Windsor Star (Canada): China's still ignores rights

April 15, 2003 Tuesday

The April 9 newspaper carried two articles that dealt with China. The article on page B2 dealt with the rejection by China of the efforts by the Permanent Council and the Security Council of the UN to condemn North Korea for its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty. The article on page B7 informed us that the Chinese embassy in Bucharest, Romania, had succeeded in shutting down an art exhibition held at a theatre because it portrayed the paintings of an artist from the Falun Gong.

Taken individually, or together, these two news items are indicative of the power that China still appears to wield on the world stage.

Admittedly, China is still the last major bastion of communism in a world that has travelled far since the dreaded Iron Curtain days. However, one would have expected the relationship between China and the non-communist world to change gradually in consonance with China's adoption of its new-found capitalist mindset. Sadly, not so.

China still acts with the same lethal mixture of silence and unrelenting oppression that it displayed more than 40 years ago in the act described as the rape of Tibet.

Not a whimper then and not a whimper now, from the self-appointed guardians of freedom in the world.

There was a slight rustle of censure from the world community after the highly publicized Tiananmen Square massacre.

It was quickly drowned out by the tumultuous clatter of shipping conveyors being loaded with low-cost, good-quality merchandise bound for North American ports.

Even today, there has been no backlash against China for not supporting the U.S. in its war against Iraq. We do not hear about raucous disc jockeys on U.S. radio stations talking about boycotting stores or any number of retailers whose very survival depends on those shipping containers making it safely to a nearby port.

I am not a member of the Falun Gong. I have seen their tents and displays around the city and as your article describes, they seemed peaceful and disciplined.

It seems asinine to suggest that they are spreading materials offensive to China and its spread would physically and morally harm people anywhere at all.

However, to be able to enforce this dogma in places situated continents away suggests an awesome, indecipherable hold.

LaSalle