Beijing arrests while the West (partner in crime) sleeps
by Wei Jingsheng
Ai Weiwei’s “release” is a smoke screen used to daze the West. The truth is that the repression in China is continuing and, indeed, worsening. Large multinationals, which have sold the human rights of Chinese people and their own values for cash, are co-conspirators. The denunciation of the great Chinese dissident.
Washington (AsiaNews) - Recently, once again, the Chinese human rights issue has become an international hot topic. This interest is because of the recent escalation of human rights violations by the Chinese Communist regime. Especially important was the illegal detention of Ai Weiwei, which the international community could not accept. Artists and the media once again got angry, which influenced the entire public to be angry about the human rights situation in China. It also forced people to recall the fact that the Communist authoritarian regime will not allow political progress to naturally follow economic development. To the contrary, the Chinese Communist Party will become even more arrogant, more reactionary, and more inhuman.
Now, although Ai Weiwei has been allowed to return home, he is still subject to restrictions on personal freedom. He is still not free to talk, as well as not free to go out. In other words, he is still a prisoner lacking freedom. However, the news that Ai Weiwei was "freed" could ease the international media's criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and make the public announcement of an illegal detention easier to gain the silent acceptance of international public opinion in the future. This is the real wishful thinking of the Chinese Communist regime. However, the current conditions are not very favorable to the Communists, and the international climate is shifting toward being more concerned about human rights in China.
Recently, the criticism from the international media towards China has been gradually increasing. Moreover, people are shifting from a simple concern about economy and trade toward a full attention regarding China's politics, culture and human rights. I have just returned from Europe after attending a ceremony which awarded me with the first Renzo Foa award. I noticed that the news media and politicians in Europe have also expanded their attention to fields beyond the economy. Last Thursday, I attended a roundtable discussion in the US Congress, which was the prelude of formal hearings in the future. During the discussion, human rights activists Li Xiaorong and three U.S. professors and human rights activists presented the deteriorating Chinese human rights situation to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. The co-chairman of the Commission, Senator Sherrod Brown, asked them many questions. In particular, he asked if American lawyers care about human rights in China and whether they participate in various human rights works, etc. His questions were very sharp and to the point, and the legal scholars had difficulties giving satisfactory answers.
For years, as the big Western companies did business in China, they cooperated with the Chinese Communist regime at the same time to suppress attention towards Chinese human rights abuses. Meanwhile, they created some myths to deceive the Western people. One of these myths was that these Western companies would bring systems that meet the human rights standards in the West to China, as well as pay direct attention to China's human rights through the private sector. Several scholars have mostly worked in China. They also have to admit that the U.S. companies do not really want people to participate in China's human rights and other social activities. Besides doing the companies' business activities in China, people find it difficult to participate in other social activities. Senator Brown's questions, in fact, were to expose these lies of the big Western companies with the help of these experts' answers. The Senator also reminded us that all the questions and answers were recorded, to be a reference for the Congress in considering Chinese issues.
I spoke there regarding the most sensitive issue, which is also the one of most concern: the China's human rights situation in implication with the U.S. national interests. This issue was also the theme of this roundtable and will be one of the main themes during the formal hearings in the future, with the ultimate hope of leading to some laws in that regard.
The repression of human rights by the Chinese Communist Party has always revolved around one main theme: to deprive the rights of workers and peasants. The Communist regime has deprived people the right to organize trade unions, to strike, and suppressed all other collective activities in order to maintain extremely cheap labor to earn excess profits. The goods produced by this cheap labor largely occupy the U.S. market. Together with the non-tariff and tariff barriers created by the Communist regime, they become the source for the huge US-China trade deficit every year. The accumulation of huge trade deficits year after year is one of the main reasons that the U.S. economy slipped into recession, as well as one of the reasons for the massive unemployment of American workers.
The U.S. business community played a role in assisting the Chinese government to repress the rights of workers. They share the excess profits, and consciously become defenders for the human rights policy of the Communist regime. They sold Chinese human rights for their own interests. They helped the Chinese government to deceive the public opinion of the international society, to deceive the American people, as well as to betray America's national interests. It is they who prompted the U.S. to enter into an unfair trade relation.
In the future hearings, we will have more in-depth exposure of these issues. In fact, this unfair trade relationship is not restricted to trade alone, but also strongly influences overall economic performance and political operations that bring a huge impact to overall social life. The pillar of this unfair trade relationship is the cheap labor maintained by the authoritarian politics, where Chinese workers are suppressed in an exploited position. Chinese workers have not gained the economic benefits they deserve and should be sharing with the growth of overall economic indexes, other than to have some increased opportunity to get low wage jobs. Meanwhile, the currency policy of the Chinese government resists the possible growth of consumption by the Chinese people due to the market's own circulation.
The Chinese people's low level of consumption coupled with various non-tariff barriers on imports into China has artificially inflated prices of imported goods, making China lack a market for imported goods, in correspondence to the cheap goods make in China. This is exactly the main reason for American workers losing their jobs. The difference between low cost and high priced consumption resulted in a proliferation of money in the financial markets, which lead to the financial crisis as well as the ongoing economic recession in the USA.
The social consequences of the proliferation of currency are that the gap between rich and poor in both USA and China has expanded synchronously. As the normal consumption of the two countries is shrinking, the consumption of luxury goods and corruption is rapidly growing. Thus, social conflicts increase, social stability decreases, and vicious riots increase. This is even more prominent in China. Most Chinese are already below the poverty line and are even less likely to bear economic and political blows. They become ever more fragile and easily angered due to accumulated abuses. Further, coupled with China's inefficient legal system, people have to take self-protection actions which are beyond the legal limits. This is the reason that a significant increase of resistance through violence in China is happening.
The harm due to this unfair trade relation is full-scale and very serious. In the following hearings in the US Congress, there will be more in-depth discussion about these unreasonable affairs, and an attempt to develop appropriate corrective measures.
Now, although Ai Weiwei has been allowed to return home, he is still subject to restrictions on personal freedom. He is still not free to talk, as well as not free to go out. In other words, he is still a prisoner lacking freedom. However, the news that Ai Weiwei was "freed" could ease the international media's criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and make the public announcement of an illegal detention easier to gain the silent acceptance of international public opinion in the future. This is the real wishful thinking of the Chinese Communist regime. However, the current conditions are not very favorable to the Communists, and the international climate is shifting toward being more concerned about human rights in China.
Recently, the criticism from the international media towards China has been gradually increasing. Moreover, people are shifting from a simple concern about economy and trade toward a full attention regarding China's politics, culture and human rights. I have just returned from Europe after attending a ceremony which awarded me with the first Renzo Foa award. I noticed that the news media and politicians in Europe have also expanded their attention to fields beyond the economy. Last Thursday, I attended a roundtable discussion in the US Congress, which was the prelude of formal hearings in the future. During the discussion, human rights activists Li Xiaorong and three U.S. professors and human rights activists presented the deteriorating Chinese human rights situation to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. The co-chairman of the Commission, Senator Sherrod Brown, asked them many questions. In particular, he asked if American lawyers care about human rights in China and whether they participate in various human rights works, etc. His questions were very sharp and to the point, and the legal scholars had difficulties giving satisfactory answers.
For years, as the big Western companies did business in China, they cooperated with the Chinese Communist regime at the same time to suppress attention towards Chinese human rights abuses. Meanwhile, they created some myths to deceive the Western people. One of these myths was that these Western companies would bring systems that meet the human rights standards in the West to China, as well as pay direct attention to China's human rights through the private sector. Several scholars have mostly worked in China. They also have to admit that the U.S. companies do not really want people to participate in China's human rights and other social activities. Besides doing the companies' business activities in China, people find it difficult to participate in other social activities. Senator Brown's questions, in fact, were to expose these lies of the big Western companies with the help of these experts' answers. The Senator also reminded us that all the questions and answers were recorded, to be a reference for the Congress in considering Chinese issues.
I spoke there regarding the most sensitive issue, which is also the one of most concern: the China's human rights situation in implication with the U.S. national interests. This issue was also the theme of this roundtable and will be one of the main themes during the formal hearings in the future, with the ultimate hope of leading to some laws in that regard.
The repression of human rights by the Chinese Communist Party has always revolved around one main theme: to deprive the rights of workers and peasants. The Communist regime has deprived people the right to organize trade unions, to strike, and suppressed all other collective activities in order to maintain extremely cheap labor to earn excess profits. The goods produced by this cheap labor largely occupy the U.S. market. Together with the non-tariff and tariff barriers created by the Communist regime, they become the source for the huge US-China trade deficit every year. The accumulation of huge trade deficits year after year is one of the main reasons that the U.S. economy slipped into recession, as well as one of the reasons for the massive unemployment of American workers.
The U.S. business community played a role in assisting the Chinese government to repress the rights of workers. They share the excess profits, and consciously become defenders for the human rights policy of the Communist regime. They sold Chinese human rights for their own interests. They helped the Chinese government to deceive the public opinion of the international society, to deceive the American people, as well as to betray America's national interests. It is they who prompted the U.S. to enter into an unfair trade relation.
In the future hearings, we will have more in-depth exposure of these issues. In fact, this unfair trade relationship is not restricted to trade alone, but also strongly influences overall economic performance and political operations that bring a huge impact to overall social life. The pillar of this unfair trade relationship is the cheap labor maintained by the authoritarian politics, where Chinese workers are suppressed in an exploited position. Chinese workers have not gained the economic benefits they deserve and should be sharing with the growth of overall economic indexes, other than to have some increased opportunity to get low wage jobs. Meanwhile, the currency policy of the Chinese government resists the possible growth of consumption by the Chinese people due to the market's own circulation.
The Chinese people's low level of consumption coupled with various non-tariff barriers on imports into China has artificially inflated prices of imported goods, making China lack a market for imported goods, in correspondence to the cheap goods make in China. This is exactly the main reason for American workers losing their jobs. The difference between low cost and high priced consumption resulted in a proliferation of money in the financial markets, which lead to the financial crisis as well as the ongoing economic recession in the USA.
The social consequences of the proliferation of currency are that the gap between rich and poor in both USA and China has expanded synchronously. As the normal consumption of the two countries is shrinking, the consumption of luxury goods and corruption is rapidly growing. Thus, social conflicts increase, social stability decreases, and vicious riots increase. This is even more prominent in China. Most Chinese are already below the poverty line and are even less likely to bear economic and political blows. They become ever more fragile and easily angered due to accumulated abuses. Further, coupled with China's inefficient legal system, people have to take self-protection actions which are beyond the legal limits. This is the reason that a significant increase of resistance through violence in China is happening.
The harm due to this unfair trade relation is full-scale and very serious. In the following hearings in the US Congress, there will be more in-depth discussion about these unreasonable affairs, and an attempt to develop appropriate corrective measures.
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