Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-227"
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"en.20071212.27.3-227"2
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"Madam President, I should like to thank Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner for that statement.
I think it is very important, following the EU-China summit – and particularly the EU-China human rights dialogue – that there should be an opportunity for Members of this House to examine the outcome. I do not want to spend time on the EU-China summit. I want to talk about the human rights dialogue, because that was what took me to Beijing last May when, jointly with Ms Flautre, I was preparing a report on the reform of the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights.
I want this afternoon to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. That, of course, is the vast majority of people in China, who want change and reform. But that movement is led by, among others, Gao Zhisheng, a Christian lawyer who has disappeared from his home in Beijing, where he was being held under house arrest following his conviction for ‘subversion’ this time last year.
While I know that his name was among those raised in the dialogue, I think that one of the problems that we find in this House is in relation to the dialogue. While I note that the Commissioner says that it was a sincere and in-depth exchange of views – and I am sure that was true on the side of the Europeans – I am not convinced that would be the case on the side of the Chinese. In my experience – since the time when I was EU-China rapporteur back in 1997, 10 years ago when this process began – there has been absolutely no product in human rights terms from China in the sense that people’s lives have been improved or prisoners have been released or torture has stopped or the massive imprisonment reported by Harry Wu from the Laogai Foundation has ended. He estimates that there are 6.8 million people in one form of detention or other in China today, many of them there for religious convictions – and we think especially here of the Falun Gong practitioners, who are blameless but who are tortured for their beliefs and, in many cases, are dying.
I would like also to reflect on the imminence of the Olympic Games. One should not forget that Article 1 of the Olympic Charter states that countries should enjoin ‘universal fundamental ethical principles’. That means only one thing: that China cannot be held to be an appropriate host for these Games, especially since nothing has fundamentally changed since 2001. I hope all Groups will support the joint motion, which calls for an assessment by the IOC of China’s compliance with the terms which were agreed back in 2001. I fear they will be found wanting. My view is that the Olympics should be transferred forthwith to Athens and remain there forever."@en1
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