by frog
Keith Locke will be resuming his familiar position tomorrow lunch time, outside of Parliament, to draw attention to human rights abuses in China in the lead up to the Olympics. Tomorrow was also supposed to be the first day of the Chinese Government’s trial of Ni Yulan, the prominent human rights activist and defender of the rights of displaced people in Beijing. It seems however that China has now deferred the trial until after the Olympic journalists have left town.
Gordon Campbell covered the politics of the Olympics well last week:
No effort, or money has been spared. China’s rulers have built new venues for the competition, spruced up or razed unsightly neighbourhoods, shut down polluting industries, and officially discouraged distasteful behaviour such as spitting on the sidewalks or elbowing to the front of bus queues. All this effort made during the run- up the Games is now unravelling, as all the global attention to China has proved to be a two edged sword. Yes, China’s awesome march towards modernisation is being showcased at the Games – but so too, it is harshly repressive political system.
Yet, when China made its bid for the 2008 Olympics, Liu Jingmin, vice president of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee said “By allowing Beijing to host the games you will help the development of human rights”, said, April 2001.
Campbell continues:
To surrender the right of freedom of political expression by athletes (and deny them the chance to exploit the vantage point they will enjoy) is to ignore the obvious – namely, that the Games are already being massively exploited by business sponsors for commercial ends, and by the hosts for economic and nationalist purposes. The athletes are already pawns within these processes – and perhaps more of them should be speaking publicly about how they feel about playing such a role for the benefit of Chinese foreign policy.
After all, New Zealand triggered the modern era of political protest at the Olympics.
Hmm, yes, proud moments in New Zealand’s sporting history. So, again, Keith is the MP in Parliament drawing most of the links between the Beijing Olympics and the political practices and goals of the Chinese government:
With only a week to go the Olympic count down has really started. We should put the Chinese authorities on the spot and demand they fulfil their promise to improve human rights. Now is the time to make people aware of China’s human rights record. It is important not to forget the 1000 or so Tibetans still unaccounted for after the violent crackdown against protesters in March.
Published in Justice & Democracy | Society & Culture by frog on Mon, August 4th, 2008
Tags: China, Frog, frogblog, green party, human rights, Keith Locke, new zealand, ni yulan, Olympics
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Well done on highlighting the human rights abuses of the PRC; when are we going to hear about the human rights abuses of North Korea?
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no reason you cant make a blog and write about them, or human rights abuses in south korea, or zimbabwe or sudan or anywhere else.
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yes its interesting how people always inquire when SOMEONE ELSE is going to protest about an issue – if you’re so concerned – john-ston , why don’t YOU do something ?
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Do North Korea, but unlikely the North Koreans are going to know about it, and unlikely a regime that prefers external links with a tiny handful of dictatorships is really going to give a damn either.
Certainly remind people what Liu Jingmin said, good stuff.
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Protesting is all well and good, but it really doesn’t achieve much. Are the Greens going to ask for a motion in Parliament to boycott the Games, withdraw from our Free Trade agreement or something else serious as a result?
No?
Then Mr Locke is just trying to score cheap political points.
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Mr Dennis, you clearly do not know Mr. Locke if you think he’s the type to score cheap political points on human rights. They are central to his entire political career.
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That may have been a bit harsh, no offence meant. But the point about the effectiveness of protest vs actual action is valid. Are the Greens going to do anything about it in parliament? Or are they only going to protest outside?
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Might have to be realistic – are there better, more useful Bills to table out there? I would say so. Not sure if you can ask for a symbolic parliamentary resolution, maybe that would be something…for the opposition anyway.
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It must be hard for the Chinese government. Should they follow the Wests advice, as the Soviet Union did, and become as nice and successful as Russia and the Balkans? Should they emulate Washington’s regard for human rights and label their detractors “Illegal enemy combatants”, lock them away, deny them lawyers and trials and not even tell anyone they have been arrested? Get out of Tibet and into a country with Oil?
“no reason you cant make a blog and write about them, or human rights abuses in south korea, or zimbabwe or sudan or anywhere else.”
Quite right – it is not as if China will kidnap you and send to to be tortured in Uzbekistan.
“A June 2006 report from the Council of Europe estimated 100 people had been kidnapped by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on EU territory and rendered to other countries, often after having transited through secret detention centers (“black sites”) used by the CIA in cooperation with other governments. According to the European Parliament report of February 2007, the CIA has conducted 1,245 flights, many of them to destinations where suspects could face torture, in violation of article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. “
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whats your point?
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