South Australia's Attorney-General has criticised the Chinese leadership for its human rights record, warning Australian officials "not to turn a blind eye" to what is going on in China.
The Hon Michael Atkinson, who is also Justice Minister and Minister for Multicultural Affairs in South Australia's Rann Government, told a crowd at a Human Rights Torch Relay event in Adelaide last week that people should not be deceived by China's "booming" economy as it remained "one of the most unequal societies in the world".
"I'm aware of the systematic abuse of human rights in China," he said.
"It's one of the last totalitarian countries in the world and although Australia has a thriving trade with China, it's important that we don't ignore the Chinese Government's human rights record."
The Justice Minister's rousing words were seconded by Archbishop John Hepworth, who reminded the audience that religious groups in China had long been fiercely persecuted.
The Chinese regime's persecution of people for their spiritual beliefs represented one of the most basic transgressions of human rights, Archbishop Hepworth said.
"And people at the most fundamental level of their heart and mind are not free. Not free to define themselves. Not free to judge their moral actions. Not free to take their place in the cosmos, let alone the global community."
Archbishop Hepworth said conditions for Chinese people may get worse before there is improvement, but offered a vision of hope for the future.
"There's one thing we do know from the course of history – it is the fact that, in the end, the human community does triumph over the evil," he said, adding: "The evil often gets worse before we triumph."
These senior Australian statesmen were two of many that have spoken out in support of the Human Rights Torch as it continues its mission around Australia.
A global initiative, the Torch was conceived as a vehicle, not only to raise awareness about the extent of human rights abuses occurring under the present Chinese Communist regime, but also to increase pressure on Chinese authorities to stop persecuting people for their beliefs, most particularly practitioners of Falun Gong.
Falun Gong practitioners are considered to be the most severely persecuted group in China. According to the UN special rapporteur Manfred Nowak, two thirds of those tortured in Chinese labour camps are Falun Gong practitioners. And torture is widespread.
In a recent appeal to the International Olympic Committee, Amnesty International highlighted their concerns for anti-Olympic activists who have been held under brutal conditions in China for a range of activities – including drawing attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who have been forcibly evicted from their houses to make way for the Olympics.
One man, Yang Chenlin, gathered a petition stating "We want Human Rights, not the Olympics" from thousands of Chinese farmers. He was arrested earlier this year and has suffered brutal torture for his efforts.
"Since his detention in July, he has had his arms and legs stretched and chained to the four corners of an iron bed on numerous occasions. He has then been left to eat, drink and defecate in that position. He is still in detention," Amnesty reported.
The Human Rights Torch Relay was launched in Athens in August this year and has since travelled through Europe, arriving in Sydney on October 27.
Since then, it has travelled through the major metropolitan and regional areas of Queensland and Victoria.
Last week, Human Rights Torch Relay events were held in Adelaide and regional areas of South Australia, in NSW at Wollongong and several Sydney suburbs, and the Western Australian capital of Perth.
Community members in Western Australia expressed the same level of concern as their eastern counterparts.
Members of the WA Legislative Council for the Greens, Giz Watson and Paul Llewellyn, both expressed their support for the Torch. Ms Watson said she had been invited to a State dinner to meet the Chinese president, but had declined specifically because of China's human rights record.
Ms Watson said she could not honour the leader of a regime that continues to have an "appalling record of human rights abuses".
Mr Llewellyn said awarding Beijing the Olympic Games undermined the Spirit of the Olympics and was in effect putting "economic expedience ahead of human rights".
Members of the Burmese, Tibetan, Darfurian and Christian Communities also spoke at the event.
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