Mrs Mary Robinson's visit to China was never expected to produce instant results. Indeed, it seems to have been a case of business as usual for the Chinese authorities in regard to human rights matters over the past week and a half. Some days before Mrs Robinson was due in Beijing, a journalist with the China Economic Times, Mr Shi Binhai, was taken away by police and his family warned not to speak about his detention. A television news producer working for CBS, Ms Natalie Liu, was detained but released even as the High Commissioner was on her way to China. Ms Chu Hailan, the wife of a jailed labour activist who tried to speak to the High Commissioner, was manhandled and allegedly beaten by police. In Tibet, it appears, a named individual "could not be found" when Mrs Robinson asked about his circumstances.
The High Commissioner has a difficult - some would say impossible - task with China. She has very few tools with which to lever change within this vast country which is rushing towards modernisation and economic development. The potential of the Chinese market for western manufacturers and exporters is so great that mere moral argument alone tends to be silently shouted down. Western governments verbally urge the Chinese to adopt western-style freedoms but continue to trade and deal regardless of continuing human rights abuses. The world's disapproval and opprobrium, voiced through the the United Nations and represented by the High Commissioner, are outweighed by the prospects of growth in the Chinese economy and the profit to be raised from trade.
Nonetheless, it is clear that Mrs Robinson has made a considerable impression. Her visit represents a significant strengthening of the dialogue between China and the will of the international community as represented by the United Nations. We will hopefully, in time, see progress on the ground. She speaks of a willingness among the Chinese leadership to admit to and address the human rights agenda. A psychological barrier has been broken, she says, and she will return next year to monitor progress. The Chinese Vice-Premier, Mr Chen Qichen, told the High Commissioner that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China has been promising to adopt, would be signed next month. But even signing the covenant would not be conclusive. It requires further ratification and the Chinese have yet to ratify a similar covenant on social and cultural rights which was signed almost a year ago.
Correspondents in Beijing have recognised and commented favourably on Mrs Robinson's ability to tread a very tight path between the diplomatic sensitivities demanded in a first visit to China while at the same time conveying the UN's disapproval of the country's human rights record. She can achieve little if she causes the Chinese to lose face or if she seeks to embarrass them further in the eyes of the world. She will achieve less if she fails to maintain the pressure upon them for reform.
She is required to demonstrate extraordinary diplomatic skills and to apply with great wisdom the enormous moral authority which is invested by the world community in the organisation she represents. This is why her attempt to stage-manage the coverage of her visit to Tibet is so regrettable. It sent the message to the Chinese: "do not as I do but as I say". The combination of stubbornness and lack of candour which characterised the episode scarcely furthered the objectives of her mission.