China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update - February 2008
From the Chairmen
Hearing: The Impact of the 2008 Olympic Games on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in China
Statement of Chairman Sander Levin
The Commission convenes this hearing to examine the likely impact of the 2008 Summer Olympics on human rights and the rule of law in China. In its Olympic bid documents and in its preparations for the 2008 Summer Games, China made commitments pertaining to human rights and the rule of law. Our witnesses today will help us to evaluate these commitments and to assess the openness with which China has allowed the rest of the world to monitor its progress in fulfilling them.
Click here for the full statement.
Statement of Co-Chairman Byron Dorgan
Mr. Chairman, I want to commend you for holding this hearing today. It will explore what I believe has been a largely unexamined issue: whether the 2008 Olympics will in fact bring lasting benefits to the Chinese people by enhancing their human rights and accelerating rule of law reform.
The 2008 Olympics have focused the world's attention on China's support for repressive regimes, such as Sudan and Burma. And, this has been all for the good. Our government and the international community, however, have paid too little attention to the potential impact of the Games on the human rights of ordinary Chinese citizens.
Click here for the full statement.
Testimony of Roger R. Martella, Jr., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The subject of today's hearing, "The Impact of the 2008 Olympic Games on Human Rights and Rule of Law in China," raises issues of critical importance not just to China, but to the world. Beyond the sporting events and pageantry, the Beijing Olympics more importantly may offer spectators the broadest window yet into a more needed feat of strength: whether the planet's fastest growing economy has developed the fundamental legal pillars worthy of the world's greatest stage. After the torch is extinguished at the Beijing National Stadium in August, international opinion likely will remember less the medals China's athletes take home than the nation's achievements—or lack thereof—on the fundamental issues of human rights, the rule of law, and environmental protection.
Click here for the full testimony.
Testimony of Sharon K. Hom, Human Rights in China
With only about five months left until the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, we appreciate the Commission's timely attention to the impact of the Olympics on human rights and the rule of law. As documented by the media, NGOs, United Nations, and government reports, including the Commission's 2007 Annual Report, crackdowns on human rights defenders in China have been increasing in the run-up to the Olympics. We welcomed the Commission's 2007 Annual Report, which not only called for an end to the harassment of Hu Jia and other activists, but also examined important issues regarding state secrets, civil society, petitioners, and ethnic minorities.
Click here for the full testimony.
Testimony of Bob Dietz, Committee to Protect Journalists
Watching China make preparations for the Games, it is clear the government wants them to come off without a flaw. That preoccupation could lead to overly aggressive attempts to control the media, a pattern we believe we are already seeing. While those attempts will most likely be futile, past experience has shown that China tends to err on the side of heavyhandedness when it comes to media control and threats to China's image as a unified nation with little internal dissent. We are not as concerned about the threat that foreign journalists will face in China during the Games, but it seems that the Chinese journalists working with them as translators, fixers, and coordinators—many of whom will be enthusiastic young people with relatively little journalism experience—make up a high-risk group.
Click here for the full testimony.
Testimony of Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch
There are three key questions before us today. The first is whether the human rights situation in advance of the 2008 Beijing Games is improving, as the Chinese government has repeatedly insisted it would. We regretfully submit that it is not. Over the past year, we have continued to document not only chronic human rights abuses inside China, such as restrictions on basic freedoms of speech, assembly, and political participation, but also abuses that are taking place specifically as a result of China's hosting the 2008 Summer Games. Those include an increasing use of house arrest and charges of "inciting subversion" as means of silencing dissent, ongoing harassment of foreign journalists despite new regulations protecting them, and abuses of migrant construction workers without whose labors Beijing's gleaming new skyline would not exist.
Click here for the full testimony.
Testimony of Robin Munro, China Labour Bulletin
With less than six months to go before the Games begin, I feel only one conclusion is possible here. Over the past year or so, the Games have led to a harsh and growing crackdown against the domestic civil rights movement, and to increasingly unrestrained rights violations by the government and security forces in general. Rights activists have been rounded up by the police and jailed, civil rights lawyers have been intimidated and punished, and even the wives of dissidents have been persecuted in an effort to ensure their silence as the Olympic Games approach.
Click here for the full testimony.
Announcements
CECC Translation: Measures on Open Environmental Information
The Commission has prepared a translation of the Measures on Open Environmental Information, issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration on April 11, 2007. For additional information regarding the Measures, see SEPA Issues Measures on Open Environmental Information.