Welcome Madam Ambassador

Presenting credentials to the Australian government recently was the newly appointed Ambassador from China Ms Fu Ying a 51 year old career diplomat originally from Inner Mongolia and coming via various postings in Romania,Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines.

In a Sydney Morning Herald article Fu is quoted as preaching the now de rigueur Chinese diplomatic line of "Peaceful rise"

"There is a fear about the future orientation of Chinese foreign policy. It's not surprising, because in world history many big powers rose and caused earthquakes. But I think China is going to be different, because the world has changed. It's not like in the past when powers had to expand territorially in order to get markets ..."

Then the veiled, if not threat then at least subtle warning:

"I think China is reliable, but will Australia convince the Chinese Government that it is reliable?" asks Fu. "When you (Australia)had this kind of relationship with Japan you were from the same side of the fence. No ideological barriers whatsoever. With China it is different. Do you understand China that well? And does China understand Australia that well?"

"Ideological barriers"? Is this a euphemism for differing perceptions of Human Rights? Is she saying "hey here is the carrot but get out of line here also is the stick"? The carrot being your place at the "trough", the stick being the reverse.

What other "ideological barriers' can she be alluding too? Surely not democracy versus communism? I think the world has gotten over that particular barrier as it concerns China.

No. What she is saying is do not meddle in our internal affairs concerning human rights,the Uygurs, Tibet Taiwan, Falun Gong, et al and we will get a long just fine and you will benefit from your association as a result of your acquiescence.

It is a cockiness that I have mentioned before in China Letter posts. A growing arrogance deriving from China's maturing economic importance in the global economy.

Premier Wen Jiabao exhibited the same "cockiness" in speeches and news conferences on his recent trip to Europe including his talks with the European Union.

The Sydney Morning Herald writer, Paul Sheehan, seems to think that a new ambassador provides an opportunity for Australia to:

"do with less America and more China in its international relations, if the right details can be negotiated.

In his words he sees a real "prize" in substantially abandoning our historical relations with the United States

"If Fu accurately represents the will of Beijing, then there is a real prize to be gained here, a genuine strategic alliance with the country reshaping world trade and thus world diplomacy. How ironic, and satisfying, it would be if Australia, having always aligned itself with great white powers as insurance against the Asian peril, can, and should, end up with powerful alliances with both Japan and the giant we have feared for a hundred years."

How ironic and how satisfying what? That we end up in an "alliance" with a country with the despicable human rights record of China whilst forsaking our alliances with our traditional allies. Alliances that have been tested in fire. Allies that despite momentarily lapses have proven over many years to be paragons of freedom liberty and democracy as compared to China.

What would motivate us to do this Mr Sheehan? Twelve pieces of silver?

Do not be too quick Mr Sheehan to jump naked into the rose petal covered bed that appears so inviting. Part of what Ambassador Fu said that you find so alluring was "It's not like in the past when powers had to expand territorially in order to get markets" when asking us to trust China's peaceful rise and she is correct, things in that respect have changed with globalisation. But what has not been proven to have changed is what countries do when the are starved of resources. Getting "markets" is but one part of the economic process, another is production and production requires resources and China is quickly running out of these.

It is a little too early talking as Mr Sheehan has, perhaps another 50 years in which time China can prove her bona fides a little more than she has done to date especially as it concerns human rights.

To Madam Ambassador welcome and I hope your stay here is a hell of a lot of hard work because if it is not then it will have meant that we, as a nation, have abandoned all our princoples and have sold out for "12 pieces of silver".

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China better seen as an ally, not as a threat - Paul Sheehan - www.smh.com.au

China-US Comparative: A Difference In Values

In 2003 the United States Of America mined 1.07 million tons of coal. In 2003 China mined 1.7 million tons of coal.

In 2003 53 people died in coal mine accidents in the United States. In 2003 between 7,200 and 10,000 died in coal mine accidents in China.

A quote from U.S Coal mine safety expert H.L. Boling at a recent Joint Mine Safety and Health Conference in Salt Lake City Utah, United States:

"Every accident is preventable." And telling someone to hurry at their job "is like going out and telling a person to have an accident."

A sign at entrance to the mine shaft at Ximing Mine, a major state-owned mine on the outskirts of Shanxi's capital Taiyuan

"Come up short today, must make it up tomorrow,"

Differing attitudes differing safety results.

Of course direct general comparisons in coal mining safety are not accurate. Different mining operations have different risks, open cut mining for example is less dangerous than underground mining but despite this nothing can ameliorate China's record in the comparative results of these two major mining countries.

America has not always been so successful in it's mine safety but we have to go back to 1907 when last the United States equaled China's daily official coal mine death rate of 20 a day.

But China now, as distinct to the U.S. of 1907, has the benefit of almost 100 years of technology improvements to call upon, if it wished. Almost one hundred years of the combined experience of the coal mining industry from all around the world to look to for answers to her atrocious record, if she wished.

No, there can be no excuses, no extenuating circumstances for this tragic loss of life ,only the pitch black fact that in China human life runs a very poor second to the economy.

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• China Becoming an increasing important player in global coal market
  
• "Mining industry puts emphasis on safety" Brice Wallace.
  Deseret Morning News.
  United States Mine Rescue Association. May 30 2004. May 30 2004

Definition of terrorist: One who exerts a "Bad influence"

According to a new definition of terrorism coined recently by Chinese Deputy Director of Public Security Ma Mingyue terrorism, Uygur terrorism in particular, is where terrorists exert a "bad influence" on people.

According to Wajahat Ali of the Daily Times of Pakistan on Friday Ma Mingyue, when addressing a group of Pakistani journalists on a visit to Urumqi , capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, told them that members of the internationally listed Uygur "terrorist" group ETIM had holed up in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi. When pressed about how these dangerous terrorists from China's most wanted group operated in or from Pakistan Mr Mingyue is reported to have said that they were

"simply being a 'bad influence' on people visiting Pakistan from Xinjiang".

Simply being a "bad influence"

If it was not so damn serious it would be laughable.

China has claimed since "9/11" that the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was an extremely dangerous terrorist and Islamic fundamentalist organisation that had "proven" links with both al Qaeda and the Taliban. That it was an extensive network of members resolute in their aim of separating Xinjiang from China and setting up an independent Uygur Islamic state.

So insistent was China as to the threat this group posed to Chinese and world security it petitioned the United Nations to proscribe this then little known group as an "International terrorist Organisation". By way of payback or whatever for China's support of it's "War on Terror" the United States backed China's push and ETIM was listed early 2002.

As I said, at that time nothing was known of this "dangerous international group". Uygur diaspora organisations stated that they had little or no knowledge of it or it's supposed leader Hassan Mahsun. The United States State Department when announcing the listing could offer no proof of their misdeeds other than stating the Chinese had told them the details, no collaboration validation, nothing. A State Department spokesman even admitted that the group is not known to have operated outside of China or targeted Americans or any foreign national. But of course they could do so that is why they were described as an international group.

In December 2003 the Chinese government trotted out it's "Most Wanted List" of Uygur terrorists and poor Hassan Mahsun topped the list as the equivalent of Bin Ladin in the Chinese terrorism stakes.

The problem was however that Hassan had been dead a full two months at the time, killed by soldiers in a raid on some flea bitten village in Pakistan thought to be a terrorist camp. On top of that China had helped in the identification of his remains. So either he was not really that important to be remembered or China had intended to "keep him alive" to perpetuate the myth, until of course some Pakistani let the cat out of the bag so to speak.

Now a leading Chinese official comes out and says this. Caught,as it would appear, ill prepared with "facts".

It really is about time that the world disabuses itself of the belief in "Uygur Terrorism" propagated by the Chinese to lend validation to their oppressive regime over the Uygurs of Xinjiang.

Anyway on a lighter note (for you readers at least)I am off to hand myself in to the local cop shop because well, in honesty, I have been known to have been a bad influence on a lot of people, especially on a Friday night after work. So See Ya!


Daily Times - Site Edition

China a friend in need? Pakistan China and the Uygur

A rather interesting article on the "Uygur question", in as much as it looks at it from the angle of Pakistan's role in the repression of the Uygur people of Xinjiang, China, is Dr Bhaskar Dasgputa's " China A Friend In Need?". It leads in with a concise history of the Uygurs before getting into full stride analysing Pakistan's sycophantic relationship with China and the ramifications for the Uygur.

Dr Dasgupta, currently working on a doctorate at Kings College in International Relations and Terrorism, claims, and rightly so, that as China has attempted to do with the Turkic states of central Asia (Kazakhstan Uzbekistan et al), it has placed pressure on Pakistan to support it in it's oppression of the Uygurs. He states that Pakistan's response to the diplomatic pressure exerted was typical:

"As usual, Pakistan showed its spine and fine martial spirit, just like it showed to the USA, and caved in. The police and intelligence agencies moved in, Uighurs in Pakistan were targeted, killed, deported, imprisoned or what have you. Many were directly sent back to China (guess what happened to them) like Ismail Kadir for example. Others were reported to have been handed over to the Americans who then sent them over to that tropical Caribbean paradise of Guantanamo Bay."

As was pointed out in a previous post "An Uygur's Letter to America" many of the Uygurs hunted out of Pakistan were political refugees from China's repression of the Uygurs in Xinjiang. Without passports they had nowhere to go other than to Afghanistan and into the "welcoming arms" of the Taliban. That of course is not to say that there were no Uygurs voluntarily in Afghanistan working actively for separation from China. Like the many nationalities represented in Afghanistan there are some Uygurs who prefer violence as a means to an end but from everything I can gather their numbers were and are few.

The writer ends this very different styled piece by referring to Pakistan's double standards over the Uygurs as a result of it's economic reliance on China"

Self determination and fighting for freedom principles are great, but Xinjiang becomes an inconvenient issue. The cause of Palestine is heard all over the world, but Xinjiang is so inconvenient that the mere mention of it causes embarrassment and shuffling of the feet. After all Alfred Adler said : "It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

The author's history is a tad off though.

"In 1945, the first serious threat to Chinese sovereignty was due to the announcement of the Eastern Turkistan Republic, claiming sovereignty over Xinjiang with a firm Islamic flavour."

There had been far more serious threats to Chinese sovereignty in the 19th century. Yakub Beg and his Kashgaria was far more worrisome for the Chinese. In 1945 sovereignty over the majority of Xinjiang was vested in the Nationalists and some "warlords" who were on their last legs anyway. And, yes, whilst the republic, which held sway for a short time over only 25% of Xinjiang (centered in the Illi region north west of Urumqi), was based on Islamic principles it was forthright in stating that all religions were to be allowed to be freely practicsed. This is no different than say American or English democracy being based on Christian principles.

"In 1949, most of the leaders of the republic died mysteriously. Funnily enough, the Chinese communist government then took over Xinjiang."

Here he refers to a number of Uygur leaders from the Eastern Turkistan Republic being killed in a plane crash whilst on a flight to Beijing to discuss post takeover issues. Whilst it was "mysterious", highly coincidental and ultimately fortuitous for the Han, the republic had already decided to accept Chinese sovereignty in exchange for Xinjiang becoming an autonomous state within Communist China. As for the rest of Xinjiang (the other 75%), that was already a "fait accompli" with the Nationalists in tatters.

Much emphasis is placed by people on the Eastern Turkistan Republic, none less than the Uygurs, and whilst it controlled an army that would have caused the Communists some not unreasonable trouble in the short term, in the long term the writing was on the wall. Thus Xinjiang "capitulated" without a shot being fired.

All in all though an intersting article and worth the read.


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China a friend in need? : HindustanTimes.com/UK: News for UK Asians

China Claims Panchen Lama Alive and Well

The UK Statesman carries a story originally from the Times of London citing the Chinese State Council as saying that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Dalai Lama chosen 11th Panchen Lama is alive and well despite speculation that the 16 year old kidnapped by Chinese officials in 1995 was dead.

The Panchen Lama is the second most important position in the Tibetan religious hierarchy second only to the Dalai Lama.

Shortly after Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was named by the Dalai Lama in 1995 as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama Chinese officials raided his home in Tibet kidnapping him and his family. Two weeks after his disappearance the government announced their own Panchen Lama supposedly "correctly" chosen according to Tibetan Buddhist law.

Chinese officials denied any role in his disappearance at first but in 1996 admitted that they had the Panchen Lama in their "care" protecting him and his family against "separatists" kidnappers. Since then nothing official has been heard of the boy though rumours as to his death have cropped up from time to time.

According to the Times report the State Council statement confirms that the boy is alive and well

"His health condition is good and he is living a normal and happy life and receiving a good education,"

The Chinese chosen "Panchen Lama" Gyaincain Norbu recently appeared in Shanxi province where he was reported as praising the Chinese state for its religious tolerance and urged Tibetans to support the "motherland".

Despite the State Council's statement that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is "free" it is highly unlikely he will ever live anything but a life of virtual imprisonment as long as the Communist regime rules in China.

As a "living god" he poses just too much of a threat to Chinese rule over Tibet.

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The Statesman

An Uygur's Letter To America

The following is the text of a letter sent by an Uygur man to US Secretary of State Colin Powell. It needs no analysis or comment suffice to say that in knowing the Uygur as I do the sentiments expressed are true and widely held.This "Uygur Letter" was printed today on the Uygur english language message board Uighur-L. a member entry board. Turdi (whose surname is witheld for security reasons) is well known for his advocacy of the Uygur situation.

There are many who believe that everyone incarcerated in Guantanamo is a terrorist this obviously is not the case considering the large number slotted for release. Many, undoubtably like some of the Uygurs, were impressed into the service of the taliban or were of no difference to any foot soldiers of any nation in the world that sends it's people to war.

---

The Honorable Colin Powell, Secretary of StateDepartment of State2201 C Street, NW, Washington DC 20520

Dear Secretary of State:

I am deeply concerned about the fate of the Uighurs in US military custody in Guantánamo Bay. According to the Amnesty International, they are at risk of forcible return to China or to third countries where they might face return to China. People who are familiar with the Uyghur situation in China will not doubt for a second that those men detained in Guantanamo will be tortured and executed should they be returned to China.

They were captured in the context of the armed conflict in Afghanistan and transferred to US custody around January 2002.
An Associate Press report published on Nov 25, 2003 quoted a senior US defense official as saying,

"Washington is quietly discussing with China the terms under which an undisclosed number of Chinese Muslim separatists would be released from Guantanamo and returned to China. The Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay were captured in Afghanistan, but the United States has no further interest in holding them because they are not believed to pose a threat to U.S. interests. Their main aim is to return to Xinjiang and fight for independence — a goal they apparently sought to further by training in Afghanistan."

On 13 May 2004, a US State Department spokesman said that the USA has "identified some who might be eligible for release… We have talked to the Chinese and other governments about this situation."
There is absolutely no reason to believe that China will honor its promise and will not mistreat these Uyghurs. Once those Uyghurs set their feet in China, they will become "the internal affair of China." It is well documented that the Chinese government has systematically tortured and executed suspected Uyghur separatists. China has executed a number of Uyghurs in recent years including asylum seekers and refugees repatriated from neighboring countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Nepal in total disregard to the strong protests of the international community and human rights organizations.
Those people were originally political dissidents or religious students who went to Pakistan to escape Chinese persecution.

After Pakistan forcefully returned some Uyghur dissidents to China where they were executed, the rest of the Uyghurs in Pakistan escaped to third countries. Some who did not have passport and other proper documents ended up in Afghanistan since it was the only country willing to accept them. That misfortune led them to a combat that they apparently had no desire to take part in as it as clear from the RFA interview of Hasan Mehsum,(see Ed Note) the leader of the Uyghurs in Afghanistan.

There is no evidence that they committed any terrorist activities or other crimes in China or anywhere else. On the Nov 26, 2001, the Chinese Government announced the details of all the alleged violence happened in the previous 10 years in connection to the Uyghur independence movement. There is no evidence or reason to link any of those (sic) violence to those men in Guantanamo.

In fact, the reason why the Chinese authorities want them back is not just to punish them opposing their rule but also to intimidate the whole Uyghur population. If they succeed to bring them back to China, they will be able reinforce that they can carry out their oppressive policy against the Uyghurs as they please and the Uyghurs have to accept it without complaining no matter how unfair it is since they can do nothing about it and even United States, whom the Uyghurs look up to for support, can do nothing about it.

It is no secret that China has long been carrying out a repressive policy against the Uyghurs, who, having been inspired by the US intervention in Kosovo and Bosnia, look to US for moral support. China has been quite annoyed by that. They have been using every opportunity to tarnish the image of US in eyes of Uyghurs and to smash the hopes of Uyghurs. Rebiya Kadir, a prominent Uyghur businesswoman, was harshly punished and sentenced for 8 years on the suspicion that she planned to complain about the Chinese treatment of Uyghurs to a visiting US official. If she really had sensitive documents to send to US or anywhere else, there were numerous ways to do that and she certainly had the means. But the truth behind her harsh punishment is Chinese authorities wanted to exploit the US connection of her case to sent out an intimidating message to Uyghur population by punishing her in disregard to the opposition of US government. For the same reason, the efforts of the international community and US authorities to get her released has yielded no significant result. The issue of the Uyghur detainees in Guantanamo is highly publicized among the Uyghurs. I hope US government will not give China another opportunity to intimidate the Uyghurs by reinforcing their message that not only the Uyghurs could do nothing about the way they treat them the whole world could do nothing about it and that even the only remaining super power yields to China's demands.

If those Uighurmen have committed any crime against the US interests, the US government has a right to punish them in any way they see fit, but sending them back to China should not be one of them. Because, it would not serve just as a punishment for these men alone, it would serve as a punishment for all the Uyghurs who believe in the moral integrity and justice system of the US government and the international community. This issue is extremely important for Uyghurs because what is at stake is not just the fate of those men but the dignity and self-image of the entire Uyghur people. Their feelings would be greatly hurt if those men are turned over to China for its cruel disposal.

Uyghurs probably are the most pro-US Muslims in the world. China is trying hard to use the Iraq war to damage US's image among Uyghurs. If the US returns those men to China, China may succeed.
As a concerned Uyghur, I strongly urge the US government not to return them to China.

Sincerely,

Turdi (surname witheld)

---

Note: Hasan Mehsum was identified by the Chinese Government as the terrorist leader of the then little known East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and was top of China's "Most wanted list". ETIM at the pushing of China and with the support of America was named as an international terrorist organisation in 2002 in the wake of "9/11" despite there being absolutely no evidence other than China's say so as to it's crimes.

Mehsum in a radio interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA) in early 2002 denied catagorically that he or any members of ETIM had ever conducted terrorist activities in China or anywhere else. Mehsum was killed by Pakistan security forces in October 2003 having fled Afghanistan where he had originally escaped to from China.

Despite his death and China being involved at the time in the official identification of his body a government press release in December 2003 requested forign countries to support them in capturing him. A large gaffe which totally contradicted Mehsun's supposed terrorist leader status and the danger he posed to China or the world.

China launches Tibet information blitz in US

Chinese Tibetan delegation in US.

An AFP article carried in the Tibetan news reporting website Phayul claims that China has "launched an information blitz" in the United States aimed to counter western perceptions of the situation in Tibet as concerns human-rights violations.

Leading this so called "blitz" is a delegation of "scholars and religious leaders" from Lhasa, capital of Tibet, who are on a week long tour of the United States and taking in visits to Washington, New York and Los Angeles.

The group will reportedly be meeting US legislators, students and staff of several US universities before returning to China this Sunday.

A spokesman from the Chinese embassy in Washington Sun Weide said the group, led by a University Tibetan Scholar, was in America to dispel "lots of misunderstandings"

He went on to say that

"One example is that many people in the West, particularly in the United States, consider Tibet to be an independent country when the fact of the matter is that Tibet has been incorporated in Chinese territory since the middle of the 13th century,"

Well I do not know whether a delegation of six on a one week trip and only taking in three cities could constitute a "blitz" but when combined with a series of press releases over the last several weeks trumpeting China's positive influence in Tibet, culminating in China releasing one of it's celebrated "White Papers" on the subject of Tibet autonomy, one could say at least it represents a very concerted propaganda exercise.

Lama told he can come home if he 'abandons his separatist propositions'

-Tibetan Delegation Leader-

The Chinese government does nothing without reason. Usually such an effort would be as a result of adverse world opinion over a contentious issue or meant as a "sales pitch" for some particular reason.

Recently the Dalai Lama has been doing some serious jetsetting and receiving whilst not tumultuous greetings wherever he goes the turnouts to his meetings have been quite sizeable and up on previous visits. His recent April trip to Canada has been described in true pop star terms as a "sellout". His meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Martin was seen as somewhat of a diplomatic coup especially in light of some pretty heavy lobbying and threats from the Chinese side.

He then did a quick skip to France before turning up at the inauguration of the Taiwanese president last Thursday and now he is in Britain and meeting the likes of the British Foreign Secretary and Prince Charles. Once again all despite some very heavily lobbying by China to have him virtually treated as "persona non gratis" wherever he goes.

China also took the expected flack over Tibet at the recent United Nations Human Rights Commission meetings in Geneva and a group of Tibetan hunger strikers in New York in April were able to get some fairly high level UN response to their "demands".

China tends to run a scoresheet on such things and when the deficit gets a little high they come out punching. Other than what is happening in Taiwan and the forthcoming 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre (June 4) I can personally see no other reasons for this latest "blitz".

As I have said before the amount of animosity held by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the Dalai Lama is incomprehensible. They are doing more for the Lama's positive international standing and popularity then he is achieving himself but sometimes deep seated animosity can blind reason.

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China launches Tibet information blitz in US - www.phayul.com

Culture of responsibility: Welcomed progress

China cleans up job-related human rights violations.

If anything can be said about the Chinese government it is that they know how to make all the right noises. The problem however most of the time it seems is in turning words into action.

One particular "noise" they have been making of late is the drive to make government and party officials more accountable for their acts or omissions.

It has been apparent for a long time that Chinese officialdom runs on the premise of all rights and no responsibility. In other words they enjoy wielding power but if something goes wrong than it is always the other person's or other department's responsibility. Buck passing is a time honored profession and one well honed among Chinese bureaucracy.

Of late however it appears that words are actually being translated into actions. The last several months have witnessed a drive by the central government to inject responsibility and accountability into China's government agencies and officials.

Firstly, the government would appear, publicly at least, to be attempting to create a culture of personal responsibility where officials guilty of oversight or dereliction of duty choose to take the honorable way out and "falling on their swords" by resigning. Unlike before when if anyone were to fall it would be some poor underling now, like western convention, the number one person is expected to resign for failings within his organisation.

Secondly, the government has increasingly announced new measures of government oversight and has shown a willingness to bring miscreants to task. Most recently, for example, it has announced the setting up of a "database" of personal details of judges, tracking such things as investments, incomes even marital status. The idea is that by doing so those judges guilty of corruption, career aggrandisement or even with a susceptibility to "sexual seduction" can easily be found or at least be aware that they are being scrutinised.

As a result of these type of actions several high profile people have been charged in the criminal system for either corruption or dereliction of duty including ex provincial governors.

Recently China was stunned by the "Baby powder" scandal in which thirteen infants in Anhui died of nutritional deficiencies from consuming substandard milk powder and 171 infants suffered from malnutrition after being fed with milk powder deficient in protein and other nutrients as a result of contaminated bay powder formula.

The linked article at China Daily reports that two officials involved in the scandal have been caught in the government net:

"Two officials involved in the notorious fake milk powder case in Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province, were recently put into custody for dereliction of duty, marking a resolute step in the country's one-year fight against human rights violation crimes by government officials."

On Wednesday Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), announced that procuratorates at all levels will launch a sweeping one-year investigation into job-related crimes of infringing on human rights.

China Daily further reports:

'"Negligence of duty which causes great losses of people's lives and assets is one of the campaign's major targets," Wang said, adding the goal of the campaign is to fulfill the commitment of " respect and protection of human rights" enshrined in the Constitution and to defend basic benefits of the masses.'

Any moves towards providing greater transparency of government processes and decision making, proper management and oversight and inculcation of the ethic of professional responsibilty can only be of huge benefit to the human rights situation in China.

Whilst it is too early to asses how successful this campaign will be in the long term initial indications are quite positive that words, in this instance at least, can be translated into actions.

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China cleans up job-related human rights violations

Mea Culpa: Australia

This "War on Terror", this blind tilting at windmills has to stop.

We, Australia and others, have spent trillions of dollars, diverted some of our best human capital and destroyed the lives of thousands in prosecution of a "war" that, take away Afghanistan and Iraq , saw less than 500 deaths as a result of "terrorist" caused incidents in 2003. I placed "terrorist" in inverted commas because even our definitions as to what is a terrorist act has become so blurred of late.

This "War on Terror", this blind tilting at windmills has to stop

-Stephen Sullivan-

To put it in perspective more Chinese miners die in a month. More Chinese pedestrians die in a week. Many, many more people starve to death or die form curable diseases.

Now each life is sacred and no-one can put a price on saving one but we can't keep investing to the level we have invested on the off chance that someone, somewhere somehow, may die when we know full well that Chinese miners, for example will die 20 a day, that people in certain parts of the world will die today, tomorrow and every single day of the year.

If we the free world"had invested those trillions, if we had employed these wonderful brains and human capital to these issues rather than diverting them to the "War on terror" the sum of good achieved would far outweigh the sum of bad and the world today would have been infinitely much better than it is. The lives of so many innocents who have been branded by their religion or place of residence would not have been so adversly impacted upon or even destroyed.

We all were rightly angered, hurt and worried after "9/11" that is understandable but now we have allowed our political leaders to manipulate the "war on terror" for their own agendas. They have inculcated a generation with blind hatred against a certain class of people regardless of their guilt. We are seeing the product of that in Iraq now. And it is not just in Iraq, it is in the mainstreets of towns and cities throughout the western "Christian" world.

Our "War on terror" has also bred a generation of people that will carry hatred of us to their deathbeds, people who otherwise would have not given us a second thought, innocent people caught up in our blind scrambling. We, the supposed "good guys" have rent a huge chasm in the world's society, we have split it along racial and religious lines and we have done so far more effectively than some billionaire madman could ever have done it.

Mea Culpa? Yes.

Year by year Terrorist statistic.
SBS - The World News; Australia Guilty of human rights abuses

"Sexual Seduction" influences Chinese Court decisions

According to Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) when announcing a new initiative to inject fairness into the court system, sex and corruption, among other things, have influenced some Chinese court decisions:

"..a small number of cases were handled wrongly due to reasons ranging from bad judgments, taking bribes, sexual seduction or power infatuation,"

Xiao announced that China's courts will adopt a series of measures to supervise judges or officials by establishing a data bank on them. The linked Xinhua article states that the database:

".... Includes 11 items like the official's or judge's housing, their spouse's or children's professions as well as the business operations they are involved in, their income and even tip-offs from the masses as a way to offer an authentic source for the discipline inspection branch to keep an eye on them."

The database may have to be quite substantial though. The artcle quotes Xiao as saying that in 2003 the court system in China handled over 8 million cases.

"Courts take tough measures to ensure fairness".(Ed) China View. Xinhuanet. May 26. May 27

Xinjiang-Tajik border opened

"China and Tajikistan have officially opened their shared border at a pass high in the Pamir Mountains. State officials from Xinjiang province (sic) in western China and the Prime Minister of Tajikistan, Aqil Aqilov, cut a red ribbon at the mountain village of Kulma, sending a fleet of ceremonial trucks across to the Chinese side."

I ran a poll on a related website some six months ago asking who my visitors believed would become the pre-eminent influence in Central Asia: Russia, China, America or India.

My own answer was that I thought it would ultimately be Russia with India being a dark horse. I based this on Russia's long history and in depth understanding of the region. My visitors were pretty evenly divided but overall America was seen to be the "winner" with China a close second.

Well some six months later I am beginning to re-think my position and am coming to believe that China will become the power in Central Asia.

This small piece of news is just another example of how by small and large steps China is slowly and inexorably insinuating itself into Central Asia. Recent news has also seen for example announcements of even closer relations between Khazakhstan and China economically and in security matters.

The importance of Central Asia to China is considerable not only from a strategic point of view but also as a source of oil and gas which is much needed in an energy starved economy.

The border between Tajikstan and Xinjiang has according to the linked article been closed for almost a century during the Soviet time. It is just one of many communication links that are opening up everywhere between China and Central Asia. The news abounds daily with reports of new bus route here, airline route there, planned highways and possible train routes in and through Central Asia.

For the Tajiks, like the Afghans a persian race distinct from the Turkic peoples of Xinjiang,Kazakhstan,Krygystan and Uzbekistan, the road provides quicker and cheaper access to Chinese consumer goods and machinery and technology needed to modernise their country. For the Chinese it further opens up another market and provides them with the added ability to trade onwards to other parts of Central Asia.

For the trivia buffs the Kulma Pass set among the towering peaks of the Pamir mountain range is one of the highest trading routes on earth with the border between Xinjiang and Tajikstan being over 4,000 metres high.

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BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | China-Tajik border opened

Atop the Tiananmen Tiger: Bao Tong

A man of rare courage and loyalty

With the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square student tragedy looming two men in particular are sure to return in their memories to those fateful days when they were forced to mount the ‘Tiananmen Tiger’. A “tiger” from which neither they or the Chinese Communist party has ever been able to get off.

One of course is Zhao Ziyang who at the time of the Tiananmen demonstrations was the Communist Party General Secretary. With succeeding years the legend of Zhao has grown. That of the leader who apparently dared to care and as a result fell from a lofty position, at the very pinnacle of communist party rule, to a life of virtual imprisonment and disgrace.

Zhao’s story is well known and no doubt will be recounted many times over the coming weeks, however another “casualty” of Tiananmen is less well known. A man whose loyalty for his leader, and paradoxically love of his party, led to his downfall as well.

This man the second highest ranking CCP member to fall as a result of Tiananmen ended up serving seven years in jail and upon his release has swapped one prison for another. Unlike Zhao who has remained under close quarters, in what many term “house arrest”, this other man is “free” now to move about.

But so great is this man’s importance and so fearful is the Politburo of him that he is kept under constant 24 hour surveillance by teams of up to six state security personnel. No doubt his telephone, when not “mysteriously” disconnected at politically sensitive times, is tapped, so undoubtably would be his Internet access that he so enjoys until that too ‘mysteriously‘ goes offline only to just as “mysteriously” be reconnected.

Bao Tong is a man of incredible honesty, incredible loyalty and has proven over the time during and since Tiananmen to be a man of equally incredible courage.

Bao Tong was, in 1989, the senior aide to Zhao Ziyang and prior to that in the mid 80's was the Deputy Director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform for the CCP Central Committee. An original revolutionary and “familiare” of Mao Zedong there was only one person higher than him to fall as a result of those tumultuous days and that was the man he so loyally served Zhao Ziyang himself.

As a result of his support of Zhao’s anti force stance, Bao was arrested and was held for two years in jail before being formally charged on supposedly unrelated charges and for which he served another five years before his release in 1996. Following his incarceration he was to endure a further 11 months under house arrest.

Not that Bao was a pro-democracy reformer or particularly pro-student. In fact he comes across even now as being, if anything, very pro party. But he was against the use of the military to break up the student demonstrators and in holding this view he placed himself at loggerheads with many of the “hardliners” of the CCP . It was this failure, or political error as he said openly himself, in not siding with the hardliners that cost him so much

In papers purporting to be a copy of his personal report after the incident to an investigative body of the CCP he describes how he felt at the time of learning of the Politburo’s decision to send in the Tanks:

“…in my heart, I believed we had made a terribly wrong move; I was afraid that we would be trapped in a very difficult situation, ’ riding a tiger, very hard to get off””

Again in that report despite having to be aware of the fate that was to befall him and Zhao he is reported to have said:

<“I only felt respect for Comrade Ziyang for he had been honest and straightforward, had not concealed his beliefs and had given no consideration to his personal loss or gain”

As a result of his stance and his loyalty Bao fell and fell heavily. A lesser man would have thanked God that he eventually was freed and would have happily settled into a life below the radar but not Bao.

One of the Most Extraordinary Letters In Chinese Modern History

Earlier this year a Dr. Jiang Yanyong sent a letter to the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party calling on them to reassess the CCP's culpability over the 1989 July 4, Tiananmen Square massacre.

Dr Jiang is a well respected, former Military Surgeon, who came to prominence during the SARS epidemic in 2003 by coming out publicly and detailing just how serious the SARS problem was. In doing so he forced the government, that was in a state of in public denial at the time, to come clean on the true extent of the problem facing the country and it’s people.

His letter was widely applauded with the general consensus that here was an extremely brave man indeed, one who dared, so publicly, to call the present CCP leadership to task over probably the most sensitive incident in Chinese Communist Party history. And so he was.

But in March 1999 Bao Tong , only three years out of jail for his role in Tiananmen and a man obviously of tenuous circumstance, also authored a letter to the Politburo that was been described at the time as "one of the most extraordinary letters in modern Chinese history". (www.democracy.org.hk. March 27 1999)

Like Dr Jiang was to do five years later Bao took the unprecedented step, for one in his precarious position, to send his own letter to the Politburo. In it he called on the CCP to admit that the Party had made one of the most significant mistakes in it's history over it’s handling of Tiananmen and one, no matter the passage of time, would haunt it and the people of China unless it received appropriate closure. That closure could only come with the CCP openly admitting culpability over the outcome of the decision to use force, the death and destruction it was to cause and the resultant rent it has caused in the fabric of Chinese society.

In the letter, alluding obviously to many sitting on the Politburo in 1989, he likened the Tiananmen Square students to other young and impassioned men from the 1940’s who also were not without their own mistakes

He said also that at all times the students in Tiananmen were “orderly, their demonstrations constituted neither riot or rebellion” and inferred that they were no threat to national security as claimed after the massacre.

He spoke of how Ma Zedong had the courage to openly admit that the Cultural Revolution was the nadir of the CCP’s post 1949 history but that the very admittance of the mistake was it’s highest point. He stated that Tiananmen had now become the current Party’s nadir, but, like Mao, the leadership of 1999 could make amends and raise the esteem of the CCP in the eyes of an otherwise unforgiving Chinese people by admitting errors of judgement

History tells us that his plea to the Politburo went unheeded. Despite what has to be considered an incredibly heroic stance and one fraught with immense danger, Bao was not punished though he was warned that unless he kept his own counsel he would be charged with treason.

But true to the man that he is he has not to this day heeded the warnings. In March this year he was prompted to write a fairly reasoned missive, though one laced with cynicism and a degree of pathos, questioning the present leadership’s statements that now, 2004, is the best period for Human Rights in China’s history . .In this letter he speaks of having his own freedom of movement limited and having his phone and Internet disconnected during the National People’s Congress. He even talks, as an aside ,of trying to contact Dr Jiang to offer his support and congratulations over his own stance.

In another instance in a radio interview conducted by the “Voice of Hope” radio programme “Voice of San Francisco Bay Area” also reported in March this year Bao openly talks about one of the most touchy subjects for the CCP, the Falun Dong. And says:

“I think there is insufficient evidence to label an organisation with tens of millions of members a “cult” I consider these millions of practitioners exemplary Chinese citizens.”

He even goes on to blame in part the Chinese Government’s poor health care system in forcing people into alternative medicine and “well being” practices such as Falun Dong.

As recent as this month the Washington Post carried a report on Bao

Mr. Bao, a de facto spokesman for liberals among China's political elite, said that since Mr. Zhao stepped down amid the 1989 crackdown, 'many things stopped progressing. On the contrary, some things have even gone backwards.' He cited the party's putting itself back in charge of 'judging and making arrests in political cases' and its beginning to interfere again in the media and publishing sectors -- areas in which the party had minimalized its involvement under Mr. Zhao.

I do not know whether we can hold Bao Tong up as a democracy reformer I think that his unrequited loyalty to his party (as distinct from some of it's members) would rule that out. But one wonders what China would be like today if people like Zhao and Bao could have held sway within the upper echelons of the CCP back then. Would the outcome have eventually been different? What would China be like now? An interesting intellectual exercise that.

Regardless of his politics one has to admire the man for his incredible courage and loyalty to what he believes in and the fact that he chose, like Zhao, to prefer other avenues of resolution than that of violence. A violence so pervasive in Chinese Communist Party history and culture.

As an aside I wonder what Wen Jiabao, now Premier of China, thinks of this man considering they both served Zhao at the time in question but who managed to remain unsullied by the association with both.

References and Reading

• "Voice of Hope" Radio transcript"
  
• "Bao Tong's Report on Tiananamen Crackdown" CNN
  
• Congressional-Executive Commission on China: "Former Senior Official Says Beijing Is Dragging Its Feet On Political Liberalization
  
• China Digital News: Bao Letter March 2004
  
• 1999 letter to the politburo
  
• Why June 4 will be taboo in China for a long time.
  

Long Arm Of China Reaches Into Guantanamo

Allegations of Chinese Officials Mistreating Guantanamo Uygurs

According to a Washington Post report Amnesty International has claimed that Chinese officials were allowed access to interrogate Uygur detainees in Guantanamo Bay Cuba.

Amnesty spokesperson Alistair Hodgett is reported to have said that the human rights group's claim was based on several unidentified but "credible" sources however he declined to reveal them. Amnesty further claim that the Chinese officials took part in unspecified mistreatment of the Uygurs during the interview/interrogation process. The U.S military declined to comment when approached by the Post though it is common knowledge that foreign officials have been allowed access to their nationals in Guantanamo.

The Uygur are a Muslim Turkic people residing primarily in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's northwest. China has claimed repeatedly since "9/11" that hundreds of Uygurs were trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Uygur "terrorist" organisations have strong links with both the Taliban and al Qaida. They have however been unable to provide any tangible proof to support these allegations. Many Uygurs have been imprisoned and executed as a result of dissent against Chinese rule and a desire for an independent homeland.

The Washington Post item mentions the number of Uygurs held in Guantanamo as a result of the United States intervention in Afghanistan as 22 however previous reports have put this number at only 12. There has also been no positive identification of the nationalities of the Uygurs detained. The Uygur are spread throughout Central Asia and a sizeable population of Uygur have lived in Afghanistan for a considerable period of time and it is not unlikely that some of the Uygurs are not actually Chinese citizens.

U.S. Secretary of State spokesperson Boucher recently was quoted as saying the Uygurs held in Guantanamo were soon to be released as they posed no ongoing threat or are required to face criminal charges. Several Humanitarian organisations including Amnesty International have warned against those Uygurs holding Chinese nationality being returned to China for fear of their imprisonment or even execution. Boucher also stated at the time that the US was in negotiation with several unidentified countries who may be willing to provide safe haven for the Uygurs on their release.

Whilst the right of foreign diplomatic personnel to have access to their nationals is not at issue, to have those personnel involved in interrogation and mistreatment of those nationals as alleged here is abominable. The US and China should be called on to make an immediate statement in response to these very serious allegations.

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Group Says Chinese Saw Detainees (washingtonpost.com)

China: Conundrums of Solomon Proportions

China's population policies.

How do you solve a conundrum as complex as the developing of policies aimed at achieving a sustainable population level whilst delivering equal economic opportunity and quality of life to the people of a land that is almost at the end of it’s resource capacity?

A land where existing inequalities are already significant and will, if left unchecked, only grow at an exponential rate. A land where requisite infrastructure investment, both in economic and human capital, to rectify the imbalances of today alone defy comprehension as to their size and temporal requirements let alone the problems of the tomorrow.

When looking into an abyss one is struck with a feeling of both wonderment and fear. Wonder at the sheer size and fear that one will fall or be pushed into its gaping blackness.

Such must be the feelings of China’s leadership as the future is paraded before them, a future of incredible wonderment as to challenges that would require the wisdom of ten Solomons and the dreaded fear of what will happen if those challenges go unmet.

This situation China find herself in today and, more importantly, where it will find itself tomorrow, has not come about unexpectedly. 25 years ago the Chinese Government recognised the exact nature of the predicament that the country was in and took the unheard of steps of announcing a “One Child Policy” in an attempt to slow the tide that was rushing in on their country. As a result of this policy it is estimated that some 300 million Chinese children were not born and would not go on to beget others.

Three hundred million unborn children were effectively sacrificed in order to buy time, for, that is all it has done, bought a little more time to hopefully allow a solution to be found for a problem that will not only engulf China, if it goes unsolved, but the whole world.

To the uninitiated statistics in China are mind boggling. One hears figures and attempts to relate them in some orderly way to known things. China’s population at the end of 2003 was estimated at 1.29 billion people, 21% of the population of the whole world. 64 times the size of Australia (20m) 21 times the size of Great Britain (60m) and 4 times the size of the United States (290m). It is estimated it will grow to 1.448 million by 2020 and 1.6 billion by mid century.

China’s population over the age of 16 will increase by the staggering number of 5.5 million people annually for the next twenty years, a number many times the size of most large cities. What does it take to provide an infrastructure and an economy to absorb and support a new State of Victoria, Australia (4.64m 2001) or Minnesota, USA (5.01m 2002 est), or two Greater Manchesters U.K. (2.48m 2001) every year, year in an year out for the next 20, all working aged people?

But these numbers are but one part of the equation. Throw in a gender imbalance that will see 30-40 million more men than woman by 2020 and the consequent social problems, toss in a population that comprises 11.8% of people over 65 now and will grow to 17% in 2020 and 25% by mid century and the consequent problems of health care and social security.

All these figures are truly fantastic but when considered from a viewpoint that 25 years ago China was considered an undeveloped country (and still, despite it’s meteoric growth over the last ten years, technically remains so) the task ahead seems daunting. To mix metaphors not only are they coming from behind the eight ball but are coming from way, way back in the field.

Unlike developed countries there is no established and acceptable public health system, no established social security regime, the quality (education levels) of the population is poor and there exists, despite a burgeoning economy, a huge structural unemployment problem that will only get worse. Unlike western countries where services exist and can grow in a timely and orderly manner with demand in China the demand precedes the services.

There are also huge divides as between the east of the country and the west, the urban and the rural in terms of income, investment, infrastructure and quality of life. Divides that potentialy are the sources of major social upheaval.

Then we have the resources situation. China is quickly losing the capacity to feed itself or provide itself with the necessary energy supplies to maintain the status quo let alone continue its necessary growth into the future. History tells us to beware a country starving of food and energy.

How can all of this be addressed and what will be the outcome if it is not? Can we realistically push for democratisation of a country that has so many other challenges facing it that alone seem insurmountable? Does the Chinese Government more fully appreciate the implicit “peril” of the situation more so than the developed west which has troubles just coming to terms with the absolutes let alone the relatives?

When China says we must take care of the whole rather than the individual is it because the problems are too great to even scratch the surface let alone dig to the lower levels where the concept of “individual’ resides?

China seems to be the center of the economic world at the moment but perhaps it should be the center for other reasons.

There is an old Chinese saying "May you live in interesting times". I think in the next fifty years or so we might all be doing just that.

References..
1. "Population Problems Loom" Peoples Daily March 10, 2004
2."Imbalances emerge in population growth." Peoples Daily. 24 May 2004
3."12.7 million more boys than girls under 9" Peoples Daily. 10 May 2004
4."Gender disparity need work" Peoples Daily. March 21. 2004
5."Rising Sex Disproportion sparks concerns" Peoples Daily March 8, 2004
6."Working age population to reach 940 million by 2020" Peoples Daily. April 26, 2004

Dalai Lama UK visit riles China

Liverpool UK threatened with losing sister city status

I am constantly amazed at the time and effort the People's Republic of China goes to in it's constant one sided "battle" with the Dalai Lama the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists.

Wherever the 69 year old Lama visits the PRC uses diplomatic channels, bully tactics and threats in an attempt to have the host city or state act as it wishes towards the Dalai Lama.

Recently in Canada the Chinese threatened economic sanctions if a planned meeting between the Dalai Lama and Canada's prime minister Martin went ahead. Now a planned visit to the UK has drawn the Chinese governments attention.

Chinese officials have reportedly threatened to strip the UK port city of Liverpool of its twin-city status with Shanghai in protest over the Dalai Lama's visit there beginning this week. The city has laid out a welcome mat to the Tibetan leader and apparently has no plans to change his itinerary in spite of Chinese pressure.

The linked article by the Guardian also states that the Chinese are piqued by planned meetings by the Lama with the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Michael Howard, the Conservative leader and Prince Charles, son of the Queen of Britain.

The amount of hatred that must exist in the halls of the Chinese Communist party and in particular the Politburo is really beyond comprehension. In 1959 when the then young Lama fled a country in rebellion against a young Communist China yes, it would be understandable, but in 2004?

It is as irrational as it is unjustified and must give warning to the world that a leopard does not change it's spots even when now donning a bright new business suit.

Additional Information Read Rating:
Guardian Unlimited: Dalai Lama visit riles China

Xinjiang News

Bus line between China, Tajikistan to begin operation next month



URUMQI, May 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has signed a contract with neighboring Tajikistan to open the first cross-border bus line beginning in June to meet the increasing frequent exchanges between both sides.

The operation of the bus line will make Tajikistan the fifth country to have cross-border exit and entry transport with the autonomous region, together with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Pakistan.

"The operation of the bus line will have great significance forXinjiang's linking other parts of China with central Asian countries," said Luo Jianxin, deputy director of Xinjiang Regional Department of Communications.

The 669-km bus line, running from Xinjiang's Kashi (Kashgar) City to Khorugh City, capital of Badakhshan region in Tajikistan, will begin operation as of June 26.

Each city will send a bus to the other city on the sixth, 16th and 26th day every month.


www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-22 18:53:42



:: Xinhuanet - English ::

Angry Reaction To Tibetan White Paper

Renewed Calls For Armed Uprising

Reaction by Tibetans in exile has been quick and vociferous to the release in China on Sunday of the Government's White Paper on Tibet.

Exiled Tibetans have come out universally against the "Paper" but at this stage it has drawn no response from the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan Government in exile located in Dharamsala India.

Phayul.com, a leading Tibetan news agency, in an a report on the "White Paper" "China tells Dalai Lama self-ruled Tibet not an option" sees it as a final rejection of the Dalai Lamas attempts to open up direct dialogue between himself and the CCP.

Comments posted on Phayul's website universally condemn the "White Paper". One commentator posed the question of the Tibetan Government in Exile and it's leader Samhdong Rimpoche

How Samdhong Rimpoche is going to react at that?
after trying everything to appease them and conceding everything, the thieves are at last giving their answer; no autonomy !

Let us demand and obtain our independence now !

Peu Gyalo ! Posted by Tenam Paris

Several posts call for stronger action including armed rebellion and "terrorist" like resistance tactics.

No more room for negotiation left on table. So where we are standing now! I guess, we must flip our standing and choose the violent, if they really don't care about our present proposal.

Get the fund, recruits and act some practice....Lets do whatever so that those pig's will awake and start making pork-chop! (Tashi Toronto)

Ughur,Mongolia,Manchuria and Tibet should get together and get rid off all PLO communists from their countries.Till now we have been very patient with the communists and expect they will with changing time change for better for the last 45 years. Unfortunately communist china has not changed at all,instead got worse. So we are left with no choice but have to take the only last resort which is Bin laden`s tactic.
We give one more chance till December 2004. PLO

Not all Tibetans have been happy with the "softly softly" anti-violence approach of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile both whom have adopted a policy of achieving greater political and cultural autonomy for Tibetans through peaceful negotiations with China.

The Dalai Lama has been on record for several years as having given up as one of his aims the total independence of Tibet. He has been forthright in saying that China's economic involvement in Tibet was actually beneficial to the Tibetan people.

Many Tibetans including a lot of younger ones living in exile in Dharamsala and elsewhere have never believed that such an approach would work with China. The younger ones, many who have never seen their homeland, are increasingly advocating violence.

During the recent "Hunger Strike" of three Tibetans in New York many younger posters to Phayul's Comments section derided the action calling it outdated, ineffective and typical of the Dalai Lama's appeasement approach to Beijing.

Meanwhile the Chinese news organs are giving plenty of coverage to the "White Paper". The China Daily gives some insight into the motivation of the Chinese Government in releasing this White paper when it said today

"The issuing of the white paper responds to international propaganda and lobbying by the Dalai Lama, who alleged that the regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet was "devoid of essential contents" and proposed the exercise of "one country, two systems" and "a high degree of autonomy" in Tibet after the model examples of Hong Kong and Macao" (China Daily)

Readers' Comments - www.phayul.com#4420#4420#4420#4420#4420

Coal mine flooding traps 17 workers in W. China

[USMRA] Coal mine flooding traps 17 workers in W. China province
www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-23 23:04:25

LANZHOU, May 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 17 workers were trapped in a coal mine hit by flooding Sunday afternoon in Gansu Province,officials said.

Twenty-nine miners were working in Wutao Coal Mine in Shandan County when the accident happened at 1:30 p.m. and 12 were rescued.

A group of officials and experts headed by Deputy Governor YangZhiming have rushed to the site for rescue operations, and investigation into the cause of the accident is underway."

How coincidental: A "White Paper" on Tibet

China Trots Out the "Daddy" of it's "justification" arsenal

On the 17th of this month I posted an article entitled Dalai Lama's World Trips Stirring Up The Anthill? in which I commented that the Chinese Government is nothing if not a predictable body. I observed that it is like clockwork that as soon as the CCP receive any adverse international press or even if they anticipate that they will, they begin to churn out through their official news organs what I have called "Justification Pieces"

These "justification pieces" generally are several "news" articles appearing in close succession which attempt to "sell" to the world all the good points of China's involvement in the issue that is under the world spotlight, or, that they expect soon will be.

Alternatively they will set the stage for an expected event by publishing negative pieces on the target. Late last year (2003) for example they published several news items on "Uygur Terrorism" in quick succession before their ultimate article in December "naming" "Uygur terrorists" and "terrorist organisations".

In an article I published at the time in response, "China's 'Bin Laden' The terrorist Leader China Forgot", I argued that the naming of "Uygur Terrorists' in the ultimate article was not spontaneous but had not only obviously been pre scheduled but was done so some months in advance. My reason for drawing that conclusion was that the number one, most wanted, "terrorist" leader named, the Chinese equivalent of the United States' Bin Ladin, had actually been dead for two months (a fact China was aware of having helped identify the body). Someone within the government or Xinhua was just not interested enough to check and update the copy before it was published.

Whilst in this latter instance I could not at the time connect the reason for that particular period of activity I believe now that the timing of the articles, in the lead up to Ramadan which has been a period that has seen the major incidences of Uygur dissent such as the Yining (Guljha) incident in February 1997. I suspect that the Chinese government perhaps expected something might happen and were setting the stage so that if they had to instigate any harsh crackdowns they could justify it as a response to renewed "Uygur terrorism"

My recent article on the Dalai Lama stirring up "Anthills" came as a result of several justification pieces that appeared on Tibet in the week or so prior to my post. I stated that I believed that these were in direct response to the very positive press (ergo negative for China) that the Dalai Lama was receiving on his highly successful trip to Canada on which, despite China's protests, he was met by the Canadian prime minister and held several successful outdoor rallies. Also at the time the Tibetan "Hunger Strike" in front of the U.N. Building in New York was getting some pretty high level and positive responses from the U.N.

One thing I was not aware however was that the ninth anniversary of the kidnapping of the 11th Panchen Lama was coming up in May as well, an anniversary which the CCP might also have expected some renewed international agitation and protest for news of his fate (which did not eventuate I might add as an aside). To coincide with this event they even trotted out the "pretender" to the Panchen Lama throne.

Big Gun Rolled Out

Now today the big guns have been brought to bear. The daddy of all "justification pieces" the famous Chinese Government "White Paper" has been released and carried in full by Xinhua and the People's Daily and, coincidences of coincidences today's topic is Tibet.

The released "White Paper" is entitled Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet in which the Chinese government attempts to prove to the world that the Tibetans really are the masters of their own destiny although they do receive plenty of loving support from "papa" Beijing.

These "White Papers" are of significance for two reasons. Firstly they usually provide facts and insights that are not normally available, albeit in a far from impartial way, and, secondly and more importantly, they are a window to topics China is feeling either vulnerable on at the time or about issues that she wishes to 'sell".

Past papers, and there are usually two or three a year, have covered topics such as "Human Rights" (several) Tibet (several) Taiwan (several) the "Uygur Question", population policy and the environment. Xinhua on it's English web edition has a page of links to past papers going back several years as does the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

Has the Dalai Lama really stirred the anthill so much or is there something else afoot? Could they be about to formally reject overtures from the Dalai Lama for a meeting on the future of Tibet? Could it be Taiwan?

That is the question. Stay tuned for further developments and hopefully an answer!


Link Read Rating:
Introduction and Summary to White Papper on Tibet">
People's Daily Online -- Full Text: Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet

Death In A Coal Pit

83 Dead in 20 days

I reported here back on April 28 that the Chinese government had released a report on workplace accidents and fatalities for the first trimester in which they reported that

"Coal related deaths dropped 25 per cent during January-April period with 1,267 deaths reported in 854 registered cases. The total output of coal was up 19 per cent up over the same period the previous year."

It was not that the government were boasting about this decline but I stated at the time that it was more a case of good luck rather than good management and that with the ridiculous demands placed on the coal mining industry by China's economy it was only a matter of time before deaths started to skyrocket.

I link here to Steve Frost's excellent Asian Labour News weblog where he has been following and recording some recent tragic events in China's mining industry far more closely than I have been able to.

In the last 20 days Stephen reports that, as a result of several coal mining accidents, 83 miners have died with several still remaining unaccounted for.

83 dead in 20 days.

The horrible thing though is that whilst these figures seem alarming, and they are, they are light in comparison to the 20 or so fatalities on average per day officially recorded for last year. Some independent analysts have even put the unofficial figure as high as 30 per day.

That is right! Every single day of the year on average between 20 and 30 human beings going about their daily working life hoping to provide for their wives and children and in manty cases extended families, just like you and I, leave for work in the morning and do not come home.

Death Incorporated

When devising a photo composite as a lead in to stories on China mining accidents I stuttered over the caption "Death Incorporated" because it seemed to dramatise and even trivialise a tragic situation, but, each time I embed that photo for each new tragedy I feel more and more that it truly reflects exactly what is going on in China's mining industry.

Coal mining is dirty and yes it is dangerous but in most large coal producing countries the worst by-product of coal mining is pollution although not unheard of deaths are relatively and mercifully rare. Not so China, China's mining industry output is measured in tonnes and deaths and, what is worse, death appears an acceptable "cost of doing business".

After each and every sizeable tragedy the Government announces investigations and reforms just as Stephen Frost reports in the linked article they have done now.

But it is all window dressing for after national and international scrutiny and disapprobation has died down it is back to business as usual with a relieved sigh. Because at the rate the government has the "steam train" that is the Chinese economy going they just can not afford to cut back on coal production which fuels 70 percent of China's energy requirements.And these energy requirements are growing at a rate of approximately 19 percent per annum.

Last year Premier Wen Jiabao announced after some other significant mining tragedies massive reforms in the industry. Illegal mines were to be tracked down and closed, mines lacking in safety were to be closed or were at least to greatly reduce their production until safety problems were rectified.

So extensive however is the safety issue in China's mining industry that the crackdowns effected so many mines, including even State Owned enterprises (SOE's), that the economy started immediately to feel the effects. As a result word quietly went out to officials from the Politburo to get everything back to previous output levels as quickly as possible before the measures could be fully implemented. They even called for greater output.

So the illegal mines went back to work, the unsafe mines kept sending the lambs to slaughter and the officials corrupt and elsewhere looked the other way and this miracle economy maintained steam.

International Community Must Get Involved

The international community has to bring pressure to bear on the Chinese government to begin a process of real reform to the Chinese mining industry. But criticism alone will not work. The international community needs to help supply solutions because I think it is beyond China's ability to do it on her own. They have got themselves on a treadmill that they can not get off.

A first step would be for those fools at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the European Union (EU)to get off China's back about meeting what is, in light of this ongoing tragedy, unrealistic and ultimately inhumane coke export commitments.

If I torture and kill you am I any more of a human rights violator than a government that knowingly sends 10,000 men to their deaths each year? Or for that matter an international community that prefers to look the other way?

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Asian Labour News: China: 83 dead or missing in coal mine accidents in Shanxi over 20 days prods government into action - or not... See also Xinhua Article 22/5/04 "Coke enterprises appeal to gov't to keep export policy"

Great Wall: Now You See It Now you Don't

Psst.. About that pic of the Great Wall from space....

Now I pondered long and hard as to whether I should post this story because it really is like Santa Claus isn't it? You really, truly want to believe.

But I came to the conclusion that I owed it to my extensive readership (sic) to disabuse them of the idea that I had been responsible for planting in their heads.

It is with regret therefore that I must tender this retraction of a post here announcing to all and sundry that yes Virginia the Great Wall of China (after extensive debate amongst scientists, astronauts and even national leaders) is visible from space and here is the pic to prove it!

It would appear that the picture taken by the European Space Agency satellite "Proba" and released by the ESA on it's website is not in fact the Great Wall but just your common or garden variety river.

Xinhua reports that embarrassed officials of the ESA have announced that someone got it wrong and released the photo without proper verification.

Well there is one little Chinese astronaut who must feel a little relieved with the news, after all, how unpatriotic when the state spends so much money on your joyride and you didn't see a bloody thing but some bodgy European satellite could?

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Great Wall of China viewed from space-Mistake

Tiananmen Square Dissident Retrial?

Former Tiananmen Square Leader granted retrial on non related charges.

A Human Rights In China press release states that sources within China have stated that one of the Tiananmen Square dissident leaders Zhang Ming has been granted a retrial by China's Supreme Court over non related charges for which he is serving a custodial sentence.

According to the press release:

Zhang Ming, one of the student leaders of the 1989 Democracy Movement, previously served three years in prison on charges of “counterrevolutionary incitement.” His most recent detention began on September 9, 2002, when he was arrested on charges of “endangering public safety” through an alleged plot to explode a multistory building. At the time of his arrest, Zhang Ming was president of a successful Shanghai company, and the amended charge on which he was ultimately convicted related to his business.

According to another source China Support Network Zhang Ming, a native of Jilin,was born in 1965 and enrolled in Tsinghua University in 1984 to study automotive engineering. He became involved in the student protests in the spring of 1989, and eventually took on a leadership role among the protesters at Tiananmen Square. Following the violent official suppression of the protests on June 4, Zhang Ming organized and led a series of follow-up protest actions that put him on the Chinese government’s “Most Wanted” list.

With regard to his current jail sentence China Support Network claim Zhang was arrested on September 9, 2002 on charges of “endangering public safety” through an alleged plot to explode a multistory building.

"At the time of his arrest, Zhang Ming was president of a Shanghai company that he had built into a flourishing concern. Given Zhang’s obvious dedication to his company, the authorities apparently realized that the accusation of violent activity could not be supported. On October 16, 2002 he was formally charged with “abuse of executive benefits,” for which the Shanghai Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to seven years in prison on September 9, 2003." (China Support Network)

According to several sources the real reason for Zhang Ming’s arrest was his refusal to recant his political principles or express regret for his previous actions, and the ill feeling and envy that his financial success aroused among Chinese officials.

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HRIC

Chinese Religious Leaders Condemn US Report

"'My personal feeling is that we are living in China's best ever period of religious freedom.'"

So said Su Deci, vice president of the China Christian Association responding to the recent US Congressional report on religious freedom worldwide in which China was severely criticised.

Su has been supported in his "slamming" of the report by the leaders of several official religious associations in China including the Buddhist, Taoist and Islamic associations.

An "Official Religious" organisation is one registered with the Chinese government and abiding totally by strict government rules.

Whilst one would not wish to draw aspersions upon the various religious leaders quoted in the People's Daily report one can not help feeling the all pervasive hand of the government propagandists in it's authorship.

To quote the Chinese Islamic Association leader Chen Guangyuan

"The commission's annual report is full of lies and accusations that are made out of thin air. It is a textbook example of the cheating nature of the US's human rights," said Chen Guangyuan, president of China's Islamic Association.

"The American troops' abuse of Iraqi war prisoners violated not only international human rights conventions but Islamic religious tenets. A Muslim, especially a female one, should never expose their bodies before others, but US soldiers willfully abuse them by adopting practices that go against their religions," Said Chen.

"Does the U.S. have any qualification or power to speak of other countries' affairs? They should merely mind and improve their own human rights situation instead," he said.

Now the Islamic Association in China is hardly representative of the majority of Muslims being primarily a Hui Muslim organisation. The Hui are ethnically and culturally far more similar to the majority Han Chinese than the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang in particular the Uighur people and receive a much higher level of freedom of religion.

Whilst no-one can argue with the reasons for Chen's disgust over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners and, as he states, the methods of humiliation employed are particularly offensive to Muslims, one wonders if his allusions to the incident are not rather politic especially when one considers the many reports as to very similar religion-centric treatment being dished out to Uygurs prisoners including being forced by officials to eat pork and various humiliations of Muslim woman.

Simarly many Tibetan Buddhists I am sure would not agree with the sentiments of Jia Muyang, vice president of the China Buddhist Association nor most Catholics with those of Liu Deshen, a "noted Catholic leader"

There is no doubts that religious freedoms, for those willing to tow the official line at least, are improving in China but for the likes of the Uygur, the Tibetans and those not willing to practice the government approved method of their religion,improvements, if any, are much fewer.



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People's Daily Online -- Chinese religious leaders condemn US religious freedom report

Xinjiang Sandstorms

Experts say worst period over

"More sandstorms are likely to hit southern parts of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region though the worst period is over". Xinhua.

Each year in the period from March to May, especially in April, China experiences incredible sandstorms that rise in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang causing considerable disruption and damage to wide areas of China including Beijing.

So far this year Xinhua reports, China has experienced 17 sand drifting or flowing weather systems including one strong sandstorm, five average ones and 11 drifting or flowing sand phenomena.

A sandstorm between March 26-30, again according to Xinhua, delayed more than 1,200 flights including 130 flights in Beijing Capital International Airport with 20 others forced to land at airports in Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan and Dalian.

The linked reference source states that in recent years sandstorms have been occurring more frequently and with enhanced intensity. This is related to the frequent spells of unusual weather and the global climatic changes over the past century but is exacerbated by land desertification as a result of excessive cultivation of farmland, deforestation, over-grazing and excessive use of water resources.

"Severe sandstorms started to occur frequently after the 13th century, and increased rapidly after the 18th century. The number of severe sandstorms grew rapidly after the founding of the People's Republic of China. There were five in the 1950s, eight in the 1960s, 13 in the 1970s, 14 in the 1980s and 20 in the 1990s. The frequency is rising." us.tom.com

These severe sandstorms can be devastating. In 1961 a severe sandstorm hit Turpan in Xinjiang accompanied by a Force 12 wind and lasted for 13 hours, sweeping 85 percent of the crops of the county. Over 6,700 hectare of wheat ready to be harvested, which had a per-unit output of only 4.5 kg, and 2,667 hectare of cotton and 4,000 hectare of sorghum were blown away.

The two main areas where sandstorms cause serious problems in Xinjiang and China is in the Tarim Basin and Tulu-Bishan-Toksun Basin, through Gansu Province to northern Shaanxi and the Kalpin, Hotan, Minfeng and Geermu route in Xinjiang. Apparently severe sandstorms can continue for long periods in this area.

Further reading on China Sandstorms

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This Day In History

May 21, 1989: Lead up to Tiananmen

A million people, a sixth of the population of Hong Kong, demonstrated in support of rebellious students in Beijing.

"Eleventh Panchen Lama" visits Shanxi

How co-incidental.

Almost 9 years to the day that the Chinese government kidnapped the Dalai Lama selected 11th Panchen Lama, six year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima , (seen on left) up pops this Xinhua news item on a visit by the Chinese "pretender" Panchen Lama to Shanxi Province.

Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu, the so called "Eleventh Panchen Lama" was selected by the Government two weeks after the disappearance of the real Panchen Lama who was supposedly taken into custody by the Chinese for his "own protection". To this day, nine years later, he has not been seen or heard of. There have been several reports that in fact he is dead.

The article quotes that Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu

called on religious believers to carry on the fine tradition of loving the motherland and religion and safeguard national unity.

Somehow I do not think your average Tibetan would be caught voluntarily uttering such affirmations.

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James Leach: China Democracy Speech

US official recommends a decentralized American model for China

I link to an excellent speech given by United States Representative James A. Leach Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China and Chairman, House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in which he discuses the prospects of the democratisation of China and whether "decentralized democracy" is a possible model for a developing and evolving China.

Whilst at the end I feel I have learnt more about democracy in America than it's prospects in China the speech does require you to think deeply about the whole question. In particular his analysis of China-Taiwan-US relations is very insightful.

In essence Leach's position can be summed up in one quote from his speech

It is my thesis that just as Americans would be wise to learn from older elements of Chinese civilization, particularly as we contend with modern problems of family break-down and urban violence, the Chinese might want to review the possibility that the decentralized American model of democratic government fits their society better than it fits smaller, more homogenous countries, including those in Europe.

With respect to my American readers, we are quite used to America and Americans championing the US model of democracy as being the creme de la creme the "piece de resistance" of democratic models and, at first glance, this quote would lead you to believe that this tradition is being maintained. However, in this instance, Leach is able to develop a reasonable thesis or at least one worthy of deeper consideration.

I have long pondered a "democratic model" for China and I am not backward in saying that I do not consider myself learned enough to go toe to toe with the likes of Leach on such matters. I do however have certain gut feelings.

Firstly the likes of democracy in the United States and Australia was forged by what I would call "social individualism" that is, by people who prided themselves on surviving as an individual or family unit in a new land but mindful of a commonality of experience, of objectives and even in many instances of survival.

This would be exemplified in Australia at least by the "lowest of the low" feeling he has the right to slap the prime minister on the back and say 'hey mate you better pick your game up". Neither the prime minister or any Australian would be unduely surprised by such an action. This individualism however is tempered by social connectivity, again, in Australia the tradition of "mateship" or in America "patriotism"

The Chinese are not like this. They have not experienced the "pioneering" spirit' born of American's and Australian's unique colonial histories where reliance on self was important for survival but so also was reliance on "community". That is not to say they the Chinese are not highly individualistic. A mistake many westerners make is believing that being in a population the size of China's one must, by the very nature of living in such a crowded land, be socially minded. But the reverse is true. The very size and history of China has meant that the Chinese for survival have developed a culture of "dog eat dog" where your main consideration, and perhaps only allegiance, is to yourself and your immediate family. This goes a long way in understanding their positions on the rights of the individual being subordinate to that of the mass and in such particular instances as capital punishment.

I believe you only have to look, for example, at the popularity of team sports in Australia and America vis a vis China. Mahjong and gambling are very big in China, why?. Because they are "one on one", each man for himself.

As Leach points out in his example of a Tiananman Square protester when being asked for his definition of the democracy that they were demonstrating for his answer was "less corruption", not universal suffrage, not "liberte, egalite, fraternite" just less corruption. As Leach alludes to, without probably understanding the juxtaposition to his own thesis, ideas of democracy and what one expects from democracy differ, both over time and over cultures.

The point I am labouring to make is that whilst the American system, the Australian system,the Westminster system whatever, works well for those particular countries we must not be blinkered in the belief that these are the be all and end all of systems for China.The Chinese are historically and cultural at the other end of the spectrum to America or Australia and as such have different expectations and levels of satisfaction on different aspects of life.

However, just as the ancient Greek system of democracy differs from modern theories of democracy, so may China's ultimate model differ as well. Different, but, democracy nonetheless.
Life and history is about evolution. Evolution of species and evolution of thoughts and political systems.

Leach's speech got me thinking at least and may I suggest you have a read as well and perhaps if you feel inclined share your thoughts.


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Leach Democracy Speech

Corrupt official gets death penalty

Corruption in China is a major problem of that there can be no doubt. It's claws and tentacles permeate the very fabric of Chinese society and adversely impacts upon human rights.

China's apparent "crackdown" and focus on official corruption can only be praised and encouraged.

That having been said the use of capital punishment in the case of persons convicted of corruption, official or otherwise, as in the case of the official recounted in the linked article, can not be advocated despite Beijing's belief that it provides a very powerful deterrent.

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Well Chosen Words

"Brazilians climb on bandwagon of bilateral trade with China" screams the headline. "Brazilians clamour for bilateral trade with China" cries another.

The Financial Times of London and it's writer Jonathan Wheatley choose the words "clamour" and "bandwagon" when talking of the Brazilian president's trade orientated visit to Beijing.

Clamour/ n. shouting, confused noise: protest, demand (Australian Little Oxford Dictionary)."
Bandwagon /n. join popular or successful cause (ibid.)

And that very much describes the scene as the nations of the world stream continually into Beijing hoping and sometimes even begging to get a piece of the economic action.

Diplomats, "Captains of Industry", state leaders, pushing and shoving to get on and maintain their position on the bandwagon to the Great Hall of China.

Confusion, noise, permeates the scene and ideals and ethics are lost in the millieu.

I cringe when I read the press reports day in day out of this lemming rush to Beijing. What is worse these leaders, these captains of industry and these diplomats are lauded universally when they "ink" the deal, to use the current buzzword.

What About Human Rights?

What about human rights? Have we forgotten what we stand for in the democratic west, what we have fought two world wars for? Have we forgotten that we supposedly fought those wars and lost so many people so that people everywhere could live in freedom and with basic justice and human rights?,

Is the oppression of the Uygurs and Tibetans something that we can conveniently overlook in the headlong rush to sup at the table of China's economy? Do we ignore that China can kidnap a six year old child right from under the supposed watchful eyes of our great democracies and hold him incommudicado for 9 years (if he still lives), as it has done with the 11th Panchen Lama, whilst thumbing it's nose at international pressure?

Does the 10,000 odd miners who die each year to stoke this economic steam train that is China count for nothing in our dealings? Falun Dong, underground Christians,prison and legal systems, censorship, corruption, torture and executions? Are these issues that too can be so easily swept under the carpet and out of the view of our supposed high moral conscience.

The obvious answer is yes.

I do not advocate that we do not trade with China or we do not enter into meaningful diplomatic dialogue. I argue that they need us as much as we are becoming to need them so why can we not seek trade-offs before we "ink" that deal?

Why can we not make trade with China somehow conditional on her human rights record?

Why? Because we are fearful that in the clamour and headlong rush of nations and business we may fall off the bandwagon and miss out on this pot of gold that supposedly awaits us at the end of China's rainbow.

Someone once said, and I forget whom, that an "appeaser" is the one hoping that the crocodile will eat him last. In our dealings with China are we not like that appeaser.

I would also pose this question to our leaders, our diplomats and our "captains of industry":
"what does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul"

FT.com

Xinjiang "Safari Park"

"Construction of the largest safari park in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region commenced Tuesday.

The construction of a 63 sq-km park located in Dabancheng, a tourist destination with the easy reach of Urumqi, the autonomous regional capital of Xinjiang, will take two years to complete at a cost of 200 million yuan (about 24 million US dollars).

Upon operation, the safari park will house more than 10,000 wildlife in 62 species including a host of species listed for top government protection, such as snow leopard, argali, brown bear and red deer.

The park will be divided into seven zones respectively for herbivorous animals, birds, beast of prey and wildlife. Two zones are expected to open to visitors in October this year.

Xinjiang will turn the safari park into a popular science educational base to help increase people's awareness for wildlife protection. Meanwhile, operation of the park will be conducive to vegetation restoration, wildlife training and bio-diversity maintenance, according to Lei Min, secretary of Dabancheng District Party Committee of Urumqi city."

China: Prison Reform and Candid Reporting

Two welcome signs of Reform

The China Daily, one of China's official government news organs, has published an article on prison reform that I find of considerable interest on two points.

Firstly the article announces that a nationwide investigation will be jointly launched later this month (May) by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice investigating problems existing in China's penal system.

The investigation apparently will focus on prison officials illegal practices in an attempt to

"safeguard the justice of the law and protect prisoners' legitimate rights and interests." and to ensure "Efforts are being made nationwide to build a prison system that is just, incorruptible, free of abuses and highly efficient, and to guarantee prisoners' legitimate rights and interests."

The article claims that this initiative follows a series of prison reforms carried out of late by the Ministry of Justice to protect the rights of prisoners. These reportedly have included new protocols such as "Regulations on Reform Through Re-education in Prisons," and "Regulations on the Procedures for Applications by Prisons for Commutation and Parole" .

Focus of this new investigation will be on reforming the ways of imposing punishment in prisons and the methods of prison management.

According to the article there exists within the prison system widespread abuse of power by prison officials including corruption and the use of unlawful discretionary power with respect to issues such as reducing prisoners' penalties, releasing prisoners on parole and allowing prisoners to be bailed out for medical treatment.

China's prison system comes in from considerable criticism for it's treatment of prisoners including allegations of forced labour, torture, deaths in custody and human organ harvesting. Human rights websites such as the Laogai Organisation and the Falun Dafa carry many examples of the extent of human rights violations allegedly going on in China's prison system.

Whilst this announced investigation does not appear to have a mandate over these issues any accountability and oversight placed on the system will hopefully lessen human rights violation across the board and as such is to be welcomed.

The second point concerning the article that commanded my attention was it's closing "editorial" type statement. The China Daily respectfully reminds the govenment that

However, it should be pointed out that though no one questions the authorities' good intention in straightening out things behind the bars, problems concerning prisons cannot be solved by merely launching inspection movements.

Hence, the authorities should be mindful of the fact there is always a possibility old problems will resurface once the current initiative is concluded.

Whilst a little more circumspect than her western counterparts the China Daily comes out relatively strongly in reminding the government that it is one thing to announce reforms and investigations but another thing to carry them out.

The China Daily seems to be leading the way in bringing western, democratic style journalism to mainstream Chinese news reporting and I am often amazed at what it says and equally amazed as to how it gets away with it.

Well done China Daily and hopefully we will be able to say well done the Ministry of Justice.

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Two Birds With One Stone? Big Ask From China

Dalai Lama asked to betray a friend


The world jet setting Dalai Lama fresh from trips to Canada and Europe is heading off to Taiwan to take part in Thursday's inauguration of the second term of office of President Chen Shui-bian.

When asked to comment on the Lama's trip to Taiwan China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao effectively sent a message to the Dalai Lama that if he wanted negotiations between his representatives and Beijing to go ahead then not only must he recognise China's sovereignty over Tibet but also over Taiwan.

"We have repeatedly urged the Dalai Lama to recognise Taiwan as part of Chinese territory and give up his position of seeking independence of Tibet. Only by doing so, the central government of China can have dialogue with the Dalai Lama," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.

A rather big ask one would have thought. The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, has repeatedly and publicly stated for some years now that he has renounced all claims for an independent Tibet and that he wishes to negotiate with the Beijing government only for greater autonomy and freedoms for the Tibetan people.

To ask him now to also include the Tibetan people's long term supporter Taiwan into the equation by effectively asking him to betray a 'friend' would appear to indicate that China has no real intentions of entering into constructive dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives.

It is clear their only aim is to belittle him and/or ignore him

"If the Dalai Lama has the sincerity to solve the (Tibet) question, he should admit and make a public statement, admitting that Taiwan and Tibet are part of Chinese territories," the spokesman said.

"The Dalai Lama must be very clear about the position of the Chinese central government," he noted.

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China asks Dalai to recognise its sovereignty over Tibet

China, Kazakhstan joint statement on Uygur Terrrorism

China and Kazakhstan agree to fight "East Turkistan terrorism"

In Beijing on Monday Chinese President Hu Jintao and visiting Kazakhstan President Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev signed a joint statement signaling agreement on several issues of importance between their two countries.

One notable aspect of the statement from a human-rights perspective was the agreement on the joint combating of "terrorism" in the region.

The joint statement includes agreement that both countries consider

"terrorism, separatism and extremism as severe threats to global security and stability, and will expand bilateral and multilateral cooperation to campaign against those threats."

Not an unusual agreement between countries in this day and age however China has once again used a bi-lateral agreement to specifically raise the 'spectre' of 'East Turkistan' terrorism, a barrow it pushes ad nauseum in negotiations with foreign countries almost to the degree it pushes acceptance of it's "One China" Policy.

"The two sides will, within the bilateral agreed framework, continue to effectively strike terrorism in all forms and terrorist groups and terrorists recognized by the United Nations, including the "East Turkistan" force that imposes a direct threat to regional security and stability."

"East Turkistan" terrorism is a reference to the Uygur ethnic minority of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's north west which, prior to the Qing dynasty and for a short period in the 1940's, ran the independent Uygur state of East Turkistan in present day Xinjiang.

This Muslim Turkic minority of some 9 million has been accused by China continually since "9/11" as being a hotbed of Islamic extremism, separatism and terrorism despite there being no concrete evidence of "terrorist" type activity since 1997 when, in retaliation for a brutal suppression of an Uygur demonstration, unidentified person or persons detonated a bomb on a bus in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi killing five civilians.

The joint statement nicely dovetails some justification for this agreement by tying it to "terrorist groups and terrorists" recognised by the United Nations. This is in reference to the 2002 listing by the U.N. of a relatively unknown Uygur organisation the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIM) as an international terrorist group at the behest of China and with the support of the United States.

This 'agreement' between Kazakhstan and China is of concern for two reasons Firstly it ominously reiterates the Chinese government's assertions as to Uygur 'terrorism' which it has used since "9/11" as a pretext for its continuing violations of the Uygurs human rights and, secondly, it seconds Kazakhstan into this oppression.

Given that Kazakhstan borders Xinjiang and that it is predominantly a Muslim country sharing common ethnicity with the Uygurs it has been, historically, a destination for Uygur political refugees. This 'agreement' will formalise what has been, since 1999, a tacit understanding between the two governments that the Kazakhs would not allow such refugee movements.

Recently two Uygurs were executed by the Chinese after being repatriated from neighboring Kyrgystan despite the fact that the alleged crimes occurred on Kyrgyz soil (involving the death of a Chinese diplomat) and contravened United Nation's protocols forbidding the extradition of criminals to a country that is likely to invoke capital punishment.

This agreement between China and Kazakhstan seems to allow for similar instances to occur. All it will take now is for China to identify a person as being a terrorist for him to be repatriated from Kazakhstan to China and to an uncertain fate.

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:: Xinhuanet - English ::

Four Dead, 44 Missing: Mine tragedies Continue

TAIYUAN, May 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Two coal mine accidents Tuesday left four dead and 44 missing in north China's Shanxi province, said sources from the provincial government.

Transformers burned underground at a coal mine of Shuozhou Cityat approximately 3:00 a.m. Tuesday. Four people were killed and 10 were missing, according to the sources.

A local mine at Jiaokou County of Luliang City was hit by a gas blast at around 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, leaving 34 people missing.

Rescue operations have started in the two coal mines respectively and leading officials of the provincial government were on their way to the mines Tuesday evening.


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China View:Four dead, 44 missing in coal mine accidents in north China
2004-05-18 23:55:53

World's Youngest Political Prisoner: Ninth Anniversary

Disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama

May 17th went pretty much unremarked in the world's Human-Rights and diplomatic circles but it marked the day in 1995 when Chinese officials went to the home of Gehun Choekyi Nyima, then six years old, and spirited him and his family away never to be seen again.

Gehun Choekyi Nyima at just six years of age was the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet having been confirmed the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama just two weeks prior by the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibets Buddhists. He was to become, on that fateful day, the highest ranking and youngest religious political prisoner in the world.

Since that date nothing has been seen or heard of the boy or his family other than the Chinese Government admitting in 1996 that they had him under their "protection".

"he has been put under the protection of the government at the request of his parents" one official commented at the time saying that "the boy was at risk of being kidnapped by 'separatists'"

Two weeks after his disappearance in May 1995 the Chinese Government announced that a new Panchen Lama had been identified by Tibetans independent of the Dalai Lama. This "new" Panchen Lama was selected by Beijing and he too was moved to the Chinese capital.

Rumours of Gehun Choekyi Nyima death are several but one in particular, dating back to 1999, is believed by many to be true. It was said that a "small emaciated body" described as a "major criminal" was taken from a prison in Gansu for secret cremation. "Eye witness reports" claim the body was that of a boy resembling the Panchen Lama.

Despite numerous calls from the international community in the early days (dying in number now) the whereabouts or health of the now 14 year old is unknown and he remains the most high profile and youngest political and religious prisoner in the world.

When you think how we can carry on and have normal trade and diplomatic relations, with a clear conscience, with a state, any state, that is capable of making a six year old child and his family political prisoners is beyond comprehension.

How our diplomats and leaders and "Captains of Industry" can shake the hands of child kidnappers and sleep at night is truly beyond me. How we can so quickly forget is unpardonable.

For further reading may I suggest the linked website that is a "Links Page" to further information on the boy Lama.

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Panchen Lama>

Cargo Plane Crashes in Urumqi

BEIJING (Reuters) - A chartered cargo plane crashed on Tuesday in the airport in the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, but no details on damage were available, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Xinhua said the crash of the Russian-made Il-76 plane occurred at the international airport in Urumqi.

Yahoo! News - Cargo Plane Crashes in Northwest China-Xinhua

Update:

Later news item provides details as to the plane and death toll

An Azerbaijani cargo plane crashed into farmland two minutes after take-off from the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region and the seven crew had zero chance of survival, Xinhua news agency said.

Dalai Lama's World Trips Stirring up The Anthill?

I have commented before as to the predictability of the Chinese when it comes to any international press on sensitive issues.

Without fail the likes of Xinhua, China Daily and People's Daily will start coming out with what I call "justification pieces" It is happening again.

Tibet has been in the international news of late, Tibetan hunger strikers in New York, wildly successful visits of the Dalai Lama to various countries, US Religious freedom reports, United Nations Human Rights Commission hearings et al. So it is not surprising that the organs of state news have been dong what they tend to do quite well, pumping out the "justification pieces"

Of late we have had several articles on Tibet; articles on blind schools, cataract prevention, and infrastructure provision . We have even had, if you can believe it, a story about how well the 900 prisoners in Tibet jails enjoyed their Tibetan New Year celebrations. Apparently they all enjoyed a thrilling game of soccer.

Today we have a piece from the China Daily trumpeting the improvements of life in Tibet.

China's Tibet Autonomous Region has made great strides forward in both providing basic public services and in poverty reduction.

The article goes on to say

Basic public services enjoyed by Tibet's farmers and herdsmen are the best examples of government efforts to give the region's people a better life, according to the findings of a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research team, who investigated the situation in July and August of last year.

The China Daily provides an impressive list of achievements

• food security in the region has been further improved by the agricultural and pastoral support system.
  
• The central government has invested an annual sum of 300 million yuan (US$36 million) in infrastructure projects for developing the agricultural and pastoral areas in Tibet in recent years.
  
• The central government has scrapped taxes levied on Tibet's farmers and herdsmen.
  
• Free compulsory education
  
• Government-assisted health care insurance
  
• Relief programmes and aid to the old and those without children:
  
• Upgrading of power and water supply facilities
  
• Satellite television and telecommunication services:
  
• More non-farming jobs have been created to increase local people's incomes

Then we have the catchall

Compared with other parts of China, Tibet is the most eye-catching region of the country, and the State Council has issued more White Papers on Tibet than any other regions. Public attention thus has become an effective supervisory force. Transparency has been enhanced through the further disclosure of information.

Please do not get me wrong, there are some good things happening in Tibet as a result of China's involvement, even the Dalai Lama acknowledges that, but the bad things continue as well and we should not be blinded to that by nice "wrapping paper".

My point in this post is that the casual observer of China should be aware that when we get a plethora of "good spin" news such as the articles I have alluded to it is either 1)as a result of bad press elsewhere in the world or 2) in anticipation of bad press or 3) a lead in to changes the Government is about to implement that may get bad press.

I am no mathematician but the following quote appears to give the impression that as a result of Chinese initiatives Tibet's ethnic population is improving dramatically.

As living conditions improve, the population will increase too. The population of the Tibetan ethnic group in the Tibet Autonomous Region have increased from 1,718,238 in 1980 to 2,421,856 in 2000.

This is way less than the percentage increase in the Uygur population, for example, over the same period. Of course it does not provide numbers for those leaving Tibet, either as refugees or to China proper in search of work. Nonetheless the figures and the context do not equal the real relative position of population increases.

Forced Evictions Continue For Uygur In Xinjiang

In a country where all the land and housing has been owned by the state and where official corruption is rife, home and land tenure has never been a given in China.

A recent report out of Xinjiang, China's nominal "Uygur Autonomous Region", via Radio Free Asia once again illustrates that, in this time of China's burgeoning economy and despite recent amendments to the Chinese constitution allowing for private ownership of property, land tenure is not guaranteed even when you have a written lease.

According to the linked RFA article

"Authorities in the Uyghur region of Xinjiang in China's northwest are refusing to honor 30-year land-use contracts in a village near Artush city, forcing poor farmers away from their livelihoods to make way for a major property development"-RFA

It would appear that the local Artush county government had signed a deal with a Beijing company for the construction of a tourist resort on the outskirts of town. The problem being however is that the land is farmland over which the Uygur tenants had a written lease for a term of 30 years.

The total area of disputed land is about 700 mu (46 hectares), which includes the farmers' houses, fruit and vegetable gardens, and croplands in Shurukh village, which is home to around 180 Uyghur households.

In compensation the Uygurs believed the original offer of compensation from the local government was the equivalent of US$8,700 and 1 mu of undeveloped land for each mu of tenented land forfeited.

After some farmhouses had been demolished the farmers came to the realisation that the compensation offered was for 1 mu of undeveloped land and only US$1,450 cash and it was at this stage they began their protest.

RFA claims that one Uygur was beaten by police and had his camera broken when he attempted to take pictures of his house being demolished.

"He was beaten pushed and beaten when he was trying to record ( the house demolition) He threw the camera to the other side of garden. And they jumped over and got the camera. Then they smashed it one witness was reported to have said."-RFA

Forced evictions are commonplace in a land where the new market economy has led many local officials into the pockets of hungry land developers. Whilst, not the reason in every case, corruption plays a large part in the decision making process.

In a submission to the recently concluded UN Human Rights Commission hearings in Geneva UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation) stated

"China's rapid economic development has led to forced evictions in urban and rural areas. Residents complain of lack of advance notice, low compensation, and violent evictions by hired thugs and bulldozers. Chinese laws permit forced evictions to continue even while residents are suing to prevent them; many courts refuse to hear the cases. Protests have escalated, and there has been a series of suicide protests. In response, police have jailed tenants’ rights advocates. The Chinese government has promised policy reforms, but while local Party officials can intervene to influence courts, these will be difficult to implement."-UNPO Submission

The Epoch Times reported only on March 10 of this year the death of an elderly Uygur man in Kashgar killed when a bulldozer leveled his house whilst he was inside attempting to stop it's demolition.

Much of this activity goes unreported in Xinjiang as many Uygurs fear government retribution if they attempt to protest or advertise their plight.


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Radio Free Asia

China Letter News Digest

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on every one.

Asia Pacific Media Network :: CHINA: China's `netizens' log on to parliamentChina is trying to control the Internet, but with even the National People's Congress embracing the Web, this censorship seems only limited at best

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Revamp mechanism for letters and Complaints
State Councilor Hua Jianmin said the letters and complaints system is an arrangement with strong Chinese characteristics. It is an important way to facilitate communication between the government and the people, protect people's rights and interests and help the government make correct policy choices.

Xinhuanet - English :Blind children taught to be independent at Tibetan school :
The training center, founded in 2000, teaches the rudiments of arithmetic, writing, singing, painting and gymnastics as well as some professional training to blind children of local peasants andherdsmen.

:: Xinhuanet - English ::China launches campaign to make Tibet "Cataract Control Zone"
In Tibet, 12,500 cataract operations are expected to be done As part of the "SightFirst China Action

Times of Tibet: Chinese Ambassador to Discuss Human Rights:
"The Chinese ambassador to Ireland has agreed to a formal meeting with members of the Irish Peace Society to discuss concerns over human rights issues."

China Replies to US Religious Freedoms Report

In response to the recently released United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report in which China was heavily criticised for it's treatment of the Muslim Uygurs, Tibetans, Christian religious organisations and the spiritual group Falun Dong a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman has labeled the findings "groundless".

The annual report on the state of religious freedom world wide once again identified China as a "country of particular concern" (CPC)the highest category for countries where religious freedom is in serious doubt.

The report stated that the commission was

"especially concerned" with freedom of religion in China and that the Chinese government continues to engage in "particularly severe violations of religious freedom."-U.S. Report

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao has responded on behalf of China by claiming that the report's findings were based on "heresay" and constituted nothing more than a "potshot" at the religious policies of China which are constitutionally guaranteed and in his words "sufficient".

He went on to recommend that the US stop interfering in China's internal affairs and essentially advised the United States to look to it's own garden first.

Not an unexpected response but fairly tame in tone nonetheless.


:: Xinhuanet - English ::

Coal mine disaster: Death, lawlessness and the avoidance of responsibility

Apart from what I dig up myself from the internet I rely heavily on two excellent sources for information about mining industry accidents and tragedies in China. One is the US Mine Rescue website, the link to which can be found on the side bar, and the other is Stephen Frost's Asian Labour News. Between those two and my own research I do not think much is missed on this topic.

Stephen has posted an excellent piece which I link to here. Nothing more needs to be said other than do yourself a favour and learn why I call the Chinese Mining Industry "Death Incorporated"

Asian Labour News: China: Looking back on the Jixi City coal mine disaster: Death, lawlessness and the avoidance of responsibility

Defiant Chinese lawyer relishes defending citizens rights

I think Xu Zhiyong ,the Beijing lawyer that the Manila Times calls "charismatic " in the linked article, might be barking up the wrong tree in his belief that two of his clients are victims of "testing the limits of China's tightly controlled media".

Xu is defending Yu Huafeng, former vice chief editor of the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolitan Daily), who was sentenced in March to 12 years in jail for graft.

He is also representing Cheng Yizhong, the former editor in chief of the same paper, who has been formally charged with corruption.

This much celebrated case of alleged payback by Chinese officials for the editorial staff of the SMD overstepping the mark in exposing a SARS cover up and the police death in custody of a migrant worker has organisations such as Reporters without Frontiers up in arms.

It has seemed to have escaped them however that investigations into claims of significant corruption at the Southern Metropolitan, a leading and highly profitable state owned newspaper group, were instigated by Chinese officials well before these incidents that are supposed to have spawned their current ire.

So significant was the apparent corruption problem that a leading Hong Kong property developer backed out of a multi-million dollar joint venture with the group to develop a shopping mall well before either of these two reporting incidents occurred.

But that aside the person really testing the limits is Xu. The Manila Times attributes, among others, the following quote to the 31 year old lawyer expressing some very forthright views :

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"Some people accuse me of not respecting the independence of the justice system," he said.

"But the difference to developed countries is that this independence does not exist in China, and we must fight against the forces that prevent it from existing."

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A quote that is sure to prick the ears of officialdom and hopefully will not come back to seriously bite this obviously courageous man in the future is his remarks about the Communist revolution:

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"China needs lawyers who fight for the rights of the citizens," he said defiantly, while acknowledging that a glaring opportunity has already been missed.

"During the last century, China was at a crossroads between reform and revolution. Unfortunately revolution was the choice."

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I admire your courage and am bouyed by the thought that you feel the system has changed enough for you to expres such opinions without fear of reprisal, but, then again, the ink is hardly dry...





The Manila Times Internet Edition | OPINION > Defiant Chinese lawyer relishes defending citizens� rights

Coal mine blast kills 8 in Jiangxi

NANCHANG, May 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A blast occurred in east China's Jiangxi Province has killed eight people by Friday.

The accident happened at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Shuangfa Coal Minein Shangrao County. Two were found dead, one injured and six missing on that night. By Friday noon, another six bodies have been found in the ruins. The exact number of the missing is unclear, said the rescue team.

The mine is a legal one which is run by Tiandun Village. The manager Shen Dajian ran away after the blast happened and was being pursued by police. Further rescue and investigation is underway.

:: Xinhuanet - English ::

Guantanamo Uygurs

Among the 600 original captives from the United States' military intervention in Afghanistan held at Guantanamo Bay Cuba were 12 Uygurs from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's northwest.

The Uygur are one of China's 56 ethnic minority groups and are by far the most culturally distinct ethnic group in China. They are a Turkic people who originated from the scores of nomadic tribes that ranged present day Mongolia and southern Siberia in the centuries before Christ. Along with other Turkic tribes of Central Asia, they were the forefathers of the modern day people of Turkey.

The Uygur once controlled a mighty empire in the 9th and 10th century C.E controlling much of Central Asia and present day Xinjiang. After their defeat at the hands of another Turkic tribe they were forced to move en mass to the outskirts of their former empire in present day Xinjiang and Gansu province. Here they lived virtually with autonomy until being subjugated by the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in the 18th century. Even from then whilst nominally under the control of the Chinese it was not until the communist takeover of Xinjiang in 1949 that Chinese influence was well and truly asserted.

Whilst initially acceding to joining with Communist China (or at least not resisting) on the promise that Xinjiang would become an autonomous governing region within the Chinese state the realisation that this "autonomy" was in name only saw the Uygur becoming increasingly less amenable to Han Chinese control in the ensuing years.

The "Great Leap Forward" of the 1950's and the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1975) were particularly hard on the Uygur bringing about dramatic changes to their way of life and increasing persecution of their religion. The Uygur are Muslim.

The break up of the former Soviet Union and the setting up of independent states in Central Asia gave hope to some Uygur that they too could throw off the shackles of Communist rule and in the period of 1990 to 1997 there was agitation towards this end. Two incidents in particular were of importance in this time frame one a "Revolt" in Baran ( a small Xinjiang township) in 1990 and the other the so called "Yining (Gulja) Uprising" in 1997.

Neither incident could truly be called events of magnitude or ones which derived from any universal Uygur ground-swell bent on armed revolt to obtain independence. They were however to prove to be events of significant consequence for the Uygur in many ways.

One consequence was that many Uygur were forced to flee Xinjiang to avoid prison and possible execution. Those from the "Baran era" mostly were able to go to the newly formed "Turkic republics" of Central Asia where, at that time, they were welcomed. Those from the "Yining era" however were forced to flee Central Asia totally or go to Afghanistan, which had a sizeable Uygur population going back many years. The change of attitude among the central Asian states towards such political refugees came about due to increased Chinese diplomatic and economic pressure.

The Chinese have claimed since the 1997 Yining incident that there existed numerous Uygur "terrorist" organisations bent on violent separation of Xinjiang from China. These claims were intensified after "9/11' as it provided the Chinese government a degree of legitimacy in the eyes of the world in their "crackdown" on the Uygur.

The Chinese claimed, without much proof, post "9/11" that Uygur "terrorist" organisations were in league with both the Taliban and al Qaida. Among their claims was one that there existed in Afghanistan a "Chinese battalion" of upwards of 1,000 Uygur terrorists trained by the Taliban and funded by Al Qaida for terrorist activities in China.

A world still reeling from the horror that was '9/11" looked upon such Chinese claims probably with a less judicious eye than they would have done in more normal times.

It was no surprise then, at least for those who championed the cause of the Uygur, that in the wash-up to the United State's intervention in Afghanistan only 12 Uygurs were detained among the 600 or so captured and sent to Guantanamo.

I said in an article written at the time of the release of the "Guantanamo numbers" that there being only 12 Uygurs among the 600 suggested fairly strongly that Chinese claims as to the existence of numerous "Uygur terrorist" organisations with extensive memberships were hardly supported by the numbers, especially given Afghanistan's proximity to Xinjiang and the fact that there existed a sizeable Uygur population in Afghanistan from whom the Taliban could press into service ethnic Uygur men. Of course this is not to say there were not some Uygur there willingly with a view to furthering their desires for Uygur independence but by all accounts from Uygur sources their numbers were miniscule.

It has now been reported that the 12 Uygurs are about to be released as, in the words of the US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, they no longer are of "significant threat or may not be wanted on criminal charges."

This then must be final proof that Chinese claims as to Uygur links with Islamic extremism, al Qaida and terrorism were at the best tenuous or at worst just plain fabricated lies meant to mask their ongoing oppression of the Uygur people.

The question now is where are these 12 to go? Returning them to China will no doubt result in their execution regardless of their innocence or degree of "guilt". Any "guarantees" to their safety must be taken with a large grain of salt especially after Chinese officials went back on assurances given to the United States that a Tibetan executed in 2003 would have his trial reviewed by the Chinese Supreme Court before sentence was carried out. As well the Chinese carried out the execution of an alleged ringleader of the 1997 Yining incident only as recent as October 2003, some six years after most of the 124 sentenced to death over Yining were executed.

Once again it will more than likely be left to the U.S. to grant these Uygurs sanctuary as other nations will be too "frightened" of the economic ramifications of upsetting the Chinese Government by accepting these people.


Channelnewsasia.com: Guantanamo

Angels Head For "Heavenly Lake"

Lake Tinachi or as it is otherwise known Heavenly Lake is a most beautiful lake some 70 kms northeast of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur A.R., and is one of the top tourists attractions in Xinjiang and ranks very highly among China's best. It is much loved by the Uygur and Kazakh inhabitants of the area and is certainly a must see for anyone visiting Xinjiang.

According to one travel blurb Heavenly Lake (also just to confuse you sometime known as Jade Lake) is

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Covered with firs, pines, cypresses and white snow, it boasts a spectacular sight- reminiscent of Switzerland or the Rocky mountains but somehow with more vibrancy and color. Amidst fields of wild flowers grow morel mushrooms, peppermint and rhubarb, while higher up the mountain are edelweiss and the rare creamy Snow Lotus (Saussurea involucrate), which grows from rock crevices and is believed to have magical powers as a medicinal cure.

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According to the linked article Lake Tianchi though has been suffering of late and the government is stepping in to give it a little angelic help.

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" URUMQI, May 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has launched a comprehensive program to improve the ecological environment around the Tianchi Lake to protect it from further shrinkage.
The program will be carried out in three phases. Firstly, the region will spend 26 million yuan (3.13 million US dollars) to build dams in the upper reaches of the lake to decrease silt flow and to dig channels to divert water.
Secondly, some 15 million yuan (1.8 million dollars) will be used for resettling local herdsmen living in the upper reaches of the lake, and for developing 15,000 mu (1,000 hectares) of irrigated pasture for them.
And, thirdly, 14 million yuan (1.68 million dollars) will be spent for afforestation in the vicinity of the lake.
The Tianchi Lake, dubbed 'the Pearl of the Tianshan Ranges', covers a water area of 4.9 sq km and abounds in wildlife and other natural resources.
But in the past decade, farming, tourism and the lumber trade, among others, have resulted in deforestation and reduced grassland,and ensuing floods and landslides, leading to the shrinkage of thelake.
The lake's southern bank is now 18 meters closer to the center of the lake than 10 years ago and the depth of the lake has dropped to 80 meters from 100 meters. An area of nearly seven hectares of grassland in the southern bank is now denuded."

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:: Xinhuanet - English ::

Coal mine explosion kills 12 in Heilongjiang

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HARBIN, May 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 12 miners were killed in a coal mine explosion in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Thursday night, officials said Friday.

The blast occurred at 11 p.m. Thursday at the second mining area of Xinxing Coal Mine in Qitaihe City, when 50 people were working at the scene. Thirty-eight miners were rescued and 12 bodies were found, according to the provincial administration of coal mine safety supervision.

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:: Xinhuanet - English ::

China and Religious Freedom: USCIRF Annual Report

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has just released (May 12) it's annual report on the status of religious freedom worldwide and has made some recommendations that will sure to upset the Chinese Government and bring from them the usual calls for the US to stop meddling in China's internal affairs.

The USCIRF is a U.S. independent legislative agency created by the United States International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) to monitor religious freedom in other countries and advise the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on how best to promote it.

As predicted, in the case of China, the Commission has emphasized the plight of the Muslim Uygurs of Xinjiang, the Buddhists Tibetans, the "unofficial" Christian Churches and the Falun Gong group. (The latter by it's own admission is not a religion per se but more of a promoter of a spiritual life and as such it is strange that it's predicament appears to fall within the Commission mandate.)

One recommendation in particular that is sure to raise the hackles of the Chinese and very unlikely to be acceded to is that the US negotiate with China to allow the opening of an official US presence in both Urumqi the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Lhasa, capital of Tibet, to facilitate closer monitoring of the religious situation in both those regions.

As well the Commission called upon the US Government to do all in it's power to raise international awareness of the plight of the Uygur people and to establish an Uygur language radio staion transmitting into Xinjiang

Summary of the Commissions Findings On China

The Commission stated forthrightly in it's report that it is "especially concerned" with freedom of religion in China and that the Chinese government continues to engage in "particularly severe violations of religious freedom.".

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The Commission remains especially concerned about the situation in China, where repression of religious freedom continues to be a deliberate policy of the Chinese government. In the past year, Chinese authorities have intensified their violent campaign against religious believers, including Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and other groups, such as the Falun Gong. This campaign has included imprisonment, torture, and other forms of ill treatment. Following up on an invitation to the Commission reportedly without conditions, the Commission attempted to travel to China twice in the past year but was thwarted both times by unacceptable limits imposed by the Chinese government. The Commission visited Hong Kong in early 2004, but continues to seek a visit to other regions of China.

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The USCIRF has recommended to the U.S president that China be considered a "country of particular concern (CPC)" the highest level for countries considered to be religious violators of the worst kind.

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"Chinese government officials control, monitor, and restrain religious practice, purportedly to protect national security or stability and public safety or health. However, the government’s actions to restrict religious belief and practice reportedly go far beyond legitimate protection of security interests and exceed what is permissible under international law. By most accounts, prominent religious leaders and laypersons alike continue to be confined, tortured, imprisoned, and subject to other forms of ill treatment on account of their religion or belief."

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Particular information as to the various findings are as follows:

Falun Gong

The Commission found that in 2003, the Chinese government has expanded its campaign against 'evil cults' and "heretical sects" of which the Falun Gong group is considered to be one.

The Falun Gong group has been banned since 1999 and has been identified as an "evil cult" and it is upon this basis that China attempts to justify it's ongoing "brutal crackdown"

The Commission alleges that

• hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to labor camps without trial or been sent to mental health institutions for re-education
  
• 430 practitioners have been killed as a result of police brutality
  
• foreign businesses in China have been pressured to discriminate against its followers
  
• Chinese diplomats regularly warn foreign officials to stop their advocacy on behalf of Falun Gong and its practitioners.
  

Tibet

On Tibet the Commission found that the Chinese government continues to retain tight control over religious activity and places of worship.

It notes that 2002-2003 saw several prominent Tibetan Buddhists being released from imprisonment however despite this and renewed contact between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives there has been no significant changes to the government's overall policy of control over Tibetan religious life.

By Chinese admission the Commission states that there are over one hundred Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns being held in prison, a figure agreed on by Tibetan human rights groups who claim that the prisoners are subject to ongoing torture and degradation at the hands of their Chinese captors.

The Commission specifically mentions the cases of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and Lobsang Dondrup who were sentenced to death in January 2003 for an alleged April 2002 bombing in Sichuan province.

Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche's death sentence was eventually suspended, but Lobsang Dondrup was executed despite what the commission claims were assurances to senior U.S. officials that both cases would be referred to China's Supreme Court.

Other incidents reported upon are:

• October 2003, another monk, Nyima Dragpa died, reportedly as a result of repeated torture while serving a nine-year sentence for advocating Tibetan independence
  
• The Chinese continue to deny repeated requests for access to the 15-year old boy whom the Dalai Lama designated as the 11th Panchen Lama and who was spirited away by Chinese officials never to be seen of again.
  

Uygur Muslims Of Xinjiang

The Commission found that in the case of the mainly Muslim Uygurs of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's north west, freedom of religion and belief is severely curtailed by the government, which often alleges that Uygur Muslim religious expression is linked to "separatist" or "terrorist" acts.

The Commission also found that

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Since September 11, 2001, the government has used concerns about international terrorism as a pretext for an ongoing crackdown in Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslim clerics and students have been detained for "illegal" religious activities and "illegal religious centers" have been closed.

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It goes on to report that since January 2003 the Government's campaign against the Uygur Muslims has intensified when the region's Communist Party Secretary announced the government's aim to "strike hard" against "religious extremists", "splittists", and "terrorists", resulting in the arrest of many more Uighur Muslim clerics and lay leaders.

The Commission also highlighted the authorities prohibition on the teaching of Islam to children under the age of 18 and on minors entering mosques. As well it noted the Chinese government as not allowing teachers, professors, university students, or Party members to practice their Muslim faith openly.

Catholic and Protestant Churches

The report claims that the Chinese government continues its repression of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches in China and provides the following examples:

• Clergy in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jilin, and Jiangxi provinces were harassed, detained, and arrested during the past year.
  
• In July 2003, five priests affiliated with the Catholic Church were sentenced to three years in a labor camp after having been convicted of practicing "cult" activities.
  
• In October 2003, Hebei provincial officials reportedly arrested twelve Catholic priests and seminarians attending a religious retreat.
  
• There are at least ten Catholic bishops under arrest, including Bishop Su Zhimin, who has been in prison, in detention, under house arrest, or under strict surveillance since the 1970s.
  
• Conditions for unregistered Christian groups have worsened in the last year. Members of Protestant house church groups, who refuse to register, are subject to intimidation, extortion, harassment, detention, and the closing of their churches.
  
• Protestant house churches in Liaoning, Yunnan, and Henan provinces and in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were raided, their congregants detained and fined, pastors arrested, and churches closed
  
• In September, house church historian Zhang Yinan was arrested along with approximately 100 others in Nanyang, Henan Province
  
• Pastor Gong Shengliang of the unregistered South China Church sentenced to death after the adoption of the 1999 "“evil cult" law, continues to languish in prison, and he is reportedly denied proper medical care. Many of his congregants and family remain in jail facing serious charges and are allegedly subject to torture and other ill treatment in prison
  
• In the last year, local officials in Zhejiang province reportedly destroyed as many as 400 churches, temples, and shrines.
  
• Chinese officials continue to engage in the destruction of "illegal" religious buildings, particularly in regions experiencing rapid religious growth or in areas with long-standing tensions between "official" and "unofficial" congregations, such as Hebei and Henan provinces
  

Commissions Recommendations

As stated the Commission has recommended to the U.S. President that China be once again designated as a "country of particular concern" as it relates to religious freedom. The Commission has further recommended that the U.S. government should:

• ensure that efforts to promote religious freedom in China are integrated into the mechanisms of dialogue and cooperation with the Chinese government at all levels, across all departments of the U.S. government, and on all issues, including security and counter-terrorism;
  
• urge the Chinese government to end its current crackdown on religious and spiritual groups throughout China, including harassment, surveillance, arrest, and detention of persons on account of their manifestation of religion or belief; the detention, torture, and ill-treatment of persons in prisons, labor camps, psychiatric facilities, and other places of confinement; and the coercion of individuals to renounce or condemn any religion or belief;
  
• urge the Chinese government to change its system of laws, policies, and practices that govern religious and spiritual organizations and activities, and hold accountable violators of the right to freedom of religion and belief and the human rights of religious believers;
  
• urge the Chinese government to respect fully the universality of the right to freedom of religion or belief and other human rights and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
  
• undertake to strengthen scrutiny by international and U.S. bodies of China's human rights practices and the implementation of its international obligations;
  
• prohibit U.S. companies doing business in China from engaging in practices that would constitute or facilitate violations of religious freedom or discrimination on the basis of religion or belief;
  
• raise the profile of the conditions of Uighur Muslims by addressing religious freedom and human rights concerns in bilateral talks; by increasing the number of educational opportunities in the United States available to Uighurs; and by increasing radio broadcasts in the Uighur language;
  
• endeavor to establish an official U.S. government presence, such as a consulate, in Lhasa, Tibet and Urumqi, Xinjiang, in order to monitor religious freedom and other human rights;
  
• expand rule of law programs to include regular "dialogues" on religion and law with U.S. government representatives, academic experts, and members of the Commission with a commensurate delegation from China;
  
• support exchanges between a diverse segment of Chinese government officials and academic experts and U.S. scholars, experts, representatives of religious communities and non-governmental organizations regarding the relationship between religion and the state, the role of religion in society, international standards relating to the right to freedom of religion and belief, and the importance and benefits of upholding human rights, including religious freedom; and
  
• continue to promote Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy under Chinese sovereignty by:
  --urge the Chinese government to uphold the "one country, two systems" concept by allowing the Hong Kong people and their elected government officials to have a voice in the determination of the pace and scope of advances toward direct elections and the protection of human rights, including religious freedom; and
  --opposing introduction of any "national security" provision to the Basic Law that would suppress internationally recognized human rights, including the right to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression.
  

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Well there are no suprises here to anyone who keeps close to what is happening in China. Once again the U.S. stands virtually alone in condemning China for a variety of Human-rights violations and has to be congratulated.

It is hoped that the continual pressure, no matter how disliked by the Chinese, is maintained and that one day the light of a brand new day will dawn upon a China in which the freedom of the peaceful pursuit of religion is allowed.

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United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)Annual report

Great Wall of China From Space

Well the answer is here. Yes you can see the Great Wall of China from Space. This picture is courtesy of Space.com

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This photo, released yesterday, was taken by the European Space Agency's Proba satellite on March 25. It shows a short stretch of the wall atop hills northeast of Beijing. The wall is highlighted in the upper right. (The lower left of the image is purposely washed out; it shows a stretch of engineered waterways called the Da Yunhe, or Grand Canal, a marvel all its own.)"In Earth's orbit at a height of 160 to 320 kilometers [100-200 miles], the Great Wall of China is indeed visible to the naked eye," says astronaut Eugene Cernan.

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Image of the Day

Ireland tells Wen of (selective) human rights concerns

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"The Chinese government has vowed to address human rights abuses in the country, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed today.

Mr Ahern told the Dáil (Irish newspaper Ed.) Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao assured him his Government would engage in European Union dialogue on the issue in a constructive and meaningful way.

The Taoiseach (Prime Minister Ed.)said he raised the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement during a two-hour meeting with Mr Wen, who is on a two-day state visit to Ireland.

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It is funny that in all Wens visits in Europe that the Uygur and Xinjiang have not been mentioned, it is always Tibet.

Why is the "Uygur Question" so low on the world's agenda? Is it just not reported? Is it because they do not have the profile of the Tibetans? Is it because they are Muslim? Is it because the world believes Chinese propaganda as to them being "terrorists"?

I fully support Tibet and am happy to see the Tibetan human-rights issue get as much press as possible but when there are 2 million more Uygurs experiencing exactly the same oppression as the Tibetans ( and some would say much worse) it begs the question why is their issue such a non starter?

Since the Uygur Yinning (Gulja) "uprising" in 1997 it has been estimated by the likes of Amnesty International that 124 Uygurs have been executed as a direct result of those eventful couple of days, the last only in October 2004. Many, many Uygurs languish in jails. Two high profiles ones being Rebiya Kadeer the Uygur businesswoman and Tohti Tunyaz the Uygur historian both imprisoned for "passing state secrets" Of course there have been may Tibetans executed and jailed in that time frame as well but nowhere near the number of Uygur.

When the world talks ethnic minority human rights in China they must include the forgotten Uygurs of Xinjiang.

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Times of Tibet Ahern tells Chinese premier of human rights concerns

New Blog Directory launched

Ever wished for a blog directory that not only allows you to search for keywords, themes and sites but also view what are the trends in topics being discussed in blogosphere (with graphs of history), who is being talked about? How top stories are panning out in terms of popularity in weblogs?

Well a new blog directory which has just been launched does all that and I even noticed some familiar names among our China bloggers.

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"Joining Technorati and Daypop, Intelliseek has launched BlogPulse.com, a search engine designed to seek out blogs. Intelliseek's offering is designed to help users search the heavily populated blog world.
BlogPulse is a free online search and tracking tool that measures and ranks 'buzz' about key issues, people, phrases and links that occur daily in more than million Internet blogs. "

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Intelliseek Launches BlogPulse com:

China and torture of prisoners: Holiday announced!

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"China announced a campaign to weed out government officials who torture and maltreat prisoners, the latest in a string of moves apparently aimed at the United States over the abuse of Iraqi inmates. "

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I resolutely promised myself that I would not be drawn into the fray that is the Iraqi Prisoner issue. I have my opinions, like everyone I suppose, but there is just so much a person can get his head around. If you start going off chasing every apparent human-rights abuse in the world you would really end up a mess.

Having said that I thought China would limit herself to a knowing wink! wink! nudge! nudge! as it concerns America and the predicament she currently faces. (Some times silence can earn some chips for latter cashing at the diplomatic gming tables). But China is China and one finds it extremely hard to predict just how she will act in any given circumstance.

I have to quote Winston Churchill here on the Soviets because I see it just the same way with the Chinese

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"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interests."

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China's National interests have obviously seen an opportunity to do some serious point scoring against the U.S. over the Iraqi prisoner situation by announcing at this very opportune time how they will closely monitor "torture" as a tool used by some officials within China. They had obviously hoped to juxtapose this new found morality with the seeming lack of same on behalf of the United States.

But what a way to do it.

Follow me here if you can as I go through a press release from the Supreme People's Procuratorate

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The Supreme People's Procuratorate said it would investigate and punish anyone who "commits crimes connected with infringement of human rights", the China Youth Daily, a leading government-controlled newspaper, reported.

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That in itself is ok isn't it? The supreme legal body will investigate anyone who does such inhumane deeds. One of course would have expected that the supreme judicial body of any reasonable country would, by it's very mandate, have been doing that already but, as Winston said about Russia and which is no less true of China, she is a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" So, at this juncture and for arguments sake, let's just say the sentiment is there and all is well and fine.

We move on...

Following on with highly laudable sentiments that would do any humanitarian proud the vice-general procurator Wang Zhenchuan said that this campaign he was announcing

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would focus on five key human rights areas including illegal detention, torture and maltreatment of prisoners, and malpractices that cause serious losses of people's lives and property.

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Excellent! We are really getting some place aren't we? Crackdowns, focus on human rights and malpractices! Amnesty International could not have come up with better Google like keywords.

They even get to fit in their new found doctrine of mea culpa. Just like every young boy learns at a young age when mum is looking for who ate all the biscuits (cookies): get in first and, with a look and sound of sincere contriteness, admit

"I can not tell a lie it was I who ate all the biscuits but Mum I have seen the light!"

It seems to work very well in saving some credibility forthe future.

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In an unusually frank admission, the Procuratorial Daily said 1,064 cases of human rights violations by officials were carried out last year, largely illegal detention and police extorting confessions through torture. It said 66 people died or were injured in these cases, without going into details.

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Again excellent! They truly seem to be learning the western art of political "spin".

Of course the numbers may be just a tad off. With a prison population of around 1,549,000, 1,064 cases of human rights violations seems a touch optimistic even for the best of societies. The Falun Gong group on it's own for example claim they have verified 25 deaths for March 2004 alone and believe actual deaths could be five or ten times higher.(please note some photos at this website are graphic)

Putting that small point aside, because numbers are always just a tad off in China, where are we to this stage of proceedings? China looking pretty?

Let's summarise

Well, China has

• Said all the right things as to what they are planning to do and why
  
• Timed the statement perfectly for maximum effect
  
• Established that, whilst courageously and openly admitting some small blemishes in the past, they have recognised the importance of the humane and correct treatment of prisoners (which by inference the U.S has not), and
  
• in doing so set themselves up on what some would think was unassailable high moral ground

Right?

Wrong!

As China is wont to do time and time again they have to go and shoot themselves in the foot (thank God the EU will not sell them any bullets)

They end by going and saying something that even an "apprentice spin doctor" would never say. A clasic that no doubt will be taught in "Spin school" for years to come as how not to end a press statement of this type:

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"This special movement will last one year, and starts right now,"

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One Year? After that what? Back from holidays and back to work??

Ahh! How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

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Yahoo! News - China announces campaign to weed out officials who torture prisoners:

Dalai Lama to visit Britain on heels of Chinese PM

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"DHARAMSALA, India (AFP) - The Dalai Lama will visit Britain later this month on the heels of a summit in London between the Chinese and British premiers, the exiled Tibetan leader's office said.

But his office said the Dalai Lama does not have a meeting scheduled with Prime Minister Tony Blair , who said Monday he discussed human rights among other issues with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. "

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Times of Tibet Dalai Lama to visit Britain on heels of Chinese PM:

China Admits Girl shortage a "Major Threat"

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"BEIJING, May 11, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Chinese government officials admitted Monday that an enormous problem has been created by their one-child policy.

Currently there are 117 boys for every 100 girls in China -- 13 million more boys than girls under the age of nine. The Chinese have traditionally favoured boys over girls, because a man can better take care of the parents in their old age, as well as carry on the family name. This custom has led to unbridled female infanticide and the selective abortion of female children.

With a continuation of the current policy, by 2020, the gender discrepancy will be as high as 40 million more men than women. "

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China Admits its Girl Shortage Caused by One Child Policy is a "Major Threat":

Head of Chinese chemical firm resigns in water pollution case

Things we like to hear about!

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"The president of a chemical company in southwest China has resigned after waste from his plant polluted the water source of a million people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xie Muxi, president of Sichuan Chemicals Group, 'neglected his supervisory duties' and will apologize to those affected by the spewing of nitrogen and ammonia into a major tributary of China's longest river, the Yangtze, the agency said in a report dated Saturday."

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ENN News Story - Head of Chinese chemical firm resigns in water pollution case:

Thanks to Radio Free China for lead (See Blogroll)

"Paved paradise ..put up a parking lot"

Ranking high on the things I abhor most is the demeaning of a culture by way of packaging it for the consumption of the tourist market.

Australian aborigines selling "boomerangs" manufactured in China, Navajo Indians selling bows and arrows, The list goes on.

The thought of tourists viewing a "culture" for pure hedonistic pleasure rather than to learn and to stand in awe of the history of a people is anathema to me.

So I feel a degree of sadness when I read articles such as the one I link to here.

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"Other culture hotels that have been developed include the Islamic-style Silk Road Turpan Oasis Hotel in Xinjiang with its strong Uygur flavour; the Tibetan-style Silk Road Tsongkha Hotel near the Taer Monastery in Qinghai."

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The article is about one Hong Kong entrepreneur a Mr Peter M.K. Wong, managing director of North West Development Ltd, who gleefully reveals the plans his company has for Xinjiang and Tibet:

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Its scope of business includes the development and management of hotels, including the development of "cultural hotels"; cultural property development; the sale and marketing of cultural products; and the operation of tour services.

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It would appear that his company was behind the idea of converting the centuries old central Uygur bazaar in Urumqi the capital of Xinjiang and replacing it with the equivalent of a "themed" shopping mall. The renovation of the area has been universally condemned by the Uygur people as the equivalent of sacrilege against their culture. As well, the traditional users of this bazaar, small Uygur tradesman, artisans,street hawkers, farmers etc have been shunted on with numerous stories of police harassment. Our wonderful entrepreneur sees the funny side though:

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A local developer was found for the project, dubbed the Erdaoqiao Cultural Region. It is now a centre of attraction in the city with Central Asia-type grand bazaars and caravanserai, albeit with Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds and Carrefour also present. "That's what I call cultural exchange," quips Wong.

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"'That's what I call cultural exchange'" quips Wong".

That is what I call cultural RAPE.

How demeaning to package up a culture like that of the Uygurs and Tibetans into something akin to a human zoo with performing seals and monkeys replaced by real people. A people and culture that once ruled mighty empires now reduced to a sideshow for visiting newly weds and and bussed in foreign tourists. "Hey Mable look at Jim's and my pictures of our holiday to China, see there ...that is a real Uygur in a real 'bazaar' in Urumqi". How very very sad.

Already the Chinese government has it's happy "Cultural groups" that it trots out at ceremonial occasions and for visiting dignitaries; Dancing Uygurs and Tibetans, Uygur acrobats et al. Now they can be taken to a 5 star "Islamic" designed Hotel and enjoy the "culture" of these unique peoples up live and personal

Who can wonder why the Uygur claim they are being subjected to "cultural genocide and who says the Han Chinese are not a culturally sensitive lot?

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China Daily:

China's Tibet Policy -

For those looking for a quick overview of China's historical relationship with Tibet you can look no further tha the linked article which is a review of a new book entitled China's Tibet Policy by author Dawa Norbu .

Covering the period from the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) to the present it deals with various eras and how successful the relationship between the two were in those eras compared to today.


The book reviewer claims that:

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Most Confucian and Inner Asian societies, which historically engaged in tribute relations with China, have graduated from dependency to independence, but “Tibet alone remains one of those vanished and failed states.” (p.5) More than 40 years after establishing direct rule over Tibet, China faces a never-ending “crisis of legitimacy” with ordinary Tibetans, much more than with smaller national minorities like the Uighurs and the Mongols

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I do not know if the author meant "other" smaller national minorities rather than simple "smaller nationalities" because the Uygur in China outnumber the Tibetans by about 2 million. I would also have issues with the assertion that China's "crisis of legitimacy" with the Tibetans is any more or less than the Uygur but I suppose that is a matter of personal opinion.

That aside as a quick history of the Han Chinese and Tibetan historical relationship it is a very good "5 Minute" guide.

China's Tibet Policy - www.phayul.com

Are they Just Learning This?

Safeguarding environment:

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"One of the most important lessons drawn from the experiences of developed countries is that the environment is a frequent victim to economic growth. We should have been aware of its harmful aftermath. "

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More care for work safety:

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"To achieve safe production, it is important for relevant government departments to strengthen supervision and management. And an accountability system for relevant officials should be established. At the same time, open information to the public, widespread education to raise their awareness and supervision from the public are also important."

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China and Islam in Xinjiang -

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"China's policy is to take Islam away from the children and replace it with desire – desire for wealth, desire for love in a "non-traditional" sense, and desire to assimilate into the nation as a whole." ..."desire in Xinjiang is combined with a healthy fear of prison and death at the hands of the PSB."

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So says the author of the linked article about the situation of the Uyghur people on China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region particularly as it relates to laws on children and religion.

In a relatively short article the author explores the current situation of the Uygur and Islam in Xinjiang with examples from two Uygur cities Kashgar (Kashi) and Hotan (Khotan). His descriptions are quite valid in most respects but I was at a loss to understand the analogy he attempted to draw between the Uygur and the "Black Panther" group of the United States and ergo China's and America's respective responses to both groups.

He then ends with a paragraph right out of left field and it left me wondering how we got from Hotan to:

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America's policy is purely to conquer in the classical sense – to replace Islam with fear and submission. Both nations intend to destroy the religion and plunder the resources – but what China has in its favor is that Xinjiang lies within its borders.

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That aside a good little glimpse into life in Xinjiang.

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China and Islam in the Northwest Chinese Region - by Sascha Matuszak

China Letter News Digest

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on every one.

TheStar.com - `Ordinary as daylight': "The Dalai Lama is revered as a successor to Gandhi, or dismissed as a 'hot tub' guru of a disillusioned generation Thousands tur"


The Tibetan Photo Project
For anyone intersted in Tibet can I highly recommend the Tibetan Photo project.

The website has a number of photo galleries offering some excellent glimpses into Tibetan life.


TheStar.com - A meeting with the Dalai Lama: "And he believes he will one day return to Tibet, claiming the Chinese communist regime is slowly changing. However, he adds: 'We hope for the best; we prepare for the worst.'"

The Globe and Mail:Giggle like the Dalai Lama : "It boasts the population base, it is developing the economic base and it possesses the military power, particularly nuclear weaponry.
'Now what [it] really needs, what's really missing, is the moral authority.'"

"About 50 pro-Tibet and Falun Gong campaigners gathered opposite the Chinese embassy in London as China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao arrived in the U.K. for a three-day visit. "

Though they blame poor public itinerary announcements of the visit to London of Premier Wen Jiabao the poor turnout to "greet" him must say something of the health of the anti-China protest movement generally in England.


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Bloomberg.com: Asia:

Changes At Blogger

Really love the new changes they made at Blogger.com. It is now much easier to write and edit those longer posts. Just wish they would update their spell checker.

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Mao's promised land ends in sweated labour

"Overworked, underpaid and about to lose his job, Huang Zungkun must wonder how the socialist revolution in China ended up creating one of the world's most ruthlessly capitalist states. "

An excellent article on labour conditions and how the economic boom in China is far from a pot of gold for China's "Coolie Class"

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The Observer | International | Mao's promised land ends in sweated labour:

Do you know where the Cook Is are? China Does

The following story is self explanatory. Draw your own conclusions.

"Signals carrying a television expose on how HIV/AIDS was spread in China by corrupt officials were abruptly cut mid-programme in the Cook Islands last night.
China is the Cook Islands' second largest aid donor.
Footage showed blood donors in China lying in a dirty brick room with earth floors, IV lines leading to an open and nearly full bucket in the middle of the room.
Soon after that image screened, the programme faded to static - perhaps video static - and another, unrelated, show appeared. Then another.
There was no answer to calls at Cook Islands Television."

Technical hitch?

Scoop: Cook IslandsTV Cuts Off Aids In China Expose: "AVARUA, Rarotonga (JB/Pacific Media Watch):

"The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) announces an Issues Roundtable entitled: 'Practicing Islam in Today's China: Differing Realities for the Uighurs and the Hui'

"According to government statistics, China has over 20 million Muslims, over 40,000 Islamic places of worship, and over 45,000 imams. Islam is an officially sanctioned religion, and Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution nominally ensures freedom of religious belief and 'normal religious activity' for Muslims in China. Reports regularly surface, however, of government-imposed restrictions on Muslim religious activities. According to these reports, Chinese officials censor the sermons delivered by imams, limit the ability of Muslim communities to build mosques, and discourage Muslims from wearing religious attire. Chinese government policy also prohibits teaching Islam to those under 18 years old.

The Uighurs and the Hui, China's dominant Muslim groups, have distinct ethnic, cultural, and historical backgrounds, and Chinese authorities treat the two groups differently. The Uighurs, who are of Turkic descent, face harsh religious restrictions and repression, since Chinese authorities associate the group with separatism and terrorism in western China. The Hui, who are related ethnically to the Han Chinese majority, enjoy greater freedom to practice Islam than Uighur Muslims."

So reads the intro to the terms of reference for a Congressional Roundtable on the practice of Islam in China.

Xinjiang home to the majority of Uygur Muslims has reportedly some 23,000 mosques, servicing not only the Uygur but the Hui, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and the other Muslim minorities, and is the predominate Muslim area in China.

As the terms of reference for the Congressional Roundtable allude there is much discrimination as to how the Uygur Muslims are treated compared to that of the other ethnic Muslim groups such as the Hui Muslims.

One example, and one that grates hard on the Uygur, is the general law in China forbidding those under 18 from participating in religious observance in public places of worship. The official reason given for this rule is that the youth of China should be concentrating on their secular education at that age not their religious. As freedom of religion goes this rule alone does not place China high on the scale of religious freedom, however, if it were universally enforced, one could at least accept it. This is not the case howver.

This rule is strictly enforced with the Uygur, signs on doors are everywhere in Uygur mosques in Xinjiang. The Hui, however, do not seem to have this rule enforced at all by officials from the religious departments.

In conversation with Hui Muslims in China I am told that boys under 18 regularly attend services and that even Communist Youth members openly participate. When I ask why this rule is different for the Uygur, those Hui Muslims I have spoken to in effect shrug their shoulders and say that "the Uygur are different" without any elaboration.

People often talk about a Muslim brotherhood but this is far from the case in Xinjiang. There is open dislike between differing ethnic groups even if when they share the same Islamic religion. An Uygur , for example, would not go to a Hui mosque and vice versa.

The Uygur are also discriminated against in the religious books they can buy and read. Islamic religious books in the Kazakh language or Chinese for example which are openly sold are banned from sale if they are in the Uygur language.

Uygur Muslims clerics are also more rigorously controlled and regulated than their Hui counterparts.

The apparent reason for this obvious example of discrimination is that the Han Chinese believe that Uygur mosques have been traditional hotbeds of "separatist" ideology and activity and therefore represent a threat to the state. The Chinese constitution does guarantee freedom of religion but it also specifically has a rider that negates this guarantee if religious activity is considered detrimental to the welfare of the State which obviously in the case of the Uygur they think that it does.

The Uygur on the other hand believe that these regulations and discrimination are methods utilised by the Han to erode the culture of the Uygur and speed up the process of assimilation. They claim that by rigorously enforcing the Under 18 rule, for example, that the state is attempting to break the nexus between youth, religion and Uygur culture and therefore make Uygur youth more amenable to Han influence and control.

Another area of discrimination which is quite blatant is freedom of travel to Mecca. China often cites as proof of her largess the number of Muslims that are allowed to visit Mecca each year. As most will know the Islamic religion requires each Muslim to make one pilgimage to Mecca in their lifetime if at all possible. A visit to Mecca therefore is of great importance and significance to Muslim followers. What the Chinese Government fails to say in the recitation of the numbers of Chinese Muslims allowed to visit Mecca is the percentage which is Uygur. The fact is that it is very small indeed when compared to the relative size of the Uygur Muslim population vis a vis the other Muslim ethnic minorities.

The Uygur are relatively secular when it comes to religion. Being Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi School they are recognised as practicing the most moderate form of Islam in the Muslim world. Uygur woman do not generally practice Hijab prefering more western style attire and the use of alcohol whilst frowned upon is not totally denied them. Having said that however religion is as important to them as it would be for a western Christian and they deserve the right to practice it as they deem fit or, at the very least, with the same degrees of freedom afforded other Muslims in China.

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East Turkestan�:

Xinjiang: "Uygur Mecca"

"The Chinese say Xinjiang has belonged to them since ancient times, when local Turkic and Mongol chieftains gave handicrafts to the Emperor as tribute. Though they built garrisons in the western regions as early as the first century AD, the Chinese didn't attempt to govern the area until the 18th century. Fifty years ago, few Chinese lived in Xinjiang. Today, they outnumber the Uighurs."

A travellers look at Xinjinag.

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FT.com / Arts & Weekend/ Travel:

Tibet infrastructure Investment

The linked article at China View provides an impressive list of recent years infrastructure investment in Tibet by the Central Government.

I have to smile at the predictability of the Chinese. Whenever something hits the international press like the recent trip by the Dalai Lama to Canada and the Tibetan Hunger Strike in New York up will pop what I refer to as a "justification piece" an article such as this or a "White Paper" painting a picture of the benefits the Han Chinese bring to the likes of the Tibetans or Uygurs or whichever ethnic or religious minority happens to be in the news at the time.

There is no doubt that the Han Chinese have brought positive changes to Tibet. The Dalai Lama himself has openly acknowledged the economic benefits union with China affords Tibet.

But as many people who have spent a reasonable amount of time on this earth will attest happiness is more than just economics. It is an amalgam of many things: peace, freedoms of association and religion, freedom from fear to name but a few. Television reception is great if you can pick up something other than state run propaganda for example.

Economics however is no doubt a major component. It is hard to be truly happy, I would hazard a guess, if you and your family are starving for example. But it is much more than just that. China is helping Tibet in regard to economics and infrastructure but does it counterbalance where Han policies negatively impact in other areas?

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:: Xinhuanet - English ::

"'It is necessary to step up inspection on implementation of the Party line, relevant policies, state laws and regulations, as well as correctly deal with cases where laws are not strictly followed or not abided by.'"

Wu Guangzhen Secretary of the Politburo Standing Committee's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reportedly made this comment to party officials during a tour of Guizhou province this week in what can be seen as a "toe the line" message.

It would appear that the CCP is genuinely attempting to bring greater accountability to bear upon the rank and file of CCP party membership and government officialdom through messages such as this. Combined with the current push to make the concept "personal responsibilty" an accepted code of practice among government employees and industry generally reinforcement of the "Rule of Law" principle among cadres can only be beneficial.

Lack of accountability, responsibility and oversight are major contributing factors in much of the corruption and abuse of power that occurs within China's officialdom. Any concerted efforts in this direction can only have positive effects upon the human rights situation within China despite the fact that the "Rule of Law" does not necessarily translate in all cases into greater fredom and protection of "human rights" as we understand them in the west.

A drive along these lines also has the effect of strengthening central government power and control especially over maverick or more liberal elements of the CCP. It is certainly another sign of the "new" leadership wishing to assert it's leadership and consolidate it's position within the CCP.

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Chinese cadres told not to shirk work - (United Press International):

"In Italy, Europe and across the globe, Chinese are courted everywhere, hoping to get a small slice of China’s 400 billon dollars in foreign investments and currency reserves. And the Chinese are amazed, too, yet fearful about such changes of fortune. Such changes represent a Copernican revolution with respect to the past, when China begged for aid and Western investment."

So said an Italian journalist on the eve of the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao to Italy. The author argues that Italy and Europe have to seriously re-think attitudes and policies towards China given not only China's new found economic strength but also her increasing role and influence in Asian and Central Asian affairs.

In the words of the author European views of the 'new China"

"require a deep moral examination and honest evaluation of our current industrial system.."

What I believe him to mean is that Europe does not have the experience of the United States in dealing with China and does not have in place the checks and balances that America has.

I think this is true of many nations of the world. Dealing with China today is not only about economics, the simple “inking” of deals, it has also has to be about moral and ethical considerations and very importantly long term strategic considerations.

The article I link to gives as example small matters of corporate ethics that taken in isolation could be considered of little significance but when viewed in the overall scheme of things can be of major importance.

Such things as building into a contract with the Chinese government or Chinese companies that they must supply a worker's canteen or demanding that worker accommodation be supplied where only four people share a room not hundreds.

These things are small in themselves but can work to raise not only the quality of working conditions for those directly involved but also raise worker expectations and ultimately conditions for all Chinese workers. Such contractual demands or requirements work to condition the Chinese government and Chinese employers to move away from their "coolie mentality" regarding the working class as very much evidenced by their treatnment of "migrant" workers.

It is ironic is it not that foreign "Capital" is being asked to act as de facto "worker's unions" for Chinese "Labour" in a Communist/Socialist state but these are some of the things that need to happen in each and every dealing with China.


From Cockiness to Threat?

I do not know if I am the only one feeling it but as I mentioned in a previous post the Chinese leadership is allowing a degree of cockiness to enter their public demeanour of late. They appear to me as if they are feeling their muscles, testing their strength and beginning to revel in the results.

The author of the article in question must be sensing something similar when he makes comment about the recent Hong Kong democracy issue:

China’s new status makes it extremely strong. And for this very reason, international public opinion tends to overlook Hong Kong’s problems. Hong Kong's main problem now is that it will not be able to directly elect its "Chief Executive" (president) as hoped for by 2007. In a different day and age, such an announcement by Beijing would have sparked a chorus of protests around the globe. Today, however, one sees hardly a ripple in the waters of international political debate.

And therein lays the worry. It has been said by many commentators that there is a direct link between the strength of the Chinese economy and the strength of the Chinese Communist Party and that a strong CCP is not kind to either it’s people or it’s foes. Paradoxically when the CCP is feeling the most vulnerable is when it is the most “kind” to it’s people.

The recent events in Hong Kong prove just how newly confident and strong the CCP feels in the world and just how acquiescent that world has become in light of China’s ‘Peaceful rising” and new found economic clout.

China is feeling strong, China is feeling confident, of that there can be little doubt. Just watch and hear her leaders strut the foreign stage, see the never ending stream, nay river, of foreign countries and companies knocking on her door. Only today for example I read with some incredulity that the German Chancellor has paid five visits to China so far during his term in office.

China is also developing a list of client states throughout Asia, Central Asia, Africa and the middle east in a manner that is almost textbook Soviet style cold war diplomacy but without, at this stage, the arms supplying.

She has become an important linchpin go between with one of the member states of the “Axis of Evil” North Korea.

A confident, strong Chinese Communist Party that feels immune to what world thinks about her is really a worry for her people and, without trying to be alarmist, should be a worry for the world.

I am not advocating that we do not trade or invest, quite the contrary, but I am advocating that a) We use whatever bargaining power we have, whilst we still have it, to effect change in China particularly as it concerns human rights and, b) that we do not allow a potential bully boy to rise in the playground and then bemoan the fact latter on.

We really have to stop thinking with our wallets and start thinking with our brains again.

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>>> AsiaNews.it <<< China's power, Europe's weakness

"Chinese Premier asks EU not to link human rights to trade "Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told top European Union officials they are making an economic mistake to link progress in human rights to lifting a 15-year arms embargo and the official recognition of China as a market economy."

In a joint news conference with European Commission President Romano Prodi to wrap up a two day visit to the EU headquarters the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao used the lure of potential economic windfalls in an attempt to have the EU divorce human rights issues from economic ones in it's decision making process.

Continuing a degree of cockiness that has crept into Chinese leaders' statements of late Wen told the news conference that

"Many countries have shown a keen interest in resolving these two issues. As to the specific benefits you will get, they are self-evident,''

Wen's current visit to Europe has as a prime objective the obtaining of European Union (EU) approval of China's market economy status within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the dropping of the ban on arms trade.

The EU arms embargo was imposed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.

France and Germany are pushing hard for the lifting of the embargo but hopefully it appears that the rest of the Union will not be swayed so quickly.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre and despite many positive changes since then in China's human rights condition, and a generational change in leadership, fundamentally the ideology that caused Tiananmen remains very much in place. To lift the arms embargo will be nothing less than a "sell out" to the principles that brought about it's implementation in the first place and to the memory of those that died and suffered as a result of the Tiananmen massacre.

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:

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on every one.


China increases its poverty relief budget - (United Press International): "China's central government increased its budget Sunday for poverty relief programs by nearly $100 million to $1.48 billion for this year."

National Post-Dalai Lama ends visit to Toronto, wows thousands at final ceremony The Dalai Lama bid farewell to thousands of followers Wednesday as he wrapped up more than two weeks of public appearances in Canada by completing an initiation ceremony into the spiritual practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

Channelnewsasia.com Canadian parliament begins probe of China's human rights record

Sewage spill causes massive fish losses: "Sewage allegedly discharged by local plants have killed huge amounts of aquatic life- an estimated 60,000 kilograms of fish - in the Wenjiang section of the Tuojiang River in Zizhong County in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, local environmental officials said. "

China Business Strategy Daily News|East China Electricity Shortage Worsens: "China's electrical power demands have increased, and the areas affected by blackouts will be larger than in 2003. The situation has become so serious that eastern China will have electrical power shortages the year round, instead of just in the summer."

China's Dammed Yangtze River Is a Cesspool of Sewage, Poison: "Reservoirs are becoming sewers, filled with trash and smelly water. Local officials refuse to shut down polluting factories, fearful that unemployment will rise. Edicts from Beijing on controlling industrial waste go unheeded. "

Times of Tibet Non-Violence And Non-Action


Quote From Mao

Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.

"Combat Liberalism" (September 7, 1937), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 31-32


China Fact

China is confronted with a grave challenge to supply drinking water to one fifth of the world's population with just 8 per cent of the total 'freshwater' (i.e. polluted) resources.

"Let's stop abetting dictatorship in Beijing"

My primary interest, as regular readers of this blog may have gleaned, is the Uygur people of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China’s northwest.

I “came” to the Uygur through an Internet “pen pal” friendship with a young Uygur girl from Urumqi the capital of XUAR. We started chatting and I started learning.

She did not ask much about my country, Australia, though it was obvious she knew little about it, come to think of it she did not ask very much more about me above the basics either. She was just excited I guess to be talking to a “westerner” and honing her language skills.

Now I am a reasonably educated and consider myself an informed person. I have always read newspapers and kept up to date with what was going on in the world. Well, at least so I thought before striking up this friendship.

When I started chatting with this Uygur girl I realised I knew nothing of Uygurs, quite frankly I had never even heard of them. I had a general understanding of the history of Central Asia, but ask me whether there were Turkic peoples in China and I would have looked at you askance.

So out of respect for my new found friend I started to do some research on these “Eye- gers” (pronounced Wee-Gurrs as I was later to find out) people . Now, as a result I run a website devoted to them, am involved in cyber-activism to a degree, and I author this blog.

What I am trying to get at, in a round about way I suppose, is that whilst this blog is called China Letter it originally started life as the Uygur Letter but as you learn about the Uygur you can not help learning of the interaction of Han Chinese and Uygur in the last 2,000 odd years. In doing so you learn of the policies of the Han Chinese toward the Uygur and the consequence of them.

So, by progression, I started to learn about China to understand why the Han Chinese have done as they have done toward the Uygur. Then I learnt about general human rights conditions in China and, by what in retrospect seems a natural progression, started a blog. A blog commentating on human rights in China generally.

I recount this story merely as background because I have “come” to China quite late in life without perhaps pre conceived ideas about China or her place in the world. I had not been inculcated with any particular brand of thought from University or life’s experience. For 45 years of my life China was just China, good bad and indifferent.

So over the last year or two every morning I crank up the “news aggregator’ to see what is happening, visits some of my favourite news and opinion sites, look at the Uygur and Tibetan chatrooms and message boards and start formulating my daily thinking on this enigma China.

I have read some horrible stories and I have heard some horrific tales since I “came” to China. Death, disease, torture, imprisonment, starvation you name it in studying China you will see it. I am particularly haunted I am not afraid to say by a particular picture of a row of Uygurs kneeling in the mud in some forlorn field, hands tied behind their backs awaiting the Chinese soldiers’ bullets to the back of their heads; their faces, their eyes....

But in some strange way I can accept it all. I do not dwell on where the Chinese have been I look rather positively as to where they can go. I get excited when I hear of the announcement of some new law that is a positive for human rights and just as quickly I tear hair at some new failure some “backsliding” to use the US State department’s recent addition to Sino-terminology.

But with all this what makes me cringe the most is not the horrendous stories or pictures, shocking as they are. What makes me cringe the most, and I will have to consult the thesaurus for a word stronger than “cringe” that better describes my feelings, is to see the never ending queue of smiling diplomats of the “free world” parading in the Chinese Halls of Government, to read the self congratulatory news article about some new trade deal or whatever.

“Free world” politicians, “our” leaders “our” captains of industry “our “ respected public corporations walking (or grovelling it appears most time) into Beijing day in and day out as if the world has never seen it brighter. “Yes Mr president I believe in the one and indivisible China! Yes Mr premier those Uygur terrorists tsk! Tsk!. Taiwan? We support “one China” of course!” Human Rights? Yes you are doing terribly well there! Dalai Lama ? On my life I promise I will never entertain THAT person! Now can we have that trade deal please.....?

I can see them in my minds eye now retiring to their hotel rooms or embassy apartments pulling off their ties, sipping their champagne and slapping themselves heartily on the back, laughing about and recalling their day’s “success” whilst, in the real world, China’s people suffer so badly.

To a degree I can understand the Chinese. What they do is incredibly wrong but perhaps like a child you can somehow accept their failings to a degree in the belief that they will “grow up” and eventually take their position as a “responsible person” in an adult world. But how do you explain away the actions of the “free world”? My “free world” your “free world”? Products of enlightened education and democracy. How do you justify their “blindness”, their avarice, their lack of sympathy or even empathy and their apparent total lack of humanity?

Surly these diplomats, these politicians, these captains of industry can see what I see? As I have related I “came” to China by accident rather than design. I am no Rhodes Scholar or Harvard man. I have not got access to teams of experts to advise me. Why can they not see? Or do they see and choose to ignore?

This rather long winded piece was by way of introduction to an excellent article that really struck a chord with me (as you may no doubt have guessed). It is by Bruce Gilley a doctoral student in politics at Princeton University and the author of "China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead."

The paragraph that got me going is as follows

"The Bush administration should be commended for bringing the cause of democracy back into focus in its international relations in general and its China policy in particular. But it cannot lead where others will not follow. And it is the failure of the domestic and international community to take the cause of democracy in China seriously that is at present helping to sustain tyranny there. Fifteen years after the crushing of the Tiananmen movement, this is one of the great moral failures of our time."

“But It can not lead where others will not follow” How very true, just look at the United States’ resolution concerning China’s Human Rights violations at the recent United Nations Human Rights Conference in Geneva. The likes of Australia, New Zealand Great Britain and untold other countries wished to hell that the U.S would not even have raised it because it required them to make a decision between supporting their ally or their wallets.

"Fifteen years after the crushing of the Tiananmen movement, this is one of the great moral failures of our time." The clarity and truth of this statement is just so obvious.

“And it is the failure of the domestic and international community to take the cause of democracy in China seriously that is at present helping to sustain tyranny there.”

Again how very true. One would have thought a self evident truth but “our” people do not seem to see it, or worse, see it and choose to ignore it.

Some other quotes from this excellent article

“...perhaps more worrying, the world appears inclined to actually support the Chinese Communist Party, rather than merely tolerate it.”

“Worrying” is not the word I would have chosen, it is more than “worrying” it is down right scary.

“China has become an issue for economists and technocrats rather than democrats.”

A precise and concise analysis. The humanitarians and democrats seem to “have left the building” where China is concerned.

Two Reasons..


The author looks at the two much touted reasons, or excuses as he more correctly calls them, for inaction by the “free world”. One is that China's people are not interested in democracy or freedoms and the second excuse is that democracy might make China internally unstable or externally aggressive.

With regard to the second “excuse” the author states

“Changes are afoot in China in any case. Besides brute repression, the Communist Party is today propped up by urban economic growth and ugly nationalism. These are not enough to sustain it in the long term. An increasingly sophisticated and complex society will some day demand political choices, choices that the enlightened reformers in the regime will be forced to grant.

He goes on to gives a reason why the “free world” should maintain pressure and a prediction at the ultimate results if we do not.

"But foreign governments who encourage the Communists to make changes now would be helping foster a smoother and faster democratisation. By delaying reform, we raise the chances of a tumultuous popular overthrow".

Through our inaction and shortsightednesss in allowing the Chinese Communist Party to feel self satisfied with it’s position in the world, if, and when the Tumult comes it will be far uglier and far more disruptive to the world than any results of pressure we apply now. A steep cliff is easier to traverse then a sheer drop.

Gilleys’ concluding recommendations are equally succinct

“Make summitry with Chinese leaders contingent on progress in political reforms, such as an expansion of local elections or the legalisation of opposition parties. Devise disclosure standards for companies that invest in China, so they would report on their activities in encouraging worker organisation and rights awareness. Encourage universities and think-tanks to re-engage the issue of democracy in China.
Not least, engage local leaders and people - especially women - in China on the issue of democracy and rights.

This is the least we can do to stop abetting dictatorship in China”.

An excellent article.


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IHT: Let's stop abetting dictatorship in Beijing:

China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang has now become a hot spot for the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus, second only to Yunnan Province near the infamous Golden Triangle drug-producing region, RFA’s Uygur service reports.

At the end of 2003, there were 8,150 patients infected by HIV/AIDS virus, with 180 of showing the symptoms of full-blown AIDS. Around 98 percent of the patients infected were drug users.

The study also found that the majority of Uygurs were unaware of high infection rates within their own community and lacked access to information on how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

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Radio Free Asia

"With startling frequency, little boys who go outside to play here don't come back. They are snatched, spirited across China, sold and resold."

According to the linked report, in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province southern China some 215 children have gone missing in the last four years at the hands, it would appear, of organised groups that are kidnapping small boys to "demand" to satisfy customers desperate for a male heir to sustain family lineage.

The report puts this kidnapping down to two factors, one being China,'s "one-child" policy which frustrates many couples eager to have a male heir and the other to social traditions where many Chinese apparently feel that the family tree continues only with males.

In Kunming, boys are reportedly worth $360 to $425 at "point of sale". "Some kids have been sold 13 times" by the time they reach their ultimate buyer, the newspaper said. By then, the price can be as much as 20,000 Chinese yuan, or about $2,400". the article states.

Apparently the local police pay little attention to this traffic in human beings reportedly because most of the victims come from migrant families, who occupy the lowest rung on China's social ladder."When we report this to the police, they say, `You've still got another child. Don't worry about it,'" said Jin Cuihua, who lost her 6-year-old boy on Jan. 5.

If true, and I really have no reason to doubt it given the many negatives attributed to China's "one child" policy, it is just a further indictment of a government that allows gross mistreatment of it's migrant population which is estimated to be as large as 120 million.



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KRT Wire | 05/04/2004 | China's boys stolen and sold, police ignore grieving parents:

The following disturbing though unverified news report comes via way of the excellent Radio Free China Blog run by Brother Barnabas.

On April 1st, 2004, Chinese police ransacked the home of Ms. Huang Zhao and her husband, stealing valuables and detaining the couple who both practice Falun Gong.

Two weeks later, Huang was dead.

Witnesses say by the second day of her detention, Huang had been severely beaten and could no longer walk. Because she refused to renounce her beliefs, on April 4th Huang was transferred to the No.1 Branch of Wuhan City Police (the local 6-10 Office) where she was tortured further.

Huang died at 3 a.m. on April 16th at the Wuhan City No. 3 Hospital.

Sources familiar with Huang's case say local police are monitoring Huang's family members and the hospital where she died to ensure information about her death is not made public. Everyone walking in and out of Huang's residential building is questioned, they say.

Huang's husband, Liu Ning, was also beaten and tortured after being detained, but he was later released to his family. When Liu visited his mother-in-law to enquire about his wife's whereabouts, he was arrested again.

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FalunInfo.Net - 31-year-old Woman Beaten to Death for Falun Gong Practice

"In the first 11 months of 2003, 30, 823 corruption and bribery cases were filed for investigation and prosecution, a drop of 2.2 percent over the same period in 2002, involving 33,666 suspects, according to figures released Thursday by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP)."

Well it does not necessarily hold true that less cases prosecuted means less corruption despite what Zhao Dengju, deputy procurator-general of the SPP claims is " thanks to the improvement of legal system and the nation's anti-corruption efforts."

There can be no doubt however that some of the high profile people prosecuted of late has sent shockwaves through the Chinese bureaucracy. People like former Party secretaries of Hebei and Guizhou provinces, Cheng Weigao and Liu Fangren, former Yunnan Governor Li Jiating, former Anhui vice-governor Wang Huaizhong, and former Minister of Land and Natural Resources Tian Fengshan perhaps thought that their positions shielded them from scrutiny.

Let us hope that, as Zhao Dengju believes, less cases is truly indicative of less official corruption


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Corruption cases drop in 2003:

Tibetan Hunger Strike Ends

"New York, May 3 - The Tibetan Youth Congress called off its indefinite hunger strike at the United Nations on May 3, 2004, following a visit by UN Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie at the hunger strike venue at 4:30 pm. She assured the hunger strikers that the relevant UN organs would follow up on the concerns expressed by the hunger strikers. "

The UN Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie's visit to the Tibetan enclave outside the U.N. building in New York and her assurances that the protester's message had been received, loud and clear at the UN was enough for the remaining two hunger strikers to end their 32 day protest.

Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie is seen above enjoying a milk drink with two remaining strikers the first food that has passed their lips since April 2 when in the company of Ms Choepal they commenced their protest to draw attention to what they considered to be the UN's lack of attention to the situation in Tibet. Ms Choepal was forced to leave the hunger strike last Friday when after collapsing she was taken to a local hospital. She was subsequently released on Monday and is reported as being in a good condition.

Originally the strikers has stated that they would continue their strike indefinitely until they were visited personally by the U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan it would seem however that the visit by Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie on the personal instruction of the General Secretary was enough to satisfy their "demands".

Despite general world wide support for the hunger strikers from the Tibetan diaspora community some Tibetans felt that such an action was doomed to failure and that "hunger strikes" were not the way for Tibet to gain freedom from Chinese oppression.

Whilst stopping short of advocating violence as a means of achieving their goals some Tibetans expressed the opinion that protests such as hunger strikes are a thing of the past and stronger action is required.

The Dalai Lama the Tibetan spiritual leader has publicly stated that an independent Tibet is no longer one of his objectives and that Tibet and Tibetans could gain much economically from Chinese involvement in Tibet. The objective now he believes is to save the Tibetan culture and improve the lot of the Tibetan peoples.

This stance obviously has created a divide among Tibetans with some maintaining that a totally free Tibet is the only outcome they are willing to accept

Like the Uygurs of Xinjiang, the Tibetans must face up to the reality that the Chinese are there to stay. Strategically and economically both regions are just far to important to the Chinese state. The Tibetans goal like that of the Uygur should realistically be to strive for a degree of autonomy and self determination within the Chinese state and to try to maintain their unique cultures from fading into history.

Regardless I can not help but admiring the peaceful protest undertaken by these three Tibetans, none of whom, incidently, have ever seen their beloved "homeland". In these days of terrorist outrages and suicide bombers the "Ghandi" like demeanour and courage of these three young people was something to truly cherish.

In the scheme of things they have not achieved much but sometimes the embers need a little poke to keep them alive and for the Tibetan community and the world generally these brave people provided just that.

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Tibetan Youth Congress Calls off Hunger Strike - www.phayul.com:

China letter News Digest May 4 AEST

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on every one.


1.33 million Chinese couples divorce last year: "China has more than 1.33 million couples say goodbye last year, with an increase of 154,000 cases than the previous year, according to a recent report issued by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA). "


Reporters sans frontires - China - 2004 Annual Report: "The passing of power into the hands of a fourth generation of communists leaders, headed by President Hu Jintao, had little impact on press freedom in 2003. The authorities launched a massive reform of the media sector but control over the content of news remained the rule."

Rural trend of abandoning babies spreads to the cities : "Officials are reluctant to discuss the problem, but experts have estimated that between 20,000 and 100,000 babies are abandoned every year."

Henan using traditional medicines to fight AIDS
: "Central China's Henan Province, which reported the biggest number of HIV/AIDS patients in China, will kick off a new campaign next month to fight against these afflictions with traditional Chinese medicines."

Life & Leisure News Article | Reuters.com: "'Unemployment, healthcare, pensions. If I had to put them in order of importance, I'd say the biggest difficulty we face at the moment is unemployment,' said Yi, vice director of the Guangdong Labor and Social Security Bureau. "

In lonely northwestern China, stalwarts wage a quixotic fight against the desert
: "The children scramble up the hill on bare feet, leaving their village behind and kicking dust clouds in their wake. Licking cracked lips, they squint at the only ocean they have ever known the undulating sand that creeps silently toward their doors."

China Letter News Digest

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on each one.


Daily Times - Site Edition: "BEIJING The border between Pakistan and China for land route trade through the Karakorum Highway (Xinjiang) will be reopened next week. "

Premier Wen begins official visit to Germany: "Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in the southern city of Munich Sunday on a three-day official visit to Germany. This is Wen's first visit to Europe since he took office more than one year ago. "

The Australian: Dalai Lama urges positive spin [May 03, 2004]: "'I think that many people live under the impression that the world is getting worse,' he said. 'I do not agree with that. My feeling is that during the last century, the world has become a much better place.'"

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Let Us Pray

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Let Freedom Ring? Not So Fast. China's Still China.: "The leadership team headed by the president and party chief Hu Jintao that many hoped would tolerate more open debate has instead slapped new restrictions on free speech and the press that some say remind them of the repressive years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown."

RADIO AUSTRALIAMedia monitoring group Reporters Without Borders has described Asia as "the world's biggest prison for the press", with 200 journalists jailed, three condemned to death and 16 murdered in the last year

"Now, the traditional identity of the Muslims is under siege. Their historic streets are being demolished to make room for Chinese shopping malls. Their language and culture are eroding under a tide of newcomers from China's Han majority. Hundreds of mosques still survive, but they are tightly controlled and monitored. Thousands of Muslims have been arrested as suspected terrorists, and hundreds have been executed."

An excerpt from an excellent article looking at the current situation of the Uygur of Xinjiang and particularly Kashgar and the effects of Chinese policy on their culture and religion.

As the author rightly points out that "Here, however, Islam has collided with the ruthless methods of the world's biggest Communist state -- and the state is winning."

But it is a little unfortunate that the author puts such a major emphasise on the religious aspects of the Uygur’s plight. What is happening in Xinjiang is the death of a culture. Culture is described in dictionaries as the customs and civilisation of a particular people, religion being but one component.

It is true that the Uygur are a Muslim people and it is true that their practice of religion is being heavily oppressed by Chinese policy. But the Uygur deserve to be viewed for more than just being a Muslim people, the "restive Muslims of Xinjiang" as they are so often portrayed in the media.

Long before progressively converting to Islam between the 10th and 15th centuries the Uygur practised a variety of religions from Shamanism to Manachaeism to Buddhism. At one stage Kashgar was recognised as one of the major centres of Buddhist learning in the world and the Uygur one of the religions great champions and adherents. Christianity too has even had an influence on the culture and history of the Uygur people.

Being once a mighty empire in Central Asia, mentors to Mongol Khans and living at the hub of the "Silk Routes" linking the cultures of east and west the Uygur have absorbed a variety of influences that makes them unique among the world's Muslim peoples.

Perhaps to say that this mix of historic influences has produced a hybrid of Islam may be going a little too far but it certainly has made for a very moderate form of a religion that is known more for its extremism than its temperance, especially of late.

I think it is fair to acknowledge however that religion and language are two important determinants of any culture. To attack either or both will erode a culture and eventually destroy it. The Chinese have recognised this and the Chinese Communist government has targeted these two elements in their policy with the Uygur.

It has often been said to me, and it is something the Chinese push, that Chinese policy in Xinjiang as it concerns the Uygur is not about "cultural genocide". To a degree I would agree. What the Chinese have done in Xinjiang especially as it concerns "racial flooding" was not done with the sole reason of destroying the culture and ethnicity of the Uygur people. Too many Uygurs believe this and wrongly so. The prime motivation in promoting Han migration to Xinjiang was and is strategic. It was actively encouraged to protect China's borders. The situation in Tibet is similar with Han migration to that area, Tibet unlike Xinjiang offers no economic pot of gold. Having said that Han policy in Xinjiang toward the Uygur is chauvinistic at best and racist at worst.

The quote from the article, to wit "The Uighur people are wild and rude," an army general explains during a flight to Xinjiang. "But in the future the Uighurs will be like the Manchus, assimilated by the Chinese, because the Chinese culture is much stronger." is not an isolated sentiment. It is one held by a large proportion of Chinese from illiterates to educated people and one I believe has been held firmly by the powers in the CCP since their takeover of Xinjiang in 1949.

I have no doubts that it is the aim of the Chinese to assimilate the Uygur totally into the great “Han oneness”. But that is not so easy in these days of China’s opening up, in these days of the “New China” They can not be as overt as they once could have been. International scrutiny is now a given and the home of the 2008 Olympics can not afford bad press.

That is one reason that the Chinese happily enlisted in the “war on terrorism” It has provided them with a perfect excuse to treat the "Muslim Uygurs" in a manner to achieve the objective that would have brought international condemnation elsewise.

Professor Colin Mackerras, a China and Xinjiang expert from Australia’s Griffith University, rightly points out that what the Chinese have visited upon the Uygurs is worse than what they have done with the Tibetans,. But the Tibetans are Buddhists and as Buddhists do not have an internationally recognised proclivity to violence and it is harder to lump them into the terrorist basket as the Chinese have successfully done with the Uygur (though they have tried). As such the Uygur’s plight has not received the same level of international attention. We have Tibetan Hunger strikers currently in New York getting more media attention than the thousands of Uygurs imprisoned or the hundreds executed in the last seven years for political “crimes”

We have to look past religion, we have to see the people. The music, the dance, the literature, the traditions the wonderful history., the architecture, the soul. The “whole” culture.

It is not only the deprivation of religious freedom or a case of “Islam on the ropes”. The Uygur are ”on the ropes”. Their bazaars and homes are being bulldozed, their right to wear the clothes they choose and affect the look that they favour, the right to have the number of children they wish. The right to learn and read and even speak in their own language. Their traditional agriculture.

Name any aspect of their unique culture, one so highly appreciated and respected by the likes Gengis Khan and the Tang dynasty, and it is under sustained attack by the Han Chinese. So far thank God and against all odds, the Uygur are holding out but for how long?

Look into the eyes of an Uygur child. Do you see a Muslim first? Do you see a terrorist in the making? Or do you just see a beautiful smiling child that has the God (be it Allah, Christ or whomever) given right to grow up in a culture that has carried his or her genes forward for two thousand plus years, through immense glory and now immense pain.

(P.S. The author mentions in the article the construction occuring outside the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar. This renovation of the square has been completed and it is fair to point out that the result is not disliked by the Uygurs I have spoken to.)

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The Globe and Mail; Islam on the Ropes:

"When they praise the Lord, they close the windows. In a packed classroom in China's southern Henan province, 35 young Christians stand behind their desks singing the Hallelujah prayer. These students have pledged the next three years of their lives to this illegal seminary, one of the many run across China by members of the Chinese Protestant underground."

A Newsweek article describing one of the lengths the growing Christian movement in China must go to to pursue their beliefs in a land whose government is fearful of the rise of religion, seeing it as a main threat to it's very existence.

According to the article China has at least 45 million Christians, the majority of whom are Protestant. Some observers such as Dennis Balcombe, a preacher from California who Newsweek reports has made hundreds of mission trips to China since the late 1970s say the numbers are much higher, even as high as 90 million.


The article offers a good insight into the rise of Christianity in China.

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MSNBC - Onward, Christian Soldiers:

With the hospitalisation of Ms. Dolma Choephel there remains two determined Tibetan men carrying on the hunger strike at the United Nations in New York.

The two, 35 year old Tibetans Mr. Gyatso and Mr. Sonam Wangdu both born into diaspora, at this stage are apparently holding up well to the effects of 31 day without food and are determined to carry on the protest

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Times of Tibet TYC led indefinite hunger strike update: Day 29 & 30

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on every one.

Ethical Corporation
Proposed UN Norms defining the international responsibilities of business in the field of human rights have set off a war of words that is escalating on a daily basis.


UN official says China may continue Asian miracle in poverty reduction: "According to the latest UN report on China's performance in realizing the Millennium Goal, China has realized the goal by helping a total of 220 million people out of poverty from 1978 to 2000, cutting its absolute poor from 250 million to 30 million. "

The world's youngest political prisoner. Is Tibet's Panchen Lama still alive? - www.phayul.com
To urge China that the XIth Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima must be entitled to religious education at Tashi Lhunpo monastery. China must also disclose the details concerning the safety and whereabouts of the Panchen Lama.

Forbes.com: ANALYSIS-China's private powerhouse faces electricity woes:
"Wenzhou, a coastal city of 7.4 million people in Zhejiang province, started to suffer power shortages last summer. Demand was now outstripping supply by at least 10 percent. "

"A new Internet surveillance system was instituted in Lhasa in 2003 requiring residents to use an individual registration number and an associated password in order to access the Internet via Internet Explorer or other portals or to send and receive email at public cyber cafes. This is the latest known information monitoring step for computer users that the Chinese government has taken in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and is unique because it is imposed on the individual users and not imbedded in the computer system.

The new system of registration for Internet use in Lhasa is a step beyond dense filtering systems to screen and block items containing politically sensitive terms as it allows authorities to easily track anything that is viewed on the computer screen and place an individual's name with a visited website."


Chinese Authorities Institute Internet ID Card System in Tibet for Online Surveillance - www.phayul.com:

Hidden among a raft of new legislation enacted on May 1 was a small but perhaps telling change to prison regulations.

According to a report of the legislative changes in Xinhuanet

"The prisoner behavior regulation has also taken effect from May.1, 2004. At the same time, the original prisoner reform behavior regulation is abolished. The new regulation focuses more on human rights protection, regulating that prisoner's clothes, ticks and quilts must be changed and washed regularly and prisoners have the right to freely choose their own hair styles, a sharp contrast with the past situation, in which male prisoners had to wear a crew cut and female prisoners ear-high bobbed hair. "

Choose your own hairstyles and bedding "regularly washed" seems small but I maintain it is a mark of a country how it treats it prisoners and old people and as we all know the former has been and is atrocious in China. For an example see the following link. (Not for the feint hearted or children please as it links to graphic images that we all find grossly offensive.)

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:: Xinhuanet - English :::

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FalunInfo.Net - Brutalized Body Shows Evidence of Torture in China: "

Mr. Li Yinglin was severely beaten by Beijing police and died 6 days later. Photos taken by his wife reveal extreme brutality.

"Two men responsible for the flooded coal mine accident in Wuhai City in north China' Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were detained by local police Saturday afternoon. "

Once again an illegally operated coal mine looks like claiming the lives of 15 Chinese miners. The coal mine, hiring some 60 miners, had been shut by the local government on April 28 due to its poor facility of ventilation but the owner started mining again in secret.

The accident has trapped 15 miners and rescue teams have stated that the chance of survival is thin.

The accident which occurred only the day before a mine disaster in Shanxi Province that has so far claimed 36 lives comes not long after the Chinese government released a report of Industrial accidents for the first quarter 2004 citing a decrease in coal mining deaths.

The problem of coal mines secretly operating after being closed for safety reasons is endemic in China so it amazes me why there would appear no effective follow up by officials confirming that closure orders are enforced. It seems it's a case of "I did my job issuing a close down order if they re-open it's not my fault"

There would appear of late a willingness of officials to take criminal action for negligence against mine owners and management which is welcomed. It is now time for the Central Government to inculcate the mining industry regulatory officialdom with the new found Chinese doctrine of "personal responsibility" for such disasters.

The Chinese coal mining industry official figures cite above 7,000 deaths per annum as a result of coal mining accidents. Expert opinion places this figure much higher, upwards of 10,000, with many accidents, fatalities and injuries being hidden from Central Government scrutiny by coal mine owners and local officials.


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:: Xinhuanet - English :::

(Pictures) In a dramatic but not unexpected turn of events Tibetan hunger striker Ms Dolma Choepel was yesterday rushed to New York's Bellevue Hospital after collapsing at the protest site outside the United Nation building.

"Ms. Dolma Choephel, however, had to be rushed to Bellevue hospital for Emergency Medical Service (EMS) after she lost consciousness yesterday, said a report sent by Kalsang Phunstok, the President of the TYC. The other two hunger strikers, however, continue 'to be alert'. "

Ms Choephel (31) has over the last couple of days been the weakest of the three hunger strikers who have been encamped outside the UN building since April 2 protesting UN inaction over human rights abuses in Tibet.

Whilst initial reports have placed Ms Cheophel in a stable condition it is unknown whether the only female among the three will return to continue the protest.


Meantime the US State Department has joined the growing chorus of international appeal for the discontinuation of the Tibetan hunger strike. Paula Dobriansky, US State Department's Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, said,

"You have my personal assurance that we will continue to work in international fora, including the United Nations, with whomever will stand with us to promote human rights and other Tibetan issues".

She promised Washington's "highest priority" to Tibet when it resumes bi-lateral human rights dialogue with Beijing, and said President Bush continues to remain committed to urging China to resolve Tibetan issues through negotiations.

"Now, before you suffer serious and perhaps irreversible health problems, I strongly encourage you to assess and recognize your achievements and to discontinue the strike,". Ms Dobriansky said in a message dated 29 April.



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Dolma Choephel under Medical Care, EP Intergroup Expresses Support - www.phayul.com:

China Letter News Digest 1 May AEST

A "China Letter" Digest of News items that are too noteworthy to go unnoticed but too numerous to comment on every one.

New Zealand News - World - China grants $4 million to Cook Islands for supporting Taiwan stance: "China has granted the Cook Islands $4 million in aid in return for recognising China's 'ownership of Taiwan'. "

Leaders held responsible for accidents: "China should put in place workplace safety legislation to consolidate the 'take the blame and resign' system among officials for the long term, a work safety official said Thursday in Beijing. "

United Press International: Global View: The Chinese century begins: "Signs of China's growing influence on the U.S. and world economy were evident in U.S. markets this week. Something happened that would have been unthinkable ten years ago: The U.S. stock market dropped, with commodity-related stocks hit particularly hard, because Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Western media of the need to slow down China's fast growth. "

Asia Pacific Media Network :: China's Silent Rural Revolution: "Beyond the glamorous skyscrapers of Beijing, Shanghai, and other urban centers, the majority of Chinese who live in the countryside have gained little from the material progress of the past two decades, says Jiang Wenran "

Official given jail term for taking bribe: "Liu Changgui, former vice governor of the southwestern China province of Guizhou, was sentenced to 11-year imprisonment Friday on charges of taking bribes and owning a huge amount of property he could not account for. "

Todays China Fact

Todays China Fact

The lowest point in China is 154 metres below sea level at Turpan Pendi Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Uighurs suffer copper mine pollution

"Ethnic minority Uygur residents near the northwestern city of Turpan, in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region are suffering from severe pollution from a nearby copper mine set up under Beijing's much-vaunted western development campaign, RFA's Uyghur service reports. "

Residents who complained to environmental officials about the smoke were criticized and penalized by the government. Some of them even lost their jobs. One journalist got into trouble because of his reporting on the issue, residents said.

This story makes an interesting read from the point of view of the different responses obtained from government officials and public servants as the reporter attempted to verify the story.

In light of the recent chemical gas leak tragedy in Chongging in which 9 people died and 130,000 were forced to evacuate one would have thought this type of report would get better treatment from Chinese officials.

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Radio Free Asia:

I reported in the last couple of days that the Chinese Government had just released a report on industrial and workplace accidents for the first quarter 2004. In that report it was stated that mining accidents and deaths were down on the same period last year despite a sizeable increase in output.

In this report it was stated that there were no "serious" accidents in the first quarter 2004. I took umbrage to this as the report defined "serious" as being accidents involving more than 30 fatalities. In my view any death is serious and I expressed hopes that this description of "serious" was a journalistic one and not official government thinking.

That aside I commented that this result was more good luck than good management. That the mining industry was inherently malaised and that the death rate, which by official sources is around 7,000 per annum (unofficial upwards of 10,000), will only grow exponentially as China pursues it's incredible growth rate and places unbridled demands for more and more coal production to fuel it .

Well they now have got their "serious" accident with Xinhuanet reporting 34 miners killed and two missing in an accident Friday morning in Shanxi Province. No more detailed information is yet available.

I have made mining accidents and deaths a focus of the China Letter because it is the ultimate human rights violation to deny life and that is what the Chinese government is doing in the case of the mining industry.

They are totally aware of the total lack of safety controls in the non government mining sector. Many mines even operate illegally with government officials turning a blind eye either through corruption or government policy.

In 2003 Premier Wen Jiabao called for an immediate crackdown on the industry to improve safety standards. So great and so immediate however was the fall off in output as regulations were enforced that many Chinese cities and industries faced critical energy shortfalls. In a trade off between human life and economics the government chose the latter and the "crackdown" was called off.

We have the recent case where American Organised Labour (Trade Unions) petitioned the U.S. government to apply sanctions against Chinese export industries under the pretence of protecting the "rights" of Chinese workers that they claimed were working under sweatshop conditions. No such calls have been made by these "altruists" on behalf of Chinese miners as China is not a great exporter of coal and thus do not threaten their jobs.

It is about time that the international community got involved in this human rights tragedy by either applying pressure to China to immediately take action and/or offering assistance in manpower, know-how and money to halt this slaughter.

(I would like to thank Mine Rescue run by Rob Mcgee for a lot of heads up information as to mining accidents in China. His site, which is an adjunct of the United States Mine Rescue Association, reports on mining accident/rescue issues internationally.)

As Day 30 is about to dawn for the three Tibetans protesting outside the United Nations Building in New York calls mount for them to end their suffering and call off their hunger strike.

Mr. Craig G. Mokhibar, Deputy Director of the United Nations Human Rights office and Mr. Miloon Kathori, UN Special Rapporteur, officially visited the Hunger Strikers April 30 and assured them that they personally would do everything in their power to bring attention to the strikers requests. In doing so they called upon the three Tibetans to end their strike.

Meantime in Dharamsala India the Tibetan Government in exile also called upon the hunger strikers to end their protest. In a letter to them on April 30 the Standing Committee of the 13th Assembly of the Tibetan People's Deputies stated

'The nation needs your dedication and selfless determination in future too. We therefore request you to call off the strike'

As of the end of the day the Strikers have decided to maintain their "Indefinite Hunger Strike" to continue to draw attention to the Tibetan cause.

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ATPD Urges NY Strike to be Called off - www.phayul.com: