It appears imprudent to call the new Obama administration’s attention to China’s human rights problems. The US, in economic recession and in deep debt to China, is apparently in no position to demand anything of China. Yet, although a power player in the global economy, China is not immune to its own economic problems, which have caused social and political headaches for its authoritarian regime. At this critical moment, there is reason to hope that the US and the international community can actually exert a positive influence on China by promoting democratization and respect for human rights.
Democracy advocates in China have given President-elect Barack Obama and his Secretary of State-select an opportunity to provide leadership on these issues. A civil society campaign for democratic reform, emulating the Charter 77 movement in Cold War era Czechoslovakia and partly inspired by Mr. Obama, deserves the new administration’s support.
The call for sweeping political reforms in China came in early December in an online petition titled Charter 08. Upon learning about this petition, police detained one prominent intellectual, Liu Xiaobo, and interrogated another co-signer for 12 hours, after raiding their homes. Mr. Liu has remained in detention and more than 100 signatories have been interrogated since December 8. Vaclav Havel, leader of Charter 77 and former president of the democratic Czech Republic, denounced the arrest in the Wall Street Journal. Supporters of Mr. Liu in China are asking, “Why hasn’t the US President-elect voiced concerns about the detention of Liu Xiaobo and demanded a halt to the crackdown on the signatories of Charter 08?”
More than 5000 residents on Mainland China have since signed Charter 08, and Netizens briefly outsmarted Chinese cyberpolice censorship on the internet, indicating a measure of popular support for the Charter’s demands -- human rights, democracy, rule of law, and 19 steps toward an overhaul of governance, including putting an end to the one-party rule and protecting the natural environment. Compared to similar petitions circulated since 1989, Charter 08 has garnered support from a much wider swath of the population, far exceeded the drafters’ expectations. As a result, it has shaken those in power.
Chinese authorities have reasons to be nervous. Huge declines in Chinese exports and growth have prompted the closure of manufacturing plants and layoffs. This is the year that may reveal what happens when the Communist Party is no longer able to deliver on its deal with the population, a deal that Deng Xiaoping struck 30 years ago when he introduced market reforms: prosperity and morsels of personal freedom in exchange for political acquiescence to the Party’s rule.
The current economic recession has seen China’s nouveau middle classes disillusioned and workers disproportionately burdened. The Chinese official press reported that 10 million rural laborers, migrated to cities to look for jobs, have found no work in factories and are trickling back home. But 20% to 30% of farmers have lost their land to developers and have hardly any means of making a living. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ 2009 Blue Papers put urban unemployment rates at 9.4%.
Many in the hard-hit social groups are angry, and many are demanding justice and rights. According to official press, in 2008, from January to October, there was a 93.52 percent increase in labor protests from 2007, in the same months. Compared to 2007, there were 300% more protests demanding unpaid salaries in a city in the industrial costal regions.
The recent Third Session of the Seventeenth Chinese Communist Party Congress made economic recession and social unrest its top concern. President Hu Jintao’s speech at the October gathering of senior leaders stressed “stability” as the Party’s “rock-hard mandate.” A national conference on political and legal affairs held in Beijing in med-December made containing “mass incidents” (social riots) its priority.
Unwilling to allow China’s citizens to peacefully express their views and hold demonstrations, the Chinese state habitually responds to workers’ strikes, rural protests, and political or religious demonstrations with brute force, as it did 20 years ago to crush prodemocracy protests in Tiananmen Square, as it did 10 years ago to suppress the spiritual sect Falun Gong, and as it did 9 months ago to quell monks’ demonstrations in Tibet. The Party has never failed to rule out free expression and participatory governance as means to a peaceful transition to a stable society based on less corruption and more justice -- especially in times of widespread discontent and a pervading sense of crisis.
2009 happens to be a year of anniversaries with huge political symbolism: the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen suppression, the 50th of the exile of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, and the 60th of the Communist Party’s rise to power.
The new administration must respond to the current call from China’s non-state sectors for political change. The Obama presidency will be under pressure to gain China’s cooperation on matters of global importance like climate change, regional security, and nuclear proliferation. Yet it is in America’s long-term strategic interest to engage China in reforming its political system and ending repression. This is the only sensible way to ensure that China will respect international law, play according to rules, and cooperate on issues of global importance. As soon as possible, the new president should articulate a China policy that makes supporting civil society and promoting human rights and democracy a pillar, not a bargaining chip.
Mr. Obama should reach out directly to the Chinese citizenry, making clear to them that the American people want to support their pursuit of justice, democracy, prosperity and sustainable development. Soon after his inauguration, President Obama should announce U.S. intentions (1) to work with non-governmental sectors to strengthen civil society and support grassroots initiatives for democratic change; (2) to broaden exchange programs to include more civil society actors; (3) to work through multilateral organizations that have mechanisms for civil society participation, such as the newly established UN Human Rights Council, which is playing an active role in monitoring human rights and supporting rule-of-law reform in China and around the world; and (4) to restructure the recently resumed US-China “human rights dialogue” such that NGO participation, transparency, and measurable results are integral components of the bilateral efforts.
A 14-year-old boy in Beijing, the youngest of the signatories to Charter 08, remarked: “If Mr. Obama can be elected President of the United States, we too can change China!” Mr. Obama’s election has inspired much hope for democratic change in China and around the globe. He can keep that hope alive by firmly supporting civil society actors in their efforts to bring about this change. A crucial first step will be for Mr. Obama to call on President Hu Jintao to release Liu Xiaobo and to end the crackdown on thousands of signatories of Charter 08.
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