I’m not old enough to know if human rights atrocities are common in today’s world. It seems like all the bombings in Russia and China’s destruction of their indigenous Uighur minority is well tolerated in the world. I have no experience in such matters, so I’m learning. This is what you get when you’ve not lived through a war.
I don’t know as I’m not old enough, and so I’m asking. I’ve not been through a war before. All these international human rights agreements between countries really useful an enforceable? We are witnessing wanton destruction and killings of Russia bombing Ukraine, as well as the more opaque China destroying their indigenous Uighur population.
Russia bombs Ukraine, destroying cities, killing and injuring countless people. Russia is a member of the UN Security Council, as is China. Both are also part of the UN Human Rights Council, and have been the chair on numerous occasions. Why is Russia and China able to chair these UN councils when they so easily violate the very principals of their council?
In this CoVid-19 era there has been a lot of talk about freedom, specifically personal freedom, the freedom to do as you wish irregardless of how it negatively affects others. National freedom, at a country level, is the freedom to not be blackmailed by trading partners. You would think that trade would not have such dark tones, but in this day and age trade between countries has been weaponized. It looks like this is changing.
I am not so interested in any country’s constitution, but I make an exception for China. China has laws on its books but seemingly then acts against these laws. This is untrue. Laws in China are meant to protect the CCP and should be interpreted differently than Western laws. While there are laws on China’s books, they are loosely enforced, allowing for interpretation by local governments.
China is well known for its ability to detain foreigners from exiting the country. It is often used to settle business conflict between foreigners and Chinese companies. The Chinese company contacts the police to say that a foreigner has not paid or lived up to some business dealing and Chinese border control puts a ban on the foreigner’s exit. These are called “exit bans“.
Bian kong, “边控“， short for bianjing kongzhi, “边境控制” is a system that can bar a foreigner from leaving China. We normally call it an “exit ban”
Information is power, and information, to most people of the world is the internet. For most, this starts with a Google Search. In 2010 Google exited China, due to a massive hack by the Chinese government into Google servers. Now, beckoned by the call for making money, Google is again rethinking China. Can Google stand by its ethics of “Do no Harm” while working with the Chinese Government? There will be some compromizes required.
In the recent 2018 Web Summit interview has Tim Berners-Lee, father of the Internet, lamenting the sorry state of the internet. TimBL has set up the World Wide Web Foundation, which espouses openness, freedom of speech and democracy. I just do not see the web this way. The internet is a communications tool that allows access to information, very much like a library. Who gets to enter the library and what information the library houses is controllable. I do not see TimBL’s lofty internet objectives coming to fruition. In China Xi jinping XJP has asked all its people for total loyalty to the Communist Party. As a communications tool the Internet can and does serve XJP’s purpose, and more. In the view of the CCP the Internet is also a tool to benefit society.
It had to happen. It was predictable, and everyone saw it coming. Therefore it should not be a surprise that there is an impending trade war with China. Let’s discuss and document some of the issues.
China has grown stronger, and this is good. What is not good is their increasingly aggressive trade and military stances in the world. Their military buildup in the disputed South China Sea islands has antagonized all their neighbours and has destabilized the region. Using Chinese Coast Guard vessels to hassle indigenous Philippine fishermen, in their own waters, is not friendly. There are kidnappings of Chinese businessmen from Thailand, which is completely out of China’s jurisdiction. There are also Chinese influence and incursions into foreign politics that many countries such as Australia, find distasteful.
Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang 谢阳, in undated photo (left), and Chinese government photo (2017 Mar 02) still in jail after over 1.5 years. Though he seems to have survived his 6 months of torture, he is obviously thin. I could hardly recognize him from his photo.
In January I had written about a Chinese lawyer Xie Yang 谢阳, who was tortured by Chinese police for 6 months, and has been in jail for over 1.5 years so far. Because his story has been widely published in the Western press, the Chinese government has started a a propaganda campaign against him and his lawyers, alleging Xie Yang’s story of torture was all made up by his lawyers, and is, as a Trumpism, “fake news”. His lawyer Chen Jiangang (陈建刚) has tried to refute this. I’m unsure about his other lawyer Liu Zhengqing (刘正清). New York Times
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi goes ape at a Canadian journalist when asked about China’s human rights. So angry, so arrogant, so lacking in manners. A minister of foreign affairs should have some respect for the culture of other countries, and he clearly does not. China can do much better. The Queen was right.
Comment, I usually do not, when it comes to politics, either in Canada, China, or elsewhere, but Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi on a visit to Canada went ape at a Canadian journalist. As a representative of China his behaviour was disgraceful and unacceptable. Due to military incursions in the South China Sea, China already has a reputation of being a bully. Wang Yi only reinforces the arrogant view that China now holds.
