Sir, – The visit of China’s vice president Xi Jinping is undoubtedly a significant event.
Many will say “we can bleat on about rights in China, or listen and learn a lot”. This is the classic false dichotomy. We can, after all, do both. It is tempting to equivocate about human rights abuses or to relativise them when thousands are out of work and the economy is struggling. This was the mistake that informed the policy of appeasement in the 1930s following the Great Depression.
For centuries the Chinese have been masters in the role of persuader-diplomats. Let’s not be in awe of this great and emerging power. Economic need should not become a moral code.
While some will suggest that jumping up and down about China’s human rights record is a waste of time, anyone who is considering putting their heads in the sand for the forthcoming visit should remind themselves of Chinese oppression of the Falun Gong and of the people of Tibet and the jailing of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – While Xi Jinping is feted by Irish politicians eager to encourage trade with China, and left unchallenged on China’s continuing and horrendous human rights abuses, a Tibetan film-maker, Dhondup Wangchen, continues his six-year sentence, following brutal interrogation and isolation from his family, for making a film recording ordinary Tibetans speaking out about their lives under the continued occupation of their country by China.
Since March 2011 more than 20 Tibetans have set fire to themselves, most fatally, in protest at the continued Chinese oppression of their land and people. From the recent shooting dead of protesters in the run-up to the Tibetan New Year next week, to the disappearances and imprisonment of Han Chinese dissidents, the 900 prison factories or Laogai and the harvesting of human organs from endless executions, the Chinese elite continues to display utter contempt and abuse towards the people it rules over: Han, Uighur, Tibetan or other.
As our rulers kowtow all weekend, having handed over a chunk of our Midlands for a vast new Athlone Chinese “Hub” which will exist only to bankroll this oppressive system, they might like to consider that history will record their decisions alongside all others who have prioritised economic growth over slavery and the exploitation of the weak.
The rest of us may wish to consider the true price of the words “Made in China” and, looking behind the superficial propaganda machine which exploits China’s true genius, consider what sort of future we are buying into for the generations to come. –
DOMINIC Ó CEALLAIGH,
Circular Road,
Galway.