Ottawa Citizen: Canadians are too smart to believe China's lies

The Ottawa Citizen

September 6, 2006 Wednesday

Re: Games boycott is based on false premise, Sept. 1.

Chinese Embassy official Zuo Wenxing must think Canadians are very naive to say that "some people are still willing to believe the worst about China for no reason other than that China has a different social system." How does he explain the unlawful imprisonment and persecution of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, Christians and Uighur Muslims? Why doesn't China release all these prisoners of conscience and make serious strides to alter its image as a human-rights violator?

No knowledgeable Canadian will believe statements about the new China. It is the same old one that massacred students in 1989 and that persecutes Falun Gong members and harvests their organs. China continues to have one of the worst human-rights records on Earth.

As for the Canadian report on organ harvesting, the issues are impossible to ignore. China can try to cover up but Canadians won't believe them. An independent report produced by two highly respected Canadians is far more credible.

Boycotting the China Olympics is an excellent idea. This would be quite a message for China to swallow.

Rahul Vaidyanath,

Ottawa