The Asian Wall Street Journal International Commentary
April 11, 2001
Anyone been wondering what could be more important to Jiang Zemin than lording it over the U.S. in person during the "spy plane" fiasco? Over the past few days, the peripatetic Chinese president has been in Latin America trying to thwart a U.N. censure resolution on China's human-right record. As part of its propaganda effort, on Monday Beijing gave itself a glowing report card.
As serious as the subject is and grumpy as everyone is with China right now, it's hard to keep a straight face at this latest gem. While there's always room for improvement in human rights, the authors deadpanned in the "white paper," it's been a pretty super year. The report praises progress in political rights and the court system and even managed to factor Falun Gong into the credit side of the balance sheet -- counting it as evidence of the country's efforts toward "safeguarding social stability and the people's lives and property." It even touts gold medals won in the Sydney Olympics as a sign of progress.
China is notoriously prickly about these things. The country publishes its own list of American human rights abuses to rebut any charges leveled against it. In the past, grievous injuries suffered by Americans have included too many privately owned guns and the fact that the price of college tuition has been increasing faster than middle-class salaries.
The publication of the latest report came just a day after the latest in a series of Chinese arrests of U.S. scholars. As others have noted, the detention of the 24 member crew is just another example of China's habit of detaining first and asking questions later. And its willingness to pick a fight with the U.S. despite clear protocol on return of the men has been confirmation of its intention to continue flouting international norms.
Leaving aside the obvious and unapologetic whitewashing of atrocities, however, the propaganda makes China look panicky. While the U.S. has frequently sponsored resolutions like the one coming up in Geneva, the new Bush administration has made clear it takes seriously the obligation to tell the truth about China's record. And there's more at stake this time: Beijing badly wants to host the 2008 Olympics. The U.S. Congress has already weighed in on the issue with Republicans and Democrats alike opposing the idea. A human-rights censure resolution passed by the U.N. would almost certainly quash Beijing's chances.
Long before the white paper, a February report by the U.S. Department of State chronicled the real nitty gritty of the Chinese government's attacks on its own people. As President Jiang's trip shows, China takes these accusations extremely seriously and devotes considerable energies to trying to refute them. In this way China's leaders are increasingly being forced to accept the terms of the debate and move on to specific charges, lest national prestige, never very high to many eyes, suffer more serious blows. The more China is drawn into the human rights debate, the better. But the world will be even more impressed when the actions it takes become more than propaganda and begin to be substantive actions to protect the rights of its citizens.
