“inhuman regime” and a “ruthless dictatorship”

[Mid]

lets see where this goes ........................


Scots bishop attacks China's human rights record
Published on April 28, 2008


The Bishop of Motherwell has labelled the government of China an “inhuman regime” and a “ruthless dictatorship” comparable with Adolf Hitler’s third reich.

Bishop Joseph Devine made the comments in a statement encouraging people to stage peaceful protests against the Beijing Olympics, which he compared to the Berlin games held under the Nazi regime.

In his statement, the bishop said: “Not since the 1936 Olympics in Berlin have the games been held in a country where arbitrary executions, imprisonment without trial and secret surveillance are so brutally perpetrated by the regime in power.”

The bishop added that the games would be used for propaganda by China’s communist rulers to “propagate lies to disguise their inhuman regime”.

“Let us use that same tool to expose them for what they are – ruthless dictators who have committed the most evil atrocities not only against their own people but who have been implicitly involved with murderous regimes in Darfur and Burma,” he said.

Bishop Devine went on to accuse the Chinese government of “state-sponsored” killings in Tibet, which he said, they had “locked down” and “turned into a prison”.

The bishop described Tibet as “that tortured, ancient, peace-loving spiritual land”. He condemned “forced abortions and sterilisation of women more often than not without the fuss of anaesthetics or medical treatment”, in Tibet as well as China.

He criticised the “forced resettlement of thousands upon thousands of men, women and children to the harshest of living conditions in special camps without education or medical facilities” in Tibet.

The bishop continued with a catalogue of abuses of human rights which included “violent oppression of freedom of speech and religious practice, forced labour in appalling working conditions where torture is the price for failure to achieve quotas”.

Bishop Devine also hit out at the leaders of the free world and governments who he said had chosen to turn a blind eye to China’s crimes against humanity in their rush to “secure a slice of the country’s trade and investment”.

The bishop added: “As the Olympic torch journeys across the world let us conduct as many peaceful and lawful demonstrations as can be organised to reveal the truth about China, the biggest police state in the world.”

Bishop Devine’s blunt comments come against a backdrop of protest about China’s staging of the Olympic Games. Attempts to disrupt the relay of the Olympic torch are gathering pace. Even the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, has expressed concern over recent unrest in Tibet.

However, leading Vatican official Cardinal Renato Martino has called on politics and sport to be kept separate.

totalcatholic.com

[Texpat]

leading Vatican official Cardinal Renato Martino has called on politics and sport to be kept separate.

I'll drink to that!

[Mid]

micheloud.com

[bkkandrew]

I cannot see much to disagree with in the Scottish Bishop's critique...

[sabang]

I wonder how many times the good bishop has actually been to China?

The recent riots in Tibet were started by Tibetan seperatists targeting ethnic Chinese people and businesses. It was this that caused a central government crackdown just as it would elsewhere.

A few hippy clad losers camped outside Chinese embassies will change nothing, except maybe give false hope to the gullible, and just cause them more suffering in the long term. Tibetan independence is a lost cause. China does however have some 'semi-autonomous regions' such as HK & Macau, Inner Mongolia and mainly Moslem Xinjiang, which it actually handles quite well. This is the best the Tibetans can hope for, but they only put their cause back by rioting. The 'conscientious objectos' are just making things worse for the people they claim to be helping.

[chinthee]

^What China has done in the most Mulsim region of China, Xinjiang, has been to introduce massive emigration to the region by Han Chinese over the years. So that, today, in Urumqi, the capital city, for example, the ethnic Muslim Uighurs have been marginalized, dispersed, and mostly relegated to menial jobs. They do not have a voice.

I know the region very well, and have some ethnic Uighur friends from there. In fact, there is a poignant article in today's Christian Monitor:

Uighurs struggle in a world reshaped by Chinese influx

"We feel like foreigners in our own land," complains one Uighur teacher in the provincial capital of Urumqi, who offers only a nickname, Batur, for fear of angering the authorities. "We are like the Indians in America." Or Tibetans in Tibet. "Most Uighurs sympathize with the Tibetans," says Batur. "We feel we are all under the same sort of rule."

Though Xinjiang's 8 million Uighurs have shown only a few signs of the sort of unrest that shook Tibet recently, the Chinese government is just as nervous about "splittism" here among the country's fifth-largest ethnic minority, afraid that beneath the surface calm, resentment is bubbling.
The authorities claim to have foiled three Uighur terrorist plots in recent months – one aimed at bringing down a passenger plane and the other two at this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing – though they have given scant details to support the reports.

That concern, many Uighurs charge, translates into harsh government control of their lives, restrictions on the use of their language in schools and on their Muslim religious practice, and a colonial-style economy that keeps most local people in menial jobs while Han Chinese immigrants run businesses and the local administration.

Uighurs struggle in a world reshaped by Chinese influx | csmonitor.com

[sabang]

^ Interesting article CT, and a fair comparison to Tibet. I don't know much about the Uighurs, but in Tibet it's a fait accompli as far as I can see-

The economy is now linked with, and dependent upon, the PRC.
A large part of the population is ethnic Chinese.
As always, the Chinese run the commerce and most of the distribution.
Living standards have definitely increased in Tibet- for all of it's charms, Tibet was a dirt poor place before.
Hence many Tibetans are not seperatist at all- several have done well under Chinese rule.
And when push comes to shove, Tibet is strategically important to the PRC. They won't let it go under any circumstance.

So, imo Tibetans should be more interested in limited autonomy than the pipe dream of independence. Mybe these talks with the dalai lama (who says much the same thing- regional autonomy) will lead somewhere.

[chinthee]

^Sabang, yes I agree with you on both Tibet and Xinjiang. It is unreasonable to push China on these regions, except to push for better treatment of the local ethnic population. There will be no separation, and unfortunately, in the end, they will end up as minorities in their own homeland. We've seen this happening in Xinjiang. However, Xinjiang is even more strategic as it has big oil fields and shares a border with Pakistan and Former Soviet states, and the trans siberian pipeline will run through it.

One interesting side note. As the Uighurs are ethnically turkic, many of them are Caucasian. And, if you ever watch Chinese movies and they want to have "foreigners" appear in scenes, they put in a bunch of these guys. So, at least the movie extras make some money I guess.

[November Rain]

A few hippy clad losers camped outside Chinese embassies will change nothing, except maybe give false hope to the gullible, and just cause them more suffering in the long term

You're probably right, Sabang. However, I tend to adhere more to the philosophy that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. If nobody ever did anything (however futile) to speak up against cruelty, inhumanity, human-rights abuses, summary executions and the like - then what sort of world would we live in?

Protests and demonstrations have contributed to change in the past - look at the suffrage movement, the anti-slavery movement & the child labour laws in the West. At the very least, these protests are spreading the word, keeping the world interested. I don't see anything wrong in that.

[Panda]

"Bishop Devine also hit out at the leaders of the free world and governments who he said had chosen to turn a blind eye to China’s crimes against humanity in their rush to “secure a slice of the country’s trade and investment”.

If the good Bishop had demanded his followers boycott all trade with China I think he would find his pews empty come Sunday.
It would be interesting to take a look around his home and see how much made in China stuff he has himself.

Still, I suppose its hard to pass up an oppertunity to jump on the bandwagon when you are shooting from the high moral ground.