Bangkok Post Editorial: Beijing continues to go its own way

Bangkok Post Editorial

The West has been expressing its outrage at human rights abuses by China for nearly five decades, stepping up its concerns about a decade ago when China began opening its doors to the world. Then, at the end of 1997, the European Union and China agreed to meet every six months for talks on human rights. The first such dialogue was held at the end of 1997 and meetings have been held since alternately in China and the country holding the rotating EU presidency. Talks were held in Beijing on Friday with the EU represented by 15 officials from current president France and Sweden and the European Commission. There also were 15 Chinese representatives from various ministries, including justice and foreign affairs.

Although the dialogue lasted just one day, the talks stretched for an impressive 10 hours. The EU raised the plight of alleged political prisoners, criticised China's extensive use of the death penalty and voiced concerns over the suppression of democracy campaigners, Catholics, members of the Falungong sect, Tibetans and Turkic Muslims resisting Chinese rule. The EU invited four rights groups to attend as well but when China refused entry to the New York-based Human Rights in China group, the other three groups boycotted the dialogue. It was an ominous start.

Beijing has tried to coax foreign governments critical of its human rights practices to hold closed-door dialogues instead of censuring China at United Nations human rights meetings and other public, worldwide forums. In addition to the EU, China has had such dialogues with Australia, Britain and Canada among others.

According to diplomats who attended Friday's dialogue, the Chinese listened attentively to the EU concerns-just as they have done at other closed-door meetings. They nodded in unison, admitted their faults and promised to look into the concerns. On Friday, according to EU diplomats, they again admitted their shortcomings but offered little when it came to addressing them.

Current Chinese law allows police to send criminal suspects to labour camps for up to four years without trial. The US State Department reports that 230,000 people were being held last year in what China calls "re-education-through-labour camps". On Friday, the Chinese reportedly admitted that the system was wrong, that it had been abused, and that it should be reformed "in-depth". But China also made it clear that it does not mean to abolish the practice.

Yesterday was China's National Day, a day when all Chinese marked the 51st anniversary of communist rule. Members of the Falungong movement, which says it is apolitical and purely a spiritual group, converged on Tiananmen Square to contribute to the occasion. But according to reports, police swooped on the group, using unnecessary violence to arrest about 1,000 and forcibly remove them from the square. Of the Falungong members who gathered yesterday, 80% were women, but this did not dampen the enthusiasm for violence shown by the police as they used truncheons, canes and steel-tipped boots to beat the Falungong members. And all this just two days after 15 senior officials had accepted, listened attentively and said they understood the concerns raised by the EU about human rights abuses in China.

The United States has been making plenty of noise about forcing China to improve its human rights in return for permanent normal trade relations. But when it came to the vote in the US Congress, the the human rights issue was swept under the carpet in lieu of more open trading opportunities for American companies in China.

The world must realise that the regime in China has no intention whatsoever of changing its attitude-unless the West really gets serious and the issue is raised continually at United Nations forums and there is the real possibility of effective sanctions.