According to The Global and Mail (July 26), Canada is taking a lead role in condemning China's crackdown on Falun Gong. Canada plans to make the detention of falun gong members a key focus of a human-rights forum to be held later this week in China.
"Falun gong will definitely be a major discussion point," said a Canadian diplomat close to the talks, noting, "China's constitution does offer the right to freedom of assembly."
Canada filed an official protest with China's foreign ministry shortly after 30,000 falun gong adherents were detained in 30 cities across China, sources said. Those protests occurred a day after security police arrested more than 70 leaders of Falun Gong.
Canadian diplomats note that China's constitution guarantees its 1.23 billion citizens the right to peaceful assembly and free expression, and that last week's ban on falun gong violates those rights because the protesters were peaceful and seeking freedom of expression. (Falun translates as wheel of law, gong as spatial powers.)
The Canadians also point out that China has signed the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees fundamental freedoms such as assembly and free expression.
Most other Western countries have yet to make a formal diplomatic complaint, fearing that a rebuff may have an impact on relations with China that are already shaky after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
The United States has not formally chastised Beijing. But U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright did opt yesterday to make a public statement after a meeting in Singapore with China's foreign minister, Tang Jiaxuan.
"I made it quite clear to the foreign minister that it was very important for there to be the right of assembly and the possibility for a peaceful expression of views," Mrs. Albright said at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting.