The administration of PMS is implying the situation regarding Huseyin Celil, sentenced yesterday to life imprisonment in Mainland China for alleged "terrorist" acts, is in a delicate situation and things should not be rushed into.
Wrong. You don't play nice with dictators. You deal with them with a hard hand. Of course a country's internal laws must be respected but there is no indication that Celil actually broke any laws other than the ones that exist in the Forbidden City's imagination. Beijing must understand that Celil is a citizen of Canada and by denying him consular access they are already in violation of their treaty obligations.
When the Western world was falling over itself about a decade ago giving China "most favoured nation" status (that is, products from the country would only be levied the lowest level of duties charged to a third country not part of a free trade agreement or customs union with the destination state) many became rightly concerned that this was rewarding Beijing for something it didn't deserve, given its already appalling human rights record and its total lack of even fair trading practices let alone free trade. Canada currently has MFN with about 100 other countries; mostly the EU, most Commonwealth states and la Francophonie. Many in the latter two groups are of course dictatorships but human rights abuses while they are there are nowhere near the level that exists in China.
Now there's a situation of a man facing a real sentence on a bogus charge. We didn't back down with South Africa during the 1980s, indeed Brian Mulroney to his credit had the guts to take a stand when many other countries -- including the US and the UK -- would not. Now's not the time to be weak-kneed when it comes to China. Trade interests or not, what's important here is the human element. If Beijing won't recognize Mr. Celil's dual citizenship and recognize they phonied up this particular prosecution, then we should pull our Ambassador -- indeed, the entire diplomatic staff -- for consultations. The Chinese Ambassador should also be expelled.
The only thing China seems to understand these days is the Almighty Dollar. If that country was isolated, as South Africa once was, there might be hope for a change. Nuclear weapons or not. (And the Cape of Good Hope did have the bomb at the time, it must be remembered.)
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4 comments:
ok lets stop traiding with china ! it means no political contact, no economic contact, so on.....does that sound like a good idea, for anyone who gets caught up in their legal system...trade is always better, because it gives us leverage...and anyway if we stop trading with them, who would take up the slack in your opinion? without shame and with a whole lotta greed....mmmmm...american corparations maybe????
Here's another option... withdraw our Olympic athletes from the 2008 Games in Bejing.
Interesting ideas, all. I still think MFN was a mistake, though, because it effectively ties our hands when it comes to diplomacy. A carrot and stick is what's needed.
If the current situation is retaliation for the wife of a Chinese diplomat wanting to defect to Canada because she's in Falun Gong it's not going to pressure us.
Wow... Mezba, remember what happened to William Sampson in Saudi Arabia (for 2+ years)? Brutally tortured? And he was white. Why do some people immediately jump to the 'race' card as soon as any discussion starts that involves a minority?
As for China, we should be under no illusions, whether we trade with China or not won't make a difference. We have almost no leverage over them, if fact our only card is our oil. But right now they're getting plenty from their friends in Sudan, Iran and Venezuela.
Withdrawing our athletes makes a statement but again accomplishes nothing.
Perhaps we could at least start by removing the foreign aid (to the tune of $50million/year) that we give China. At least it'd be something. Also, a little more criticism would be worthwhile. I mean, heck, certain politicians in certain parties have been quite vocal about how awful the USA is... why don't they turn their vitrolic statements towards China once in a while too?
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