RSF condemn China’s ban on judges talking to the press

Reporters Without Borders, 14 September 2006-

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Chinese government’s decision, announced by the official news agency Xinhua yesterday, to ban judges from talking to the press, as well as the increasing tendency for state agencies to say only their spokesperson is authorised to talk to journalists.

“It is hard to see how gagging judges will increase the transparency of the judicial system, as Xinhua claims,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The government is simply trying to give itself a new tool for controlling news and information inside and outside the country. The increase in press freedom violations less than two years before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games raises serious questions about the Chinese government’s good faith.”

In yesterday’s announcement, Xinhua said judges would be subject to “severe sanctions” if they violated the ban on talking directly to journalists. Communication with the media would henceforth be handled by the court spokesperson, who would also have the power to ban other judicial officials from answering journalists’ questions, Xinhua said.

Similar measures for lawyers were already announced in May. They were told in effect that they would be subject to sanctions by their bar association if they gave journalists, especially foreign correspondents, information about sensitive issues such as the cases of political prisoners.

Journalists working for the foreign news media are also affected by these restrictions. They are losing access to significant sources of information within the courts.

By appointing spokespersons – a practice also seen in other state entities – the authorities are trying to get full control over the news and information published in the Chinese press. A few days ago, the authorities announced a decision to consolidate Xinhua’s monopoly over the circulation of news in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and, in theory, Taiwan.

The three-year prison sentence recently imposed on New York Times researcher Zhao Yan and the five-year one given to Ching Cheong, the correspondent of the Singapore-based Straits Times daily, are also part of this drive to control the news two years before some 20,000 journalists from throughout the world arrive in Beijing to cover the Olympics.

Related:

– Media controls for Chinese courts , BBC News, 13 September 2006

China’s Pollution and the Threat to Domestic and Regional Stability(4)

By Nathan Nankivell, Japan Focus, January 3, 2006– (cont’d)

From the examples above, it is clear that China’s environmental crisis will only worsen before it gets better. SEPA’s impotence, Beijing’s contradictory policy statements, expanding consumption, and a lack of funds to reverse already serious problems all suggest that pollution and degradation will most likely worsen in the decades to come.

Pollution, Unrest, and Social Mobilization

As the impact of pollution on human health becomes more obvious and widespread, it is leading to greater political mobilization and social unrest from those citizens who suffer the most. The latest statement from the October 2005 Central Committee meeting in Shanghai illustrates Beijing’s increasing concern regarding the correlation between unrest and pollution issues. There were more than 74,000 incidents of protest and unrest recorded in China in 2004, up from 58,000 the year before (Asia Times, November 16, 2004). While there are no clear statistics linking this number of protests, riots, and unrest specifically to pollution issues, the fact that pollution was one of four social problems linked to disharmony by the Central Committee implies that there is at least the perception of a strong correlation.

For the CCP and neighboring states, social unrest must be viewed as a primary security concern for three reasons: it is creating greater political mobilization, it threatens to forge linkages with democracy movements, and demonstrations are proving more difficult to contain. These three factors have the potential to challenge the CCP’s total political control, thus potentially destabilizing a state with a huge military arsenal and a history of violent, internal conflict that cannot be downplayed or ignored.

Protests are uniting a variety of actors throughout local communities. Pollution issues are indiscriminate. The effects, though not equally felt by each person within a community, impact rich and poor, farmers and businessmen, families and individuals alike. As local communities respond to pollution issues through united opposition, it is leaving Beijing with no easy target upon which to blame unrest, and no simple option for how to quell whole communities with a common grievance.

Moreover, protests serve as a venue for the politically disaffected who are unhappy with the current state of governance, and may be open to considering alternative forms of political rule. Environmental experts like Elizabeth Economy note that protests afford an opportunity for the environmental movement to forge linkages with democracy advocates. She notes in her book, The River Runs Black, that several environmentalists argue that change is only possible through greater democratization and notes that the environmental and democracy movements united in Eastern Europe prior to the end of the Cold War. It is conceivable that in this way, environmentally-motivated protests might help to spread democracy and undermine CCP rule. ( to be cont’d…)

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Related:
– Rising unrest in China(3): Pollution , VOA News

CPJ: CHINA restricts foreign news distribution

The Committee to Protect Journalists, September 11, 2006, New York-

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by China’s announcement Sunday that the state-controlled Xinhua News Agency would oversee the distribution of foreign news and information within China, and would censor all news stories, photographs and other information deemed offensive under several broad categories.

“It is greatly distressing that less than two years before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the government is attempting to tighten its financial and political control over the flow of information in China,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “These new regulations on the distribution of foreign news are a step backward.”

The sweeping regulations are likely to affect financial news reporting and economic information providers that sell services directly to clients inside China, according to international news reports. The new rules come amid China’s heightened effort to control foreign and local press coverage through administrative measures and the civil and criminal prosecution of journalists.

Xinhua announced that the new regulations, called Measures for Administering the Release of News and Information in China by Foreign News Agencies, would take effect immediately. Under these measures, Xinhua News Agency says it would retain the right to select the news distributed within China, and would delete any materials found to:

• Violate the basic principles enshrined in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China;
• Undermine China’s national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity;
• Endanger China’s national security, reputation and interests;
• Violate China’s religious policies or preach evil cults or superstition;
• Incite hatred and discrimination among ethnic groups, undermine their unity, infringe upon their customs and habits, or hurt their feelings;
• Spread false information, disrupt China’s economic and social order, or undermine China’s social stability;
• Propagate obscenity and violence, or to abet crimes;
• Humiliate or slander another person, or infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of another person;
• Undermine social ethics of the fine cultural traditions of the Chinese nation;
• Include other content banned by Chinese laws and administrative regulations.

Any foreign news agency found to be violating these rules could be suspended or its rights to provide news within China cancelled, Xinhua said on its English-language Web site. The measures will also affect the distribution on the mainland of information released by news agencies in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

The re-publication of foreign news is already restricted through censorship agencies that control domestic media. But the new rules rescind a 1996 agreement allowing limited direct distribution of financial news and information to customers in China.

“Xinhua’s new rules will have no effect on the way we cover and provide the news globally,” said Clayton Haswell, director for Asia and the Pacific for The Associated Press, a news agency likely to be affected by the new rules, in a statement released to CPJ. “But this raises serious concerns for AP regarding fair trade and the free flow of information within China.”

A Reuters spokeswoman said that the agency was examining the new regulations.

“We are studying these rules closely to see how they differ from the current guidelines and will be discussing the details of the new regulations with Xinhua,” said Samantha Topping.

Bloomberg News declined comment.

Journalists in China have told CPJ that the government is pursuing the most intense attack on the press since the aftermath of the crackdown on protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989. More than 30 journalists are currently jailed in China, including foreign news agency employees Zhao Yan of The New York Times, and Ching Cheong of The Straits Times of Singapore.

China’s Pollution and the Threat to Domestic and Regional Stability(3)

By Nathan Nankivell, Japan Focus, January 3, 2006– (cont’d)
China’s environment is edging closer to a condition of crisis with each passing day. Pollution and environmental degradation have already left scars and will continue to create problems as the situation worsens. While it may be possible for China to mitigate the impact of environmental damage through coordinated policies, effective spending, and sound future planning, Beijing is unable or unwilling to prescribe such measures. As an undeniable fact on the ground, it is imperative for prudent policymakers to consider the geostrategic implications of not just a superpower, but of an environmentally-ravaged China as well.

There is little disagreement that China’s environment is a mounting problem for Beijing. The country produces as many sulphur emissions as Tokyo and Los Angeles combined but with only a fraction of the vehicles; China is home to 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities; water pollution affects as much as 70 percent of the country; air pollution is blamed for the premature death of some 400,000 Chinese annually; crop returns are steadily decreasing in quantity and quality because of polluted land and water; and solid waste production is expected to more than double over the next decade, pushing China far ahead of the U.S. as the largest producer (The Economist, August 19, 2004).

While the general accessibility of this information is creating greater awareness, trends indicate that pollution and environmental degradation will worsen. Chinese consumers are expected to purchase hundreds of millions of automobiles, adding to air pollution problems. Despite pledges to put the environment first, national planners still aim to double per capita GDP by 2010 (China Daily, October 20, 2005). Urban populations are expected to continue expanding, leading to the creation of slums and stressing urban sanitation and delivery systems. Steadily richer Chinese will be able to purchase more goods and consume more resources. The nation lacks a powerful national body able to coordinate, monitor, and enforce environmental legislation: the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is under-staffed, has few resources, and must compete with other bureaucracies for attention. The devolution of decision-making to local levels has placed environmental stewardship in the hands of officials who are more concerned with economic growth than the environment. Finally, the deficiency of capital and the lack of will to promote massive spending on environmental repair necessary to reverse more than two decades of destruction are perhaps most indicative of the fact that environmental restoration will not occur: estimates on the final cost of environmental repair range into the tens of billions of dollars (Canadian Security Intelligence Services Division; The Economist, October 20, 2005). (to be cont’d…)

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Related:
– Rising unrest in China(3): Pollution , VOA News

China’s Foreign News Rules Spell Trouble for an Open Olympics

Statement, Human Rights in China (HRIC), September 11, 2006-

Human Rights in China (HRIC) is alarmed by the Measures for Administering the Release of News and Information in China by Foreign News Agencies (Measures) issued on September 10, 2006 by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. These far-reaching new measures, effective immediately, replace previous 1996 regulations that only dealt specifically with “economic information.”

“These Measures are an authoritarian attempt to control news and information dissemination and the access of China’s users to uncensored news and information,” said Sharon Hom, HRIC Executive Director. “The Measures reflect an intensification of hard-line information control. It is not an approach that respects individuals’ freedom of expression, a free press and information transparency. It also breaches Beijing’s commitment to allow journalists to freely cover the Olympic Games in 2008. These latest Measures sound a wake-up call to the international community that a closed, state-controlled Olympics is on the horizon.”

The Measures list the types of information that may not be released. These include news and information that may endanger China’s national security, reputation and interests, that violates China’s religious policies or promote “evil cults” or superstition, and other content banned by Chinese laws and administrative regulations. “These Measures, both comprehensive and vague, echo the language in the PRC State Security and State Secrets laws. It provides yet another legal tool for censoring activities of not only foreign news organizations, but also of all civil society groups engaged in information dissemination. Removing this information from the public arena, information that is necessary for the PRC government and civil society alike to address serious social issues and corruption, only serves to stymie efforts to build a more transparent and accountable government,” said Hom. “These Measures will seriously undermine the ability of international media and other groups to report from and on China.”

The Measures also give the power to select news for release solely to Xinhua, and prohibit foreign news agencies from directly soliciting subscribers. The Measures specifically state that they also apply to the release of news and information inside mainland China by agencies in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan. “Not only the international press community but also IT companies should be very alarmed by these Measures,” said Hom. “Companies that think they can benefit from the China market, and that China users can subscribe to their news and information services in a ‘free-market’ manner, should think again!”

A full English translation of the Measures is posted on People’s Daily Online, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200609/10/eng20060910_301349.html.

Related:
– China Imposes New Regulations on Foreign Media , VOA News, Sep.10, 2006

IRN call to protect the World Heritage Site- Nu River area

International Rivers Network—

The Nujiang (Nu River) is one of the last free–flowing international rivers in Asia, and is shared by China, Thailand, and Burma. The Nujiang in the Three Parallel Rivers area is the epicentre of Chinese biodiversity. Recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the Three Parallel Rivers area is known to be one of the richest temperate regions of the world. The area contains over 6000 different plant species and is believed to support over 50% of China’s animal species. Forests and wetlands along the river are home to many diverse species of flora and fauna and contain areas of ecological value. Nine of the thirteen dams proposed are being planned in National Nature Reserves and very near the World Heritage site.

Officials from the local prefecture on the Nujiang in China plan to approve the construction of a major dam at Liuku in Yunnan province. Future plans include developing up to thirteen large hydropower projects on the Nujiang / Salween River in China. China–based Huadian Group is seeking construction contracts. The decision to build these projects is being made without consultation with downstream riparian residents in Burma and Thailand.

Millions of people depend on the Nujiang/Salween River watershed for their livelihoods. Along the river, fisheries are a major source of dietary protein. Nutrients carried down by the river also sustain vegetable gardens in the dry season and fertilize large areas of farmland. Dam projects such as those proposed risk drastic impacts to all of these resources.

China is relying heavily on hydropower to meet its soaring demand for electricity. Officials plan to triple installed hydroelectric capacity to 270,000 MW by 2020.

“This situation calls for reform of regulations governing these projects and the mechanism for implementing those regulations,” says Li Dun, a professor with the Centre for Study of Contemporary China at Qinghua University. “Evaluation of project impacts should be done by independent experts and their names should be made public. Construction plans should be subject to public scrutiny, and officials who make decisions that prove to be wrong should be held accountable,” suggests Professor Li.

New regulations reinforce Xinhua’s control over foreign news agencies

Reporters Without Borders, 11 September 2006–

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay today at the government-run news agency Xinhua’s announcement, without any prior consultation, of new regulations reinforcing its commercial and editorial control over the distribution of foreign news agency content within China. The organisation called for a joint reaction from the US, European and Japanese governments to this new attempt to restrict the free flow of information.

“We are worried about the scope of these regulations, which could have a serious impact on the work of foreign news agencies operating in China,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is outrageous that Xinhua, the Communist Party mouthpiece, should claim full powers over news agencies. It also poses a threat to news agency journalists, who play a key role in the circulation of news in China. Xinhua is establishing itself as a predator of both free enterprise and freedom of information.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “The Chinese government did everything possible to keep politics out of business negotiations during the EU-China summit that just took place. But now it is doing the exact opposite by blithely mixing business and political control. The status of foreign news agencies is a complete violation of China’s commitments to the World Trade Organisation.”

The regulations announced yesterday, entitled “Measures for administering the dissemination of news and information in China by foreign news agencies,” concern not only mainland China but also Hong Kong and Macao and, in theory, Taiwan. They abolish a special dispensation dating back to 1996 that allowed business information agencies including Reuters to sell news to the Chinese media. Part of Xinhua’s motive seems to be muscle in on a lucrative business that has eluded it until now.

Consisting of 22 articles, the new regulations confirm Xinhua’s strict monopoly of the distribution of news, photos and computer images to the Chinese media. Without any form of consultation, the foreign news agencies have been placed under the tutelage of Xinhua, which has assumed the right to grant or withhold operating licences. This contradicts foreign ministry regulations that give the ministry the power to accredit foreign news media and journalists.

Posted on Xinhua’s website, the regulations ban the dissemination of news that is contrary to the Chinese constitution or any Chinese law, that endangers national unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security or China’s reputation and interests, that violates Chinese policy on religions, or that promotes sects and superstition. News agencies are told they must not incite hate or discrimination between ethnic groups or hurt their feelings. They are also banned from threatening China’s social and economic order or cultural traditions, or from disseminating obscenities or defamation. After issuing a warning, Xinhua will be able to demand a correction, block the circulation of a report, or suspend the offending media’s licence.

The Chinese media are forbidden to use foreign news agency dispatches to cover a news story. But the news agencies sell photos through Xinhua, especially international news photos. And the Chinese media can also buy business news and information from the specialised agencies. The agencies that will be most affected are Reuters, Bloomberg, DowJones and Kyodo, all of which sell business news to the Chinese media.

A Beijing-based journalist who did not want to be named told Reporters Without Borders the foreign news agencies should “unite to combat these unfair and retrograde regulations.” Another foreign news agency correspondent said Xinhua was trying “claim powers it does not have.”

In September 2005, Reporters Without Borders published a report entitled “Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency,” which described the agency’s internal functioning and how it played a key role in controlling the Chinese media.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15172

Related:
– China Imposes New Regulations on Foreign Media , VOA News, Sep.10, 2006

China’s Pollution and the Threat to Domestic and Regional Stability(2)

By Nathan Nankivell, Japan Focus, January 3, 2006–

Can China change its environmental trajectory? There are some positive signs. While quadrupling its GDP between 1980 and 2000, China’s energy increased only twofold, suggesting a recognition of improved efficiency. And the Chinese state monitors pollution at 300,000 factories. Formally registered environmental non-governmental organizations now total more than 2000 in China, and environmental activists, with the help of the Chinese media and some outspoken Chinese officials, are pressing for environmental impact assessments to be openly conducted, bringing lawsuits against polluting factories, and even attempting to halt mega-dam construction. In some wealthier Chinese cities, such as Dalian and Shanghai, proactive leaders have increased the share of local funds devoted to environmental protection. Nankivell calls for greater assistance by the international community. In fact, international environmental NGOs, foreign governments and international governmental organizations such as the World Bank are all deeply engaged in contributing to China’s environmental protection effort. Indeed, by one account, international NGOs now account for as much as three fourths of funding for environmental protection in China. It is nevertheless difficult to escape the impression that, thus far, the combined efforts amount to chasing a problem that is growing by leaps and bounds, and that efforts to reverse the juggernaut appear rather like the application of band aids over gaping wounds.

In the end, the possibilities for slowing and eventually reversing environmental disasters will have to come through the concerted efforts of the international community in combination with the agency of vigorous and informed states. In China, as in the United States, Japan and elsewhere, the priorities of the state will be crucial. But they will also reflect the pressures from the citizenry under circumstances in which the gods of accelerated development and global definitions of modernity (the private automobile most importantly) exercise powerful sway. Critical gaps in China’s domestic policy milieu will have to be reversed, and fundamental decisions about national priorities will have to be reconceived, if that nation is to avoid the crippling consequences of environmental pollution and contributing massively to global warming. Chief among these are corruption, low levels of investment in environmental protection, a lack of incentives to do the right thing, still nascent practice of the rule of law, a primacy on economic development, and poor transparency.

The issues, however, are hardly the responsibility of China alone as the United States’ rejection of the Kyoto environmental accords makes plain. Indeed, while the United States is both the largest source of global warming and the major obstacle to an environmentally responsible international policy, China has emerged as an important ally in efforts to prevent the realization of meaningful global standards to restrict greenhouse gases and address other global environmental problems.

If not addressed, environmental challenges will drag China—and the rest of the world along with it—deeper into an environmental crisis and further along the path of Nankivell’s dark scenarios. (to be cont’d…)

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Related:
– Rising unrest in China(3): Pollution , VOA News

China Imposes New Regulations on Foreign Media

By VOA News, 10 September 2006–

China has established new rules requiring foreign media to get permission from the state news agency, Xinhua, to distribute news and information in the country.

The regulations published by Xinhua Sunday say information may be banned from distribution if it is deemed to undermine China’s national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The regulations give Xinhua the right to choose the news and information released by foreign news agencies in China and to delete any material that has not been approved.

Xinhua says the regulations may also be applied to news agencies in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan that distribute information to the mainland.

It is unclear how the regulations would affect foreign news agencies in China that do not necessarily distribute their reports within the country.

The Chinese government has faced criticism for withholding important information about social and environmental problems in the country. Human rights groups have also slammed Beijing for persecuting independent journalists.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP

Related:
– Media crackdowns: two years before Beijing Olympics, RSF, Aug.7, 2006

China’s Pollution and the Threat to Domestic and Regional Stability

By Nathan Nankivell, Japan Focus, January 3, 2006–

China’s economic boom has an environmental dark side. While China’s economy continues to grow at a rate of more than 8% annually, as it has for more than two decades, the country’s environment and the Chinese people are paying a steep price. China now boasts five of the ten most polluted cities in the world; 70% of the water that flows through China’s urban areas is unfit for drinking or fishing; and severely degraded land or desert, which now claims 1⁄4 of China’s land, is advancing at a rate of 1300 sq. miles per year.

As Nathan Nankivell points out, the environmental crisis poses a challenge for China’s leaders on their own developmental terms. The environment is biting back into economic growth: regions from Qinghai to Shenzhen, for example, face significant costs to industrial production from lack of water; countrywide, these economic losses totaled $28 billion in 2003 and the challenge is only increasing. Overall costs to China’s economy from environmental pollution and degradation are estimated at 8-12% of GDP annually. Environment-related public health is a second significant problem. Chinese officials have acknowledged, for example, that 300 million people drink contaminated water on a daily basis, and of these, 190 million drink water that is so contaminated that it is making them sick.

Finally, the failure of the government to redress its environment-related economic and public health problems has produced widespread social discontent. Environmental protests are a serious source of localized social instability that in numerous, widely-reported cases over the past year alone, have turned violent.

For the rest of the world, how China responds to its environmental crisis has enormous implications. Nankivell outlines some potential future scenarios that suggest just how serious a threat China’s environmental practices might be to global security. Already, throughout Asia and beyond, China’s contribution to transborder air and water pollution provokes significant concern.

Russia’s harsh criticism of China’s handling of the recent transborder water pollution disaster that poisoned the water for the twelve million residents of Harbin and many others suggests the potential for international conflict.

Globally, China is one of the world’s leading contributors to climate change, ozone depletion, and biodiversity loss, and it is now in the early stages of following the United States and other rich nations in a race toward mass automobile ownership whose implications for air pollution and global warning are profound. (to be cont’d…)

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Related:
– Rising unrest in China(3): Pollution , VOA News

Ching Cheong to appeal against rigged verdict

Reporters Without Borders said today it backs the decision of Ching Cheong, of the Singapore daily Straits Times in Hong Kong, to appeal against his five-year prison sentence for “spying”.

The press freedom organisation also joined the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association in repeating its call for his immediate release. “We are firmly convinced that this heavy sentence is designed to punish an investigative journalist and to sow fear among the Hong Kong press,” it said.

Ching’s lawyer He Peihua, confirmed to Agence France-Presse that an appeal had been lodged with a court in Beijing on 8 September. “He and his family consider the sentence too harsh and unjust,” he said.

The journalist who has always protested his innocence has had a message passed to his family calling the verdict unfair.

The press freedom organisation said it was shocked at the rigged content, presented as the verdict in Ching’s trial, published by a newspaper in Hong Kong.

The spying charge was based solely on his professional contacts with researchers with a Taiwanese foundation. If Ching Cheong was indeed paid by the Taiwanese foundation to write articles on geo-strategic subjects that does not in any way amount to espionage, the organisation said.

The entire procedure was riddled with irregularities and secrecy and the justice system is hiding behind alleged confessions by Ching Cheong and Chinese academics obtained in circumstances contrary to international norms of justice.

Moreover the type of news put out by the journalist which the justice system termed “state secrets” reveals the paranoia of those in power in Beijing. Scores of journalists, dissidents and university professors are imprisoned in China for having divulged supposed “state secrets”.

The Taiwanese government on 1 September denied that Ching spied for Taipei. The authorities did however confirm that the Hong Kong reporter did have professional contacts with a Taiwanese research foundation.

On top of the prison sentence, the court sentenced Ching to fines of 300,000 yuan (30,000 euros) and 310,000 Hong Kong dollars (more than 30,000 euros). Some of his family’s property in China has been seized. His wife, Mary Lau, expressed astonishment at the swingeing fines. “They appear to think that we have a lot of money,” she said.

Related:
– Chinese Reporter Jailed for 5 Years as Spy, 31st August 2006

– AI report 2006- China overview(4)

China’s Cyberwarriors

By Mac William Bishop, the Foreign Policy–

Many cybersecurity experts in the United States and Taiwan worried when Microsoft provided the Chinese government with access to the source code of its Windows operating system in 2003. Their fear was that access to the code would make it easier for China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to develop and carry out new information-warfare techniques.

A recent series of cyberattacks directed against targets in Taiwan and the United States may confirm that “those fears now appear justified,” says a Taiwanese intelligence officer. Taiwan and China regularly engage in low-level information-warfare attacks. But the past few months have seen a noticeable spike in activity. “‘Blitz’ is an accurate description” of the recent attacks, says the Taiwanese security source. “It’s almost like . . . a major cyberwar exercise.” … (More From ForeignPolicy)

China: Secretive arms exports stoking conflict and repression

Amnesty International, press release, 11 June 2006 —

China is fast emerging as one of the world’s biggest, most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters, according to a new report issued today by Amnesty International.

The report shows how Chinese weapons have helped sustain brutal conflicts, criminal violence and other grave human rights violations in countries such as Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and South Africa. It also reveals the possible involvement of Western companies in the manufacture of some of these weapons.

“China describes its approach to arms export licensing as `cautious and responsible`, yet the reality couldn‘t be further from the truth. China is the only major arms exporting power that has not signed up to any multilateral agreements with criteria to prevent arms exports likely to be used for serious human rights violations,” said Helen Hughes, Amnesty International’s arms control researcher.

China’s arms exports, estimated to be in excess of US$1 billion a year, often involve the exchange of weapons for raw materials to fuel the country’s rapid economic growth. But it is a trade shrouded in secrecy; Beijing does not publish any information about arms transfers abroad and hasn’t submitted any data to the UN Register on Conventional Arms in the last eight years.

Amnesty Internationals report, China: Sustaining conflict and human rights abuses, includes several examples of irresponsible Chinese arms exports.

The report’s main findings include:

• More than 200 Chinese military trucks — normally fitted with US Cummins diesel engines — shipped to Sudan in August 2005, despite a US arms embargo on both countries and the involvement of similar vehicles in the killing and abduction of civilians in Darfur;
• Regular Chinese military shipments to Myanmar, including the supply in August 2005 of 400 military trucks to the Burmese army despite its involvement in the torture, killing and forced eviction of hundreds of thousands of civilians;
• Chinese military exports to Nepal in 2005 and early 2006, including a deal to supply nearly 25 thousand Chinese-made rifles and 18,000 grenades to Nepalese security forces, at the time involved in the brutal repression of thousands of civilian demonstrators;
• An increasingly illicit trade in Chinese-made Norinco pistols in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and particularly South Africa, where they are commonly used for robbery, rape and other crimes.

“As a major arms exporter and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, it is high time that the Chinese authorities live up to their obligations under international law. They must introduce effective laws and regulations banning all arms transfers that could be used for serious human rights violations or breaches in international humanitarian law,” said Helen Hughes

Amnesty International is also calling on China to report annually and publicly on all arms export licences and deliveries and to support a tough, comprehensive and enforceable international Arms Trade Treaty.

As long as China continues to allow arms supplies to the perpetrators of gross human rights violations, the international community must redouble its regulation of joint ventures involving military and dual-use technology in China and must strengthen the application of arms embargoes on China such as those imposed by the European Union and the USA.

For after copy of the report, China: Sustaining conflict and human rights abuses,please see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa170302006

Related:

– China to Ask EU to Lift Ban on Arms Sales, VOA News, Sep.06, 2006

Malaysian: Bank of China shrink 100 million deposit to 8.92 Yuan(Cont’d)

Li Rulan, The Epoch Times Malaysia, Sep 06, 2006– (cont’d)

Calculation Methods of the Deposit

How did the bank calculate the deposit to justify a 100 million yuan bank deposit becoming only worth 9 yuan? In the forum, Cai displayed the letter from the Bank of China to his father. In the letter, four calculation methods were used by the bank. The first three were based on the repayment method approved on January 9, 1953 by the People’s Government Administration Council of China.
1. The first calculation method used by the Overseas Chinese Service Department of the Bank of China in Xiamen was: For the first five thousand Yuan of the deposit, only 570 Yuan was refundable. For amounts above five thousand Yuan, only ten percent of the deposit amount was refundable. Base on this calculation, Cai’s deposit was reduced to 11,152,743.13 Yuan (Figure 1, right).
This calculation method, determined by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was actually meant for fixed deposits. But in fact, Cai’s father’s account is not a fixed deposit account but a current account.

2. After discounting the refundable amount based on the calculation method for fixed deposits, the bank further discounted the amount refundable by eighty percent by using the calculation chart for current accounts. The bank deposit was only left with 8,923,450.49 Yuan after the second calculation.

3. For the third method, the bank used the repayment standard from 1937 to August 1948 (Figure 2, right) to further discount the remaining 8 million. The sum was somehow multiplied by 0.01 and thus the value of the deposit was reduced to 89,234 Yuan.

In reality, Cai’s father deposited the money between Aug 1946 and May 1948. If based on the calculation chart of the CCP, the conversion rate for 2 million deposited in 1946 should be 1 to 3.25. As for the over 100 million deposited before May 1948 , the conversion rate for 1947 is 1 to 0.46. In fact, the bank used none of the conversion rates in between 1937 and August 1948 but chose to use the conversion rate after August 1948, which is 0.01.

4. Lastly, the bank invented the calculation method of “exchanging old currency with new currency”. They fixed the rule that every 10,000 of the old Yuan currency would be exchangeable for 1 new Yuan currency. At the end, the 89,234 Yuan deposit was reduced to only 8.92 Yuan. This calculation method was in fact self-invented, says Cai. (See right part of figure 4.)

Cai said that his deposit used to be worth more than 20 million USD. The Bank of China delayed repayment of this deposit for more than thirty years and finally used these ridiculous calculation methods to reduce a 100 million deposit to only 9 Yuan. This was indeed very much like the fabrication, lies and cheating methods commonly used by the CCP. Cai said even if they used the repayment standards approved by the People’s Government Administrative Council in 1953, he could have got back at least 8 million Yuan. He simply cannot accept the calculation methods used by the Bank of China.

“I have received in total a few millions in interest [on statements], so how could 9 yuan fetch so much interest?” said Mr. Cai.

Furthermore, the Bank of China Malaysia branch intended to sue Cai for “damaging” its reputation and wanted him to compensate the bank.

Cai said during the old times, the overseas Chinese wanted to contribute financially to China because of Japan invasion. Thus many of them transferred their savings to China. Having the similar mindset, Cai’s father deposited his hard-earned money from trading rubber in the Bank of China. He said besides his father, there were many other people who could not get back their bank deposits. He finally appealed to all the people who had placed deposits with the Bank of China and were cheated their deposits to step forward and demand their deposits with the bank to be returned and expose the truth to the public. (END)

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Malaysian: Bank of China shrink 100 million deposit to 8.92 Yuan

Li Rulan, The Epoch Times Malaysia, Sep 06, 2006–

A Malaysian pharmaceutical businessman has claimed that the Bank of China dishonestly made his 100 million yuan bank deposit shrink to 8.92 yuan.

Mr. Cai ShaoHong( photo at right), a pharmaceutical manufacturer, exposed the cheating process to audiences at the sixth Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party forum held in Penang on July 23, 2006.

The Cheating Process

Cai’s father lived in Ipoh when he was alive. His father had opened a current account in the Bank of China Singapore branch and deposited total of 111 million FaBi (Kuomingdang’s currency) through a Malaysian agent from August 1946 to May 1948. The value of the current account deposit was equivalent to more than 20 million USD at that time, says Cai. In 1953, the Chinese Communist Party placed a public notice in Malaysia newspapers to inform their customers to claim back deposits from the Bank of China Singapore branch. On August 23, 1953, Cai’s father went through the administrative procedures hoping to withdraw his deposit within the given 1 year period.

(photo: Bank of China’s interest statement indicates the total deposit was 11,532,431.27 Yuan and total interest granted was 476,065 Yuan, including tax deductions.–The Epoch Times)

The Singapore branch collected two check books and a bank deposit book from his father as part of the procedures. Since that time, they have not been able to withdraw any money from the bank for years. The branch had explained to them that the Headquarter in Xiamen did not transfer their money to the branch. The ‘transfer’ was delayed for years.

Cai’s father passed away in 1983. After thirty years of continuous trying, not a single cent could be withdrawn. Cai’s father had written a will to authorise Cai to get back the bank deposit on behalf of him.

Dramatically In 1997, the bank sent a letter to inform Cai that the deposit was only worth 8.92 Yuan. He was instructed to withdraw the money from the Headquarters in Xiamen, China.

When Cai approached the Bank of China Malaysia branch in Kuala Lumpur, the bank told him that they were only the Malaysian branch and has no relationship with the Headquarters in Xiamen, China.

“This is nonsense. Aren’t all the branches of the Bank of China in the world under control by the Headquarters in Xiamen? Isn’t the logo of the Kuala Lumpur branch the same as the rest of other branches?” Cai asked the audience.

He also tried to get back the bank deposit from the Singapore branch many times. At first, the Singapore branch even went to the extent of denying the existence of such a bank account.

When both branches failed to answer his query, Cai hired a lawyer and went straight to the Xiamen Headquarters of the Bank of China. When he contacted the bank for the first time, he was told that his father had already withdrawn the money and closed the account. On the second meeting, Cai insisted on checking the old transaction records. At the end, the bank had verified the account was still active, but the bank deposit balance was left with only 8.92 Yuan.

(photo: The statement of current deposit shows the total deposit is 111,532,431.27 yuan since May 1948. –The Epoch Times)

According to Cai, the Malaysian media were at first interested in reporting the news. However, due to tremendous pressure from the Bank of China, the media were quiet about the case at the end. As a last resort, Cai filed a lawsuit in the court against the Bank of China Malaysia and Singapore branches in 1997 which persists until today.

He said, “The representing lawyer of the Bank of China received instructions from the Bank that he must win this court case. The bank tried to use its huge monetary resources to bully and twist the arms of its opponent. They wanted to exhaust my monetary resources in the long and expensive court case.”

Furthermore, Cai said the Bank of China had used all means trying to defeat Cai, intending to publicise the news to warn others not to sue the bank. There were many other victims with similar cases. If he wins the lawsuit, the Bank of China will have to face others too, Cai explained in the forum. (to be cont’d…)

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Vice-President of EP join the investigation of organ harvesting

Clearwisdom.net, Aug. 31, 2006–

Edward McMillan-Scott publicly declared his membership in the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) during a rally in Hong Kong supporting the 13 million Chinese people that have quit the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. The rally was held on the morning of August 26, 2006. The rally was organized by the Epoch Times newspaper and the Service Center for Quitting the CCP office in Hong Kong. Mr. McMillan-Scott also published a joint statement with members of the legislative council in Hong Kong, including Hon Chun-yan, calling on lawyers around the world to protest to their local Chinese embassies and consulates regarding the recent secret arrest and torture of renowned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, and to urge the Chinese authorities to immediately release Mr. Gao.

Mr. McMillan-Scott has recently traveled to Australia, New Zealand and other places, together with former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific, Mr. David Kilgour. The two politicians are raising awareness about the CCP’s crimes of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. McMillan-Scott said at the Hong Kong rally that his decision to join the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong stems from his deep belief in the investigation report about Chinese harvesting of organs from live Falun Gong practitioners, published by Mr. Kilgour and Mr. David Matas on July 6, 2006. He said the investigation report is convincing and credible. Mr. McMillan-Scott said that the CCP must respond to the criminal allegations of live organ harvesting.

Mr. McMillan-Scott said in an interview after his speech that the European Parliament has repeatedly expressed concerns over the treatment of Falun Gong in China. He believes that genocide is happening in China. He came to Hong Kong to express his deep concerns, and warn those accountable for the atrocities that they will be brought to justice at an appropriate time.

Mr. McMillan-Scott stated at the rally: “Today, I’m pleased to declare that we have almost 13 million people who have renounced the CCP and its affiliated organizations. This is a remarkable record, but there is still a long way to go.” [quote has been translated from Chinese]

Related:
– REPORT INTO ALLEGATIONS OF ORGAN HARVESTING OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA, David Matas & David Kilgour

On What the Communist Party Is(1)- 9 Commentaries, Part 1

The Epoch Times- This is the first of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Foreword

For over five thousand years, the Chinese people created a splendid civilization on the land nurtured by the Yellow River and Yangtze River. During this long period of time, dynasties came and went, and the Chinese culture waxed and waned. Grand and moving stories have played out on the historical stage of China.

The year 1840, the year commonly considered by historians as the beginning of China’s contemporary era, marked the start of China’s journey from tradition to modernization. Chinese civilization experienced four major episodes of challenge and response. The first three episodes include the invasion of Beijing by the Anglo-French Allied Force in the early 1860s, the Sino-Japanese War in 1894 (also called “Jiawu War”), and the Russo-Japanese War in China’s northeast in 1906. To these three episodes of challenge, China responded with the Westernization Movement, which was marked by the importation of modern goods and weapons, institutional reforms through the Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898 [1] and the attempt at the end of the late Qing Dynasty to establish constitutional rule, and later, the Xinhai Revolution (or Hsinhai Revolution) [2] in 1911.

At the end of the First World War, China, though it emerged victorious, was not listed among the stronger powers at that time. Many Chinese believed that the first three episodes of response had failed. The May Fourth Movement [3] would lead to the fourth attempt at responding to previous challenges and culminate in the complete westernization of Chinese culture through the communist movement and its extreme revolution.

This article concerns the outcome of the last episode, which is the communist movement and the Communist Party. Let’s take a close look at the result of what China chose, or perhaps one can say, what was imposed on China, after over 160 years, nearly 100 million unnatural deaths, and the destruction of nearly all Chinese traditional culture and civilization.

I. Relying on Violence and Terror to Gain and Maintain Power

“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.” [4] This quote is taken from the concluding paragraph of the Communist Manifesto, the Communist Party’s principal document. Violence is the one and main means by which the Communist Party gained power. This character trait has been passed on to all subsequent forms of the Party that have arisen since its birth.

In fact, the world’s first Communist Party was established many years after Karl Marx’s death. The next year after the October Revolution in 1917, the “All Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik)” (later to be known as the “Communist Party of the Soviet Union”) was born. This party grew out of the use of violence against “class enemies” and was maintained through violence against party members and ordinary citizens. During Stalin’s purges in the 1930s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union slaughtered over 20 million so-called spies and traitors, and those thought to have different opinions.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) first started as a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the Third Communist International. Therefore, it naturally inherited the willingness to kill. During China’s first Communist-Kuomintang civil war between 1927 and 1936, the population in Jiangxi province dropped from over 20 million to about 10 million. The damage wrought by the CCP’s use of violence can be seen from these figures alone.

Using violence may be unavoidable when attempting to gain political power, but there has never been a regime as eager to kill as the CCP, especially during otherwise peaceful periods. Since 1949, the number of deaths caused by CCP’s violence has surpassed the total deaths during the wars waged between 1921 and 1949.

An excellent example of the Communist Party’s use of violence is its support of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge. Under the Khmer Rouge a quarter of Cambodia’s population, including a majority of Chinese immigrants and descents, were murdered. China still blocks the international community from putting the Khmer Rouge on trial, so as to cover up the CCP’s notorious role in the genocide.

The CCP has close connections with the world’s most brutal revolutionary armed forces and despotic regimes. In addition to the Khmer Rouge, these include the communist parties in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, and Nepal—all of which were established under the support of the CCP. Many leaders in these communist parties are Chinese; some of them are still hiding in China to this day.

Other Maoist-based Communist Parties include South America’s Shining Path and the Japanese Red Army, whose atrocities have been condemned by the world community.

One of the theories the communists employ is social Darwinism. The Communist Party applies Darwin’s inter-species competition to human relationships and human history, maintaining that class struggle is the only driving force for societal development. Struggle, therefore, became the primary “belief” of the Communist party, a tool in gaining and maintaining political control. Mao’s famous words plainly betray this logic of the survival of the fittest: “With 800 million people, how can it work without struggle?”

Another one of Mao’s claims that is similarly famous is that the Cultural Revolution should be conducted “every seven or eight years.” [5] Repetitive use of force is an important means for the CCP to maintain its ruling in China. The goal of using force is to create terror. Every struggle and movement served as an exercise in terror, so that the Chinese people trembled in their hearts, submitted to the terror and gradually became enslaved under the CCP’s control.

Today, terrorism has become the main enemy of the civilized and free world. The CCP’s exercise of violent terrorism, thanks to the apparatus of the state, has been larger in scale, much longer lasting, and its results more devastating. Today, in the twenty-first century, we should not forget this inherited character of the Communist Party, since it will definitely play a crucial role to the destiny of the CCP some time in the future. (to be cont’d…)

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>> II. Using Lies to Justify Violence , On What the Communist Party Is(2)

Related:
– Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party- Introduction
– On the Beginnings of the Chinese Communist Party,  9 Commentaries, Part 2

Apple iPod subcontractor reduces damages claim

Reporters Without Borders today hailed a decision by an Apple Computer subcontractor in China, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, to reduce the amount of damages it is requesting in its libel suit against two China Business News journalists from 30 million yuan (3 million euros) to the token sum of 1 yuan (10 euro cents).

At the same time, the intermediate people’s court of the southern city of Shenzen has unfrozen the assets of the two journalists, Wang You and Weng Bao, who are being sued by Foxconn over a 15 June story criticising conditions at a plant at Longhua, near Shenzen, that assembles iPods.

Reporters Without Borders said it welcomed the role played by Apple Computer in this case. After the press freedom organisation wrote to the US company’s CEO, Steve Jobs, on 29 August asking him to intercede on behalf of the two journalists, the company said it was “working behind the scenes to help resolve this issue.”

Related:
– China reporters exposed bad working conditions got lawsuit

EU countries to vote on import tax for Chinese shoes

Nicholas Watt in Brussels, The Guardian, August 31, 2006– A battle is set to break out between protectionist countries and Europe’s free market after the European commission called for duties of more than 16% to be slapped on imports of Chinese and Vietnamese shoes.A proposal by Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, to impose a 16.5% duty on “leather upper” shoes from China and a 10% duty on those from Vietnam is to be agreed by the commission today.

Mr Mandelson called for the measures after a 15-month investigation uncovered evidence of “dumping” of leather shoes by China and Vietnam. A commission statement said: “There is clear evidence of serious state intervention in the leather footwear sector in China and Vietnam – cheap finance, tax holidays, non-market land rents, improper asset valuation. There is dumping flowing from this state intervention.”

The commission proposals will now go to the EU’s 25 member states, which rejected the levies on August 3 when Mr Mandelson proposed them informally. The commission insists it is legally obliged to ask member states to vote on the levies after the findings of the report. The vote will have to take place by October 6.

The commission’s insistence that it follow the letter of the law indicates that Mr Mandelson, who is an instinctive free trader, nevertheless sympathises with EU countries opposing the levies. Those in favour of free trade, such as Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, are likely to line up against countries which make shoes, notably Spain, Italy and France.

Peter Power, Mr Mandelson’s spokesman, insisted that he was committed to the levies. “Our job is to tackle unfair competition where it exists. We have found that in these two cases, and that is why we have taken the measures we have proposed. It is now up to the member states to decide.”

If the levies are rejected, preliminary duties introduced in April will end and cheap shoes will flood into the EU.

Chinese leather shoe exports to the EU increased by 1,000% between 2001 and 2005 – during which time their price fell 31%. There was a 450% increase from 2004 to 2005 alone, and China exported 1.25bn pairs of shoes to the EU in 2005, half of the EU’s annual sales of 2.5bn pairs.

Jailed China journalist Ching Cheong to appeal

BBC News, 1 September 2006– The wife of a Hong Kong journalist jailed in mainland China for spying says her husband is to appeal. Ching Cheong, the chief China correspondent for Singapore’s Straits Times, was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison.

Mary Lau said her husband had sent her a message calling his conviction unfair and vowing to appeal against it.

Her comments come amid criticism in Hong Kong over the sentence, and calls for Ching’s release.

Chinese media reported that Ching was found guilty of buying information and passing it to Taiwan’s intelligence services over a period of five years from mid-2000 to March 2005.

State news agency Xinhua said Ching had confessed to the charges, a statement both his family and employers reject.

They say he was in Guangzhou to collect secret papers linked to the former Chinese leader, Zhao Ziyang, who was ousted for opposing the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

‘Very unfair’

Mary Lau said her husband told her in a message sent via his lawyers that the judge only heard prosecution evidence at the one-day trial.

“He believes himself innocent, and that the verdict was very unfair to him,” she said.

Ms Lau said an appeal would be filed within the 10-day time limit.

The case has sparked criticism in Hong Kong, with a number of newspapers questioning the legitimacy of the legal proceedings.

The Straits Times has appealed to China for leniency for Ching, asking for a sentence reduction.

“We urge that you take into consideration his professional record as a journalist for the Straits Times, and the fact that he is in poor health,” Reuters news agency quoted a letter from editor Han Fook Kwang as saying.

Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, called the sentence “appalling”.

“Ching was tried in an unacceptable way on baseless charges,” the organisation said in a statement.

More than 80 journalists and “cyber-dissidents” are currently imprisoned in China, the organisation said.

original report 

Overseas groups support U.N. bid under the name of Taiwan

The China Post, 2006/8/31, TAIPEI– A total of 56 overseas Taiwanese groups called on the government yesterday to make a bid for the country to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan, instead of the Republic of China.The groups noted in a joint statement that over the past 13 years, Taiwan has pretended to be China and tried to rejoin the United Nations under the name of the Republic of China, in what they called a strategy bound to fail.

While overseas Taiwanese have repeatedly advised the government to seek to join the United Nations as a new member, they are again urging President Chen Shui-bian to take this right path, the groups said.

The groups said Taiwan should stand up proudly and apply to join the United Nations in its capacity as an independent sovereign state, and they pledged to assist the government in achieving the goal.

The signatories of the statement included the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association, the World Federation of Taiwanese Association, the World United Formosans for Independence, the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association and the Taiwanese Hakka Association of U.S.A.

They made the move ahead of the 61th session of the U.N. General Assembly, which is set to open Sept. 12.

Chinese Reporter Jailed for 5 Years as Spy

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay on learning that a Beijing court today sentenced Ching Cheong, the Hong Kong-based correspondent of Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, to five years in prison for spying. He is the second journalist employed by a foreign news organisation to receive a prison sentence in the past week.

“This sentence is appalling,” the press freedom organisation said. “Ching was tried in an unacceptable way on baseless charges. This crackdown on journalists employed by foreign media bodes ill for the Beijing Olympic Games that are now less than two years away and deserves strong condemnation by the International Olympic Committee and the countries taking part.”

A British passport holder, Ching was sentenced by the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court No. 2, which also ordered the seizure of 300,000 yuan (29 000 euros) of his assets. Arrested on 22 April 2005, he had been tried behind closed doors on 15 August, in a hearing that last just a few hours.

He is alleged to have sold “top secret” documents to Taiwanese intelligence agencies. His wife, Mary Lau, denied that he ever sold confidential information and said he had always lived modestly. It seems his real crime in the eyes of the Chinese authorities was to have tried to obtain a manuscript of the former reformist leader Zhao Ziyang, the victim of a purge within the Communist Party. The shadow of the Beijing Spring still hangs over journalists who, like Ching, criticised the brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.

Ching’s family will appeal against his conviction.

Ching’s prison sentence was issued just a week after New York Times researcher Zhao Yan received a three-year prison sentence. More than 80 journalists and cyber-dissidents are currently imprisoned in China.

Related:

– China: Ching Cheong’s trial is “travesty of justice”, 16th August 2006

EU-China trade must not forget human rights, MEP says

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS, 31.08.2006 – As European trade with China – the world’s fastest growing economy – is on the increase, MEPs are preparing a report urging EU governments to make sure business goes hand-in-hand with human rights and environmental improvements.

In his forthcoming report to be voted on next week, Dutch MEP Bastiaan Belder from the Independence/Democracy group urges the European Commission and EU governments to formulate a “consistent and coherent policy” toward China.

After EU enlargement in 2004, the European bloc overtook Japan and became China’s largest trading partner while China is the EU’s second largest after the US.

While acknowledging the importance of the growing economic relationship between the EU and the People’s Republic, Mr Belder stresses that it should go hand-in-hand with human rights reforms, political freedom as well as environmental friendly policies.

The report also strongly recommends that the EU arms embargo against China remain intact until greater progress is made on human rights issues.

The arms ban was put in place by the EU following the violent crackdown by China’s communist regime against pro-democracy protestors on Beijing’s Tiananmen square in 1989, which left more than 2,000 civilians dead, according to Chinese Red Cross numbers.

But many agree with Mr Belder that there is a “lack of progress in the EU-China human rights dialogue”, which is meant to be part of the EU-China relationship.

“The main problem is that it is parked in the corner,” said Olivier Schott from Amnesty International’s EU office. “The human rights dialogue is disconnected from the main political discussions.”

Last year France and Germany pushed for lifting the embargo but did not get enough support from other member states.

At the same time, Beijing’s anti-secession law, which threatens Taiwan, confirmed some EU capitals’ concern for what Chinam might do with European-made weapons.

The MEP’s report calls for Taiwan to be allowed better representation in international fora and organisations, “to put an end to the on-going unfair exclusion of 23 million people [the Taiwanese] from the international community.”

Internet companies Google and Yahoo are strongly criticised in the document for their “irresponsible policies” for having “bowed directly and indirectly to Chinese government demands for censorship.”

The internet’s biggest search engine company Google followed the Chinese government’s request of not letting China-based users access websites containing critical elements and words such as “Taiwan”, “independence”, “Tibet” and “Tiananmen.”

The report also urges the EU to engage more actively with other western nations regarding China’s future, such as the US.

Mr Belder “encourages the European Union and its member states to develop, together with the USA, strategic consensus for dealing with China.”

His report comes just a week before the annual EU-China Summit (10-11 September) with European and Asian heads of state to discuss issues such as climate change, energy security, globalisation and competitiveness.