Human Rights and Democracy in Southeast Asia
1. PREFACE
The rationale behind this study is two-fold.
First, the issues of human rights, especially women's and labor
rights, and democracy are growing in importance in East Asia. Human
rights and democracy are often under siege as countries in the
region try to gain every advantage possible in the rush to improve
their economies. They also play a critical role in the formulation
of bilateral trade policies between Canada and countries in this
region.
In pursuing trade with countries like China and Indonesia,
successive Canadian governments have been accused of soft-pedaling
human rights.
Second, East Asia is one of the more notable examples of a region
touched by the democracy wave that has swept across the developing
world in the last two decades.
This paper sets out to provide an overview and assessment of the
process and future of democratization and human rights in one key
region of East Asia, an area known as Greater China, which comprises
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This area is assuming increased
importance because mainland Communist China will regain control of
Hong Kong in 1997 and is reasserting its sovereignty claims on
Taiwan. The paper also tries to identify key issues and policy
options for trading partners and aid donors.
Grateful acknowledgment is given to the generous contribution of the
Michener Foundation and to the Toronto Star and its publisher John
Honderich for granting a leave of absence to undertake this project.
Special thanks to the people in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who
provided invaluable insights and information and help with logistics
during my field research.
Bob Hepburn is a journalist with The Toronto Star.
2. INTRODUCTION
Since the early 1900s, most basic elements of western democratic
systems, such as free elections, free speech, constitutional
guarantees of human rights, legislatures to which the executive is
accountable, have been totally absent in most East Asian countries.
Today, democracy still seems far from reality for many people in the
region, which is in the midst of an economic boom that is radically
changing the shape of East Asian politics and diplomacy.
New economic, trading and political relations between East Asian
states are having a major impact on human and civil rights issues,
particularly those dealing with women and labor movements. Western
nations, including Canada, are also struggling to find new way to
respond to such local concerns at the same time as they are
seeking to boost trade with these emerging economies.
Nowhere is this as true as in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
-- an area commonly known as Greater China because of its historic
political, cultural and commercial ties.
China has long opposed linking trade with human rights, which it
regards as interference in its internal affairs. Communist leaders
in Beijing have resisted virtually every attempt by western nations
to tie preferential trading arrangements with improvements in
China's human rights record.
Human rights activists charge China, in its scramble to attract
foreign investors and factories with promises of a super-compliant,
low-wage labor force, is actually retreating on many human rights
that protect workers, especially women. They also complain Beijing
continues to stifle pro-democracy voices in an effort to enforce
"peace" in the workforce.
Many fear that attitude could spread to Hong Kong and Taiwan as
their economies become increasingly linked with China. Both Hong
Kong and Taiwan -- the former by legal necessity and the latter by
choice for the time being -- approach China warily, worried about
the possible future loss of recent democratic and human rights
gains.
Hong Kong is looking ahead to 1997 when it will cease being a
British colony and revert to mainland Chinese sovereignty. Many
residents are worried about political and social reforms, including
the future of the rule of law, the free flow of information and the
free flow of capital.
After Hong Kong, Chinese leaders see Taiwan as the biggest prize of
all. They fear they will be condemned by future Chinese patriots if
they allow Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, to
become formally independent during their watch. Many Taiwanese fear
the island's government, which began a process of political
democratization in 1987 with the lifting of martial law regulations,
may eventually succumb to the authoritarian government of Beijing.
Human rights and democracy advocates complain that the West,
including Canada, has abandoned its defence of human rights during
the last several years to concentrate on expanding trade.
Developing nations have insisted that westerners are insensitive to
cultural differences, fall to see that economic development is also
a human right, and often try to impose western ideas of democracy on
poor states. Washington in particular is under pressure inside and
outside China to play down human rights. China is wooing American,
as well as Canadian and European, companies with the prospect of
rich contracts if their governments lower their tone on human
rights.
The goal of this study is twofold.
First, it aims to explore the nature of the Chinese, Hong Kong and
Taiwanese political processes and its affect on meaningful democracy
and human rights. An historical review of relationships between
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan is undertaken, focusing on the issue of
linking trade to political concessions and the level of human and
political rights. It also examines the trends - and future fears -
of China's economic and political clout influencing Taiwan and Hong
Kong leaders to forgo human rights and democratic gains.
A second aim is to identify key issues of democratization and
explore ways and means by which the international community can
support the transition of the region to a relatively stable and
consolidated democracy. Issues such as building of popular
institutions are examined.
The study looks at how Ottawa is responding to conflicting desires
of wanting to pressure China to improve human rights records at the
same time it wants a greater slice of Chinese trade.
3. HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA
Wei Jingsheng, one of the godfathers of China's human rights and
democracy movements, tried to make his point with a certain
authority: he knew western pressure advances human rights in China
-- it got him out of jail.
Indeed, he claimed he was living proof that linking trade to human
rights works. Wei made his comments in early 1994, soon after
Chinese authorities released him from prison where he had spent the
previous 15 years.
But within days of that fateful public statement, Wei was rearrested
and has been held in prison ever since, charged with trying to
overthrow the government.
The case of Wei Jingsheng is just one of hundreds in China, but it
is the most significant because it -- more than any other incident
since the brutal 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square of pro-democracy
idealists -- seriously undermined efforts by the western
governments, including Canada, to argue that Beijing is making the
kind of progress on human rights needed to avoid the imposition of
trade sanctions on China.
"When they've arrested China's most important dissident, it is very
hard for Canadian or any other officials to say China is making
significant progress on human rights," says Robin Munro, Hong Kong
director for Human Rights Watch/Asia.
For many Canadians, the issue is clear: the Canadian government
should refuse to deal with China until it improves its deplorable
human rights record.
Human rights, especially women's and labor rights, and democracy are
of growing importance in Greater china, which comprises China, Hong
Kong and Taiwan. This area is assuming increased importance because
mainland Communist China will regain control of Hong Kong next year,
in nearby Portuguese-controlled Macau in 1999, and is reasserting its
sovereignty claims on Taiwan.
Both human rights and democracy are under siege in China and other
East Asian nations as they try to gain every advantage possible in
the rush to improve their economies. They also play a critical role
in the formulation of bilateral trade policies between Canada and
countries in this region.
China has long opposed linking trade with human rights, which it
regards as interference in its internal affairs. Many fear that
attitude could spread to Taiwan and Hong Kong as their economies
become increasingly linked with China.
Taiwan is actively increasing its contacts with China despite the
refusal of each government to recognize the other's legitimate
rights. Taiwan is making the move to bolster trade and to gain
international acceptance.
Hong Kong is looking ahead to 1997 and worried about political and
social reforms, including the future of the rule of law, the free
flow of information and the free flow of capital.
China has repeatedly been cited for human rights abuses, including
torture, illegal political arrests, gross violation of workers'
rights (many Asian countries have built their economies on cheap
labor) and suppression of freedom of speech, by foreign governments,
human rights organizations and international agencies.
Yet, despite years of subtle pressure from the West, China's human
rights record remains appalling. Some experts contend it's actually
growing worse.
"It's totally depressing from a human rights viewpoint," according
to Munro.
In fact, it's becoming an annual ritual: Foreign government or
international human rights groups, especially women's and labor
organizations, denounce China for its human rights record.
And just as ritually, China ignores the reports.
Those reports cite cases of torture, illegal political arrests,
suppression of freedom of speech, the use of prison labor to
manufacture goods for export, gross violation of workers' rights
(many Asian countries have built their economies on cheap labor),
including the use of bonded child labor in rural parts of China.
Chinese authorities have detained thousands of "prisoners of
conscience;" inadequately account for those who are missing or were
detained after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre; continue to crack down
on journalists; routinely arrest dissidents during foreign visits;
deny fair trials; reportedly force prisoners to donate their organs
for transplants; and turn a blind eye to forced
abortions and sterilizations although such practices are not
authorized.
The plight of women is acute because many female workers are
suffering because of Beijing's efforts to increase its economic
growth. Women also face ordeals ranging from forced abortions and
widespread family violence to being sold into slavery. Slavery is
still practiced in Borne parts of China, with children sitting at
100mB or carrying bricks all day. Recently, Human Rights Watch
released a report charging China had deliberately allowed up to
80,000 children, most of them girls, to die.
China's leaders contend their people aren't ready for full legal
rights or a true say in their own government. A senior Chinese
official was quoted recently saying the Chinese won't be ready for
democracy until 2050.
Since the turn of the century, most of the basic elements of western
democratic systems, such as open elections, constitutional
guarantees of rights, legislatures to which the executive is
accountable, have been lacking in China and most other East Asian
countries. Today democracy still seems far from reality In the
region.
In rearresting Wei, China's communist Party leaders appeared to be
telling the world that they knew western nations, fearful of being
shut out of the world's largest emerging market, were more
interested in pursuing their economic goals in maintaining trade
with China rather than pressing its human rights concerns.
More than anyone else, Wei was an inspiration for many human rights
and democracy activists. During his six months of freedom in
1993-94, he met with other activists, granted interviews to foreign
journalists and wrote in western publications espousing democracy in
China. In a 1994 article for the Hong Kong-based Eastern Express, he
said that using "persuasion and
education" to change China's attitude toward human rights was like a
lamb trying to reason with a wolf. "It's not that the wolf doesn't
understand reason, but rather that he isn't interested in discussing
reason," he wrote.
Human Rights Watch/Asia said China felt confident about arresting
Wei and handing out harsh punishments to other human rights
activists because of huge foreign business interest in China
"The scramble in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United states to buy
into the Chinese economic boom has convinced authorities in Beijing
that they have nothing to loge by flaunting their contempt for human
rights," Human Rights Watch/Asia Executive Director Sidney Jones
said. "Countries engaging in 'commercial diplomacy' with China
should express outrage over these sentences," she said. "But
statements, unless backed by other actions, will have no impact on
China especially if the rush to conclude business deals continues."
Pressure on Ottawa to play down human rights is strong. China is
wooing Canadian companies with the prospect of rich contracts. In
the last two years, Canadian firms have won billions of dollars
business in the booming Chinese economy.
World leaders are walking a tightrope throughout Asia, but
especially in China, on pressing for human rights while seeking more
business. Chretien ran into the same issue during a 12-day tour to
India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia in January, 1996. In India,
he suggested Ottawa may impose import restrictions on goods made by
child labor.
During such trade missions, human rights and internal political
issues are soft-pedaled. The oft-repeated claim is that the best way
to improve the lot for the average Chinese is through trade.
Ottawa insists it has been pressuring China to relax its
restrictions on human rights, but at the same time it's also
targeting China as one of the big emerging economies in Asia and it
wants to sell its goods there.
Canada would join other multilateral sanctions, but acting alone "in
the case of trade, may hurt Canada more than it will change the
behavior of offending governments," Foreign Affairs Minister Andre
Ouellet said in 1995. "Our ultimate aim is not punish countries and
innocent populations whose governments abuse human rights, but
rather to change behavior and to induce governments to respect their
people's rights."
The way to do that is through trade, he argued.
The lineup of companies winning contracts in China reads like a
Who's Who of Canadian business: Northern Telecom, which is the
largest Canadian player in China with a track record dating back
more than two decades; Seagrams; Babcock & Wilcox, the
Cambridge-based value company; Mississauga's Spar Aerospace Ltd.,
famous for its Canadarm; SNC-Lavalin Inc, the Quebec engineering
giant, and GE Canada.
Recently, Ottawa began the first official dialogue with Beijing on
human rights since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.
During a 1994 visit to China, Chretien told Chinese Premier Li Peng
Canada wanted to maintain a dialogue with China on human rights.
He promised Canada would not link trade to human rights. But he
offered to assist Beijing create a more democratic society by
training judges, assisting in the development of a modern legal
system and bringing Chinese legislators to Canada to see how
parliament works.
Li's reply was a stony silence.
Amnesty International has sharply criticized Chretien's handling of
Chinese human rights, saying there is a stampede to improve trade
while ignoring abuses and a "willful public neglect of Canada's
commitment to the protection of international human rights."
Since the early 1900s, most basic elements of western democratic
systems, such as free elections, free speech, constitutional
guarantees of human rights, legislatures to which the executive is
accountable, have been totally absent in China and most other East
Asian countries. Today, democracy still seems far from reality for
many people in the region, which is in the midst of an economic boom
that is radically changing the shape of East Asian politics and
diplomacy.
New economic, trading and political relations between East Asian
states are having a major impact on human and civil rights issues,
particularly those dealing with women and labor movements. Western
nations, including Canada, are also struggling to find new way to
respond to such local concerns at the same time they are seeking to
boost trade with these emerging economies.
Nowhere is this as true as in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
an area commonly known as Greater China because of its historic
political, cultural and commercial ties.
China has long opposed linking trade with human rights, which it
regards as interference in its internal affairs. Communist leaders
in Beijing have resisted virtually every attempt by western nations
to tie preferential trading arrangements with improvements in
China's human rights record.
Human rights activists charge China, in its scramble to attract
foreign investors and factories with promises of a super compliant,
low-wage labor force, is actually retreating on many human rights
that protect workers, especially women. They also complain Beijing
continues to stifle pro-democracy voices in an effort to enforce
"peace" in the workforce.
Most international human rights organizations conclude that China
has made no progress in any major human rights are a in recent
years.
China has tortured political prisoners and jailed some on trumped-up
charges in the years since U.S. president Bill Clinton delinked
human rights from preferential trade status in 1993, according to
Human Rights Watch/Asia.
The U.S. State Department, in its 1995 report on human rights, said
"widespread and well-documented human rights abuses continue in
China, in violation of internationally accepted norms, stemming bath
from the authorities' intolerance of dissent and the inadequacy of
legal safeguards for freedom of speech, association and religion.
Abuses include arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention,
torture and mistreatment of prisoners.
Worker rights are one of the major issues for China, leading to more
than 10,000 strikes and work stoppages in China in 1993 by the
government's own admission. Wages and working conditions are usually
key issues, but so is the freedom to organize and to present demand
for improvements. China is creating a pressure cocker by keeping
tight controls on freedom of association and allowing worker
grievances to build up.
Independent labor union activity is outlawed. Labor leaders are
frequently rounded up and put in jail.
Officially sanctioned unions are being encouraged to build their
presence in factories. But critics accuse them of being too much
under the thumb of the authorities.
Aware of the western criticism over its human rights record, China
has tried to make some moves to improve conditions.
Robin Munro, considered one of the most knowledgeable human rights
experts dealing with China, concedes some betterment in Chinese
workers freedom to migrate within China, to travel abroad and to
some easing of government intrusion into private affairs.
Also, China has pledged to improve women's rights, to build modern
and civilized prisons, and revise laws dealing with a person's right
to a fair trial.
Some observers are hopeful conditions will change after aging
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping dies. Realistically, though, the status
quo will likely be maintained, at least for the short term.
Chinese leaders, who interpret human rights as "survival rights,"
are convinced that western-style democracy is wrong for China, which
operates on an ageless system of consultation and consensus in which
the leaders make the major decisions for the people.
They see democracy as a prescription for anarchy, factionalism and
revolts. Repeatedly, they point to the former soviet Union, arguing
that liberalization and increased democracy has led to the economic
collapse, wars and mass killings in the former soviet republics.
Never stated, though, is the leaders' fears that democratization
would surely mean the loss of their privileged positions.
Ultimately, what should Canada and other states do?
The most important step must be adoption of coordinated
multinational pressure, including by other Asian states, says Munro
of Human Rights Watch/Asia.
Many Chinese dissidents oppose the imposition of trade sanctions
because they fear the loss of foreign markets would cost hundreds of
thousands of factory workers their jobs. They say Canada and other
western nations should be willing to enforce limited trade sanctions
if China falls to make any concessions on human rights, such as
providing information about jailed dissidents, allowing Red Cross
visits to them, halting exports of prison-made goods and relaxing
repression in Tibet.
Says Munro: "What we ask is that it be consistent, sustained and
multinational."
4. WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Speaking softly to calm the frantic caller, Zhang Yanling tells a
woman on the telephone her husband is breaking the law by beating
her and gives the secret location of a shelter for battered spouses
if she fears for her life.
For Zhang, it's a typical night at the Women's Hotline -- the first
and only crisis line in China.
Most callers seek advice on marriage, childcare, sex, how to get a
boyfriend or how to lure husbands back from their mistresses.
But a rapidly growing number of calls deal with more serious issues
of rape, wife-beating, sexual harassment by bosses, unfair firings
from jobs, pay discrimination, sweatshop working conditions, poor
access to higher education, forced prostitution, female slavery.
"It's like this every night," says Zhang, a radio reporter who works
as a volunteer at the hotline, which operates out of a non-descript
building near the center of Beijing.
Despite Mao's famous remark about women holding up half the sky,
Chinese women remain second-class citizens with their legal and
human rights violated almost dally.
Activists complain that the state of women's rights is worsening --
not improving -- in the 1990s as freewheeling capitalism combines
with a society that clings to feudal traditions for many of China's
600 million women.
The counselling hotline, set up in 1992, is a gauge for Chinese
women's concerns as they struggle to keep pace with the economic
changes sweeping China and the resulting increase in job competition
which threatens their marriages, mental health, social and legal
rights.
"It's clear there's been a great reversal with the reform era.
Things are going backward" says Wang Xiagjuan, founder of the
non-governmental Women's Research Institute in Beijing, which runs
the popular hotline. "Chinese women still have little understanding
of their legal rights" Wang says. "In rural China, women are still
sold to husbands they never met. One in three wives tell us she was
beaten by her husband at one stage of their marriage. Nothing will
change here until women rise up and do something for their own
cause".
Chinese women from all walks of life have suffered serious human
rights violations in recent years, an Amnesty International report
said in June. Many have been detained, tortured, restricted or
harassed for exercising fundamental rights such as freedom of
expression or association.
Amnesty International charged that Chinese women are locked up for
years for joining pro-democracy movements; forced into prison labor;
tortured, raped and sexually abused while in custody; and are
generally harassed and persecuted for promoting human rights.
Zhang and other activists hoped that Beijing's hosting of the Fourth
United Nations World Conference on Women in September, 1995, would
awaken women, men and the government to an unraveling of the
advances women made during China's first three decades of socialism,
particularly universal daycare, compulsory education for all girls,
and guaranteed jobs for female university graduates.
Most media attention focused on China's refusal to grant visas to
many women who wanted to attend the NGO Forum in Huairou, a dusty
farm town an hour's drive from the capital. Many of those denied
visas represented Taiwanese and Tibetan independence movements,
lesbian groups, or opposed China's policy on abortion.
Gertrude Mongella, secretary-general of the U.N. conference, said
the main issues facing delegates were violence against women,
women's illiteracy poverty, equal pay and greater participation in
politics. While women around the globe have made progress over the
last 20 years toward legal equality, equal pay and abolition of
illiteracy, progress has been too slow and must be speeded up, she
added.
China's emerging independent women's groups tried to use the
conference to raise sensitive issues, notably violence against
women, illiteracy and employment as well as growing cases of
trafficking of women and children in rural areas.
"We need to change social attitudes toward women in a society where
men are still trying to dominate them", Zhang says.
In the workplace, Chinese women are paid less and are more likely
than men to be fired when jobs are cut. Some 180 million Chinese
women are illiterate and few women attain high political office.
Amnesty International said in its recent report that the Chinese
government concedes the decade-old modernization drive "has produced
few women political leaders, that women are still disadvantaged in
access to employment and education, and that the 'social evils' of
trafficking in women, pornography and prostitution have all
re-emerged. In marriage, the personal rights of
women have been infringed upon, domestic violence is on the
increase, and sexual harassment is escalating".
Women have long suffered in China. Their legal, social and familial
rights were minimal.
For centuries, Chinese women had little say over their lives, from
whom they married to where they worked to how many children they
had. many of those attitudes linger today. For example, fewer than
half of China's women have complete say in who they marry. Parents
and matchmakers still select husbands for many girls.
Until the 1940s, many girls' feet were tightly bound to keep them
short. The arch usually was broken. Women wobbled on their heels
because tiny feet were considered erotic.
Small and young girls were often sold and traded between families.
When the Communists came to power in 1949, Mao Tse-tung banned the
binding of women's feet and the trafficking in female. He also
announced that women had equal rights in the new China, stating that
"Women hold up half the sky."
But the reality is a far cry from Mao's vision.
Even Chinese authorities realize they have to improve their record
on women's rights -- or face more global condemnation.
Beijing had launched a high-profile campaign in the weeks leading up
to the U.N. conference to punish crimes against women. Battered
wives suddenly became a nationwide scandal. Several husbands were
sentenced to long prison terms for raping their wives. The Women's
Research Institute which receives help from the Canada-China
Cooperation Support Unit, a CIDA-backed group, conducted one survey
indicating domestic violence in 21 per cent of all homes in Beijing.
The government says the real figures are less than 5 per cent. Those
numbers are low compared to rates cited in Canada.
Last year, China unveiled a 5-year plan to bolster the status of
women by giving them top government jobs, protecting them from
kidnapping and sale and halting female infanticide.
The government's own survey's show 32 per cent of government
officials are women, but only 10 per cent hold posts above the
county level.
Under the plant officials must combat the abduction and buying and
selling of women as well as the ill-treatment persecution and
humiliation of women. Kidnapping and trading in women has revived in
recent years with women garnering high prices as prostitutes or as
brides for farmers who cannot find wives. A kidnapped bride can be
bought for as little as $150 Canadian.
Eleven leaders of a kidnapping gang were recently sentenced to death
for seizing more than 100 women and selling them to farmers. Police
in Inner Mongolia rescued nearly 500 women last year who had been
abducted from around China and sold as wives.
Amnesty International said women and children are sold by their
families or deceived with phony job offers. They are sold as wives,
slaves or prostitutes. "Villagers often protect the purchasers and
violently resist any attempt to rescue the victims", it said.
Reports in the official China Legal Dally indicate that more than
33,000 women were abducted and sold between mid-1993 and early this
year.
Female infanticide, or the killing of baby girls, has risen sharply
in recent years as parents eager for a son and limited to only one
child under China's strict family planning policy get rid of baby
girls to ensure a second chance that could give them a son.
In defence of its one-child policy, China issued a report arguing
that its policy gives women more opportunities and is crucial for
China's future. Women's leaders say the policy violates a woman's
right to control her own reproduction. Couples in major cities can
have only one child; those in rural areas can have two if the first
is female. Ethnic groups are exempt.
The government has banned sex-screening of fetuses, except when
needed on medical grounds.
Because millions of couples prefer a boy over a girl such tests had
become popular. Many parents were choosing to abort a fetus rather
than give birth to a baby that tests indicate would be a girl.
It is the "new economy" though, that is causing Chinese women the
most immediate problems. Capitalism is proving a boom to thousands
of well-educated, English-speaking university graduates, but a truly
tough road for most poor Chinese women, one-third of whom are
illiterate.
Nearly three of every four women work, on assembly lines, in
offices, driving buses and trucks, sweeping streets and collecting
garbage, tilling farmland.
Increasingly, though, they are finding themselves the first to be
fired by struggling state firms and the last to be hired by
foreign-owned industries in joint ventures with Chinese partner.
"It is hard for women to get hired," says Zhao Hong, a women's
activist in Beijing. "Foreign companies think women aren't as
efficient and often pay much lower wages than they do men."
With declining government supervision, Zhao says many employers are
reverting to old-fashioned notions that women should stay at home
and those who do work will quit to marry or cost them money for
maternity and child care.
Studies by the Women's Research Center concluded that 70 per cent of
the 20 million workers laid off in the 1990s by dying Chinese state
enterprises were women. Many private employers are recruiting only
men except for low-paid factory work.
Millions of women earn barely $100 a month, then see 50 per cent or
more taking away in "fines" for production mistakes or for living
inside the actual factories where they work.
"The big issues are how the laws are being eroded", Wang Xianjuan
says. Laws require employers to pay women salaries equal to those
paid men, to provide fully paid leaves-of-absence for pregnancies,
breast-feeding and menstruation, to provide equal retirement
policies.
Many employers are now ordering women not to marry or get pregnant.
And last year, the All-China Women's Federation, run by the ruling
Communist Party, issued an unusual report complaining that women
were being paid less than half the wages of males for the same job.
Joanna Kerr of the Ottawa-based North-South Institute says that the
primary material need for women in China is to land and loans. A key
psycho-social need is an adequate legal framework for redress
against male violence and the abuse of reproductive rights.
China is far from being alone among Asian states in treating women
as second-class citizens.
"Asian women suffer numerous problems, especially long work hours,
poor housing, low pay and subhuman working conditions," says Nelia
Sancho, a director of the Asian Women's Human Rights Council based
in Manila, Philippines. Countries that can offer the cheapest labor
often wins in the rush to win contracts from multinational
companies, she said. "Women are seen as less militant in labor
unions, will accept lower wages and are more easily hired and
fired."
Examples abound of how Asian men try to prevent women from obtaining
full rights.
In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, the man credited with founding the
modern city-state, said last year he regretted giving equal
education rights to women. He said highly educated women in
Singapore find it harder to get husbands because of the traditional
opposition among Asian men to marrying women with higher
qualifications than they have.
The values are outdated, yet still run deeply in Singapore's
society, Lee said. "But you can't unscramble the egg. So, all you
have got to do is re-educate the male. '1
In Hong Kong, many of the 400,000 women living in villages in the
New Territories have no rights. Despite recent laws, they are forced
by social pressures to give up their inheritance rights to rural
land. Women were not allowed to vote for village heads earlier this
year. Some husbands voted for their wives or cast votes for their
widows.
It wasn't until last year that the Hong Kong legislature voted to
ban the practice of preventing women in the New Territories from
inheriting property after the death of male family heads. Male
village elders refused to go along with the law.
In Taiwan, women cannot divorce men, even if she has been abandoned
and has lived alone for 10 years. If a woman leaves her husband, he
can file a suit and force her to return to what is her only legal
abode. If a woman wants to divorce a violent husband, she needs a
hospital certificate attesting she has been injured by him three
times within three months.
Many Taiwan employers ruthlessly exploit women. Women's rights
activists in Taipei say women are poorly paid, forced to work long
hours or illegal night shifts, sign 5-year contracts forbidding them
to marry, and are refused paid maternity leave despite for legal
requirements.
The fledgling women's movement in Taiwan achieved a small victory in
1994 when a woman won custody of her child after losing three
earlier divorce hearing. The case made legal history because
previously the man was almost always awarded custody automatically.
Behind Taiwan's proud image as one for the fast developing modern
economies in the world lies the painful status of women, who seem to
have ended up with the worst of two worlds. They are stuck in the
traditional second-rate status of women in Chinese society, while
around them a modern industrial economy depends on millions of them
in low-paying jobs.
The wages were low, the job security minimal, accidents frequent and
the hours long. Women are not supposed to work at night, yet 70 per
cent of factories have illegal night shifts for women workers.
Factories have to give eight weeks of paid maternity leave, but only
12 per cent are believed to comply; many get out of the legal
requirement by employing women on rolling one-year contracts. Women
get 60 per cent of what men are paid.
In the service sector, many companies make prospective women
employees sign a five-year contract which forbids them to marry. A
government survey of all banks on the island found 99 per cent of
women employees were single.
Also, women can earn more through prostitution. The United Nations
estimates there are 100,000 prostitutes under 18 in Taiwan.
At the first hint of stricter enforcement, employers move their
business to China, where they can find cheaper and unregulated
labor.
At the Beijing Women's Hotline, it's approaching 8 p.m., closing
time, and the phones are still busy. The volunteers, all doctors,
lawyers, nurses, professionals, are tired.
"We try to concentrate on small issues, but we find women with lots
of problems who have no one to turn to," says Zhang Yanling, who
acts as an Interpreter for foreign visitors.
Hotline workers are seeking money to establish a women's AIDS
center, to conduct a study on prostitution, and open a "women's
salon" where women of all ages can drop in at any time just to talk
or to find like-minded friends.
"We are always facing new problems," Zhang says with a sigh. "We
just hope we can adapt fast enough and provide some help In our own
small way."
5. CHINA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN -- "ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS"
At midnight on June 30, 1997, the thriving trade port and
international finance center of Hong Kong off China's southern coast
will see the end of more than 150 years of British colonial rule.
Hong Kong will revert back to Chinese administration the next
morning under a joint declaration signed by the Chinese and British
governments. The agreement formalized the concept of "one country,
two systems," whereby Hong Kong will be part of Communist China, but
will be permitted to keep its free-wheeling capitalism for at least
50 years.
It will be one of the most crucial events in the East Asia in the
last 50 years because a crisis concerning Hong Kong might
destabilize the entire regional economy, destabilize international
trade and finance, and cripple diplomatic relations between Beijing
and the rest of the world for years to come.
Already, as China's economic and national pride grow, its neighbors
have become increasingly nervous that a strong China will try to
dominate the region. A fast-changing China could well try to flex
its muscles in Asia as it strengthens political, military and
economic ties with former enemies on its borders.
Chinese leaders are thrilled at the prospect of regaining control of
one of its long-lost properties, but the 6 million residents of Hong
Kong are deeply worried their entire way of life under a capitalist
economy could be in jeopardy.
In their worst nightmares, they fear the Communist Chinese leaders
will strip them of every freedom they have known -- free speech, a
fair legal system, the right to criticize the regime, to join labor
unions, and now the right to vote.
They also suspect that even if Beijing does live up to its promise
to provide some legal protections for their rights, private business
will ignore many legal safeguards such as equal pay for women,
guaranteed minimum wages, the right to form labor unions in
factories, in their scramble to ward off low-cost competition from
mainland Chinese industries.
"A free society will be handed over against the will of the great
majority to a country with one of the world's worst human rights
records," says Martin Lee, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong
Kong.
Indeed, Hong Kong's future may rely on better protection of human
rights by Beijing. In 1989, one million Hong Kong residents marched
in support of the 1989 Beijing pro-democracy demonstrations -- a
fact Chinese leaders are only too aware.
And on Taiwan, the 21 million residents of what Beijing calls the
"renegade province" are watching carefully every move in the Hong
Kong handover because Chinese -- as well as many Taiwanese --
leaders say they want to reunite. Many Taiwanese believe the island
will simply become an integral part of "Greater China" because of
the almost irresistible attraction of the mainland market, its 1.2
billion consumers and its cheap labor.
Importantly, if recent trade and economic growth continues, the
combined economies of mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong will be
larger than that of the united states within a decade, according to
the International Monetary Fund.
China has one of the world's biggest economies and is a major force
in world trade, being the engine of growth in the Asia-Pacific
region, the world's most dynamic economic zone.
That's why Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and other western
leaders have travelled to China in recent months to pursue expanded
trade while downplaying criticism of China's human rights abuses.
Under the 1984 treaty between Beijing and London ceding Hong Kong,
China has promised that Hong Kong will continue to enjoy "a high
degree of autonomy" over its traditional lifestyle and society and
to keep its capitalist society for at least 50 years after China
resumes sovereignty.
The political system of the colony has never been democratic in the
sense of its politics being decided by freely elected
representatives. But Hong Kong's politics have benefited from a
light touch of colonial rule, some representation at lower levels of
politics, a free press and an independent judiciary.
But Beijing's hardening determination to govern Hong Kong on its own
terms and its threats to disband Hong Kong's elected institutions
after 1997 is causing jitters in the colony.
They look at Beijing and see its autocratic rule and its disdain for
human rights and democracy at home continuing.
Beijing's plan is to operate under "One Country, Two Systems"
sovereign power over Hong Kong and use a carrot-and-stick strategy
toward Taiwan, says Byron Weng, a law professor at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong. Beijing is expected to do all it can to
ensure "undesirable" developments, such as democratization,
internationalization and anti-communist activities are kept to a
minimum in Hong Kong.
At the same time, "two systems" means socialism in the mainland and
capitalism in Taiwan, but does not mean equal status for the two
systems or regions. Rather, Beijing sees itself as the central
government while Taipei, like Hong Kong, can only be a local
government.
Beijing has considered Taiwan a renegade province since the end of
the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Taipei would like to see China reunited into a country of democracy,
freedom and equitable prosperity some day. In the meantime, Taipei
is pursuing an expensive flexible diplomacy and is striving for dual
recognition by other countries and dual membership with mainland
China in international organizations, notably the United Nations.
Unlike Taiwan, Hong Kong does not claim to be sovereign and does not
in any way compete with Beijing for recognition. It will change from
a British colony to a Chinese SAR (self-administered area). No other
realistic option is open to it.
Hong Kong is resigned to assuming a dependent and subordinate status
toward the mainland. The best it can hope for is to have the
autonomy as stipulated in the basic Law realized after 1997. (The
Basic Law is Beijing's version of a Constitution for Hong Kong
setting out how the colony will be run after it reverts to Chinese
control.) To secure that, many in Hong Kong are trying to make the
territory as international and as democratic as possible before June
30, 1997.
After more than 140 years of colonial rule, Britain has finally
tried to introduce a limited form of representative government. In
1991, the first partial Legislative Council elections occurred in
which democratic groups critical of Beijing won 16 of the 18 seats
open for direct elections.
Most Hong Kong residents are uncertain about their future and many
have shifted their domicile beyond the reach of Beijing. Tens of
thousands have emigrated to Canada, making Hong Kong the largest
source of new Canadian citizens in the last decade.
Some 48 per cent of Hong Kong residents, according to a poll
conducted by the colony's Baptist College and the University of
Science and Technology, said they had no confidence at all that
Beijing would consider the interests of the people of Hong Kong in
implementing the Basic Law, the post-1997 constitution.
Meanwhile, economic and trade links are mushrooming between China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan. Hong Kong ranked first in investment in China
in 1994 with $20 billion. Taiwan was second and the united states
third.
In Shanghai alone, there are 3,000 joint ventures between the
Chinese government and foreign firms, with another 3,000 at varying
stages of approval.
Canada's exports about $1.8 billion annually to China while
importing more than $3 billion in goods, led by clothing and
textiles. Canada ranks 12 in bilateral trade with China. It ranks
13th in bilateral trade with Taiwan, where it runs a trade deficit
total about $2 billion. It stands 8th in Hong Kong in terms of
exports from the colony and 19th in line for imports.
Canada's share of overall trade in any of the three regimes, though,
is less than 1.5 per cent of the total.
The economic nexus of Taiwan, Hong Kong and China was made possible
by policy changes in China and Taiwan, according to Tzong-biau Lin,
associate professor at the Department of Political Science at
Taiwan's Soochow University.
He says its tremendous development has been based on the economic
principle of comparative advantage, which exists in the three
economies. China is endowed with cheap labor, raw materials and low
land prices. Hong Kong and Taiwan have technological expertise,
international trade experience and abundant capital.
Hong Kong and Taiwan have lost their comparative advantages in
sunset industries due to labor shortages, rising wage rates, soaring
land prices and ecological awareness. In order to prolong their life
span, these industries have been moved offshore and China has become
their most popular destination.
But it is an illusion to think that the finely tuned, modern service
economy of Hong Kong will become the model for mainland China after
1997. China's economy works, after a fashion, without the rule of
law, an independent judiciary or a free press.
The economic revolution of the last decade has had profound impact
of Chinese society, widening the income gap between city and
countryside, uprooting millions of rural folk and sparking 10,000
labor disputes last year ranging from slowdowns to worker petitions
against management to strikes, which are not strictly legal, but
aren't illegal either.
In 1948, the Communists under Mao Tse-tung took power in China in
the name
of China's working class and declared it "the mast of the nation."
Today, guaranteed lifetime employment is vanishing, layoffs are
increasing and millions of peasants, especially women, who migrated
to the cities toil in sweatshops, wages often are below minimum
levels, working hours far exceed the legal maximum, there is no
health care or compensation for work injuries, a lack of proper
ventilation or safety features.
Chinese emigrants control money and business networks in Hong Kong
and Taiwan.
Hong Kong manufacturers and other entrepreneurs have invested more
than $20 billion in China, setting up 25,000 factories alone in
Guangdong province adjacent to Hong Kong, employing 3 million people
in the production of clothing, toys, electronics and other export
goods. The number represents nearly four times the manufacturing
workers in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is actively increasing its trade contacts with
China despite both governments' refusal to recognize the other's
legitimate rights.
Lien Chan, Taiwan prime minister, said in June 1995 that "by 2000,
the mainland will probably become our biggest trade partner and the
most important region for investment, the major source of foreign
exchange surplus and the heartland for economic development."
Taiwan's government may still be on Beijing's official enemies list,
but that has not kept Taiwan residents from making 1.6 million trips
to China annually or the island's entrepreneurs from making about
20,000 investments, estimated to be worth nearly $20 billion on the
mainland. Burdened in the late 1980s by rapidly rising wages and a
soaring currency value that undercut their international
competitiveness, many factory owners dismantled unprofitable
light-industrial assembly lines and re-established them across the
Taiwan strait in Fujian province, where most of their ancestors had
lives -- and where labor was cheaper.
There are also heightened concerns among Taiwanese and Hong Kong
officials about whether China intends to change its stance on
Taiwan's role in Hong
Kong. Growing Taiwanese-Chinese trade and investment still largely
flow
through Hong Kong because the two enemies have yet to open direct
economic or transport links.
At the same time, the resultant interdependence leaves officials on
both sides of the Taiwan strait uncomfortable, however the costs of
disengagement, political as well as economic, appear unacceptably
high.
Over the years, Taiwan's increasing wealth and its pragmatic
emphasis on building bilateral trade relationships have put it back
on the world stage.
It sits on nearly $90 billion in hard-currency reserves -- by far
the largest cash pot In the world.
Chinese president Jiang Zemin offered Taiwan in early 1995 an olive
branch, suggesting the two sides hold talks on formally ending the
state of hostility as a prelude to reunification. But he said China
remained opposed to the growing independence movement in Taiwan and
warned that it reserved the right to use force to prevent Taiwanese
independence.
China also was enraged when US president Bill Clinton granted a
visa to Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui to pay a private visit, to
the U.S. in June to attend an alumni reunion at Cornell University.
Beijing fears that if Taiwan loosens the shackles of its diplomatic
isolation, it could be much less likely to agree to reunify on
China's terms. Currently, Taiwan is recognized fully by only 29
nations and has no major diplomatic ties in Asia.
In Hong Kong, it is clear that China does no want a Local government
that by 1997 has the confidence of the people and can try to stand
up to Beijing in any dispute over policies adopted by the new
rulers.
China accepted the notion of democracy, but defined it as the
principles as "specified by the Basic Law" and not the sort of truly
representative democracy as understood in Canada.
Western notions of freedom include the right to criticize one's own
and other countries, but from Beijing's view China is not just
another country, it is the sovereign owner of Hong Kong.
Nihal Jayawickramya, law lecturer at Hong Kong University and
chairman of Justice, the Hong Kong section of the Geneva-based
International Commission of Jurists, blames Hong Kong businessmen's
cool response to provide financial backing for human rights causes
on the fact that China strongly objects to overseas countries'
interference in its human rights record.
Justice's bid last year to set up a human rights monitoring centre
faltered due to lack of financial backing. At the same time, the
Hong Kong Human Rights commission, a coalition of 12 social service
groups, relies on funding from overseas churches and concerned
groups. So does the Hong Kong-based labour rights group, Asia
Monitor.
Further, Hong Kong people remain apathetic about politics and
suspicious of all government. Voter registration and turnout for
elections is remarkably low by most democratic standards.
In the end, democracy is not on offer to the Hong Kong people and it
seem most Hong Kong people understood that reality.
6. DEMOCRACY IN TAIWAN
Tsai I-Chung minces few word as he talks about the future of his
homeland.
"Taiwan should be independent. Period. We are not part of China not
at all," the prominent local dentist says firmly, proudly over
dinner-with family and friends. "We are Taiwanese. We deserve to be
our own separate country."
Tsai, a soft-spoken man who has lived all his life in this bustling
southern city, is one of a growing legion of outspoken Taiwanese -
young and old - who dream of a Free Taiwan, are fed up with the
status quo and want Taiwan to move swiftly to sever all real and
sentimental thoughts of reuniting with mainland China.
Taiwan, with 21 million residents, is the largest officially
unrecognized state in the world. It is Beijing -- not politicians in
the capital of Taipei -- which represents China in world forums such
as the united Nations.
For many other Taiwanese, however, the idea of an independent Taiwan
is truly frightening. They are deeply worried that mainland China
would invade their island and brutally quash the independence
movement, ruining the free-wheeling freedoms that have turned Taiwan
into an economic powerhouse in Asia.
Slowly, the day of Taiwan independence is moving closer to reality.
In the next few months, Taiwan will hold a key election that could
determine the island's fate for years to come. It will conduct the
island's first direct presidential vote. The vote are considered
true democratic tests on the strength of those supporting Taiwanese
independence.
Many Taiwanese Canadians are concerned the new generation of
Taiwanese politicians. such as president Lee Ten-hui, may anger
Beijing with their independence-leaning actions. Polls consistently
show between 50-60 per cent of Taiwanese oppose independence at this
time.
Last year, China temporarily severed relations with the U.S. after
Washington granted president Lee a visa to speak at Cornell
University, where he earned his doctoral degree. It also staged
high-profile military games, complete with missile launches, in the
waters just off Taiwan's shores.
The gulf between China and Taiwan remains one of the few outstanding
issues of the 1940s and the ensuing Cold War. It also is a constant
thorn in the side of those who dream of peace and stability
throughout the Far East.
Asian experts say the question of Taiwan's ultimate status --
separate state or province of China -- is nearing a long-awaited
conclusion.
Taiwan was formally only a province of China between 1886 and 1895,
although the Chinese Manchu dynasty dominated the island for the
previous 200 years. It was ceded to Japan in 1895 and remained so
until 1949 when the routed Nationalist Chinese army of Chiang
Kai-Shek fled to the island and slaughtered tens of thousands of
Taiwanese. Chiang's Kuomintang Party ruled under a martial law that
ruthlessly suppressed democracy and all opposition, and favored
mainland Chinese over native Taiwanese.
Since then, Taiwan has existed in limbo -- neither a country nor a
province. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and
has threatened to take diplomatic and military action against the
island if it declares independence.
Lee has been pushing for Taiwan to be readmitted to the united
Nations, from which it was ousted when China replaced Taiwan in the
"China seat" on the U.N. Security Council.
Canada severed formal diplomatic links with Taiwan in 1971. That's
when the government of then prime minister Pierre Trudeau, along
with most other countries, recognized the People's Republic of
China. Washington transferred ties to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.
Today, only 29 countries formally recognize Taiwan. Most of these
are poor Latin American and African states that receive massive
doses of Taiwanese foreign aide
Emotionally, though, Taiwan is cutting its ties with China.
"Mainlanders" who fled to Taiwan with the Nationalist armies in 1949
are rapidly losing their political clout. As their members die, they
become an increasingly impotent minority with declining memories of
the mainland. Some 80 per cent of Taiwan's 21 million residents were
born on the island. Few of them back the idea of reuniting with
Communist China.
Since martial law was lifted in 1987, Taiwan has undergone a
stunning transformation. It has become one of the stronger economies
in the world and a thriving democracy has taken hold.
Many Taiwanese political dissidents were suppressed and jailed in
the 1960s for criticizing the government and deriding the late
Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek and his son Chiang
Ching-kuo. Several prisoners of conscience are still believed to be
held in prison.
As recently as 1987, freedom of the press was virtually
non-existent, the media exuded anti-communist propaganda, dissidents
risked 20-year prison sentences for sedition or faced exile in the
U.S. or Japan.
After 1987, the authorities allowed the release of most political
prisoners, free elections, a liberated press and most popular of
all, a lifting of the ban on travel to mainland China. Taiwan
formally lifted a 40-year ban on the formation of political parties
in 1989.
"Taiwan has economic clout and is now trying to gain political
clout," says Annette Lu, head of the foreign affairs committee in
Taiwan's Parliament. "It is in both China's and Taiwan's interest to
get along."
In the last six years, Taiwan has developed into a true democracy.
It has seen the creation of more than 40 political parties,
dramatically eased press restrictions, released all political
prisoners, and lifted the ban on travel to mainland China.
Taiwan realizes it is walking a tightrope in its efforts to balance
its growing desire for independence and fear of an invasion by China
if it goes too far, according to Lu Ya-li, a political scientist at
the National Taiwan University.
In recent years, the ruling Kuomintang Party has let fall by the
wayside its outdated tenet that it was the sole legitimate
government of China. president Lee, the current Kuomintang leader
and its first Taiwanese-born leader, has actively pushed in recent
years for Taiwanese membership in such international bodies as the
united Nations and the new World Trade Organization. In 1991, he
dropped Taiwan's claim to sovereignty over mainland China.
But Lee knows he can go only so far for now. He is careful to say
that Taiwan is a province of China that wants to reunify with
mainland China. Many Taiwanese, who hold Lee as a national hero
after last summer's historic visit to the U.S., believe Lee is
skillfully steering the island toward his ultimate goal of an
independent state.
The opposition Democratic Progressive Party is the main challenge to
Lee. It favors immediate independence for Taiwan and promises a
nationwide referendum on the issue. Its support is growing rapidly
and now stands at more than 40 per cent, according to recent public
opinion surveys.
Beijing turns a blind eye to Taiwan's de facto independence.
Analysts predict, however, that once Hong Kong rejoins China in
1997, the Taiwan issue will become mainland China's top foreign
policy question. ,
Beijing has never budged from its claim that Taiwan must be
reunified with the mainland. China wants to create a "Taiwan
Autonomous Region," similar to a post-1997 Hong Kong, that would
allow all the freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong along with the right to
retain a separate army.
Cheng Lin-cheng, an economics professor at National Taiwan
University, says despite an official "no contact, no negotiation, no
compromise" ideology by Taiwan toward the mainland, the reality is
that the two sides have moved rapidly toward closer cultural, social
and economic links since the relaxation of tensions a decade ago.
Taiwanese entrepreneurs have made 6,000 investments, estimated to be
worth $4 billion on the mainland. And in the last six years,
Taiwanese have made more than 5 million visits to the mainland. Most
visitors travel to China via Hong Kong because direct travel links
are banned.
For Tsai I-Chung, the Tainan dentist, all these moves are too little
to satisfy his dream of a fully independent Taiwan.
"I was born in Taiwan," he says. "My children were born here. l will
die here. I'm Taiwanese, not Chinese. l want to live in my own
independent state -- Taiwan. It's as simple as that."
The reality of modern Taiwan is a mixture of two emotions -- a
Taiwan increasingly integrated economically with China, but also
growing less likely to accept its own political integration with the
communist rulers of the mainland.
Ultimately, Taiwan probably will end up with a system of government
pattered on that of America, or perhaps France, headed by a strong
president.
Freedom-loving Taiwanese probably favor full independence because
that is realistically the only chance for Taiwanese to live under a
democracy. But the Taiwanese may lose this option inadvertently
because they are not farsighted enough and could gamble their
democratic future for short-term material and economic gains.
7. LABOR RIGHTS
Workers rights should be seen and identified in terms of a set of
commonly accepted values and principles, including freedom of
association, abolition of forced labor and protection of human life,
says Bimal Ghosh, a former bureau director in the International
Labor Organization.
Worker rights continued to be one of the major issue for Asia,
leading to more than 10,000 strikes and work stoppages in China in
1993 by the government's own admission. Wages and working conditions
were usually key issues, but so was the freedom to organize to
present demands for
improvements. Many Asian governments were creating a pressure cooker
by keeping tight controls on freedom of association and allowing
worker grievances to build up.
China outlaws all independent labor union activity, rounds up their
leaders and puts them in jail. Officially sanctioned unions are
being encouraged to build their presence in factories. But critics
accuse such unions of being too much under the thumb of the
authorities.
Many western governments have been pressuring China to relax its
control over workers, but at the same time it's also targeting China
as one of the big emerging economies in Asia. Threats to impose
trade sanctions against Beijing have fizzled and in offices of the
independent union, reality has set in. Activists know that improving
workers rights is only part of the West's agenda.
Today, China is seeking membership in the World Trade organization,
the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Despite promises by the government, laws that severely limit the
rights of workers to negotiate for better working conditions have
not been repealed to date. Southeast Asian nations are working as a
group to oppose attempts by the West a "social clause" linking trade
and labor standards in future international trading rules.
Asian countries were concerned that western states wanted to use any
social clause as a device to force developing nations either to
raise their labor costs to agreed minimum levels or face special
tariffs on their goods to compensate for the fact that they are
produced with much lower wages.
They said industrialized nations were pushing developing countries
on such issues as raising the minimum wage because they faced
internal economic problems and declining competitiveness.
Such measures could lead to rising unemployment and discontent in
Asia, they claimed, because it would remove of the region's major
competitive advantages -- lower labor costs -- and force factories
to close.
What poorer countries fear is that "human rights" is a Trojan horse,
and that the West's ultimate goal is to rob developing countries of
comparative advantages In labor costs.
8. LINKING RIGHTS AND BUSINESS
Most international human rights organizations conclude that China
has made no progress in any major human rights area in recent years.
This comes at the same time that governments around the world have
been trying to nudge china into improving its human rights
performance despite the unconditional extension of special trade
privileges and increased commercial and ministerial contacts.
Many leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and
U.S. president Bill Clinton have argued that China's economic and
strategic importance is so great that it would be unwise to impose
any sanctions.
In its 1995 annual report, Human Rights Watch said that governments
"allowed a growing mercantilism to dominate their foreign policy and
undermine the vigorous protection of human rights. Increasingly, the
duty to ensure respect for the most basic human values gave way to a
vision that equated economic self-interest with the common good.
Washington abandoned trade linkages in favor of "commercial
diplomacy," it said. "other governments joined Washington in
emphasizing trade over human rights. Germany, France, Canada and
Australia all vied for Chinese commercial contracts, with waning
interest in Chinese repression."
A good example of how a country overlooked China's human rights
record is the U.S.
In May, 1994, president Clinton renewed Beijing's special trade
status and abandoned an agonizing annual ritual of linking renewal
of trade benefits to improvements in Beijing's human-rights
performance.
A year earlier, Clinton had linked trade to human rights
improvements, but China wasn't moving on them. American business
mobilized and sent Clinton papers and letters.
Some Clinton advisers argued that China relations worsening and
urged the U.S. leader to introduce a new strategy with Beijing in
which incentives substituted for threats. These advisers felt the
U.S. needed China for national security reasons -- to deal with
North Korea, the united Nations Security Council and the spread of
nuclear weapons.
Also Clinton, like Chretien, felt that when the U.S. acts on its own
to impose sanctions against China because of human rights abuses, it
has the worst of all worlds: The policy is not effective, and
markets are lost.
Sanctions must be imposed by allies or not at all, according to the
U.S. advisers.
At the same time, foreign companies have traditionally resisted the
role of policeman on Chinese human rights.
Maybe surprisingly, Human Rights Watch/Asia opposes the use of trade
sanctions, arguing that they do more harm by hurting poor workers
than they do by helping foster human rights.
But the group feels private companies do have a role to play on the
issue of human rights. It asks companies dealing with China to
adhere to the following principles:
-Prevent the sale and use of goods made in prisons or forced labor
camps in their production process.
-Forbid mandatory political indoctrination sessions on company
premises.
-Adopt employment policies that bar discrimination based on
political beliefs and prevent termination of employees who express
those beliefs on or off the job.
-Make local political authorities aware of human rights concerns.
9 . CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
Is Ottawa really willing to end the link between human rights and
trade in its desperate hunt for more markets for Canadian products?
Ultimately, what should Canada's policy be toward such emerging
countries, where even local human rights activists warn against
restricting trade because it hurts the poor, women and children --
just the people such measures aim to help?
These questions have plagued successive Canadian governments over
the decades. None have answered the questions to everyone's
satisfaction.
In the last few years, human rights organizations have blasted
Canada's position on human rights in China. For example, Roger
Clark, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, says
Canada is in a "stampede" to win business in China while turning a
blind eye to human rights abuses. He claims that only public
condemnation forces governments to improve their human rights
records.
"Canada's public silence about human rights violations is
interpreted by Chinese government officials as recognition that they
were justified in crushing the democratic opposition in 1989," Clark
says.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien has made two high-profile tours of Asia
since 1994. Canadian companies have wrapped up deals worth $20
billion during the tours.
At end of a 1994 trip to China, Chretien said he was confident he
had contributed to the push for political freedom in Asia. "You can
make big speeches and have no result. We say: 'Open up, do trade,
let people come here, come to visit us.' That's the way that
eventually the walls fall and the freedoms come in...We do not come
to China to impose ourselves or our institutions. It has been our
experience that economic rights, prosperity and pluralism all go
together."
Canadian critics charge the government has cynically paid lip
service to human rights questions in the pursuit of new export
markets.
Ed Broadbent, head of the Montreal-based International Centre for
Human Rights and Democratic Development, says rights advocates don't
expect Ottawa to cut off trade with any country. But they do expect
public statements and more aggressive support for multinational
efforts to encourage reform.
Canada's approach to human rights was spelled out in a foreign
policy blueprint released Feb. 7, 1995.
"It makes little sense for Canada to go it along and refuse trade
with countries that abuse human rights," the policy paper said.
"Canada would join other countries in multilateral sanctions, but
acting alone, in the case of trade, may hurt Canada more than it
will change the behavior of offending governments...Our ultimate aim
is not to punish countries and innocent populations whose
governments abuse human rights, but rather to change behavior and to
induce governments to respect their people's rights."
Basically, Ottawa's policy toward China is based on four pillars:
peace and security, sustainable development, human rights and the
rule of law, and economic partnership. It claims it will not favor
one at the expense of the other.
Ottawa is funding new programs to assist China reform its legal and
judicial structure and to engage China in a constructive dialogue on
human rights.
But in promoting democracy throughout the world, Canada will not cut
off political and economic ties with countries that do not respect
democracy and human rights. It believes that if Canada isolates
China, it will never be able to influence them.
One of Ottawa's biggest supporters of the current federal policy
toward China is Raymond Chan, Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific
relations. Born in Hong Kong in 1951, Chan's parents came from
Enping, four hours southwest of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong
province.
As head of the Vancouver society in Support of the Democracy
Movement, Chan was detained and expelled by Chinese authorities in
Beijing for protesting on behalf of dissidents imprisoned after the
1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Chan claims he has not allowed his democratic convictions to slip in
favor of pursuing stronger economic relations with China. He insists
that in recent years the human rights situation in China has
actually improved, pointing to the treatment of human rights
activists and of ordinary citizens.
In a June 4, 1994 speech to the House of Commons marking the fifth
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chan said:
"Our relationship with China cannot be reduced or simplified to
trade versus human rights arguments. We believe systematic and
wide-ranging contact will lead to calls within Chinese society for
greater openness and freedom. Surely there is evidence that increased
political flexibility is a byproduct of economic liberalization, and
governments that have opened their markets to international trade
are more sensitive to the views and reactions of other countries.
An inwardly looking society that depends little on trade and
international investment is less likely to respond to concerns
raised by foreigners. Trade reduces isolationism. Trade also expands
the scope of international law and generates the economic growth
required to sustain social change and development. Economic
liberalization also leads to the pluralization and the empowering of
interest groups in society."
Regarding China's future role in Hong Kong, Chan says it is
important for Hong Kong to maintain its viability, stability and
prosperity.
Most people seeking refuge from Hong Kong now go to Canada. Canada
has been a major player in the Hong Kong story after 1984 because of
its liberal immigration policies. Some Asian experts charge these
policies have played a crucial party in draining the lifeblood from
the colony.
However unlike the united states, Canada lacks any power to affect
policies in Beijing. Its main stake in the Hong Kong problem is its
trade with China and Hong Kong and its desire to continue taking
high-quality immigrants from Hong Kong.
Gerald Segal in his book, The Fate of Hong Kong, writes: "As long as
Canada can count on keeping most of the people who have taken
Canadian passports and with them their money, then Canadian interest
will be mainly satisfied."
10. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
Many people worry about what will happen once Chinese Chairman Deng
Xiaoping, 91, dies.
The future courses are numerous.
China could disintegrate, much like the soviet Union, split by the
seemingly impossible task of promoting radical economic reform
without corresponding political change. The might destabilize all of
Asia.
Or it might emerge as an international superpower if it stays
united.
If more liberal elements in China assume a central role in the next
decade, then progress may mean more protection of human rights and a
higher standard of living for all Chinese.
Pessimists believes that after Deng, except for some minor
concessions, reform will still be limited to the economic field.
They contend most Chinese are democratically illiterate, that they
are not ready to act responsibly as they would need to in a
democracy. In fact, these skeptics claim, too much liberalization
would produce only chaos in China.
Also, it is hard to believe that in absorbing Hong Kong and Taiwan,
Beijing would want to destroy their formulas for success.
It is more, not less, human rights and democracy in mainland China
that will provide a solid foundation for peaceful and meaningful
exchanges between China and Taiwan.
Still, many Asians are content to watch Hong Kong slowly integrate
into south China. A successful transfer of Hong Kong to the mainland
will add pressure on Taiwan to travel the same route because Taiwan
is the main target of China's "one country, two systems" strategy.
Ultimately, Canada should aggressively pursue several options for
promoting human rights and democracies in China and elsewhere in
East Asia. These include:
-support democratic institutions created by the poor themselves.
priorities include trade unions, the media, land reform movements
grassroots or "pre-cooperatives," human rights monitors,
environmental advocacy groups, women's movements, legal aid groups
and popular urban movements.
-Increase funds to promote human rights and democratic civil
societies.
If Canada is to become a credible player in democratic development,
the federal government must expand the volume of aid available for
democratic institution building.
Overriding any consideration of future policies must be the reality
that political order in China is based on deep-seated values of
hierarchy and deference to authority.
The Chinese understanding of democracy is a strong' state for
national development, not individual liberties and limited
government, which is the western liberal idea.
Bob Hepburn
April, 1996
ANNEXES
Support Information for this Report: China/Hong Kong - Quick Facts, Interviews, Bibliography