Human Rights Protests Greet PRC Vice-Chair Xi

WASHINGTON—While U.S. President Barack Obama met in the White House on Tuesday with People’s Republic of China Vice-Chair Xi Jinping, outside on the street groups protested the Chinese regime’s record on human rights.

In preparation for Xi’s visit, human rights organizations had issued statements recommending to Obama concerns he should raise with the presumptive next head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Quite simply, Vice President Xi should not receive the benefits and recognition that come with a state visit without having to answer publicly for his government’s increasingly harsh crackdown on critics and human rights defenders,” said Sophie Richardson, HRW China director in a statement issued in February.

HRW noted that a letter had been sent to the President Obama prior to Xi’s visit listing a range of demands including setting benchmarks before the next annual U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) made similar requests in a letter sent to the President last week noting that “religious freedoms had worsened in recent years.”

Reporters Without Borders also issued a statement noting a new law requiring Chinese Internet users to register with their real identity takes effect in China on March 16.

“There is still time to put legitimate questions to Xi Jinping without being accused of ‘attempted subversion’ or ‘disturbing public order,’” Reporters wrote in a statement.

White House Spokesperson Jay Carney fielded questions on human rights in a press briefing following the President’s meeting with Xi.

Carney said the White House had adopted the same approach to human rights as they had always done in dealing with the People’s Republic of China, saying “we always raise human rights concerns at the highest level.”

Carney said he was not able to give exact details of the conversation and attempted to move on from the topic.

“I just want to give others a chance,” he told a full press room, as he looked around for a distraction. “Anybody?” he asked plaintively, repeating, “Anybody?”

Another reporter put a hand up, but the question was again regarding human rights in China.

On the street outside the White House, the people who did not have the luxury of changing the subject had gathered, hundreds in groups or standing alone filled the street and spilled into nearby Lafayette Park.

On the street a stage had been erected and groups and individuals took part in a rally expressing their concern over China’s human rights record.

 

Using Freedom to Speak Out

Ms. Cao Yaxue, a Chinese-American traveled to D.C. to support Chinese dissidents. She met detained human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s wife Geng He and carried a poster of blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who is presently under house arrest.

“I have kids and I work and suddenly I thought, where have I been! I need to put my freedom to use,” Cao told The Epoch Times.

Cao runs a blog where she translates information from China into English so that Americans can be informed about atrocities occurring there.

Cao mentioned how some people who travel to China leave comments on her blog saying they didn’t see anything bad happening.

Their visits are carefully monitored by Chinese authorities so tourists only see what authorities approve, she said.

“I tell them: ‘Go out to Chen Guangcheng’s village and see what it is like. You won’t be allowed to go there”.

His village has been guarded 24 hours a day by scores of hired thugs, and no one from outside can get in, Cao says. Now she is doing everything she can to expose the CCP.

“I will put my brick on their grave,” she said.

 

Falun Gong: ‘Stop the Persecution’

Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) practitioners quietly meditated or held banners.

Dr. Tsuwei Huang, spokesperson for the Washington, D.C. Falun Dafa Association, spoke, calling on Xi Jinping to stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China “immediately.”

Xi should “conduct a thorough investigation of the Chinese officials responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners” and to bring the culprits to justice, Huang said.

Taiwan: ‘China, Put Down Your Missiles’

Taiwanese came out in force in a range of costumes calling on President Obama to request Xi to stop the PRC from threatening Taiwan’s independence and, particularly, to dismantle the 1,600 missiles presently pointing at Taiwan from across the straits.

“We understand that the United States needs to engage China. However, such engagement should not come at the expense of America’s core values—freedom, democracy, and human rights—as embodied in the country of our birth, Taiwan,” said Dr Mark Kao, president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).

Dr. Kao asked Obama “ to remind Mr. Xi that it is a core interest of the United States that the future of Taiwan be resolved peacefully and with the express consent of the people of Taiwan.”

 

Investors: Be Warned

An American citizen of Chinese descent, Malcolm Hull, has been burned on his investments in China and came to warn other investors of the dangers.

“There is no law in China to protect you,” Hull told The Epoch Times, “If anything happens to you or any people doing business in China, nobody can help you—not even the U.S. government.”

In an oft-repeated tale told by foreign investors in China, Michael Hull speaks from experience. He lost over a million dollars on the mainland and has been fighting for a decade for some form of recompense.

Foreign investors are lured in by the promise of big money, he said, but the system is corrupt with government officials involved in embezzlement and rackets involving banks, joint venture operations, the courts, and the police.

Hull said Obama needed to remind Xi of the rule of law, but questioned the benefits of meeting with Xi at all, saying, “Why is Obama talking to this tiger?”

Uighurs: Losing Identity

Attorney Nury Turkel, spoke on behalf of the people of East Turkestan, also known as Uighurs, and the World Uighur Congress.

Uighur’s are going through the darkest period in their history, Turkel said, “under the current leadership it is like an open prison.”

Uighurs speak a Turkic language and follow Islam but under the CCP they have been increasingly punished for practicing their beliefs.

Turkel said the CCP’s aims were twofold: “To generate new foreign-looking Uighurs who have no idea about cultural and religious values;” and not only to control the Uighur homeland but “also their lives.”

Turkel believes the United States and China are so different that neither country really knows how to deal with the other. The bottom line, however, is that President Obama should tell it like it is.

“No window trash,” he said, “the Chinese government is extremely brutal both in domestic politics and internationally.”

 

Tibet: Not China

Tibetans came out in force in front of the White House saying, “Tibet is not China.”

Many followed the directive laid out by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) whose board member, American actor Richard Gere, had written a letter to Obama specifically asking the President to raise the repression of Tibetan people with Xi.

“We believe that new Chinese leadership has the potential and power to chart a Tibet policy that is not only a departure from decades of Chinese misrule in Tibet, but also recognizes the value in direct engagement with the Tibetan people as legitimate stakeholders in their own future,” said the letter, dated Feb. 7 and published on the ICT website.

Sonam Wangdu, chairman of the U.S Tibet Committee, was at the D.C. rally. “What is happening in Tibet is very sad,” he said quietly, explaining that he left Tibet 40 years ago and still had family there, but could not speak to them for fear of bringing them harm.

He referred to the wave of self-immolations by young Tibetan monks in China, saying Tibetans are becoming increasingly desperate about China’s oppressive rule.

“It is not suicide,” Sonam was quick to say, “it is a sacrifice for the good of people, the good of the nation, and to alert the world.”

Sonam said sympathy alone was not enough because “sympathy does not save anyone.”

Tibetans he said, “want to be free of Chinese occupation, they want the Dalai Lama back and they want to be ruled by Tibetans.”

The ICT wants President Obama to encourage Xi to reopen dialogue with the Dalai Lama and to open up Tibet to journalists and observers to ensure safety for the Tibetan people.