TO CONGRESS ON CHINA

The following letter to all members of the United States Congress was written by legendary Chinese freedom advocate and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Harry Wu. Information on the struggle for human rights in China and how to help free political prisoners being held in China’s Gulag can be found at the website of Harry’s Laogai Research Foundation. —JW

In 1999, Mr. Warren Christopher, the Secretary of State, said in his last diplomatic speech in Shanghai that China would become a “Superpower” in the world. It could be understood either as a warning or a wise prediction.

People prefer to tell themselves that China is still a developing country; China’s economy is not yet powerful and far from healthy structure. China’s military strength is not as powerful as the former Soviet Union. China is not that hostile to the United States, etc…
But it comes quicker than we believe. Someday in the future, China will become an economic, political and military giant with communist-totalitarian characteristics. The moment we notice the new huge counterpart, it will be too late for us.

Most of us wish that China becomes a prosperous country – no more starvation, no more calamity – but, if this most populous country in the world still remains an unfree country, controlled by tyranny, it would not only mean disaster for the Chinese people, but it would be also a danger to world peace and a threat to America.

We did a lot to help China developing its economy (of course, we also benefit) but, have we done enough to help them improving human rights and initiating political reform?

Business expansion and economic reforms in China have caused many people around the world to hail China as a glittering land of golden opportunity and ignore the continuing brutality perpetrated by the Communist government of China. It is often said that today’s China is not the same China that existed during the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square, and is no longer even a Communist society.

Meanwhile, however, innumerable people are languishing in China’s vast Laogai system, where many have been sent without any trial taking place or any official documents being issued. Internet dissidents and religious believers are being rounded up and thrown into jail in increasing numbers in order to prevent dissent among the masses. Women and their families are being persecuted for violating the national one-child policy, and are subject to forced abortions and sterilization, detention and other punishments.

The One-Child Policy: A Violation of Fundamental Human Rights
The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) continues to enforce an inhumane population control system throughout the country. Despite recent putative reforms, China’s population policy still does not conform to UN principles. The one-child policy is the most pervasive source of human rights violations in China today. It affects every family, every woman.

With few exceptions, only married couples that obtain pre-approval, i.e. a birth permit, may legally have a child, even if it is their first child. A majority of Chinese women are required to use intrauterine devices (IUDs). Violators, if discovered to be pregnant, are coerced into having an abortion. Most violators of the one-child policy are forced to undergo sterilization. Doctors who do not perform IUD insertion or sterilization, or who fake these operations, are jailed. Family members of violators are often jailed if they do not reveal the violator’s whereabouts. Despite relaxation of certain aspects of China’s family planning regulations, enforcement of the one-child policy continues to be coercive.

We need to let the Chinese people know that they are entitled to the right of being free from forced sterilizations and abortions, and the right to give birth freely according to their own decisions, not decisions opposed on them by a dictatorial government. Once people have regained this fundamental right, they will be able to expand their rights in other areas. The world community should join together to pass a resolution at this year’s UNCHR meeting in Geneva condemning China’s one-child policy as a violation of fundamental human rights. No other country has such a draconian family planning policy that offends all religions and cultures. A resolution passed in Geneva would be a promising, bottom-up approach to developing a respect and understanding of human rights in China.

Laojiao System and “Shuanggui” (Double Regulations)
The severity of the forced labor punishment in the Laojiao (“reeducation through labor”) system in China, and the corresponding system of forced job placement is equal to that of the Laogai and runs counter to the rule of law. The Laojiao is a unique mechanism of the CCP, being widely used today to suppress dissidents and Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country.

Police, not required to show a detention notice, can arrest a citizen and issue the “administrative” punishment of reeducation through labor, which can result in three years in a labor camp. Another mechanism used by the CCP to deprive people of their rights is called “Shuanggui”, or double regulations. Under this procedure, people can be summoned to an appointed time and appointed place by local discipline and inspection committees of the CCP for interrogation. It can result in a long period of incommunicado detention.

In other words, the Party has the right to detain anyone at any time. Often, officials pretend that a “suspect” is not really detained, but is merely staying at a “guesthouse” run by the detaining agency. This technique is used to keep lawyers out of the detention and investigation process.

Crackdown on Dissidents and Grassroots Movements
Over the past few months, the CCP has engaged in an extensive crackdown on dissidents and advocates of reform within China. Police have been harassing and detaining well-known figures who have raised critical voices. For instance, in November 2004, police in Hunan Province traveled more than a thousand miles to Shaanxi Province to arrest Shi Tao, a well-known author and journalist. In December 2004, police detained the intellectuals Yu Jie, Liu Xiaobo and Zhang Zuhua.

Chinese authorities also detained and arrested many other prominent journalists and rights advocates in December, including Li Boguang, Chen Min, Li Guozhu, and Yang Tianshui. An article in the CCP mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, signaled the recent campaign against intellectuals, accusing them of elitism. Newspapers and magazines have also been ordered not to give publicity to several well-known intellectuals.

Throughout China, people are organized in demonstrations and petitions to protest unfair treatments, which are related to poor working conditions and/or wages, forced evacuation from one’s property and inadequate reparations, mining accidents, etc. The grassroots movement is an indicator that there has been an increasing consciousness among the Chinese of their basic rights. According to reports, there has been a steady rise over the past year in the number of rural petitioners traveling to Beijing, an increase in public street demonstrations by petitioners, and escalating clashes between petitioners and Beijing police.

Religious Freedom has not been improved
It has been well recognized by the West that the Communists’ Patriotic Church is a tool of religion suppression. Beijing has tightened its control over Christian House Church leaders and religious believers. On December 1, Zhang Rongliang, one of the most prominent preachers of China’s underground churches, was arrested in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

Nationalism and Military Power
President Hu Jintao has finally become Jiang Zeming’s successor of the position as Chairman of the Central Military Committee in last fall. He tries to build up his authority in the army by promoting a group of generals. Recently, the Chinese military has been engaging in hostile posturing toward Taiwan. The Taiwan issue as well as the Tibet and Xinjiang -Uyghur issues have always been a good pretext to stir up the nationalism among the Han-Chinese. Any “separatism” idea is a treason to the “motherland” and should be condemned.

Meanwhile, the salaries of military personnel have been increased. For instance, a platoon commander today receives a monthly salary of around 3,000 yuan ($362), while a professor at a university earns only about 2,500 to 3,000 yuan per month. Besides, the purchase of weapons from Russia and Ukraine is constantly on the agenda. According to an Asia Times reporter in November, China has purchased eight missile systems in summer from Russia and has already received 24 SU-30MKK fighters. It cited a recent Jane’s Defense Weekly report stating that China was in talks with Ukraine to obtain jet engines. These talks were a follow-up on the 58 engines ordered in 1997 and since delivered to Beijing.

Uyghurs persecuted in the name of anti-terrorism
China continues to use “anti-terrorism” as a pretext to suppress all forms of political or religious dissent in western China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Repression has continued in the region in recent years, in the context of an ongoing political and security crackdown against the so-called “three evils” of “separatists, terrorists and religious extremists”. The government’s use of the term “separatism” refers to a broad range of activities, many of which amount to no more than peaceful opposition or dissent, or the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of religion. According to an Amnesty International report, over the last several years, tens of thousands of Uighurs have been detained for investigation in the region and hundreds, possibly thousands, have been charged or sentenced under the Criminal Law; many Uighurs are believed to have been sentenced to death and executed for alleged “separatist” or “terrorist” offenses, although the exact number is impossible to determine.

Execution of Prisoners and Organ Harvesting
China continues to carry out more judicial executions than the rest of the world combined. According to one report, China carried out nearly 90% of the world’s executions in 2003. China may execute a higher proportion of its population than any other country except Singapore, which is one of the least-populated countries in the world.

This occurs against a background of a criminal justice system that does not guarantee a fair trial according to international law to defendants. Recently, a decision was made to promote lethal injection as a means of execution throughout the country, and this may facilitate even higher rates of execution. Mobile execution chambers are also being used extensively throughout China- converted buses in which convicts can be executed by lethal injection “immediately after sentence is passed.” Organ harvesting from executed prisoners for government income never stops.

Laogai Products
Laogai prisoners continue to be forced to produce goods that are sold within China and exported throughout the world. As the global economy grows, this practice is in fact expanding. Those in detention centers as well as prisons are today forced to labor at the production of goods under horrible conditions.

Products made by prisoners throughout China range from office supplies to the Christmas lights that are so popular in the Western world. Large companies, including international corporations, have been hiring an increasing amount of production work out to sub-contractors, which are then done by prisoners. For instance, according to recent reports, around 1,000 illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners at the Beijing Xin’an Female Labor Camp were forced to produce 100,000 toy rabbits in early 2001. These prisoners worked under horrible conditions for no pay. The rabbits were produced for Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd., which was subcontracted by Nestle. We must expose this practice and trace the production of goods to the Laogai in order to stop international corporations from having their products assembled or manufactured in Chinese slave-labor prisons.

Conclusion
The international community must send a strong signal to the Chinese government that the world condemns the injustices that it continues to carry out throughout China. Despite economic improvements that have been made, serious human rights violations continue to be perpetrated in all areas of Chinese society. We must not remain silent any longer about these atrocities that reject human dignity and morality.