Trampling the UN Declaration of Human Rights for 60 years

Chinese officials celebrate -- regular Chinese citizens, not so much

The United Nations (UN) will soon be celebrating the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (ratified December 10, 1948), a declaration which says that "the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." The People's Republic of China (PRC), on the other hand, just proudly celebrated 60 years (and still counting) of trampling over the UDHR.



PRC missiles on display during their National Day
Screenshot from SETN (三立新聞)
(Click to enlarge)
The Empire State Building was at the center of a controversy for cheerleading Chinese Communism by lighting up the building's spire in red and yellow on China's national day. Such offensive behavior demonstrates that people with corporate minds but without business ethics do exist in capitalist America. The good side of this is that America is a country where there is enough freedom for others (Americans and foreigners alike) who don't agree with economic terrorism and cultural genocide to express their support for the oppressed people of Tibet.

Here's a YouTube video of a protester discussing the lighting ceremony of the Empire State Building in honor of the 60th anniversary of China's revolution and another one showing protesters outside the building Saying NO to China's Empire! Bravo to the Tibetans who stood up for themselves and fought back by projecting pro-Tibet messages from the base of the Empire State building onto other buildings in the vicinity!

On the same day, the blog of the conservative Heritage Foundation suggested that the Empire State Building should be lit up in blue and red to "honor the 'free' Chinese," but two wrongs don't make a right. Such a display would be the second half -- within 10 days! -- of a double insult to the people of Taiwan who suffered the 228 Massacre (二二八大屠殺) at the hands of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), a party which is now preparing to surrender to China -- taking the majority Taiwanese population along as hostages.

The people of Taiwan do not need the Empire State Building to be lit up in any color for them. We simply need our rights to build a normal nation to be respected.

Meanwhile, the Internet was shut off in Xinjiang (新疆, AKA Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 新疆維吾爾自治區, East Turkestan, شەرقىي تۈركىستان, 東突厥斯坦) in early July and has still not been turned back on nearly three months later.

Chinese authorities simply don't want to give their citizens any freedom of expression. China's domestic Internet companies like Tencent currently has to share their records with the Chinese authorities as requested.

[See more, very interesting, and link-filled related information from Rebecca MacKinnon and Radio Free Asia on how Chinese authorities launched the latest cyber wars against their own citizens -- and more -- in the "References" section below.]

In addition to China's declaration of cyberwarfare against its own citizens, hackers known to the PRC government also attacked cultural events sites like those of the international film festivals in Melbourne, Australia and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Some Chinese citizens do dare to stage demonstrations against their authorities, but they only do so because Hong Kong has received more tolerant treatment from the rest of China. Watch a video of Hong Kong's police standing by observing demonstrators demanding more freedom and respect for human rights without harassing them (noticeable at the 0:38 and 0:57 marks in the video). The protest against the nearby Chinese National Day celebration (中國國慶 香港議員示威抗議) was organized by some Hong Kong councilors.

In contrast, under the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration, Taiwan's police force has treated citizens with double standards, allowing some people to celebrate and parade the PRC's five-star flag while interrupting and then arresting a patriotic demonstrator as he burned the PRC flag. (video: KMT-ROC police suppress a patriot in favor of their enemy). Shame on Taiwan's police!

However, the same day that China was parading a fake "Taiwan float" in its National Day celebration, across the Strait thousands of real Taiwanese were attending screenings of Kadeer's "The 10 Conditions of Love" in 5 major cities across Taiwan. (The "Kaohsiung" link 3 paragraphs above has a preview of "The 10 Conditions of Love.") Many others viewed their beautiful island via a link posted on Michael Turton's blog, The View from Taiwan. Check out the superb quality of Taiwan's High Definition video -- the clearest video I've ever seen on YouTube.

China, already armed with nuclear weapons and continuing to increase its military spending, is also known for its cyber spying all over the globe and its disrespect for intellectual property rights. The potential merger of the world's two richest parties -- the KMT and the CCP -- is the biggest threat to world peace economically as well as militarily since the Chinese government's daily operations need not be subject to the approval of a parliament, and without transparency, they can do anything they want to undermine global security.

Remember also how Beijing blocked WHO assistance to Taiwan for two months during the SARS crisis of 2003? Remember how China spread the avian flu by smuggling chicken? These are the kinds of examples from which the world should have learned a lesson, but it seems that too few people have.

At least one person has jokingly commented:

[...] maybe China owns the Empire State building now, lol. ???

If the Chinese haven't bought it yet, they might just do so in the not-so-distant future. This is what we call economic terrorism!

But, if the world's politicians wake up and support China's true ambassadors -- the human rights activists perishing in Chinese jails -- then maybe soon Chinese and foreigners can together celebrate a responsible Chinese government that poses no threat to world peace.

Stop appeasing to CCP's bullying around the globe, and help Chinese citizens build their dream nation, one that respects the UDHR!

References:
* A March 2009 poll on national identity by pro-unification TVBS:

台灣人或中國人？二選一時，逾七成（７２％）民眾認為自己是台灣人，較去年兩岸復談前增加４個百分點

[Tim Maddog translation:]
Taiwanese or Chinese? Given only these 2 choices, over 7/10 (72%) of respondents identify selves as Taiwanese, an increase of 4 percentage points since last year's cross-strait talks

* A June 2009 poll on national identity by National Chengchi University (NCCU) shows that only 4.3 percent of respondents identify themselves as "Chinese" (as opposed to "Taiwanese" or "both Taiwanese and Chinese").

* Previously on Talk Taiwan: "Growing Taiwanese identity despite KMTs policy of warming relationship with China"

* Rebecca MacKinnon's RConversation has a couple of posts related to this: "China's censorship arms race escalates"; and "China's new real-name requirement: another global trend."

* On Radio Free Asia, read "'New Era' of Controls" and "China Boosts 'Great Firewall'."

* Taipei Times editorial about China's display of weapons: "It's scaring the neighbors"

(Tim Maddog contributed to this post)

Inspired by the Tibet experience

Most of the time, I am reading. I read more than I write.

Today, one particular post had me in deep thoughts, and I would like to share them with Taiwanese all over the world, especially those who live on the island once exclaimed by the Portuguese sailors as ‘Ihla Formosa’.

Will this island remain beautiful a few years from now? That will depend on you and me, and I think I have done all I can and to the best that I can possibly do.

I just read an interview of Pico Iyer by another author, Jon Wiener.

Pico Iyer was born in Oxford, raised in California, and a resident of Japan, sort of like a global resident just like me. He has a new book called, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

The interviewer, Jon Wiener asked Pico Iyer why in his book, he described the Tibetan population as being “slipping ever closer to extinction”.

And these were the words of Pico Iyer:

I wish they were overstated words, but they’re not. The Tibet autonomous region is more and more a Chinese province. Lhasa is now 65 percent Han Chinese, so Tibetans are a minority in their own country. The Chinese are practicing what the Dalai Lama has called “demographic aggression”—trying to wipe out Tibetan culture through force of numbers. Two years ago they set up that high speed train, which allows 6,000 more Han Chinese to come to Tibet every day. I first saw Lhasa in 1985 just when it opened up to the world.

The high speed train, if I am not wrong, is the masterpiece of the Canadian Bombardier (this link had been discovered and used in my other post).

The railway represents an overtly political project by China to facilitate its control over Tibet. Tibetans are already a minority in their own country and the railway has further marginalized them. It has allowed China to deploy troops and missiles to the Tibetan plateau more effectively, and has also enhanced China's ability to extract and remove Tibet's vast mineral wealth. The Dalai Lama has referred to the railway as "some kind of cultural genocide".

Sadly enough, this is what many western businessmen have said about more engagement with China will make China more open and democratic.

And some country who had tried to “help” Tibet had its own agenda.

The CIA had “helped” them during the cold war era as Pico Iyer said…

Yes. The CIA really moved in during the 1960s, when they trained Tibetans in Colorado, of all places, and set them up in Nepal. The CIA wasn’t concerned about Tibet; they were only concerned about trying to foil their great communist enemy China. It was a fitful resistance but the CIA was more than ready to help—until Nixon and Kissinger went to Beijing. At that point, the Dalai Lama realized that violent resistance would only bring more suffering to his people, so he sent a taped message to the guerillas in Nepal and told them to lay down their arms. They did, but some of them were so heartbroken that they took their own lives.

And this reminds me of the dark days of the martial law era in Taiwan when the US administration supported the Chiang Kai-Shek’s rule over Taiwan in order to block the red communism from spread out but did not care much about the human rights records of the KMT regime.

When their interests changed as the cold war ended, again our concern was never their concern!

Did the US administration help the Taiwanese society democratize? The recent Taiwanese history taught us that the democratization of Taiwan came gradually with the help of its own people’s struggle against authoritarian rule coupled with the timing of the rise of their former president Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese native, within the KMT party.

And now the US federal deficit (and China being their major creditor) has kept me worrying about what’s next for Taiwan. Why doesn’t the US administration encourage domestic production and domestic consumption to counter the trade imbalance instead of having to exchange favors with the Chinese authority, and in the process concede to Beijing’s requests on the Taiwan issue?

Back to the Tibet interview…

The Chinese Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s was a turning point for Tibet. Pico Iyer said

They tried to destroy Tibetan culture—much as they tried to destroy their own culture, but even more brutally. According to Tibetan estimates, 1.2 million Tibetans died—that’s 20 percent of the population. All but 13 of the 6,000 monasteries were destroyed. Little kids were asked to shoot their parents. Most violently, the Chinese sought to tear apart every last shred of Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Monks were asked to use sacred texts as toilet paper. It was a brutal thing, which the Chinese government has since repudiated.

Dalai Lama’s fear…

He knows that as soon as he dies, the Chinese government will alight on an amenable little boy, probably the child of Communist cadre, and reenact a kind of monastic search and declare “This boy is the fifteenth Dalai Lama.” Of course he will be completely loyal to the communist party and probably be an enemy of Tibet.

Do you have any fear as a Taiwanese? Or do you care only if you have a bowl of rice on your table today?

And this is what I think…

Every little action in your daily life counts, it does not matter how insignificant it may look such as speaking to your children using your mother tongue, or buying your country’s products instead of the cheapest ones, or loving and caring for your environment.

After thoughts...

Tibetans are not extinguished, have you ever thought about an alliance of the Taiwanese, the Tibetans, and the Uyghurs?

Resolution to Make Taiwan a Normal Country (Draft)

Update: The resolution was passed on 3o August with one minor change to the second proposal whereby the DPP resolves to use the Common Era system of dating rather than dating years from the founding of the Republic. Another amendment proposing explicitly to change the name of the country to Taiwan was rejected.

Editorial Note: The following is a translation of the DPP's Resolution to Make Taiwan a Normal Country. The Chinese original is here. The light coverage in the international media is unfortunate, since these resolutions, despite not being binding, are important statements of DPP political thought.

For example, the insertion of 'life community" and the commitments to social justice and sustainable development are hallmarks of DPP candidate Frank Hsieh's moderately leftist thought (insofar as one can be a leftist in mainstream Taiwanese politics). Their presence, and the relative watering down of some of the identity language is also a sign of Hsieh's rising control over the party as the presidential campaign kicks into gear. At the same time, his endorsement of that language is yet more evidence that Hsieh can be understood as a moderate only in the context of established DPP positions on national identity and relations with China.

Italicized emphasis is from the original. There are a few editorial comments in square brackets []. Comments to improve the translation are welcome.

##

Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country. Taiwan does not belong to China, nor does China belong to Taiwan. China does not govern Taiwan, nor does Taiwan govern China. But the internal challenge of Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] authoritarianism and the external challenge of Chinese hegemony have created five threats to Taiwan's ongoing normalization as a country.

1. China's all out aggression against Taiwan's military, foreign affairs, economy, culture, and politics and its unilateral change of the status quo across the Taiwan Strait through its One China Principle and its Anti-Secession Law threaten Taiwan's national sovereignty and security and reduce Taiwan's international space, thereby creating abnormalities in international relations.
   
   
2. Taiwan continues to use the inappropriate constitutional structure of the Republic of China, making it impossible for its democratically elected government to function normally and creating an abnormal political system.
   
   
3. Remnants of the educations and cultural superstitions leftover from the authoritarian rule of a foreign regime [i.e. the Chinese Nationalist Party], the suppression of and prejudice against Taiwanese culture is blocking the development of the Taiwanese people's sense of national identity to create an abnormal national identity.
   
   
4. Preferential treatment of groups with certain identities is destroying social cohesion based on citizenship to create social injustice [lit. abnormal social justice].
   
   
5. The Chinese Nationalist Party's long term control over its enormous illegitimate party assets helps create a culture of vote buying. The unity of party and state is destroying democracy and creating abnormal competition between political parties.

Faced with these five major threats, the Democratic Progressive Party, as a progressive force that represents the people of Taiwan in ensuring our independence and autonomy and in the pursuit of democratic justice, should now make a Resolution to Make Taiwan a Normal Country on the basis of Article 1 of the DPP Charter [Establishment of a Sovereign and Independent Republic of Taiwan, 1991] and the Resolution on the Future of Taiwan [1999] . The DPP should act to rectify names [zhengming], to institute a new constitution, to join the United Nations, to bring about transitional justice, and to build Taiwanese identity in order to make Taiwan a normal country. To these ends, we make the following proposals:

1. Beginning with our recognition of Taiwanese identity as a life community, we shall deepen the democratic values of the Taiwanese people, strengthen Taiwanese consciousness, change the name of the country and institute a new constitution soon, and, at an appropriate time, hold a citizen referendum to make clear Taiwan's status as sovereign and independent nation.
   
   
2. The name "Republic of China" has become very difficult to use in the international community. For this reason, we shall apply for membership in international organizations including the United Nations and the World Health Organization under the name of Taiwan, and the nation shall use Common Era year names so as to integrate more fully with international practice.
   
   
3. The government shall promote Taiwanese national identity and identification with the land of Taiwan. It shall take steps to actively support Taiwanese culture and the native languages of Taiwan. And it shall ensure that the educational curriculum is Taiwan-centric.
   
   
4. National security, social justice , and sustainable development shall be the preconditions for economic development to ensure that the people of Taiwan enjoy a happy and dignified life.
   
   
5. The government shall comprehensively work to achieve transitional justice by eliminating the remaining political symbols of authoritarian rule and the inequitable distribution of resources. The government shall reform the judicial and law enforcement systems, pursue the illegitimate assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party, rehabilitate victims of political repression during the era of White Terror, and investigate the truth.

The Democratic Progressive Party believes that Taiwan must continue to progress with the times and that Taiwan must rid itself of authoritarian control and cast off the bonds of unreasonable institutions. Taiwan must work actively to change the name of the nation, institute an new constitution, join the United Nations, bring about transitional justice, and build Taiwanese identity. With unity and consistency of purpose, we can establish a great and normal democratic nation.