Miami, FL
The recent crackdown of the fledgling pro-democracy movement is not merely a stumble on the long march to reform; it is an epochal event comparable to China's decision in 1979 to end the Democracy Wall campaign and jail its leaders. The founders of China's first opposition political party since 1949 were rounded up, quickly convicted at closed show trials for "subversion of state power," and sentenced to up to 13 years in the Laogai (the Chinese gulag). The Chinese leadership has announced a new hardline security policy on the press, the arts, and religious groups, and has renewed efforts to stamp out unsanctioned NGO activities, register Internet cafes, and monitor the users of the Internet in such cafes. There are reports of Christian ministers being detained. With the courageous effort to form a new party spreading, the crackdown will very likely broaden and deepen.
Of particular concern to the AFL-CIO and the international labor movement is the sentencing of Zhang Shanguang who was given ten years for "endangering state security." Zhang, a 1989 democracy movement participant who previously served a seven-year prison term, was instrumental in the creation of the Association to Protect the Rights and Interests of Laid-off Workers in Hunan. Beyond Zhang, truck drivers Yue Tianxiang and Guo Xinmin of Gansu Province were arrested after starting a "Workers Rights Monitor" publication and face state subversion charges. Most recently on January 20, Liu Tingchai and Yan Jinghong, two former railroad workers, were sent to a labor camp for "disrupting social order" because they organized a large protest last year to demand unpaid salaries.
The crackdown represents much more than an attempt to maintain social stability in order to continue economic reforms, as some have suggested. On the contrary, it reveals growing Communist Party anxiety over the failure of many reforms, their adverse impact on a growing number of Chinese, and the threat this poses to its grip on power. During the past year alone, farmer protests over unfair taxes and rampant corruption by local officials have erupted in a number of provinces throughout the country. Unemployment in China resulting from bad management, government restructuring policies or outright theft of enterprise funds is growing rapidly and represents a major threat to political stability and party control. Unpaid, furloughed and laid-off workers have stopped traffic and railways to demand back pay and benefit payments. Any effort by workers to organize to protect their interests has been crushed.
Recent events underscore that China remains defiant of international norms, despite 15 years of American accommodation, exemplified by the uninterrupted granting of Most-Favored Nation (MFN) status. Access to the Chinese market for U.S. goods and services is severely and unfairly restricted, while the US market remains open to an ever-growing volume of Chinese exports. Investment in China is conditioned on harmful export and technology transfer requirements. Intellectual property rights continue to be violated. Textile agreements are not honored. The US Customs Service has estimated that $4 billion in illegal textile trans-shipments originate in China. These practices, together with the unwillingness of the United States to address them, has resulted in a massive shift in the balance of trade, with the United States now suffering under a bilateral trade deficit that reached $60 billion in 1998. The trade deficit is expected to increase by another $10 billion this year.
Reminiscent of 1979, after the Democracy Wall campaign was abruptly terminated, the international community has said little and done less to protest the wrapping up of an entire democracy movement by China's rulers. If a similar result is to be avoided--namely the silencing of any dissent for years and the continued intransigence of the Chinese government to act in accordance with international trading norms and basic democratic principles--the United States must lead in a new approach to engagement with China that achieves a reciprocal, non-discriminatory trading relationship and supports those working toward the emergence of a free and democratic China. Seeking these goals is not only intrinsically correct, but also in our direct self-interest. Freedom, democracy and adherence to international standards are necessary attributes if China is to join, in a positive way, the world community.
The AFL-CIO is gravely concerned that worker activists are a particular target of this latest crackdown. We fear that the arrest of worker activists will continue. Therefore, the AFL-CIO calls on the US government to seek the immediate release of identified worker activists and other political detainees and to take whatever steps are necessary to convince the Chinese leadership to end this latest crackdown and respect the commitments it made when it agreed to sign the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to include:
- Introducing a resolution at the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights to be held in March 1999 condemning China's violations of human and labor rights.
- Withholding support for China's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) until there is real, demonstrable progress on adherence to international trading norms and basic democratic principles, especially internationally-recognized worker rights.
- Supporting legislation to require congressional approval for China's accession to the WTO.
- More actively enforcing existing bilateral trade agreements such as the 1992 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the 1994 Agreement on Market Access