CHINA: Beijing May Yet Be Shifting Tactics on Human Rights

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Yojana Sharma

HONG KONG, Nov 28 1997 (IPS) - At first dismissed as but a shrewd, expedient move by Beijing, the release of leading dissident Wei Jingsheng may well be part of a new Chinese strategy for improving its human rights image overseas as its international clout falters, analysts say.

Now in exile in the United States after being released Nov 15 on medical parole, Wei was the first political prisoner to be set free in response to international pressure since Beijing’s failed bid in 1993 and 1994 to host the 2000 Olympic Games.

“Back in 1993, when the site for the 2000 Olympics was being chosen, the Chinese government decided it was a good policy to release dissidents. But then from 1994 it adopted a much harsher line,” said Xu Liangying, an usually outspoken professor at Beijing University.

Many dissident groups, cynical about China’s motives, saw Wei’s release as a one-off expedient move that meant little change for the country’s general rights situation.

They say Beijing’s expertly-timed release of key political prisoners shows dissidents are merely bargaining chips to secure concessions in its relations with western countries — in this case possibly a bid for the 2004 Olympics.

“Sending one or more dissidents into exile does not represent an improvement in the Chinese human rights situation,” the New York-based Human Rights in China said in a statement.

“The dissidents are simply being used as political hostages,” said Yeung Sum of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party who has been deemed a “subversive” for his criticism of the Chinese leadership during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising. “He (Wei) should not have been imprisoned in the first place.”

Still, some activists believe Wei’s release signals a more flexible stance by Beijing after several years of intransigence. Other recent but less-publicised moves may also point to a shift.

In April, Beijing announced it would sign the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees non-discrimination, equal rights for education, health, environmental protection, employment, social welfare and the right to form trade unions.

A Chinese spokesman said China acceded to the covenant just before President Jiang Zemin’s October visit to the U.S. Beijing, however, has not yet signed the convention, he added.

Human rights lawyers note that signing the covenant requires much legal and administrative preparation, unlike the attention- grabbing release of high-profile dissidents. Many laws and hundreds of regulations have been passed in China in recent years in the areas covered by the covenant.

The acceptance of the covenant is especially important for Hong Kong’s guarantees since sovereignty was transferred from Britain, which had been a signatory to it, to China. The arrangement “would enable them (China and the international community) to have a better understanding of developments in Hong Kong,” foreign ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said.

Asked if China acceded due to criticism of its rights record, Shen said: “Of course it is not due to external pressure. We have seriously studied the issue.”

But given its past record of breaking guarantees written into its own constitution, distrust of Beijing is still high. “We would like to see Beijing ratify the covenant,” said Ho Heiwah, chairman of Hong Kong’s non-governmental Human Rights Commission. “Some countries keep delaying the process of formal ratification.”

In a significant gesture in late November, Beijing announced that an annual report to the U.N. required under the covenant, and which Britain had furnished yearly on Hong Kong’s behalf, would continue. Beijing also announced that Hong Kong officials would draw up the annual report and speak on behalf of the Beijing delegation at the U.N.

Beijing is expected to be able to make significant mileage out of the Hong Kong report, which is unlikely to be a controversial one. By allowing Hong Kong officials to draw it up, China would be able to say any omissions were made by local officials, though activists say Beijing is unlikely to allow local drafters to be unduly critical.

And while some fear Beijing may paint a rosy picture of the situation in Hong Kong, Beijing can easily argue that Britain did exactly the same during colonial rule.

China, however, has not given any indication it will sign the U.N. covenant on individual, civil and political rights. Clearly, it would be much harder for Beijing to adhere to the terms of this accord, which deals with political freedom.

“Two or three swallows do not make a summer. China needs to do a lot more in order to prove she is sincere in trying to improve her appalling human rights record,” former Hong Kong legislator Emily Lau said. She said the next step was the release of political prisoners and accession to the U.N. convention on political rights.

Still, many wonder why China is more willing to have a dialogue on rights. One explanation offered by rights groups is that with foreign investment dropping significantly in the last two years, and foreigners no longer beating a track to its door, China no longer wields as much economic clout as it did in the early 1990s.

Trade is an important issue, particularly now that devaluing currencies in the rest of Asia means that China must work harder to sell its products overseas.

Beijing has been pushing for permanent Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status with the United States to end the annual round of bickering over renewal, and China has no wish for Hong Kong to be an additional irritant in the yearly debate at this time.

In Beijing earlier this year, U.S. congressman Jim Kolbe said the U.S. wanted to monitor the return of Hong Kong for about a year, before looking at changing the way MFN is granted to China.

A year ago, retiring U.S. consul general Richard Mueller said the U.S. would treat Hong Kong differently from China after 1997, supporting it as a separate member of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the World Trade Organisation and giving it trade and aviation concessions. But he noted: “We can do so only as long as Hong Kong remains a genuinely separate entity distinct from the rest of China.”

The situation would also depend on Hong Kong citizens “being active in political and civic affairs so that they have a say in running their territory”, he said.

Dissident groups overseas say Hong Kong is likely to be a major focus for western governments concerned about China’s rights record. Without an annual report to the U.N., other countries, including the European Union, have said they would take it upon themselves to monitor developments in Hong Kong and consider compiling an annual report on human rights.

In other words, activists here say, China’s action on rights is as much to safeguard its economic interests as the need to jealously guard its sovereignty from undue foreign “intervention”.