Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-055"
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"en.20020410.3.3-055"2
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"Mr President, human rights organisations are unfortunately continuing to report atrocities committed against dissidents and minorities in China. At the same time, there are continuing protests by workers about the fact that at least 25 million jobs have disappeared in state-owned companies as a result of liberalisation and privatisation. In the old industrial areas in northern China, unemployment is estimated at 40%.
In a study concerning the risk of instability in China, the Conflict Prevention Network observes that, if China’s Communist Party does not manage to guarantee provision for the increasing number of poor and unemployed at a time when others in the population are becoming rich, the party’s ideological legitimacy may begin to be called into question. Things could then become unsettled in China.
In spite of a series of reforms, grassroots democracy has not seriously taken root. China’s leadership is in a race against time, according to the CPN report which also observes that this is creating a dilemma for the EU. Is the EU to support a repressive regime because it maintains stability or is the risk of instability to be incurred through promoting citizens’ rights?
For the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, there is an obvious answer to this question. Citizens’ rights and democracy must be promoted in all circumstances. The Beijing Government must fulfil its promise and initiate talks with the Dalai Lama. It is also necessary to continue the normalisation process with Taiwan without a show of arms, and China must comply with the content of the UN Conventions on Human Rights which have been signed. It is not therefore acceptable for people to be imprisoned because of their religious convictions or ethnic affiliations or because they wish to form a trade union or political party.
Nonetheless, something is perhaps in the process of happening. The latest issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review reports that there is a relaxation of the rules governing mass demonstrations under way. A policeman has even had a letter published stating that the right to demonstrate is written into China’s constitution and that it needs therefore to become easier to obtain permission to demonstrate.
The CPN report says that the EU must be cautious in attempting to influence China. Certainly we can be cautious. However, that presupposes a constructive response from China in which the latter implements the conventions it has signed and in which Chinese representatives do not interpret each friendly criticism as undue interference in China’s internal affairs."@en1
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