U.S. Censure of China's Human Rights Abuses

Lung-chu Chen

In view of the deteriorating human rights conditions in China, the United States announced the other day that it will sponsor a resolution to censure China's human rights record at the forthcoming meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, scheduled for Geneva in March.

China's immediate response was anger, emphasizing that the Chinese government was firmly opposed to "the U.S. practice of interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights."

As a matter of fact, the deteriorating conditions of human rights in China include: a growing crackdown on political dissent, an ongoing campaign to suppress the Falun Gong meditation movement, tightening controls on the media and the Internet, and heightened controls on unregistered churches and on the political and religious expression of ethnic minority groups, especially Tibetans.

As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and as a signatory to the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, China not only has failed to comply with the letter and spirit of the U.N. Charter and of the International Covenants on Human Rights, but has employed the control and suppression of the freedom of religion and freedom of expression as an instrument of policy.

Thanks to the contemporary global human rights movement, the international human rights law, as based on the International Bill of Human Rights, has become the yardstick by which to judge the legitimacy of a government. Human Rights abuses and violations cannot be excused in the name of "sovereignty" or "internal affairs." In today's world, it is a right to criticize human rights violations wherever they may occur. Moreover, it is a duty for every government and every concerned citizen of the world to speak up against human rights abuses and violations.

As a member of the world community dedicated to the advancement of human dignity values, the island nation of Taiwan should join in condemning China's human rights abuses.