The should-list to discuss with Mr Hu

Who still believes that the Chinese communist government can understand the definition of "human right" or "democracy"? Millions of Chinese were killed for just a single desire of democracy. Why does the world still believe in China's lies?

Apr 20th 2006
From The Economist print edition

America should not hesitate to press China over human rights

IT'S easy to be mesmerised by China: the double-digit growth, the ambitious space programme, the shining new cities along its teeming shore, the prospect of selling to the largest and one day perhaps the richest market on earth. And it is equally natural, too, to try everything from flattery to threats in the hope of enlisting its leaders as partners in the struggles with terrorism, nuclear proliferation, people-smuggling, carbon emissions and spiralling macroeconomic imbalances. Both these temptations will have been much in the minds of America's policymakers this week, as they welcomed China's president, Hu Jintao, to Washington, DC. But there is a danger here. The wish-list of things America wants China to do for America's sake has become so long that the “should-list” of things America should ask China to do for the sake of the Chinese people no longer gets serious attention at all.

The should-list has only one big item: China should abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, much of which is echoed in its own constitution. At present it doesn't. It is true that in many ways, life in China has become freer: the state interferes far less in people's personal and economic lives than it used to. Speech and the press are less controlled than they once were. Yet China remains a deeply authoritarian state, brooking no possibility of organised opposition to the Communist Party. Media control, having relaxed over many years, is now tightening under Mr Hu. Experiments with allowing a free vote (for individuals, not for opposition parties) in local elections have remained just that. The judicial system is a travesty, with alleged wrongdoers sometimes held for months or years without charge. Less than half of one per cent of convictions are overturned on appeal. Beatings in custody with sticks and electric batons remain widespread, according to the UN. Human-rights groups say at least 50 people are still in prison because of their involvement in the peaceful Tiananmen demonstrations of 17 years ago. In 2004 an official said some 10,000 people are executed in China each year. And, of course, in China's recent acquisitions, Tibet and Xinjiang, repression is far worse than in the Han areas. All this is as much part of China today as are the nightclubs of Shanghai's Bund.

It is sometimes argued that there is little America can nowadays do to promote human rights in China. After all, in 2000 it surrendered the single most effective lever it had when it ended the requirement for an annual review of China's most-favoured-nation trading status, a regular occasion for scrutiny and pressure. A year later, another lever was lost when Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games succeeded. On top of this, many would add, its own abuses at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib have robbed America of whatever moral authority it once had to lecture others on human rights.

Both arguments are misplaced. America still has a hold of sorts over China. Mr Hu craves respectability: he wants very much for a rising China to be treated as an equal, respected member of the world community. The West can make it clear that, for all its friendly intentions towards China, full acceptance will not come until China takes human rights seriously. As for Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, these were indeed dreadful unAmerican aberrations for which America should make amends. But they are mistakes that would hurt human rights twice over if they deterred the United States from continuing to speak up for freedom and dignity in every country—however potentially powerful or lucrative it might be.