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A Way Forward
Universal values must be asserted continuously in dealings with Beijing. Sun Liping, sociology professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, noted that there were 180,000 “mass incidents” in China in 2010, everything from strikes to riots and demonstrations, twice as many as in 2006. The regime continues to rely on repression and brutality to maintain itself in office.
Canada could seek to replay in China the important role it had in establishing popular democracy in South Africa in the late 1980s. There are lessons in China from the non-violent civic resistance which has occurred in many nations. Each was different in terms of boycotts, mass protests, strikes, and civil disobedience. In all, authoritarian rulers were delegitimized and their sources of support.
When Prime Minister Harper visits China next month, he should make it clear that:
- We stand with the oppressed people of China and seek their peaceable transition to the rule of law and democratic governance.
- There will be zero tolerance in Canada when unfair trade practices are used by China, including theft of intellectual property and the continued refusal to honour commitments made to the World Trade Organization in 2001.
- Canadian investors in China must be protected much better than at present.
- Canada will sell products from the Alberta oil sands to Chinese customers, but is unlikely to sell ownership of any more plants to state-owned companies.
- Our border and other customs personnel will seize counterfeit products made in China and seize precursor chemicals used to manufacture cocaine, heroin, Speed, and Ecstasy.
Taiwan Election as Mirror for China
Canadians and 23 million Taiwanese share a number of characteristics, including respect for human dignity, multi-party democracy, rule of law, and national self-determination.
We can admire the emergence of Taiwan from brutal martial law to a full-fledged democracy. Its prosperity rise is impressive: starting decades ago with a per capita income in the US$150 range, to an estimated US$35, 700 on a purchasing power parity GDP basis (versus $7,600 in the PRC).
Taiwan, along with other familiar countries, is a democratic beacon in Asia—and is what the PRC can, should, and I believe, will be.
The January 14 election in Taiwan marked another step in the advance of democratic governance. Nearly three quarters of those registered voted and the candidates of the two major parties, the incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) and challenger Tsai Ing-wen (DPP), both campaigned well and attracted huge rallies, the former being re-elected, but the opposition DPP increased both its voter support and seats in the Legislative Yuan.
On election day and in several preceding ones, 21 of us from eight countries observed the election in several centres. Our preliminary conclusion, which can be accessed from http://www.taiwanelections.org/2012/01/15/taiwan-elections-2012-mostly-free-but-partly-unfair/, was that the election was “mostly free, but partly unfair.”
I’ll only mention some indications of interference from Beijing we learned about:
- Making it evident to voters which party it favoured, thankfully not by testing missiles off Taiwan as in the 1996 presidential election.
- Subsidizing by about 50 percent the flights of an estimated 200,000 Taiwanese business people returning from China to vote.
- Reducing the number of tourists visiting Taiwan during the election campaign period (presumably to minimize the number of nationals who observed a peaceful democratic election campaign).
- Sending procurement delegations from China to southern Taiwan in company with KMT officials before the election.
- Pressuring business leaders from Taiwan doing business in China to endorse the KMT.
- Creating voter fear about economic uncertainty if the DPP won, a major factor favouring Ma and the KMT.
An interesting post-election piece appeared in the New York Times. The party-state news agency, Xinhua, avoided the words “president” and “democracy,” presenting the election as a merely local one.
A businessman from China who had observed the election noted, “This is an amazing idea, to be able to choose the people who represent you. I think democracy will come to China. It’s only a matter of time.”
It goes without saying that a democratic China would not be killing Falun Gong citizens in forced labour camps. That it continues to happen is a key indicator of misgovernance today in China.
This is an edited version of a keynote address presented on Jan. 18, 2012, at the Canadian Political Science Students Association Conference: A Canadian Perspective on Human Rights, at the University of Manitoba/University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Canada.
David Kilgour is Co-chair of Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran and a director of the Washington-based Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD). He was a Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1979 to 2006, and also served as Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) during 2002 and 2003. David Kilgour was nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. For further information, see www.david-kilgour.com.
