United Future

Posted at 2008-03-19 21:33:05.057. Permalink.

The mayor of Dunedin,Peter Chin,had Amnesty International kicked out of the DCC premises when they launched their campaign for human rights reforms in China.
Yet the spin doctors have repeatedly said "one of the uses for our new stadium is for the Dalai Llama to speak in"

Posted at 2008-03-20 21:27:09.751. Permalink.

Turner sure 'turned heads' with this one. No one can say she or Dunne are (Tibetan) poodles after that forth right speech. Even Clark was remiss to counter Turner's exposition. Dunne wasn't in the house so Turner spoke for her party in a way that has shown the depth of this units collaberation with the truth & common sense!
Dunne is right on to it with this call to review MMP. Judy Turner has hit a big nail on the head with this paternity testing. Why would anyone oppose any factor to help verify paternity? The more I look at the likes of what her & Dunne have achieved, as of April 1, business tax finally down to 30%; full rebate of all tax paid if any individual or company gives 3 times their tax due to registered charities the more I think MMP could work if we had 20 MP's like these 2 looking out for the best interests of all of us instead of the self serving traits of the larger (& some smaller) parties. Ian

Posted at 2008-03-21 13:18:28.478. Permalink.

New Zealand should not have to buy good relations with China by turning a blind eye to its appalling human rights record. And yet, we have a history of doing just that.

Recall the APEC heads of government meeting at Auckland in 1999. It was considered a great success and the Prime Minister, Mrs Shipley, was applauded for her chairmanship of the meeting. However, there is another side to that story that saw our country suppress the democratic rights of its own citizens for the sake of economic self-interest.

The Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, was in Auckland for APEC. Wherever he went in Auckland people waving Tibetan flags and carrying banners attempted to protest peacefully against human rights abuses in Tibet. Sadly, police suppressed those protests, usually by moving the demonstrators out of sight behind parked buses.

Similar tactics were used in Christchurch the night Mrs Shipley hosted a banquet for Mr Jiang. The President refused to turn up until people protesting peacefully outside the venue had been removed. Following negotiations with the Prime Minister's people, police moved the demonstrators behind buses and turned on patrol-car sirens so the President couldn't see or hear them when he finally arrived 90 minutes late.

The next day, Mr Jiang visited Christchurch Boys High. Three pupils stood 500m from the school gates with placards bearing the words "Free Tibet". They were watched over by officers after refusing to hand over their placards. Police radio messages talked of the President changing his route, but then the pupils were moved behind a parked bus with vans at either end so that they were blocked in on three sides. The stage set, China's head of state then swept by in his big black limousine.

A parliamentary select Committee investigated these incidents. It found that police actions were unjustifiable and that they failed to protect the rights of New Zealanders to freedom of expression and lawful assembly. At the hearing, police gave an inaccurate account of what had happened, with their own video evidence contradicting a statement given under oath. If my memory serves me correctly, the committee concluded that the police were either incompetent or were lying.

These unfortunate events should be put into a context. By the late 1990s, over 1.2 million Tibetans had died at the hands of the Chinese since 1950, and the communist regime was doing all it could to destroy the Tibetan culture. Families with more than one child were fined heavily and discriminated against. Anyone not the first born in their family could not go to a state school or have a government job, and was ineligible for any sort of government financial assistance. Sometimes, more forceful measures were used. For example, I recall reading not long before the APEC meeting how the Chinese army went into one Tibetan village and sterilized every female under the age of 40. Women in advanced stages of pregnancy were given forced abortions.

An International Committee of Lawyers that monitors the situation in Tibet interviewed the one thousand Tibetan children who fled to India during 1999. They documented the routine practice of torturing even children arrested for "political" offences. Children were detained in deplorable conditions, often without notice to their families, and held for months or even years without a trial or access to a lawyer.

Ten years on and things haven't improved. The people of Tibet need the support of all free men and women.

Posted at 2008-04-02 15:36:44.463. Permalink.

I have studied a little of the changes in China:

1. It is an Authoritarian Socialist country-NOT Communist.

2. This new term refers to the long term plan to convert an old idea into a new one without destroying 1.5billion people all at once.

3.In order to have 'freedom' it must have order - look at Russia-they had freedom but no order until Putin. You cannot give a baby in nappies your AK47 submachine gun thank you very much

4. Human Rights is about respect - therefore one in China must have respect - it is a collective moving towards a full democracy - it will not be done overnight - I believe it will be a further 5-10 years after the Olypmics when the move towards more respect of individuals will take place.

5. 60 years of collective conscience cannot be mowed down in a day. The grass clippers would be Apolycalpse Now.

6. Two thorns, no - three - Tibet, Taiwan and North Korea are 'security issues' for China. It needs to feel safe after the debacle Communism left itself open to. These 'Assets' are strategic- in time China will not have a need for these 'buffer zones' The protest of late signals anomalies that must be watched very closely. But to verbal protest to a Authoritarian Socialist Governance is pointless - we should be really asking "How may we may help solve this with you?" Individual rights, property rights, human rights are still foreign concepts to Chinese. They think collectively don't forget. There are what? 1.5-1.8 billion people in China? a lot of people to control in order for some kind of order to be maintained so that can move forward.

7. Because of this collective nature, the Government of China has to think in very long term plans and will do what is necessary to get there. The fact speaks for itself that they are a force to be reckoned with economically. They have surpassed their past and are way ahead of everyone else in nearly ten years. Look at Russia, they are just starting!

Conclusion:
I am not sure about using the brand 'Human Rights' -it has become too PC and abused too often. We must all look beyond the brand and ask what other way can we say we disapproved of this or that behaviour- can I help you?

Posted at 2008-04-06 22:53:45.986. Permalink.

When the Olympics Committee granted hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing it claimed that the Games would help improve the human rights in China. That was a serious misjudgement. A recent report by Amnesty International (AI) entitled 'China: The Olympics Countdown', makes the following points:

1. the Olympics have failed to act as a catalyst for reform in China. A positive human rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics looks increasingly beyond reach unless the Chinese authorities take steps to redress the situation urgently,

2. Much of the current wave of repression is occurring not in spite of the Olympics but actually because of the Olympics. Activists and dissidents have been targeted as part of an apparent pre-Olympics clean-up with many under some form of detention.

3. Journalists, both domestic and foreign, are being prevented from reporting freely.

AI also called on world leaders to speak out on the situation in Tibet, describing their failure to address the issue as a "tacit endorsement" of human rights abuses. It accused Chinese troops of using lethal force on Tibetan protesters and urged China to release information about those who had been detained, saying it feared for their safety.

On 20th March, the organisation �Reporters Without Borders� warned that:

"After ridding Tibet and the neighboring regions of undesirable observers � foreign journalists and tourists � the security forces are crushing the protests without the international community being able to watch. For the repression in Tibet to end, the United Nations must demand the return of foreign journalists and the dispatch of independent observers."

This ominous development also coincides with a claim by the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre that nearly 2,000 Falun Gong adherents have been arrested since January � over 100 are reported to have been tortured to death, mostly in reeducation-through-labour camps.

Given this internal situation, it is not surprising that China has become the single biggest obstacle to improving human rights throughout the world. China is the world's largest and most irresponsible arms exporter, using arms sales not only to open new markets and extract natural resources, but also to buy support and votes in international institutions such as the United Nations.

Consider Sudan. The international community is struggling to end the atrocities taking place in Darfur. China, however, in exchange for oil, is supplying Sudan's regime with fighter planes, bombers, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades, which have intensified the atrocities. At the same time, it has used the threat of its Security Council veto to stall or dilute resolutions on Darfur, saying that the situation in Sudan is an internal one.

China presents the world with a very signficant dilemna. It is ruled by a ruthless dictatorship whose primary aim appears to be self-preservation. The Communist Party is trying to cope with huge environmental, economic, social and other problems that cannot be solved within the context of a totalitarian bureaucracy. At the same time, China's growing economic and military clout is accompanied by a virulent strain of nationalism that could transform her 'peaceful rise' into something very unpleasant.

The conventional wisdom is that China will become more democratic as it integrates economically with the rest of the world. That will happen only if economic integration is accompanied by the removal of barriers to the free flow of information and respect for human rights. Only then will China start to become a responsible international citizen.

The World's democracies must stand united and apply sustained pressure on China to improve its human rights record. The call by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, for an independent investigation into China's claims that the Dalai Lama instigated the current violence in Tibet is a good example of the approach that needs to be adopted.

Successive NZ governments have been mindful of Chinese sensibilities when taking a stand against Chinese human rights violations. Their criticisms have often been muted and, on occasion, they have been prepared to suppress New Zealanders' basic rights such as freedom of expression and the freedom to protest peacefully. It would be a pity if the Free Trade Agreement about to be signed with China were to make it more likely that NZ would turn a blind eye to human rights' atrocities.

In recent weeks, UnitedFUTURE has made strong statements against Chinese actions in Tibet, and its leader, Peter Dunne, has declined an invitation to go Beijing because of them. The party is well-placed to assume an important watchdog role with respect to human rights issues. A responsible political voice is needed to maintain public awareness of the excesses that go on in other countries and pressure the New Zealand Government to respond appropriately.