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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Irresponsible engagement with China contributed to delayed democratization

Twenty years has slipped by after the Tiananmen massacre of students and ordinary Chinese citizens, yet the following four-minute video needs some publicity in Europe, or shall we say the whole western countries.

The Al Jazeera reporter found the “black jail” in China as led by a former prisoner there.  However, the Chinese Foreign Affairs spokeswoman denied the existence of such secret jails, stating that China is a country ruled by the law, and everything is according to the law.

This is the kind of government that the governments in the western democracies have engaged and continue to engage with businesswise.  And this is the kind of authoritarian government that the western democracies are selling weapons to.  Further, this is the kind of government being recognized as being the abider of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, whereas Taiwan being the provocateur when its people simply seek for their rights in the international organizations.

Despite the fact that 1400+ missiles are aiming at Taiwan, some countries in EU are seeking to lift the weapon embargo to China because the human rights record in China has improved? or China is not de-stabilizing the status-quo in the Taiwan Strait?  or is it that China is not arming some other authoritarian governments in the world anymore?

There is a weapon chain in the military defense science.  Some of the European countries continue to arm the PRC, and the PRC also continues to arm some of the other junta governments in the world, how can the human rights situations in the world be improved then?  Not only that, one day the upgraded Chinese weapons may turn around and aim at not only its own citizens but your own country as well, and since China is still a one-party state, the Chinese government does not have to be examined by its people of any actions taken.

According to the defense-aerospace the EU embargo to China has holes:

The leaders of the EU countries instituted their policy following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Which weapons are to be affected and how the embargo should be monitored has never been put in writing. Great Britain decided that British weapons and parts that are not "deadly effective" can be exported. Today, Chinese warplanes lift off with Rolls Royce engines.

France and Italy, long after 1989, also continued to deliver radar systems, rockets and airplanes to China. They had these contracts before China cracked down on the democracy movement, goes the argument. Italy and Spain have delivered helicopter technology which they didn't want to equate with weapons systems, but which now is used in Chinese military helicopters. A German firm received contracts for 2,000 diesel engines to be used for Chinese submarines.

There is a summary of who was helping China to upgrade their military here in a table format (the US Congressional Report page 41 to 47).

Even if the human rights situation has not been improved much, and the Taiwanese are still threatened, the Tibetans opposed the lifting of the arms embargo, and the Uyghurs also against it, the weapon parts continue to find their ways into China, and the businessmen are making profits and turning blind eyes on ethics.

When it comes to doing business with China, the countries and/or companies like the Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, France, and the UK, and even Canada’s  Bombardier etc. need to assess more the business ethics question and listen to the outcries of China’s neighbor or ethnic minorities in order to comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

After more than half a century, the UN is an organization unable to fulfill much of its mission because the representatives from these authoritarian nations seat at the UN and some were able to occupy well-paid posts to dictate the world politics, and on the contrast, their human rights activists are locked up in the “black jails”!

On commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, we call for a more responsible engagement with China by western nations especially in the Europe continent.

We also condemn the CCP and the KMT’s unwillingness to empathize with the Chinese people’s desire for democracy, and their selfishness of taking care of only the interests of a few party members on both sides.

Our patience is running out for a Chinese Gorbachev to appear, and for the two parties (the KMT and the CCP) which brought so much devastation to China and Taiwan to disappear.

I salute to the Tiananmen’s Tank Man ((highly recommended link to the photo image and video of the Tank Man), and despise the unethical businessmen and politicians.

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