Amnesty International Stance on China

Find a copy of the video to this story here: https://youtu.be/e7WRrfonhCA

I’ve been pretty busy recently looking at Amnesty International because they are presenting information to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

And they seem to have it in for China.

If we accept, for a moment, that the government of China evil and oppressive it would be easy to see why allegations against it are so many and varied and why they are so believable. But when we look at the achievements of China we could easily form a very, very different picture.

China was once home to many of the world’s top 10 dirtiest cities, it still has one in the top twenty. Massive improvements in living environment are ongoing.

China had high poverty, it had limited healthcare and educational opportunities but now, the United Nations and the World Bank acknowledge that China has done more to eradicate poverty than the entire rest of the world combined. Other developed nations have people falling into poverty, China has an enlarging middle class on its way to moderate prosperity.

The number of Chinese universities has increased over the last 10 years by 347, that’s more than twice as many new universities built in 10 years in China, than the UK’s total of 134 and massive increases in vocational training institutes (11,700), with almost 60% of high schoolers moving to tertiary education.

China increased the number of hospitals from 20,000 to 36,000 and, 5-years ago, overtook the US in terms of life expectancy. This allegedly “evil regime” is working hard to promote and sustain a healthy and well-educated population.

China’s murder rate declined to 0.5 per 100,000 people compared to the European Union at 1.78 and the US which constantly increases and is now 6.9/100,000. General crime in China has decreased every year since 2004.

The same government builds networks of high speed trains, some of the world’s longest, and most impressive bridges and freeways for use by its citizens while fostering a plan of growth in science, technology and attracts the world largest deposits of Direct Foreign Investment.

China’s government has done much to improve life for many of its people yet so many misunderstandings, misinformation persists. This comes from hostile media, supported by US funds to find and report negativity on China but also from what ought to be reliable and honest sources; NGOs.

The most influential of these is, Nobel Prize winning, Amnesty International, with 10 million donors, volunteers, employees and supporters in 106 countries and regions. Amnesty holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. Founded in 1961 by Peter Benson, who penned the phrase, “prisoner of conscience”.

It was founded on the premise of freeing unjustly incarcerated prisoners and then gravitated towards the abolition of the death penalty, now it expands to every aspect of human rights. Amnesty is unique in that it works with human rights in every region and category where they could be abused.

It draws criticism from almost every sector of “international society” because it is critical of all. It criticises China and the USA and is as critical of Palestine and Israel as it is of Iran. It’s incurred the ire of both Russia and Ukraine by criticising both sides but reserves much of its worst criticism for China.

The last full report Amnesty produced was their 2021 report on China which catalogues abuses citing unnamed “human rights lawyers and activists”. It describes something called a “tiger chair” which is not an implement of torture, This aluminium slatted chair is no less comfortable than many chairs in Chinese homes and the same as some people in the West use as garden furniture. The only difference being that the chair has restraints, but so do most police interview room chairs around the world. In fact, so innocuous is the “tiger chair” it uses a similar design to the seats on Chinese local buses, until about 15 years ago.

Amnesty’s report concedes there is progress in recognising the rights of LGBTI people in Hong Kong, it would be very hard not to since HK won the right to host the 2023 World Gay Games. But it goes on to talk about “unprecedented human rights violations” failing to acknowledge even the most basic of facts, arresting and charging a person for making fire bombs or arresting and charging people for collecting and distributing funds to buy equipment to make those bombs are not abuses of human rights.

It goes on to say that Xinjiang and Tibet have been isolated from international media and human rights groups despite repeated requests there had been no agreement to allow the Human Rights Commissioner to visit — something which clearly requires an update since Michelle Bachelet, with a team of five UN staff, did visit in May 2022 and the positive comments she had made, the steps she had put in place to assure future accountability were completely left out of the subsequent UN report, as was her own signature. In fact, I reported in September 2022, that it was more notable for what it left out, than what it included.

Michelle Bachelet was criticised by the anti-China community because what she reported did not match what they wanted to hear. This seems to be a common trait, people who visit China and report on what they see, endure criticism, even abuse, from the Anti-China community unless they report negatively. Amnesty, along with almost every mainstream media outlet completely ignored the 131-page rebuttal which was attached to the UN report.

There are many allegations, accusations and insinuations inside Amnesty’s 2021 report, one more is that the report suggests that China remains the world’s leading executioner, although it concedes that it doesn’t know how many people are executed. It is documented in China that the number of executions, and the number of crimes for which a person can be executed have reduced. It is also noted in many media outlets that many people sentenced to death are actually reprieved and sentenced to a “suspended death penalty”, meaning commutation to a prison term if the offenders behave themselves for the suspended period. Academic reports suggest that judicial reform, which has been taking place since 2007 is largely ignored outside of China.

If Amnesty, or a representative, has ever visited China, that has never been reported. Consequently, there is no evidence to suggest that Chinese people who live, work and travel freely both inside (and outside) China have ever been consulted. However, opinions are sought from Chinese people who have left China, some fleeing corruption charges, some after serving time in prisons for offences they call political but, when asked, the Chinese Government refutes this with evidence. These “witnesses” to atrocities are never sworn in affidavit, never provided evidence under penalty of perjury nor are they ever cross examined.

How they left China to provide testimonies as “prisoners of conscience” remains ambiguous. None are refugees who illegally crossed borders and, there is one notable case where a “witnesses” showed her passport on CNN, inadvertently exposing that the passport was issued while she allegedly was under house arrest.

Supposed evidence of Genocide, a word the UN, Amnesty International and even the US Department of Justice have avoided using, was supplied by a man who visited China for 10 days in 2010 and has a mission from God to destroy communism, It is supported by satellite imagery showing schools, factories and other facilities, including farms and housing estates, all of which commonly have high levels of security but are interpreted as prisons or detention facilities by one analyst with no experience of China, its culture of boarding schools and factories with dormitories and security features.

However, many leaders of different countries have visited China, international tourists visit and some even spend time in Xinjiang in January 2023. August 2022 and May 2021 Islamic leaders visited and toured Xinjiang. Three different times, they contradict Amnesty International. An increasing number of Chinese citizens also leave China every year as tourists and willingly return to a place where Amnesty and other NGOs claim they have restriction on their rights and are oppressed and abused.

If Amnesty needs to find the truth about China, then a visit to the country, either officially or otherwise might help them to understand that the surveys; research; observations of tourists and business visitors; the confidence of overseas investors and all the statistics indicate stable, improving conditions with good living standards.

The gathering of evidence from religious zealots; misinterpreted satellite imagery; unsworn testimonials and news headlines which rework and amplify spurious sources will never provide a true view of what China really is. The real question isn’t about China’s alleged human rights abuses, the real question is: if they care so much about the people, why don’t Amnesty visit to find out?