In My Opinion: Tell Congress: Don't Reward China for Human Rights Abuses

Han Dongfang is a genuine hero in the cause of human rights and labor rights.

I think of this brave young man, whom I first met four years ago, when I consider the debate over granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations status to China. His struggle to organize free trade unions — along with the stories of hundreds of other activists presently jailed in China — deserves the spotlight of world attention.

And our present system of subjecting China’s trade status to an annual review of its human rights and trade policies helps to keep the light shining on the repressive conditions that remain in that society.

A young railway worker at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Han Dongfang organized the first independent labor union in China in 40 years. For this role, he was nearly killed and was jailed under brutal conditions for 22 months — even deliberately infected with tuberculosis by the Chinese authorities.

With the intervention of the Clinton administration, Han Dongfang was released and allowed to receive medical treatment in the United States, eventually having his right lung removed. He returned to China in 1993 but was immediately arrested and deported. Since then he has been based in Hong Kong where he publishes the China Labour Bulletin and serves as a commentator for Radio Free Asia.

Han Dongfang differs with those who believe that Permanent Normal Trade Relations status will lead to social reform in China simply because, as the Business Roundtable contends, greater corporate investment in China brings "U.S. ethical and mnagement practices . . . " and "a positive example of corporate citizenship."

Han argues that it takes the creation of an independent labor movement free to engage in negotiations with employers on an equal footing to achieve needed workplace and social reforms as well as economic stability for China. (In China at present, the “trade union system” comes under the Communist Party, which maintains that unions are supposed to serve the government — with the government in effect being the employer in most cases, or else in business with the employer.)

Han, who once served in the Chinese army, sees himself as a patriot, helping his country by working for the conditions that will truly lead to China’s greater economic development.

I had a chance to talk again with Han Dongfang last year when I was invited to speak in Hong Kong to the Pacific Basin Economic Council, a business group that includes major corporations such as AT&T. He gave me some insight into recent events in China and into the power of a news media that is totally government-controlled.

Han usually receives hundreds of positive emails and faxes from Chinese workers following his radio broadcasts. However, after the accidental bombing by NATO forces of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, he said the government used the media to whip up anti-Western feelings to such a pitch that suddenly he received nothing but messages calling him a traitor.

The Chinese government still views Han Dongfang and his ideas about independent unions as a threat, and it continues to persecute and imprison others who advocate workers’ rights and freedom of speech, association, and religion. Amnesty International reports that there are at least 2,000 political prisoners in Chinese jails. The U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report on China for 1999 stated that, "China’s poor human rights record deteriorated markedly" and "the government intensified efforts to suppress dissent."

Certainly this is not the time for Congress to reward the Chinese dictators with the permanent trading concessions they crave — an action that would amount to a slap in the face to the heroic activists who continue to risk death, torture and imprisonment in their struggle for basic rights and freedoms.

Normal trade relations status for China right now is granted on a temporary basis following a congressional review each year. That system hasn’t hindered corporate investment in China or the export of its goods to the U.S., which is China’s biggest market. Annual review allows us some leverage in pressuring the Chinese government both to engage in fair trade policies and to curtail human rights abuses.

The battleground over this issue will be the floor of the House of Representatives, probably around May 22. I urge you to contact your U.S. representative — by letter if there is still time when you receive this, or else by phone or e-mail — with the message that you oppose the bill to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations status to China.