Providence Journal (Rhode Island, U.S.A.): China flouts law

Friday, April 16, 2004

China's elite doesn't like crowds. In 1989 students pushing for democratic reforms massed in Tiananmen Square, only to be mown down by the tanks of the People's Liberation Army. In 1999 Communist Party members awoke to see ranks of silent Falun Gong practitioners lining the streets of the party bosses' residential enclave in Beijing; China then outlawed the [peaceful group]¹, and many of its adherents are still in prison.

Last summer, 500,000 Hong Kongers jammed streets to demand free elections to Hong Kong's legislature, in which only a minority of lawmakers are elected by popular vote. The hammer was sure to fall, and last week it did, when China declared that it had the sole authority to determine the pace of political change in the former British colony.

This directly contradicts the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, which resulted in the handover of the colony to China in 1997.

Under the rubric of "one country, two systems," Beijing had promised Hong Kong political autonomy, except in foreign affairs and defense. It didn't happen, and the case remains a vivid illustration of the failure of the communist dictatorship to recognize the restraints of law. Without such restraints, China remains a danger to its people, its neighbors and the world.

Britain has a duty to bring this case before the United Nations and the World Court. Like the United States, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has other fish to fry right now, and may not wish to tangle with China. And there are powerful impulses to see things China's way, especially in matters relating to what it regards -- wrongly in this case -- as its internal affairs. There is also the promise of "the world's biggest market," and China's ability to reward its friends richly.

As in most dictatorships, there were once pollyanna hopes in laissez-faire Hong Kong about China's intentions -- that is, until the Hong Kongers realized how ephemeral such hopes would be as long as China was unfettered by legal obligations.

Still, China sees the value, after decades of isolation, in playing a role in world affairs. It is joining the World Trade Organization, and will hold the 2008 Olympics.

Although Britain now has little leverage over China regarding its former colony, Beijing should, at the very least, be made to suffer embarrassment for its failure to fulfill its promises to Hong Kong.

Editor's note: We removed some language here that inaccurately describes Falun Gong. On April 25, 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners appealed to the National Appeals Office in Beijing near Zhongnanhai, the government compound, and asked for release of several dozen Falun Gong practitioners who had been wrongfully arrested in Tianjin, about 60 miles east of Beijing. The appeal was peacefully resolved and the practitioners were released. However, Jiang Zemin, then China's President and General Party Secretary, could not tolerate the peaceful appeal and initiated a brutal persecution of Falun Gong. At this time, at least 940 practitioners have died of torture in police custody. Tens of thousands of practitioners are being imprisoned and tortured in jails, labor camps and mental hospitals.

http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/projo_20040416_16edchina.21fa0e.html