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Does China deserve a 'fair go'? What has the IOC achieved?

By Arthur Thomas - posted Friday, 18 April 2008


Beijing media highlights China's commitment to achieving its goal of "maintaining a harmonious society in the run-up to the Olympics".

From economic growth and engineering points of view, none can fault China where new technologies and imaginative architecture have created a futuristic skyline and venue structures surrounded by lush green landscaping.

However, access to clean water, clean air, and freedom of religion and expression are all basic human rights, key IOC humanity commitments that China has failed miserably to achieve.

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Human rights

The Tibet uprising and China's focus on Xinjiang terrorist activities effectively diverted world attention from human rights abuse throughout China. Beijing's spin blames religious activism caused by Buddhists and the Muslims acting without just cause. The abuse is not restricted to Tibet and Xinjiang. Nor is it to the North Korean refugees herded back across the border, facing punishment or death, or preyed upon by ruthless employers or "refugee entrepreneurs".

Human rights abuse exists throughout China and comprises two key sectors - religion and the rural poor. Religion confronts the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policy under which the people unreservedly acknowledge the State before any other. Religion is subservient to state law and appointment of church hierarchy is a state responsibility: Beijing flexed its muscle with the Holy See by appointing its own Bishop.

The CCP is "comfortable" with conventional Christianity and state controlled churches. What really scares the CCP however, are Han Chinese, and especially educated Han Chinese, joining a religion that places belief above the state. This is the reason for the severe crackdowns, not only on the Falun Gong, but smaller "Christian house churches" where the arrests, beatings, imprisonments and even deaths are unreported regular events.

Growing unrest among the rural poor is fuelled by rampant official corruption ranging from theft of farmland for development, diversion of compensation for loss of land, dumping of toxic waste from factories on farmland and pollution of rivers and underground water by factories built on "stolen" farmland.

Minimal if any compensation is paid for crops, fields, roads, wells, irrigation, and homes destroyed by infrastructure works. China's shortage of farmland sees families "relocated" onto less fertile land where neighbours are hostile towards the new arrivals who increase demand on "their" land. Unfettered official use of local and the Peoples Armed Police, and even the PLA to quell demonstrations against abuse combine with Beijing's lack of recognition and punishment for the perpetrators only exacerbates the growing resentment.

Media

One IOC commitment was that foreign journalists within China's borders would be free to report during a clearly defined time period - January 1, 2008 to October 17, 2008.

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Contrary to State media reports of "greater access of foreign media", a poll showed 95 per cent of foreign journalists claim that repression has in fact increased: 157 reported incidents cite detention, harassment, intimidation, and confiscation of work. Sixty-five foreign journalists claimed active interference by authorities.

Current bans are imposed on reporting on land disputes, anti-pollution protests, and HIV-AIDS as well as "media employees who can harm the Olympic Games".

While the West enjoys open access to the Internet, China's 30,000+ "online police" replace "subversive material" in China with error messages. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo assist this censorship by overcoming difficulties China cannot. Widely available free software breaks the censorship before the cycle repeats itself. During that time, human rights cells and individuals across China gain uncensored access to the outside world.

Environment

China's State Environmental Protection Authority (SEPA) is responsible for implementing environmental legislation, but is under-funded and under-staffed with a dismal performance record. Recently promoted from a directorate to a Ministry, SEPA lacks the Politburo support necessary to be effective.

SEPA's miniscule 400-strong workforce is responsible for nationwide monitoring. The majority are based in, and paid by, local governments where keeping their jobs and protecting their future careers requires compliance with official directions. Legislation may be formulated in Beijing, but enforcement is the exclusive right of local government.

Widely publicised commitments to clean air include the banning of cars to reduce emissions, replacing the normal substandard fuel with higher quality fuel (by shutting down 100 of Beijing's gas stations), and the enforced closure of hundreds of polluting factories in and around Beijing municipality. The Great Green Wall however, has proven useless in mitigating air pollution.

Water

Visitors to Beijing will not drink tap water. The rapidly diminishing water supply is evident by the dry riverbeds, many areas of subsidence and dusty abandoned fields and dry farm wells around Beijing. China's Academy of Sciences confirmed "ground water resources in the North China Plain will be depleted by 2030".

There are increasing reports that "Beijing's water shortages and increasing sandstorms have been the centre of a behind doors debate of shifting the capital south".

Beijing's more than 30 golf courses each consume more than 30,000m3 of underground water a day with more under construction and planned along with water leisure parks.

Unsustainable drawdown has lowered Beijing's watertable to depths too expensive to access by many farmers. To conserve water for Olympic landscaping, farmers are denied drawdown for irrigation. Thousand of Beijing farmers are ordered to grow crops that use less water, but with little compensation for the crippling loss of income.

The dry Chaobai River is being recharged with 40 million m3 a year of water diverted from the Wenyu River via a 13km conduit to provide the water for the Shunyi Rowing and Canoeing Venue. The Wenyu is highly polluted and fed from the Huairou and Miyun reservoirs, both are now experiencing serious low levels. Independent calculations suggest that the 40M m3/year is unsustainable. Recent reports suggest the shortfall is drawn from the Huairou aquifer.

Hebei Province

Beijing's grand vision of the South to North Water Diversion Project supplying much needed water for the Olympics is disintegrating. Delays range from lack of pre works ground testing that created serious problems with the geology and local circumstances, to funding, pollution, water shortages, subsidence and demonstrations. Completion is now set for 2010.

The 300km emergency Shijiazhuang-Beijing canal will divert 300M m3/year of water from Hebei Province's Gangnan, Huangbizhuang, Yukuai and Xidayang reservoirs even though they are at historic low levels. Officials refuse to confirm if the 300M m3/year is the volume of water diverted from Hebei or received in Beijing. If the latter, the diversion could be closer to 500M m3/year.

The project imposes severe hardship on farmers, destroying homes, outbuildings and cutting access. Fields and crops are ruined and crucial aquifers pumped dry to construct the canal. By the beginning of April an estimated 500,000 residents face drinking water shortages. Affected farmers are unable to irrigate; aquaculture dams have been drained and quite rightly ask "if Beijing needs all the water more than the farmers?"

One courageous official stated, "using drinking water from Hebei and other poor provinces to provide for luxuries in Beijing is wrong. Beijing will ensure the city has enough clean water in August, but it will only be temporary. In the longer term, the water crisis will worsen."

While officials claim tens of thousands of people have been "relocated and compensated," the story is very different on the ground along the route and unrest is growing. What angers most is the fact that while they are in the grip of a major drought, and unable to access water for their livelihoods, their water is being used to flush polluted waterways in Beijing and irrigate the massive Olympic landscaping projects.

Civil unrest

The extent is one of China worst kept secrets. Solving the problem of extreme rural poverty has always eluded the CCP since its focus is directed to industrial and economic growth. The peasants were there to keep the workers in food.

Journalists breach state security for reporting on anti-government demonstrations. The state's response is an aggressive "campaign of persuasion" in which development projects and land seizures are "… part of a harmonious new era of prosperity, benefiting all and without protest ..."

The defenders of human rights face swift and harsh retaliation. The prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao was detained and brutalised during a crackdown on NGOs and "undesirables". Gao Qinrong, a journalist uncovered official corruption in a fraudulent irrigation project. His records were confiscated and Gao was sentenced to eight years jail.

Teng and his compatriots are referred to as "barefoot lawyers" and a serious threat to the CCP. They are charged with "instigating public disorder", imprisoned, committed to mental institutions and diagnosed with "litigation mania".

Demonstrations or civil unrest go under many names in the Chinese media ranging from "crimes that interfered in government business", "mass incidents", "mass gatherings that disturbed social order" or "provocation and stirring up trouble".

  • 1994: 10,000 demonstrations involved more than 3.7 million people;
  • 2003: more than 58,000 demonstrations;
  • 2004: more than 74,000 demonstrations;
  • 2005: more than 87,000 (51,000 officially recorded as "pollution disputes"); and
  • 2006: The unrest escalated due to a combination of pollution, serious health risks and illegal land grabs by corrupt officials. Numbers blew out to 120,000.

In recent years "pollution disputes" are increasing by 29 per cent each year. Degrading environment and associated serious health issues are fuelling "pollution disputes" and no longer relate just to "poisoned rivers", "cancer villages", "officially sanctioned illegal toxic waste dumping". They are becoming the focal issue that trigger fear for the CCP - increasing rural unrest.

China claims 250 million people were raised from poverty in 25 years. China's media highlights spectacular economic and industrial growth and China's place on the world stage. There is however a negative side. Access to TV, mobile phones and working in the big cities have increased the awareness of poor peasants and migrant workers of the prosperity enjoyed by their richer urban cousins.

The average city dweller may earn US$1,000 a year and can expect to live five years longer than his rural cousin earning just US$300 a year. The rural cousins however, represent 67 per cent of China’s 1.3 billion population. The CCP cannot ignore that widespread social unrest follows where economic growth ignores the poor.

The increasing inequalities of the wealth gap represent just as clear and present dangers for the CCP as that represented by the environment and related health issues.

Is China not being given a fair go?

Protest is growing from China's supporters suggesting that detractors are refusing to acknowledge China's considerable advances. These supporters demand recognition and respect for China.

While the use of military force, intimidation, suppression of human rights and media manipulation work as one to impose "respect and order" and a "harmonious society" within China, such means are abhorred in the global community.

The international community has responded to China's request for technology and expertise. Foreign input was integral in helping China build its futuristic skylines, Three Gorge's Dam, Tibet Railway, mining, environmental management, and so on. Russian, US, Canadian and European experts provided technical advice and technology ranging from rail construction across permafrost, tunnelling in seismically active regions and state of the art systems controls for the Tibet Railway. The US supplied the high performance high altitude engines for the locos and Canada, the carriages. South Africa's revolutionary nuclear pebble reactor forms the basis for its joint venture with Tsinghua University and Huaneng.

Engineers, economists and architects do applaud China's efforts, but it is not for China to demand respect for these achievements. Respect is a human gift, but unlike material achievement, it is freely given for the respect and recognition of the dignity and rights of mankind.

When the Games are over, Beijing will be back to normal and industry will ratchet up production to cover the financial losses suffered due to the Olympic shut down. On the streets, the low quality fuel will be back in the cars and trucks, pushing air pollution back above previous levels. Free of penalty, the muzzles will be back on most journalists. As for water, the SNWDP will not be completed before the end of 2010 and Hebei and Beijing farmers will continue to pay the price. To cope with urban expansion under the 11th Five Year Plan, 11 new satellite cities are planned around Beijing alone.

So! Just what did the IOC achieve with its commitments from China?

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About the Author

Arthur Thomas is retired. He has extensive experience in the old Soviet, the new Russia, China, Central Asia and South East Asia.

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