wus current affairs newsletter 4th issue 2014-2015

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CURRENT AFFAIRS COMMENTARY

Jeffrey Ip Cheuk Yan Current Affairs Secretary

4th Issue

World University Service, HKUB, HKUSU, Session 2014 – 2015 Newsletter 4th Issue

Stability preservation and Human rights in China

China is thriving. It has undergone rapid socio-economic change and modernization. It has transformed

into a political and economic superpower. It has amazed the world for the last twenty years. Several generations of Chinese top leaders had concurrently attributed the success of the Chinese model of economic and social growth to the country’s relentless effort in preserving homeland political and social stability. They are absolutely right economically speaking. But is it really justified? And how high can the cost of “Stability preservation” be?

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China’s context of “Stability”

In China’s political arena, there is a famous quote

known as” Stability overrides everything”, first putting forward by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Deng believed that the prime key to sustainable economic and social development is stability. As a matter of fact, for a country that has suffered successive wars,

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political upheavals and social unrests in the last century, stability preservation naturally becomes the only way to life the nation out of poverty and grief. Unfortunately, ever since the brutal crackdown of the pro-democracy movement in 1989, meaningful political reform in China has been stalled. The path to constitutional


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World University Service, HKUB, HKUSU, Session 2014 – 2015

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Newsletter 4th Issue

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democracy remains elusive. “Stability preservation” now becomes the convenient excuse for the incumbent Chinese communist party (CCP) to justify its authoritarian rule and every single violation of human rights in the country. Any elements that are perceived as a threat to the CCP rule will be treated as an enemy of the common goods. For instance, the charge against the prominent human rights activists Liu Xiaobo is named as “Inciting subversion of state power” on the basis of Liu tried to overthrow the established social system (the socialist system) in China. The party has also been using the idea of “Stability preservation” as a form of conflict resolution in society, which results of the resolution are always unilaterally delivered by the authority. For example, in the case of “nail household” (a type of household who refuses to accept compensation from property developer for its demolition or relocation as a result of urban development), the conflict is usually settled though the dispatch of demolition team by the government without any negotiation with the affected parties. The government will often accuse these households of threatening social stability by not cooperating with the authority. As a matter of fact, they are just fighting for their property rights. Protests against such governmental actions and policies are normally viewed as a threat to public security.

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More to the point, the legal system in China is traditionally intertwined with the state political arrangements. From CCP’s perceptive, law is a powerful weapon against dissidents and perceived troublemakers. While social stability is normally preserved through the implementation of the rule of law and protection of civil liberties/human rights, the Chinese government demands the full cooperation of the court to run the society. Very often, Chinese citizens can only exercise their constitutional rights within the existing legal framework. With the complete control of the judiciary by the government, civil litigations are doomed to produce limited results. Political cases are universally subdued before it can be presented to public. Right to fair trials is an alien phrase in this country. In any sense, stability preservation fails to justify CCP’s totalitarian system.

Rights preservation movements in China

The pessimist will say: the post-1989 China is a

land devoid of hope and conscience. The public either loses faith on the fight for democracy or pretends to be ignorant about the evils of the government. This may be exaggerated but it is logically grounded. Basically, the Rights preservation movements in China have once been


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reduced to oblivion. Any organized opposition to the CCP is exterminated at its root. Instead of organizing a coordinated, radical rights preservation movement of nationwide scale, human rights activists/lawyers adopt a guerrilla-like approach and take a much softer line with the authority. Firstly, they will prefer to operate under the current political and legal system by pursuing litigations in courts or launching petitions to the central government. Their cases normally concern economic and social rights rather than civil and political rights. Examples are litigation or protests against poor working conditions, uncompensated laid-off, forced seizures of land, unpaid social entitlements and environmental pollution in residential area. They usually present them as gentle as possible. Secondly, the fact they present their cases separately can relieve the authority of the suspicion of deliberate and organized disobedience. The CCP is popularly known for its sensitivity to state subversion through organized social movements, a bad habit acquired since 1989.

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Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the CCP considers human rights can only be solely provided by the state. Therefore, any rights preservation requests can only be approved by the state in a condescending manner, a governance practice only existed in the old

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imperial China. In the light of this, rights activists have no choice but to make compromise with the government. The approach may sound cowardly, but it is pragmatic. Since immediate institutional change is impossible, step-by-step breakthrough is more preferable. Even that is the case for political reform. Nevertheless, the CCP seems to show no good faith to these people, as in the case of the Charter 08.

Charter 08

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Charter 08 is a political blueprint prepared by

the famous Liu Xiaobo and his colleagues. It is a document concluding the demands raised over the years as well as a direction guideline for China’s rights preservation movements. It includes the ideal shared by many intellectuals of a Chinese constitutional democracy and an independent judiciary. And it calls for political democratization which every ordinary citizen will participate in the rights preservation movements. The document is much needed for China’s future human rights and political developments. It is gentle and cooperative.

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Nothing radical has been put down. A gradual and CCP-led institutional reform is favoured. It would be a good chance for the CCP to take advantage of the Charter 08 to initiate reform. But again it disappointed again. Liu Xiaobo was charged with “Inciting subversion of state power” and is placed under house arrest. The “preserving stability” discourse has triumphed. Even worse, it is the regime stability instead of social stability we are mentioning. Regrettably, people are indifferent. While the CCP has been exploiting the fear of the Chinese population, that the fall of CCP will throw the country into chaos and economic destruction, one should always understand freedom will only be rewarded with courage and sacrifice.

Human right is not an enemy

Human right is not an enemy to stability,

whether it is political or social. The cause of China’s recent rights preservation movements is the long standing violation of human rights by the Chinese government. The best way to maintain political and social stability is to address the grievance prevailing in Chinese society and try to accommodate gentle rights preservation movements. There should be positive interactions between the government and the population, to preserve stability and rights hands in hands. People should try to gently negotiate a new social and political order with the government. The Chinese government should not consider concession from the state as a risk to political stability. Rather, a nice gesture from the state will smooth the frustration of the disadvantaged groups and make the government more trustworthy and respectable.

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It is true that concessions may open up the possibility for further demands, which some may concern political reform. However, the process is inevitable. Clock is ticking and the world is watching.

References Feng, C.Y. (2013). Preserving Stability and Rights Protection: Conflict or Coherence?. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs. Volume 42. Issue 2. 21–50. Retrieved from http://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/631/629 Benney. J.(31. Oct, 2013). Stability maintenance at the grassroots: China’s weiwen apparatus as a form of conflict resolution. LOEWE Research Focus Working Paper Series no. 8. Goethe University. Retrieved from http://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/Stability_maintenance Xinhua. (19 Dec, 2011). Economic, social stability key to China's development. Xinhuanet. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2011-12/19/c_131314562.htm


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Xinjiang experienced a series of violent attacks in

the past years. To count, the bomb and knife attack in 2014 August was probably the most notable one, killing 3 and with 79 injured- be expected that there is still some growing room left for the numbers, where data was released by state media and officials.

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Do the Reasons Reason?

Lee Ching Hin BBA (A&F), Year 1

Your Voice! Your voice! is where you can comment on current affairs related to the topic highlighted in each newsletter! If you would also like to express your special views on heated issues, please stay tuned with our mass emails and send us your commentaries accordingly. Prizes will be awarded if your commentary is chosen to feature in the next issue!


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Beijing blames the violence on separatists from Muslim Uighur minority, therefore, suppressing the rights of those dissent. These violations include arbitrary detention and imprisonment, unfair political trials, torture and summary executions. Simply speaking, China justifies their behaviour to undermine ethnic culture and

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literature in the name of war on terrorism. For the stability reason of the state and its people, imprisonment and torture imposed on political dissents are therefore glorified. How mocking it is for the logic behind. Force suppression for the majority’s sake seems to be alright for some people. But ask yourself, from whose aspect are you looking into the word- stability? Does stability always do well? The fact is that those who abhor violence is alienated from every aspect of their lives, for example, equal opportunity in education, health care and employment. To quote from one article which I find myself can’t agree more with, “attempts by Uighurs to air their views or grievances peacefully and to exercise their most fundamental human rights in constitutional manner have attracted government repression”. Under a situation where the government is inviting violence, do you still think that their act in violating human rights can be justified?

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Xinjiang may be a bit too far away. Think about Hong Kong’s current heated topic and you would probably find some clue.

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To show our non-cooperation towards the authority on the issue of popular involvement in nomination and voting, groups of citizens gathered. In the middle stage of civil disobedience, tear gas was applied by the Police Force to disperse the crowds. Internationally, tear gas is stated as a weapon of torture and ill-treatment. Without given sufficient warning before using this, in my point of view, excessive force, during Occupy Central, is violation of human rights. Furthermore, despite the illegality nature of gather without prior application, Police had once stopped people from entering a public area far away from the protestors’ designated demonstration area, which is, again, another example of rights exploiting.

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Can these kinds of human rights violation be justified by rule and order? Does it look sound to you? The truth is the same under the above mentioned Xinjiang situation. The government has left us with no option. It is an age which we have to admit that illegality does not necessarily contradict to just and lawfulness does not necessarily correlate to righteous. Sadly, only through civil disobedience can we show our will and determination. We never kneel down to what we disbelieve. What is the veiled cause behind violence and disobedience? Do they exist as counter causes for human right violation? The obscurity in black and white, as well as right and wrong, is ever-so alarming on this complicity-growing society. Political leaders, something is wrong with our system.

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The Implication of the General Perception on Deprivation of Human Rights and Human Right Violations

Choy Tsun Ho BPharm, Year 1

Human rights, perceived as “unalienable and fundamental” by the public (United Nations Office of the

High Commissioner for Human Rights, n.d., para. 3,5), are often endorsed unanimously by people (Staerkle C., Clemence, A., 2004); however, it is noted that the public are weak in differentiating the concepts of HRD and HRV. The author argues that such general perception requires much attention. In the following, the text will first differentiate HRV from HRD, and lay down the evidence of widespread inability of identifying legitimate and illegitimate situations of HRV and HRD. Furthermore, a discussion of how such perception have significant implications will be deliberated which shed light towards the protection against HRV on a whole.

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Human Rights Deprivation (HRD)

≠Human Rights Violation (HRV) It is pivotal to iterate the definition of human rights, HRV and HRD before the start of any

material discussion. Human rights are the rights and freedoms that are inherent to all human beings and are explicitly expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNHR) and protected by states that have ratified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Thus, HRV are in essence the infringement of the articles of UNHR (for unratified countries) or ICCPR (for ratified countries). HRD refers to any act that deprives an individual’s human rights and thus HRV is not equivalent to HRD but rather a subset of it.

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The non-absolute nature of many

human rights and the distinction of

legitimate HRV and HRD Indeed, human rights are in most cases cardinal and should be protected in all costs. However, not all human rights are absolute rights. In fact, most human rights are subjected to reasonable constraints which puts them into the non-absolute category. It is cited from the website of

UNOHCHR that these non-absolute human rights could be deprived in specific conditions and in accordance to due process (UNOHCHR, para. 5). Such derogation of human rights are examples of legitimate HRD. On the other hand, unlawful deprivation of non-absolute human rights or any derogation of the absolute human rights constitute a HRV offence and are subjected to sanctions by


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UN.

General deficiency in identifying and differentiating legitimate HRD from HRV It has been shown that two classes of HRD exist, which legitimate HRD occurs in daily basis while

HRV is not justified and should be condemned. The line of the two distinct subsets is clear and yet despite innumerous support for human rights protection, people seem to have a significant degree of difficulty in identifying and differentiating the two. Research by Christian Staerkle and Alain Clemence suggests that in addition to the right-based orientation that disregards any attribute of victimization, a context-based counterpart, which relies on the deservingness of victims, is also persistent (2004). These two approaches in determining the acceptability of HRV coexist and are readily utilized alternatively as external factors such as the

reporting style of the situation, the context of the actual offence, people’s familiarity of situation etc. vary. In the adoption of context-based orientation, interviewees neglect the universality of principles of human rights when the deservingness of the suspect is comparatively lower and mistakenly viewed that HRV by government as acceptable


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HRD.

Implication

Such perception of HRD and HRV warrant our attention as there are far-reaching implications in aspects of human rights protection particular when applied to the Hong Kong context. With reference to above, people have the propensity of relating deservingness of the individual with the acceptability of the HRV. Hence if this propensity is left unattended, negligence of such HRVs in daily basis might be resulted, which condones these unacceptably acts which ultimately disrupt the renowned multicultural society and social justice of Hong Kong.

For example, minorities groups in Hong Kong often face different varieties of discrimination, and yet the majority of people seldom care about it. In cases of employment, a study by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) in 2012 reveals

Figure 1. The first Pakistani woman recruited since handover (15 years ago) signifies the difficulty for South Asians of getting employed by the government.

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that discrimination problems are prevalent. The feedbacks from the interviewees of south

Asian ethnic groups suggested that even though they are having equivalent educational background and ability to speak Cantonese, they face difficulties in situations when they are seeking non-technical jobs which do not require the ability to write Chinese. For the south Asian ethnic individuals who received higher education in their homeland, they also faced adversities in acknowledgment of their educational background when they are finding better-paid jobs or applying for government vacancies. In both cases, context-based orientation are adopted as stereotypes of the minorities exist which include “South Asians being not as hardworking as Chinese” (EOC,

2012, p.23) and this negatively affects the image of the individual in attempts to rationalize these

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discriminatory acts. These situations are actually well known to the

majority of the Chinese communities, and the Race Discrimination Ordination has been enacted in order to alleviate the situation. In spite of the knowledge, these unfair discriminations seldom solicit sufficient attention. The EOC study also mentioned in its conclusion that if these

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situations are not improving, the dismayed community of these minority groups will

eventually despise the unequal society and have their resentment released through various anti-social actions. This implies that if the situation is left unattended, social harmony could be disrupted. Moreover, the inability to promote social justice also cast doubt on the positive image of Hong Kong as a multicultural society which safeguards the universal principles of human rights.

Conclusion This previous example, alongside with

innumerous others, shed light on the analogous problems faced by various groups when the gap between the adherence of general principle and the response towards solid violations of human rights exists. Therefore, measures should be undertaken to improve the general ability to identify human right violations and to denounce these infringements in different contexts in order

Figure 2. Report of racial profiling – the South Asian individual gets ID checks for over 10 times last month

References Equal Opportunities Commission. Study on Racial Encounters and Discrimination Experienced by South Asians. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.eoc.org.hk/EOC/Upload/UserFiles/File/ResearchReport/201203/Race_eFull%20Report.pdf Staerkle, C., Clemence, A. (2004). Why People are Committed to Human Rights and Still Tolerate Their Violation: A Contextual Analysis of the Principle-Application Gap. Social Justice Research, 17, 389-406. doi:10.1007/s11211-004-2058-y United Nations Office of High Commissioner on Human Rights. What are Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2015, from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx


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wus current affairs newsletter 4th issue 2014-2015

Documents

issue stability preservation

stability overrides

idea of stability preservation

cost of stability preservation

china china

chinas context of stability

social development

social growth