Craner Says China Must Meet International Human Rights Norms
Assistant secretary of state January 29 speech

Lorne Craner

While incremental improvements in human rights have been taking place in China since the mid-1980s, "sweeping political and legal reforms" are still needed, according to Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Lorne Craner.

Craner, speaking before an audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. January 29, said Chinese leaders are aware of the need for structural change and have implemented reforms in several areas.

"The term 'human rights' is no longer taboo; in fact, it will soon be enshrined in China's own constitution," Craner noted.

He also pointed out that Chinese citizens now enjoy greater freedom of expression and an opportunity to participate in politics at the village level.

But much more effort is required on the part of China's leaders, the assistant secretary said, and the country's "laws need to be brought into line with international standards and treaty obligations."

The assistant secretary said the United States is concerned that China has failed to meet commitments it made in the December 2002 bilateral Human Rights Dialogue, and is considering sponsoring a resolution on this point at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to be held this spring in Geneva.

"If China expects to be a fully-accepted member of the international community, China must live up to international human rights norms, and they can begin by fulfilling the pledges they made more than a year ago," Craner said.

The United States places great importance on the emergence of democracy in China and is developing a comprehensive strategy to promote medium- and long-term efforts to advance human rights structures in China, he said.

U.S. government funding for rule of law programs in China has increased more than fivefold, he continued, and "tangible results" are expected.

Following is the State Department text of Craner's remarks:

(begin text)

A Comprehensive Human Rights Strategy for China
Assistant Secretary of State Lorne W. Craner
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Washington, DC
January 29, 2004

I am delighted to be here with you today, and I would especially like to thank Jessica Matthews and Minxin Pei for inviting me to speak to such a distinguished group of scholars, experts and policy-makers.

The focus of today's conference -- the future of political reform in China -- is of great interest to the State Department, especially to my bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. But it is also of particular personal interest to me -- I have been fascinated by China since my teen years.

In 1981, while learning Mandarin in college, I spent a summer in Taiwan and was able to travel in southern China. Living in Taiwan's one party system, where people were arrested for their thoughts and ideas, was an early introduction to issues of human rights. After I lived in Taiwan, I followed its development closely, watching with fascination as a maturing democratic political system structurally opened Taiwan to the point where human rights activists and dissidents came to power in elections. Taiwan's achievements are part of a broader trend in the region and are especially relevant for China itself. They make clear, if anyone still doubts it, that democracy knows no cultural boundaries. It can thrive amid Chinese culture just as it thrives from Mali to Mexico.

I had a chance to advance such structural changes in Asia and elsewhere in the 1990s as President of the International Republican Institute. As some of you know, IRI in the early 1990s did pioneering work to advance village elections, legislative independence and legal reforms in China. I'm told, for example, that we were the first western NGO to witness a village election, in Fujian Province in 1993.

It is clear that Chinese leaders are aware that systemic changes are needed in China, and it is clear that such structural reforms have been taking place since the mid-1980s. Elections are conducted at the village level. Citizens are participating in public legislative hearings. New professional standards have been adopted for judges and lawyers. Space is expanding for Chinese citizens to live without government interference and to express themselves. The term "human rights" is no longer taboo, in fact, it will soon be enshrined in China's own constitution. Officials and scholars alike are urging greater protection for workers, women and the environment under the mantle of human rights. Clearly, China is a much different place than when I first visited in 1981.

But it remains a place where much more is needed. A recent New York Times article describes a visit made by Premier Wen Jiabao to the countryside where a Chinese peasant told him that local authorities had failed to pay $300 in wages for work on a government construction project. After he personally intervened on the peasant worker's behalf, local officials promptly paid the owed wages. Although Wen's intervention helped resolve this individual worker's case, the problem of unpaid wages and other labor rights issues will never be solved by "personal rule". Top Chinese leaders cannot personally intervene in every instance involving backpay, corrupt local leaders, or abuse of power. Such actions are necessary because the Chinese people still lack consistent and impartial protection of their basic freedoms under the rule of law.

While access to legal aid has greatly improved over the past decade, many defendants do not enjoy access to counsel. Though the "Custody and Repatriation" system has been abolished, other forms of administrative detention, such as "re-education through labor," remain intact. Most people still have no voice in the way their country is governed. Those expressing and, especially, organizing dissenting views risk arrest and prolonged detention in difficult conditions. Elections continue to be held in villages throughout China, but efforts to expand elections to higher levels have met resistance. While individual prisoner releases remain important, for every prisoner that is released thousands more, such as Rebiyah Kadeer, Su Zhimin, and Phuntsog Nyidrol languish in jail while new prisoners are taken into custody. The recent arrests of democracy activists, defense lawyers advocating on behalf of dissidents or the dispossessed, HIV/AIDS activists, journalists reporting on SARS, and protesting workers, all of whom are filling political space supposedly being opened, are particularly disturbing. Repression of Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, underground Protestants, and Catholics faithful to the Vatican also continues.

It is as a result of these serious human rights concerns that we have urged China to take steps that will strengthen institutions to advance human rights for all Chinese citizens. Sweeping political and legal reforms are needed to protect Chinese citizens. Laws need to be brought into line with international standards and treaty obligations. Labor laws, for example, should comply with commitments assumed under the Conventions of the International Labor Organization, of which China is a founding member, and these laws, including those ensuring freedom of association, should be effectively enforced. If that were to happen, Premier Wen would not need to intervene personally to ensure workers are paid, and workers could organize into free and independent trade unions to protect their interests in a rapidly modernizing economy.

By the time I joined the State Department in 2001, it was clear to me that such structural reforms could and should be advanced. When I was interviewed for this job, I told Secretary Powell that I wanted to expand the parameters of our China human rights policy beyond prisoner lists. We retain a great interest in liberty for individual Chinese prisoners, and I have been very happy to see Jigme Sangpo, Xu Wenli, Fang Jue and many others gain their liberty over the past two and a half years. As my friend John Kamm says, you cannot work on human rights without helping human beings. But over the past two and a half years, this Administration has developed a comprehensive approach to human rights in China that extends to medium-term efforts to advance human rights structures in China, through such mechanisms as U.N. Special Rapporteurs, and into long-term efforts supporting democracy-building activities.

Through a congressional appropriation, the State Department is catalyzing long-term efforts to lay the foundation for the rule of law, greater public participation and a robust civil society. We are supporting programs to foster the development of the legal and democratic institutions that will hopefully serve as a means to check human rights abuses in China. The programs we support address some of our most serious human rights concerns, including the right to due process of law, the harassment and detention of criminal defense lawyers, and lack of judicial independence. We are supporting efforts to help non-governmental organizations become effective advocates for their communities and the disenfranchised, such as workers suffering under sweatshop-like conditions and those living with HIV/AIDS.

The State Department is also backing programs to give citizens a greater voice in governance by improving public participation through elections and public hearings. The judicial and legal reform projects we support aim to establish the rule of law in China. I am proud to say that in the last three years, the amount of funding available for rule of law programs in China has grown more than fivefold, from $2 million to over $12 million. In fact, the U.S. Government funds more projects to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law in China than any other foreign government or international aid agency in the world.

As important as our long-term structural programmatic efforts are, the State Department is committed to continuing to raise short- and medium-term human rights concerns in bilateral and multilateral settings. The bilateral Human Rights Dialogue has historically provided us with a forum to raise these human rights concerns. However, as in all aspects of our relationship with China, we have made clear to the Chinese that talk for talk's sake is not enough. We expect the Dialogue to produce tangible results.

During the December 2002 Human Rights Dialogue, we were pleased when China made several commitments, and we viewed it as incremental but important progress. Since then, I have traveled to China twice to discuss the status of these commitments and our human rights concerns. For example, China agreed to host visits by the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Religious Freedom, as well as the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. We believe that these kinds of interactions would help to integrate China into the international human rights regime, enabling medium-term improvements in due process, extra-judicial sentencing, religious freedom, and the practice of torture. It was on this basis that we decided to forego offering a resolution on China at last year's U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

As a result of our concern about backsliding across a range of key human rights issues, the United States is seriously considering sponsoring a resolution on the human rights situation in China at the Commission this spring, a decision which will be made at the highest levels of our Government. If China expects to be a fully-accepted member of the international community, China must live up to international human rights norms, and they can begin by fulfilling the pledges they made more than a year ago.

Why is the emergence of democracy in China important to U.S. policy? The United States stands up for democracy and human rights around the world, and we maintain a fundamental belief that freedom is better than oppression, that liberty is better than tyranny, that rule of law works better than power, and that respect for human rights is better than arbitrary abuse of individuals. As President Bush stated last November, "Our commitment to democracy is tested in China. That nation now has a sliver, a fragment of liberty. Yet, China's people will eventually want liberty pure and whole." In the same month, Secretary Powell stated, "Only by allowing the Chinese people to think, speak, assemble and worship very, very freely, only then will China fully unleash the talents of its citizens and reach its full potential as a member of the international community."

We believe in the need for democratization in China because we believe that the Chinese people have as much a right to basic and fundamental freedoms as so many others around the world enjoy. Democratically governed nations are more likely to secure peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, combat international terrorism and crime, rule responsibly, uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms, avoid man-made humanitarian crises, and improve human health. Again quoting Secretary Powell, "No less important for the future of China itself, and for our bilateral relationship and for the world is how China responds to the aspirations of its own citizens." The U.S. Government will continue to make human rights and democracy a core part of our relations with China. We cannot sit back and hope that market forces and trade alone will secure political freedom and the rule of law.

Chinese officials often counter that the educational level of the Chinese people is not high enough for direct elections. But consider the reality: China is becoming a major economic powerhouse. It has become a significant contributor to international art, film, literature, medicine and science, even launching a man into space. We reject the view that the Chinese people are not ready for national elections and democracy. There is a clear lesson for China in the spread of democracy to so many countries and cultures around the world -- many less economically powerful -- from Mongolia to India, from Bolivia to Botswana. No country's culture is incompatible with democracy or the spread of the most basic rights and liberties.

In fact, it is the people of greater China themselves who are demanding representative government. It is the people of Hong Kong who took to the streets to stop the passage of national security legislation called for under Article 23 of their Basic Law. And it is Chinese activists who are pushing the boundaries of current reforms. Growing awareness of their rights has prompted increasing numbers of aggrieved parties to seek redress in the courts. Associations and civil society organizations, while still closely monitored, are spreading throughout the country and many are tackling difficult human rights questions such as worker rights and women's rights. Even in the area of elections, anecdotes of independent candidates campaigning for local legislative positions are being carried by the Chinese press. These developments are encouraging. Although we can and should support this process, in the end, it is the people of China who will shape the future of political reform in China. Many have spoken already about the changes they desire. Our job, as we do elsewhere around the world, is to amplify their voices with our own and support them in achieving their goals.

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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Source: "Washingto File".