Since the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989, the United States government has conducted 12 rounds of human rights dialogue with China. During this time, while commitments were made, minimal achievement on the front of human rights actually occurred as a direct result of three factors: the decoupling of human rights from the strategic economic dialogue, the absence of any concrete benchmarks being created, and the inability of non-governmental organizations to participate in the process. In the words of Kelley Currie from the 2049 Project, “Using a combination of incentives, coercion and cooptation, China has been incredibly successful in its long-running efforts to reshape the international discourse on its human rights record, and marginalize human rights advocacy directed at it.”
But, rhetoric has been different as of late. State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley, offered encouraging words when he said of the dialogue, “It (the US relationship with China) covers a number of areas. Human rights is a central element to that. So as part of the strategic dialogue, human rights is a dimension of that. It's part of the economic dialogue. Issues that touch on human rights whether its Internet freedom, access to information, intellectual property rights - these are all fundamental to this discussion.” Ambassador John Huntsman offered a further glimmer of hope when he articulated, "We're talking about issues that are uncomfortable, quite frankly, but it is a sign of maturity that we can talk about specific cases, that we can talk about issues relating to rule of law, religion, labor.” On the Chinese side, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu said of the talks, " China is willing to have dialogue and communication with the US side on human rights on the basis of equality and mutual respect. We hope and believe such dialogue and communication will play a positive role in promoting the bilateral relations and enhancing mutual understanding."
With such optimistic words on the part of State Department officials and Beijing both, one can only hope that these closed door meetings were, in fact, different than the others. In light of these words, we here at the Laogai Research Foundation hope action is being taken on these key issues as a result of the current talks:
The Chinese government must bring an end to the Laogai forced labor prison system.
China’s Laogai forced labor prison system is one of the most repressive systems of detention in the world. 1,007 camps are currently in operation, and they contain 3-5 million prisoners. The Laogai forced labor prison system encompasses reform-through-labor, reeducation-through-labor, ankang, black jails and other forms of detention. After unfavorable international publicity in the early 1990’s, the Chinese government replaced the word “Laogai,” with the more palatable “prison” (jianyu). However, despite the name change, the government admitted in Chinese media that the “prison” system is exactly the same as the “Laogai” system.
China’s Laogai forced labor prison system is also a source of profit for the Chinese government. Chinese law states that the Laogai forced labor prison system must “serve (the) economic construction of the state,”by creating “wealth for society. (China’s) Laogai facilities are both facilities of dictatorship and special economic enterprise.” Frequently, Laogai forced labor prisons operate under two names for this purpose: a prison name and an enterprise name. Products produced in the Laogai forced labor prison system are illegally traded on the international market. The trade of these products is illegal under Chinese law, U.S. law, and bi-lateral agreements between the two nation-states. The total number of Laogai products exported into the United States is unknown at this time.
The Chinese government must have greater respect for the physical integrity of Laogai Prisoners
Forced labor isn’t the only means by which the Chinese government is able to profit from Laogai forced labor prisoners. China harvests the organs of executed prisoners, and the sale of these organs is a profitable process with some experts estimating that over 90% of all organ transplants in China come from executed prisoners.
This disrespect for the integrity of a Laogai forced labor prisoner’s body also extends to the resale of the entire remains of the prisoner for profit. A 2008 investigation by Attorney General of New York Andrew Cuomo determined that the Chinese Bureau of Police claimed the bodies displayed by Premier Exhibitions, Inc, in their traveling exhibitions at death. The prisoners had not consented to the plastination process.
Greater Access to Information for Chinese Citizens and Reduced Censorship must be obtained
There are 384 billion internet users in China today. Yet, internet access as greatly monitored and largely restricted in most parts of the country. Most notably when internet access was cut for 10 months to the turbulent region of East Turkestan, following the July 5th riots in the region. Amid recent rumors of the US Department of State funding the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIF), greater access to information for Chinese citizens, is no longer a priority of just Chinese activists, but also the US Department of State. We can only hope that last week's dialogue will lead to greater access to information for Chinese as well as their ability to disseminate their own information more widely.
This being said, there are a great many topics of discussion which, while raised in last week's dialogue, may in fact never see action. But, officials on both sides, in their own words, have given us a jumping off point to continue the dialogue as part of our strategic economic partnership. We can only hope that Secretary Clinton will continue this trend in her talks with China on economic relations later this month.