then dumps overseas.

In light of its enormous foreign reserves, it appears to be a rich country, but this wealth is spent expanding the military and not on improving living standards.

In the coastal areas where the corrupt privileged class relies on foreign investment and profits from the privatization of state-owned businesses, some people are wealthy enough to be listed among the world's richest people by Forbes magazine.

In the country, though, most farmers are so poor that they can't manage to make ends meet.

The tremendous gap between rich and poor in China is worse than that in capitalist countries.

The dictators in Beijing have no international enemies but are still rushing to strengthen the military.

On the domestic side, though, laborers are being abused and farmers are being oppressed.

This is not the image of a strong country.

With such a rigid political system, inflated and unbalanced economy and chaotic policies, China is its own worst enemy.

Thus, talk of making public welfare the first priority has become just that -- talk.

If China's only pursuit is to build a rich country and a strong military, the bursting of its economic bubble will cause it to collapse in the same way the Soviet Union did.

Shen Chieh is a US-based freelance writer.

US tells China human rights record could compromise Olympics

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I wonder what Bobby Fletcher's reaction is about this 'frank warning'?

Sudan Tribune: June 1, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — Washington on Friday issued an unusually frank warning to China that its hosting of the Olympics could be marred by its poor human rights record, and notably its failure to acknowledge the Tiananmen massacre of pro-democracy activists 18 years ago.

Bush speaks about the injustices present in the Darfur region of Sudan at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington April 18, 2007 (Reuters)

The US State Department has marked next Monday’s 18th anniversary of the massacre by complaining that "the international community and ordinary Chinese citizens still do not know how many people were killed or injured".

"The fullest possible accounting by the Chinese Government of those killed, detained, or missing is long overdue," department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.

"Many in China and elsewhere are unaware that thousands of Chinese citizens were arrested and sentenced without trial in 1989 and an estimated 100 to 200 still languish in prison for Tiananmen-related activities.

"As the 2008 Olympic Games approach, the international community will place China under greater scrutiny.

"We urge the Chinese Government to move forward with a re-examination of Tiananmen, to release all Tiananmen-era prisoners and to cease harassment of the families of victims of Tiananmen."

The unusually open US criticism has come shortly after the State Department’s top east Asia official, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, returned from a visit to Beijing for talks on a series of bilateral disputes.

During the trip, the Chinese expressed frustration over US policy on a range of issues, including the North Korean nuclear stand-off and US demands for sanctions against Sudan over the Darfur crisis, a senior US official said.

The State Department reference to next year’s summer Olympic Games in Beijing is particularly pointed, given China’s strongly-voiced concern over calls for a boycott of the event by US and international human rights activists due to China’s reticence to pressure Sudan, a key Beijing ally, to accept a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Beijing has repeatedly dismissed suggestions that hundreds or thousands of people were killed in the Tiananmen crackdown, insisting that its handling of the protest was necessary to ensure China’s economic growth and stability.

Friday’s statement contrasts with recent US efforts to highlight increased cooperation between Washington and Beijing on a range of matters, including multilateral negotiations to curb North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs.

But US officials say Beijing has begun voicing frustration over Washington’s handling of a banking dispute with Pyongyang, which has held up implementation of a February agreement under which North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program.

China also voiced displeasure over a US decision this week to impose unilateral sanctions on Sudan for its refusal to allow a major UN-led peacekeeping force into war-torn Darfur.

China is the biggest buyer of Sudanese oil.

China complicit in Darfur tragedy

Toronto Star Editorial, June 1, 2007 - The principal obstacle to prompt, forceful international intervention is China, which buys oil from Sudan, sells arms to Sudan, and routinely keeps the UN Security Council from approving any effective measures.

This is the same China to which the world gave the 2008 Olympics, in the smug belief that greater exposure to the world would improve the Chinese government's policies on human rights, both at home and abroad. There's a mountain of evidence there has been no domestic improvement, and a mountain of corpses in Darfur tells us all we need to know about the priority Beijing puts on human rights elsewhere. (more)

China denounces U.S. human rights 'abuses' while persecuting its own people

This is a great piece by Chen-Yuan Tung, vice chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council.

In February, Parade magazine published a list of the "World's 10 Worst Dictators" based on reports by global human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and the U.S. Department of State. Chinese President Hu Jintao ranked fourth on its list, up two places from the 2006 list. As Hu rises in his ranking on the list, the human rights situation in China worsens.

Union Leader: SINCE 1991, China's State Council has issued eight human rights reports. In 1998, China became a signatory to the United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, though its parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), has yet to ratify the signing. In 2006, the Chinese government held an Exhibition on Human Rights in China in Beijing. And in March the Chinese government issued for the eighth consecutive year a report on the Human Rights Record of the United States, in which it criticizes the U.S. government for serious violations of human rights. Unlike other governments in the world, the Chinese government is unique in its unceasing efforts to prove to the international community that the "Communist Party of China (CPC) is a strong advocate for human rights, and the Chinese people enjoy human rights." This is progress of a sort, yet it also amply exhibits the hypocrisy of the Chinese government in its persecution of human rights.

Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin once said that "Keeping 1.3 billion people well fed and warmly clothed is one of the greatest human rights achievements in China." Indeed, China has significantly improved its people's lives, but the nation's wealth is concentrated in the hands of a minority of people, many of whom are influential, high-ranking party cadres and government officials.

Official surveys in China indicate that there are 3,220 Chinese people with personal assets exceeding 100 million yuan, but 2,932 of those persons are the children of high-ranking CPC cadres and government officials. Moreover, as of the end of 2004, nearly 200 million farmers in China had lost their farmland because of the Chinese authorities' unjust expropriation of land. These farmers have been unable to find employment and also lack even minimal social protections.

The aforementioned problems arise from the unrestricted privileges of China's high-ranking party cadres and government officials. As such, there has been insufficient political protection for the rights and interest of the general public in China.

China's constitution stipulates that citizens aged 18 or above have the right to vote and stand for election. At this time, however, the Chinese people are only allowed to cast a direct vote in elections for heads of village and chairmen of neighborhood committees. Of the more than 70 million members at party and government agencies, only 32,000 non-CPC members hold leading political positions at or above county chief level.

Moreover, only 19 non-party members hold positions in the central government, and the great majority of them are in positions without actual administrative power.

This demonstrates that the CPC's monopoly of political power is the fundamental reason for China's extremely unfair distribution of wealth and officials' unbridled abuse of power and privileges.

In addition to its power in the real world, the CPC has tried to control the spiritual world of the Chinese people. Chinese laws contain clear provisions protecting the religious freedom of the people, yet more than 40 million people have been persecuted in China because of their participation in what the Chinese government considers "underground churches" and "evil cults."

At present, at least 17 bishops of Catholic underground churches are missing or have been arrested or forced into living under segregation. In 2006, at least 650 pastors of house churches were arrested and many churches were demolished. Since July 1999, the Chinese government has cruelly persecuted several hundred thousand Falun Gong practitioners, and several thousand followers of the religious group have died in police custody.

Naturally, the Chinese people are also deprived of the right to freedom of speech. Reporters Without Borders has indicated that at present there are at least 31 journalists and 51 online authors serving prison sentences in China.

China's Ministry of Public Security has more than 30,000 Internet police officers to censor the online speech of the Chinese people. Under coercion by the Chinese government, major Internet companies Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems have blocked access to and self-filtered Chinese networks and Web sites; and they have provided the personal data of Web users to the Chinese government.

The Chinese government has also stipulated that the release of news and information in China by foreign news agencies must undergo a review and ratification process by the Chinese authorities. This same stipulation applies to the subscription of such news and information by users in China.

Without political democracy, freedom of religion and freedom of speech, there will be no true human rights in China. With regard to China's publication of human rights white papers and holding of human rights exhibitions, these represent nothing but the sheer hypocrisy of the Chinese government to gloss over its true face of human rights persecution.

Beijing's criticism of the human rights situation in the United States only further highlights the guilty conscience and absurdity of the Chinese government in this regard. In February, Parade magazine published a list of the "World's 10 Worst Dictators" based on reports by global human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and the U.S. Department of State. Chinese President Hu Jintao ranked fourth on its list, up two places from the 2006 list. As Hu rises in his ranking on the list, the human rights situation in China worsens.

The Case for Literature

Gao Xingjian is right to wonder about the cultural ties to the 2008 Games? Chinese culture is a big void since the Cultural Revolution. Who are they going to invite, the Penchen Lama?

Yale University Press - June l, 2007 -

Since China, the 2008 host, has already violated all its promises to world governments and Olympic officials to restrain its authoritarian suppression of free speech, free politics and free literature under the charmless reign of Hu Jintao—a colorless bureaucrat who doesn’t even break into karaoke like his predecessor—coming up with a cool showing in the “Cultural Olympics” competition should test Beijing’s best minds.

Executing a few dissident writers with bullets to the head, just as the Olympic torch reaches Beijing’s Olympic Stadium, would certainly be an attention-getter. Or, given the inspired dubbing of China’s coming moment by Mia and Ronan Farrow as the “Genocide Olympics” (a nod to China’s support of Sudan’s massacre of its own citizens in Darfur), perhaps an exhibition of Sudanese writers expressing their eternal fraternity with the Chinese people?

Here’s a third suggestion for China’s commissars of cut-rate, cutthroat capitalism: Invite back Gao Xingjian, 2000 Nobel laureate in literature and still the only Chinese writer to win the prize. The Swedish Academy praised Gao “for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama.” (more)

China may ban Catholics from 2008 Olympics

Isn't this a scary thought, please read on there is more.

Independent Catholic News: BEIJING - 1 June 2007 - China's Ministry of Public Security has issued a directive listing 43 categories of 'unwanteds' who are to be investigated and may be barred from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Falun Dafa Information Centre reports.

The banned groups will include members of religious groups not sanctioned by the state, including the underground Catholic and other Christian churches; "key individuals in ideological fields," "counter-revolutionary" figures, the Dalai Lama and all affiliates, "individuals who instigate discontentment toward the Chinese Communist Party through the Internet," and certain types of "handicapped" persons.

Members of the indigenous religious group Falun Gong would be barred, as would "family members of deceased persons" killed in "riots" -- a euphemism for events such as the Tiananmen Massacre -- and Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, which the regime brands "national separatists."

Foreign athletes, members of the media, Olympic staff members, referees, sponsors, dignitaries, and the International Olympic Committee itself, will all be investigated, to determine whether they fall into any of the 43 categories.

According to AsiaNews, up to 50 Roman Catholic bishops and priests are in prison or otherwise prevented from carrying out their ministry in China.

In theory Chinese law guarantees a degree of religious freedom, but the Communist government forbids all worship outside state-backed "patriotic" religious groups which it effectively controls.

China broke links with the Vatican soon after the Communists took sole control of the country. During the 1950's the government expelled foreign clergy and established its own state approved "Catholic church", the China Patriotic Catholic Association, which pledges loyalty to Beijing rather than the Pope.

Despite continual harassment and arrest of its priests and members, the Roman Catholic Church in China claims an estimated eight million worshippers, double the total for the government approved body.

Source: FDIC/CSW

© Independent Catholic News 2007

Contact Independent Catholic News tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7267 3616 or email

HRW: China: Tiananmen Legacy Defies Olympic Gloss

No Justice or Accountability Almost Two Decades Later

It's time for China to look inside and admit their crimes against humanity or at the very least make a public apology.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH - (Washington, DC, June 1, 2007) – China’s total failure to account for the massacre of June 4, 1989 casts a pall on its efforts to project a new image and continues to spawn more abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.

Eighteen years after Chinese government troops initiated a massacre of an estimated 2,000 unarmed citizens in and around Tiananmen Square and other Chinese cities on and after June 4, the Chinese government has wholly failed to account for those killings and bring justice to the victims. Instead, the government continues to harass the survivors, their families and those who dare to challenge the official whitewash of the events at Tiananmen Square.

“In the 14 months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Communist Party wants to be seen as a modern, sophisticated nation, one governed by the rule of law,” said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But the image the world should not forget is that of a courageous individual facing down a column of tanks, as his fate and that of thousands of other protestors remain unresolved."(more)