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- Does Labour Have Any Human Rights Bottom Lines? was Rod Donald's question on 1 June.
- He Wouldn't Get Away With It In Tienanmen Square — but Rod was allowed to hold a Tibetan flag outside the New Zealand parliament on 26 May to try to prick the conscience of visiting Chinese politician Wu Bangguo, the chair of China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
- They Keep Cats In Cages, Don't They? Humans are not the only beings who lack rights and humane treatment in China. On 1 June the Greens Animal Welfare spokesperson, Sue Kedgley, said that "A lengthy investigation by the US Humane Society found that several million cats and dogs are raised in China in atrocious conditions and then slaughtered and used for the manufacture of clothing, accessories, trinkets and toys.
- Supporting The Contaminated Food Trade — And Refusing To Accept Responsibility For It - was NZ's shameful position at the Montreal working group on legal and technical issues of the Cartagena Protocol on bio-safety last month. Jeanette Fitzsimons, Green Party Co-Leader & GE Spokesperson, said on 31 May:
- Spot The Difference between the Labour trade ambassador and the National trade ambassador. Difficult? Responding to Trade Negotiation Minister Jim Sutton's accusation of betrayal when he found out that 'his' WTO Ambassador, Tim Groser, proposed to become a National Party candidate, Rod suggested on 23 May that Jim chill out.
"Helen Clark has said from Beijing that she did not think New Zealand should avoid a trade deal with China because of its human rights record," Rod said. "This is despite just being censored by the Chinese government during a CNN interview on human rights."
"Today in Parliament, Acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen refused to outline any human rights bottom lines to the Government's trade policy. All he would say is that, if the Government only traded with countries that it agreed with totally, New Zealand wouldn't even trade with Australia and the USA.
"Cullen and Clark deliberately miss the point. We're not asking the Government to stop trading with China. At issue here is whether New Zealand should give a preferential trade deal to one of the world's worst human rights abusers.
"This is a far cry from the Helen Clark of old, who said when elected leader of the Labour Party in 1994, 'The collapse of apartheid did not occur in the 1990s without significant international pressure - the systematic violation of human rights in South Africa was eventually taken very seriously by the international community, but it took many years, through a combination of economic and other sanctions, and diplomatic pressure, to bear fruit'.
"Was she right then? Yes, she was. Is she right now? No, she is not," Rod said.
Read Rod's release.
The head of Chinese security didn't like it though, and tried to force New Zealand police to move him. In thanking the Speaker of the House, and NZ security, for affirming and protecting his right to be there, Rod said:
"We are a democracy, not a dictatorship. This the forecourt of parliament not Tienanmen Square. China locks up or shoots it citizens who cry out for democracy. New Zealand prides itself on protecting the freedom of speech of its citizens.
The way the Chinese Government suppresses free speech should not be acceptable anywhere, but it's illegal in our country. I posed no threat to Mr Wu, and my protest was discreet and respectful. Clearly, my silent vigil holding the Tibetan flag was a more powerful criticism of the Chinese regime that I realised.''
See a photo of Rod's vigil and read more.
Keeping up his campaign to get the government to face up to what it is doing in seeking a preferential trade deal with China, Rod said on 27 May 'Don't let Beijing duck human rights at tonight's dinner'
He sent a copy of Amnesty International's just-released Annual Human Rights Report to Helen Clark urging her to raise the latest abuses in China at her state dinner with Wu Bangguo.
"If she only has time to look at the report's introduction on China, she would at least be able to discuss, over pre-dinner drinks, the tens of thousands of people imprisoned in violation of their fundamental human rights, the thousands sentenced to death or executed and the many people forced off their land.
"Over the main course, they could discuss in depth the at least 3400 people who were executed by the Chinese Government last year - possibly up to 10,000, if a member of Mr. Bangguo's own National People's Congress is to be believed.
"Over dessert they could talk about the more than 100 Tibetan prisoners of conscience who remain locked away. Three of those, two monks and a layman, who were sentenced to three years last year for simply putting up posters promoting Tibetan independence. Following this, she could ask him why China continues to occupy Tibet and oppress its people.''
Rod said Miss Clark should reflect on what she said in Parliament on 18 November 1998 about Jenny Shipley: "Instead, we have had this pitiful simpering about there being a distinction between business issues and issues of human rights and democracy. If that value had been applied in 19th century England and North America, then we would still have slavery, because the representatives of those who employed slaves would claim that there was no connection between that issue and their business values."
Read Rod's release.
Further, said Rod on 25 May, "Too many countries shy away from challenging China on human rights because it is an economic powerhouse. Our government, no matter how keen for a free-trade agreement with China, must take a more principled position."
China has an appalling record on labour standards, refusing to sign core International Labour Organisation conventions and to abolish forced labour, he said.
"China operates prison labour camps believed to house seven million inmates, who are forced to work up to 16 hours a day, without health or safety protections or adequate food, producing a variety of products for export.
"Some of these slave-made products would receive preferential trade access to the New Zealand market were the Government to sign the free-trade agreement with China it's pursuing. That's why the Prime Minister must include a discussion of human rights issues in these talks with Mr Wu Bangguo, and make clear that New Zealand won't even start negotiations on a free-trade agreement until core ILO conventions are ratified.
"We can't be seen to turn a blind eye to the Chinese Government's human rights abuses at the same time as trying to do business with them," said Rod.
Read Rod's release — and check out the Parliamentary questions of 1 June on human rights in China, and the articles, in Analysis, below, for more from Rod and Amnesty International on this issue.
"New Zealanders would be horrified to learn of the cruel conditions dogs and cats endure in this terrible trade," she said. She called on the New Zealand Government to join the growing number of nations who are banning the import and manufacture from Asia of products that use cat and dog fur.
The European Union has just announced that it may ban imports of dog and cat fur used in fluffy toys. Several countries, including Australia, Denmark, the United States, France, Belgium and Sweden, have already banned the trade.
"The problem is that much of the dog and cat fur from China is being fraudulently or not properly labelled. This means that consumers don't know where the fur they buy comes from or what methods have been used to get it.
"We need to take a clear stand against the barbaric trade in farmed fur. It involves the keeping of animals in appalling conditions of confinement, much as the egg industry keeps hens in cages. It isn't right for hens and it isn't right for cats, dogs or any other sentient creatures. New Zealand should ban the import of cat and dog furs and items including them, as Australia has done."
At present, there are no restrictions on the import of cat and dog fur into New Zealand.
Read Sue's release.
''The Government doesn't see New Zealand as a '100% Pure' environment to be protected from GE, but as a GE exporter that should have as little liability as possible for contaminating other countries.''
She made the charge after challenging Environment Minister Marian Hobbs in Parliament this afternoon over the Government's position at the Montreal working group on legal and technical issues of the Cartagena Protocol on bio-safety. The Malaysian delegation has criticised New Zealand for questioning the need for any rules on liability under the Protocol, despite having agreed when it ratified the Treaty to develop such rules.
"Marian Hobbs told the House that she was trying to protect New Zealand's 'economic interests as an agricultural exporter'. The only exporters who would be protected by an absence of liability are those exporting GE foods. All other agricultural exporters, who would suffer loss from contamination from overseas, would be disadvantaged," said Jeanette.
"This shows that while there are currently no applications for release of GE crops or animals and the issue has gone quiet, the Government's longer-term vision is for New Zealand to become an exporter of GE foods.
"Ms Hobbs told the House today that her Government sees New Zealand's own liability regime as the model for the proposed international mechanism being negotiated under Cartagena. "But in New Zealand there is no general liability for causing human health or economic harm through the release or indiscriminate application of Genetically Modified Organisms, unless there is a specific law that has been broken. If that model was applied internationally, New Zealand would have no redress against contamination from countries that have no laws in this area.
"Clearly, the Government is trying to protect future exporters of GE products from liability for any contamination they cause overseas, rather than protecting our environment and those exporters who depend upon its GE-Free status for their market advantage.''
Read Jeanette's release.
"Jim should breathe through his nose rather than accuse his Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation of betrayal," Rod said.
"Mr Sutton is angry because he claims Mr Groser cannot support both the government of the day and National. Clearly, he can, because their trade policies are identical."
"If anything, Groser's selection only strengthens the Labour Government's reputation for embracing a right-wing trade agenda," Mr Donald said.
"The fact is you couldn't slide a trade memo between Labour and National's free-trade policies. Both are obsessed with liberalising trade at the expense of jobs, small businesses and the environment. ''
Read Rod's release.
Action
- Support One Prisoner Of Conscience — Call For The Release Of All.
- Mao Hengfeng is just one example of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese (many of them human and labour rights activists) who have been subjected to brutal treatment in a 'Re-education through Labour' (RTL) detention centre. Her case has been documented by Amnesty International, which is calling for her release and an end to the RTL system. The details are below. For more information — and to record that you have written - go to
Amnesty - ''China: release 'Re-education through Labour' prisoner of conscience.China: release 'Re-education through Labour' prisoner of conscience
Mao Hengfeng is currently held in an RTL facility in Shanghai. She has petitioned the state authorities for many years over her coerced abortion, her right to work, and other basic rights. In April 2004 she was sentenced to 18 months RTL by the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Mao Hengfeng has reportedly been subjected to torture and ill-treatment in the labour camp. In October 2004, she was suspended from a ceiling and severely beaten. In November 2004 her wrists and ankles were bound with leather straps and her limbs pulled in opposite directions. This continued for two days, during which time she was also denied food.
Her refusal to confess to any 'wrongdoing', even under torture, appears to have influenced a decision in December 2004 to increase her original sentence by three months.
Subsequently she has reportedly been held in solitary confinement for short periods, and strapped down on her bed for hours on end. It is also reported that she has been force-fed with an unidentified substance that is turning her mouth black.
'Re-education through Labour' (RTL) has been used in China since the mid-1950s as an extra-judicial form of detention. People receiving RTL terms have no access to a lawyer, there is no court hearing, and 'sentencing' is usually decided by the police alone. Under the current system, people can be detained in an RTL facility for up to four years. Those serving terms of RTL are at high risk of being beaten or subjected to other forms of torture or ill-treatment, particularly if they refuse to recant their 'crimes'.''
Amnesty International considers Mao Hengfeng a prisoner of conscience and is calling for her immediate and unconditional release. Amnesty International is also urging the Chinese authorities to abolish RTL altogether, as the formal criminal justice system already provides a sufficient basis to punish a broad range of minor offences.
Please send appeals to:
Minister of Justice of the People's Republic of China
ZHANG Fusen Buzhang
Ministry of Justice
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu
Beijingshi 100020
People's Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 65292345
(c/o Ministry of Communications)
E-mail: minister [at] legalinfo [dot] gov [dot] cnHere is a sample letter:
''Your Excellency,
I am writing to you to express my concern on behalf of Mao Hengfeng who is currently held in a 'Re-education through Labour' (RTL) facility in Shanghai, and who has reportedly been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
I am urging you to immediately and unconditionally release her, and to allow her to continue her lawful petitioning about her grievances without interference.
I am also urging you, pending her release, to guarantee her safety, and to conduct a full and impartial investigation into the allegations that she has been subjected to torture and ill-treatment, with a view to bringing those responsible to justice.
I would also like to take this opportunity to raise my concerns on the overall use of RTL as an extra-judicial form of detention. I am calling on you to do everything in your power to ensure that RTL is abolished and that all forms of detention in China accord with international human rights standards, including measures to prevent torture. ''
- Spread The Word
. The NZ Prime Minister needs to know that you know just how bad human rights abuses are in China — and that everyone else knows too. Please write to the papers (with a copy to the Prime Minister) a letter with this basic message - 'no rewards for bad behaviour'. The Labour government is bringing shame on New Zealand's record as a defender of human rights and democracy by putting commerce before conscience. Even if every New Zealander were better off financially as a result of a free trade deal (which is extremely unlikely — the facts are that some manufacturers and workers will be worse off, and our environment is suffering) — so what? You wouldn't personally hit someone over the head to get cheaper consumer goods — so why let Chinese police or prison guards do that to a labour rights activist 'on your behalf'?For more information on just how un-free the Chinese people are, (which you could cite in your letter), see the excerpts from Amnesty International's latest annual report under Analysis, below, or read the http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng">whole report.
Further useful sources of information can be found at Human Rights Watch, The US State Department's most recent report on human rights and China's Prison Laborers Pay Price for Market Reforms.
and in the Green Party submission on the FTA with China.
Action
- Who's Wrong About Rights? The Greens asked questions about human rights in China in the House on 1 June, and got the following responses:
- Swallowed By The Dragon? It's already happening, says Rod Donald, in this article which appeared as part of the Christchurch Press's 'Inside China' series on 31 May.
- They're Better Off In Guantanamo Bay Than In China - said the US authorities when asked to return the 22 captives of Uighur ethnicity held in their interrogation and detention centre. That's just one of the more startling sad facts to emerge from Amnesty International's latest report on China. The full report is at http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng and below are two short excerpts.
''Rod Donald (Co-Leader-Green) to the Prime Minister: Was freedom of speech one of the human rights issues she discussed with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during her meeting with him this week?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen (Acting Prime Minister): Yes.
Rod Donald Was it a mark of the high regard in which the Prime Minister is held by the Chinese Government that it censored her answer to a question about human rights in China during a live CNN broadcast, or was it indicative of the intolerance of that oppressive regime?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen: As we all know, freedom of expression in our sense does not exist in China. But it is probably true to say that things are better now than they were when my old friend Keith Locke was an enthusiastic supporter of the Chinese regime.
Keith Locke: I wish to make a personal explanation with regard to the statement the Minister has just made that I have been a supporter of the Chinese regime. At no time have I supported the Chinese regime. I have always pushed for multiparty democracies. I have defended Chinese dissidents over many years. The Socialist Action League, a political organisation to which some people in this House sometimes refer and that I belonged to over 20 years ago was, as the Minister will know, a very strong critic of the Chinese regime, because that regime was undemocratic. The Minister is implying that I was in some ways a Maoist and was supporting that regime, and I object to that totally. I ask the Minister to withdraw and apologise.
Hon Dr Michael Cullen: I withdraw and apologise. I do correct myself. The member was not, indeed, a Maoist; he was a Trotskyite.
Madam Speaker: When a member withdraws and apologises, no other statement is to be made.
Hon Peter Dunne: Does the Government's concern for freedom of speech extend to the situation that occurred before the private dinner hosted by Madam Speaker last week, when I was taken aside and cautioned by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff that I should not raise any topics relating to Taiwan during that dinner with chairman Wu Bangguo, and can the Minister advise whether that direction came from the Prime Minister's office or the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or whether it was just something dreamt up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen: No, I cannot advise on that. I do not have that information. New Zealand, like every other Western democracy, recognises only the regime in Beijing as the legitimate Government of China.
Rod Donald Why is the Prime Minister negotiating a free-trade agreement with a country that continues to occupy Tibet and oppress its people, and what was Premier Wen's response when she raised the issue of Tibet with him?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen: I have no information about Premier Wen's response. Obviously, there are still issues around Tibet. I notice that recent statements from the Dalai Lama indicate that even the Dalai Lama is no longer pushing for Tibetan independence.
Keith Locke: How bad does China's human rights record have to become before the Prime Minister would think again about giving preferential trade access to that regime?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen: If we were to choose with whom we traded purely on the basis of total support for every action Governments took, we would be confined to a very small range of trading partners, indeed. It would not even include Australia and the United States.
Rod Donald Does the Prime Minister recall her own passionate opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa and the sanctions that she supported to help bring down that regime, does she recall accusing that former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley "prefers to build links to oppression while democratic voices are silenced in jail" during her speech to the 1998 Labour Party conference, and does she accept that her own behaviour towards China leaves her open to that same accusation?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen: Yes, yes, and no.''
''China is without doubt an economic superpower. It has recently overtaken Japan to become the world's third largest trader, behind Germany and the USA, and it is New Zealand's fourth largest trading partner. But I believe we will be better off if we don't lock ourselves into a free trade deal with China.
We are already too dependent on China as a source of imported goods. In less than 12 months it is set to eclipse the USA and Japan to become our second largest supplier, behind Australia. However China remains well behind Japan, the USA and Australia on the export side of our ledger.
Although New Zealand's exports to China have grown by over 350% since 1992, we have had a trade deficit ever since then. That's because our imports grew by over 750% in the same period, thanks in part to tariff reductions. For the year to March our $1,851 million trade deficit with China was more than the value of our exports. In other words, we imported twice what we exported, and have now done so for seven years in a row.
Would a free trade deal with China fix all that and should New Zealand be pursuing one even if it did?
The Labour Government is only able to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA) with China because it has recognised China as a market economy. In fact, we were the first country in the world to do so. Many major trading nations, including Japan, the USA and the European Union are simply not prepared to accept that China's economy is not heavily controlled by the state or that wage rates are determined by free bargaining between labour and management.
Labour's consultation document on the proposed FTA is a once over lightly affair. It claims the FTA would have a "significant and positive effect on the New Zealand economy" but this claim has failed to convince New Zealand manufacturers, such as Fisher & Paykel chief executive John Bongard, who wants the Government to "research and publicly release an in-depth study on the benefits of an FTA to all sectors of the economy. Free trade benefits have to spread further than to just agricultural exports".
His concerns are reinforced by Canterbury Manufacturers Association chief executive John Walley, who says "The mad rush to sell more milk powder to Asia, regardless of their democratic, environmental or labour standards, on the back of bilateral trade agreements is leaving New Zealand's manufacturer feeling well and truly sold out...it is all but impossible to compete with low to no cost (when your competition uses slave labour) countries.
The Green Party believes that an FTA with China would lead to a net loss of jobs in New Zealand, a reduction in our manufacturing capacity and an increase in our trade deficit. And it would do nothing to lift Chinese workers out of poverty and oppression, let alone help them on the way to democracy.
The Chinese regime does not deserve a preferential trade agreement with New Zealand. It has occupied Tibet for over 50 years and continues to persecute its people. And it has just passed a law sanctioning the invasion of Taiwan if that territory takes any steps towards nationhood.
China refuses to ratify core International Labour Conventions, including freedom of association, discrimination against women and the abolition of forced labour. It actually denounced three minimum age conventions in 1999.
It is estimated that there are currently seven million people locked up in "reform through labour" prison camps where inmates are forced to work up to 16 hours a day, without pay, adequate food or health and safety protection, making a wide range of products that are exported around the world, including New Zealand. For many of these prisoners their sole crime was calling for freedoms we take for granted.
For our own self-respect New Zealand cannot afford to enjoy the spoils of human misery and exploitation. Instead of kowtowing to China and giving their regime legitimacy, we must stand up to them and say their behaviour towards their own people and their neighbours is unacceptable.
What would happen to a small country like New Zealand if we faced up to a super power like China? Exactly what happened when we went nuclear free and refused to allow US warships into our harbours.
When New Zealand stood against the nuclear tide in the 1980s there were dire warnings that trade would dry up with our major markets and our economy would suffer. Instead our strong moral stand has paid enormous dividends. It put us on the map internationally, especially with a young generation hungry for a beacon of hope in the nuclear winter of the time. They flocked to New Zealand from Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and the USA for a clean, green, nuclear free experience, boosting our tourism industry and subsequently our exports, as they sought our products back home.
Helen Clark has the opportunity to demonstrate world leadership by standing up to China in the same way David Lange stood up to the USA. If she doesn't she will be seen to do exactly what she once accused Jenny Shipley of doing: building links to oppression while democratic voices are silenced in gaol'.''
''The rights of freedom of expression and association of workers' representatives continued to be severely curtailed and independent trade unions remained illegal. In the context of economic restructuring, large numbers of people were reportedly denied adequate reparations for forcible eviction, land requisition and job layoffs. Public and largely peaceful protests against such practices increased, leading to numerous detentions and other abuses.
Beijing was often the focus for such protests due in part to house demolitions during the city's preparations for the Olympics in 2008. People also travelled to Beijing from other parts of the country to petition the central authorities after failing to obtain redress at the local level. Tens of thousands of petitioners were reportedly detained by Beijing police during security operations in advance of official meetings in March and September.
Ye Guozhu was detained on suspicion of 'disturbing social order' in August after applying for permission to hold a mass protest against forced evictions in Beijing. He was sentenced to four years in prison in December. Ye Guozhu and his family had been forcibly evicted from their home in Beijing last year to make way for construction reportedly related to the 2008 Olympics....
....China continued to use 'counter-terrorism' as a means to strengthen its political and economic ties with neighbouring states. Uighurs who had fled to Central Asia, Pakistan, Nepal and other states, including asylum-seekers and refugees, remained at serious risk of forcible return to China. China continued to put pressure on the USA to return 22 Uighurs held in the US detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In June, the US authorities stated that the Uighurs would not be returned to China due to fears that they would be tortured or executed.
Abdulghani Memetimin, a 40-year-old teacher and journalist, continued to serve a nine-year prison sentence in Kashgar after being convicted of 'leaking state secrets' in June 2003. He had been charged in connection with sending information to a Uighur-run NGO based in Germany about human rights violations against Uighurs in the XUAR and making translations of official speeches.''
JustTRADE is produced by Christine Dann, Bronwen Summers and Rod Donald MP.
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