Statement
Wenhe Lu & Ciping Huang, Board members of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students
and Scholars in the United States,
Open Forum on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in China
04 March 2002

China's Problem: A Lack of Respect for Law

• Wenhe Lu & Ciping Huang



• Board members



• Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars

Dear members and staff of the Congressional Executive Commission on China,

My name is Wen-he Lu. I am a board member of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in the United States. IFCSS is a non-profit organization with members all over the United States. From the inception of IFCSS, we have been promoting human rights and democracy in China, and the interests of Chinese students and scholars in the US. I am here to speak for Ms. Huang Ci-ping, who could not come to Washington DC today.

After the US gave China PNTR and China joined the WTO, direct contact between citizens in the United States and China has been increasing. All Americans who are involved with China should be made aware that China's general problem now is a lack of respect for law. In China, there are many laws on paper but not in practice. China signed the United Nations' International Covenants to respect its citizens' human rights, but the Chinese government is in violation of that many times over. There are numerous reports about human rights violations in China, especially that of religious persecution, particularly toward FaLunGong and underground Christian church members.

For example, the families of victims from the Tiananmen Massacre on June 4, 1989 are still watched today, and as recently as March 2, their telephones were cut at the will of the government. Their mail is searched so that any charitable donations from abroad are forced to take a secret way to get into their hands. We want the Congressional Executive Commission on China to urge China to respect the law of mail correspondence and to let donations go through to the victims' families of the June 4 massacre. Donations to June 4 victim families were also intercepted in the name of China's national security in 1998, and funds from Germany are still frozen in the bank by the China National Security Bureau. We urge the Congressional Executive Commission on China to put pressure on China to let the victim families of the June 4th Massacre receive the humanitarian donations from abroad, which were donated in good faith by ordinary people in the United States and other countries.

During the PNTR debate in the year 2000, many argued that China's human rights situation would be improved by the granting of PNTR. Contrary to this argument, PNTR has allowed the Chinese government to feel free from international pressure, especially from economic sanctions. The human rights situation has worsened considerably after China got PNTR and WTO. Recent arrests of FaLunGong followers in Tiananmen Square are examples.

China now has joined the WTO. We all know that this will impose international standards on the daily business practice in China. We want to remind the Congressional Executive Commission on China that although the current court system is trying to accommodate this reality, there is still a long way to go before China's current legal system is in full accordance with international standards. There are numerous reported and anecdotal pieces of evidence that corruption is widespread inside China's court system. Judges and court personnel need to be bribed even to move cases forward.

There are laws in China against child labor; however, many workers in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces are under age. In reality, the Chinese workers have no rights to organize their own workers' unions or to join in labor movements.

We hope the Commission will be helpful to force the respect of labor laws in China. Although cheap labor has been one of the big lures for the multi-national companies that promoted and lobbied for PNTR, we want to remind the Commission that not only have illegal labor practices in China taken away Chinese workers' rights, but they have also caused unfair competition for American workers. Because the USA has not yet climbed out of the recent recession, it is now more important than ever to protect the rights of the American workers. We want to say that taking advantage of the Chinese workers' rights is ultimately hurting the American workers as well. Furthermore, the abuse of human rights in China infects the rights of all the citizens in the world.

China has laws on accounting practices. But what ENRON did is merely a daily practice in China. Recently, the Minshen Bank, the only huge private bank in China, is reported to have a huge corruption case. Similar cases break out every day in China in the financial sector. The financial reports of some stock companies in the Shanghai Exchange have been found to be fraudulent. The financial reporting is so unreliable that Primer Zhu Rongji recently felt compelled to emphasize that people in the accounting profession must not book false numbers.

There are Environmental laws in China too. However, short-term business interests usually prevail over the environmental consideration and laws. There are lawsuits in Henan and Anhui provinces where whole villages are suing companies close by for causing health damage by neglecting the water pollution

In conclusion, the Chinese government has not enough respect for the law in human rights, for preserving confidentiality in mail correspondence, for environmental protection, for the court system and for business practices. It is our hope that this committee will be able to learn the reality in China and play a vital function to monitor the human rights condition in China and to play a vital role in putting pressure on the Chinese government to respect the law. If that could be done, then we will not have to regret that the economic interests of the United States have overcome the essential human values that we all cherish.

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