Commentary
Beijing Foreign Minister, Wang Yi’s, visit to Australia on March 20–21, has again put the spotlight on the intersection of human rights and trade.
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is clear.
The first two paragraphs of the Preamble state, “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,” and that, “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.”
If we accept the above, then prioritising trade and disregarding human rights is a threat to freedom, justice, and peace in the world, and can result in barbarous acts which outrage the conscience of mankind.
After her recent 20 March meeting with Foreign Minister Wang at Parliament House, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong addressed a press conference by herself.
She confirmed: “As you would expect, I raised Australia’s concerns about human rights, including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.”
A notable omission was Falun Gong, an ancient Chinese spiritual practice that has endured a 25-year persecution and can be counted as the largest persecuted group in China—70–100 million adherents.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, and its persecution in China, is an important aspect of Australia-China relations.
When Falun Gong was first taught to the public in 1992 by the founder of the practice, Li Hongzhi, it was welcomed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as it brought improved health to tens of millions of Chinese. In 1995, Mr. Li was also invited to teach Falun Gong at the Chinese Embassy in Paris.
Falun Dafa also includes meditation and moral teachings based on the principles of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance).
It was this rekindling of China’s spiritual and moral foundation, quashed during the Cultural Revolution, that lit the ire of then-Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin in 1999, and the campaign to eliminate Falun Gong that continues today.
It can’t be that the government doesn’t acknowledge the persecution. It has been widely reported by the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, Amnesty International, Freedom House and many Western media outlets over decades. Australia has also provided refugee protection for hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners fleeing China since the persecution began in July 1999.
The challenge of responding to the CCP’s human rights atrocities, while trying to manage trade ties is not new.
It has plagued Australian governments, both Coalition and Labor alike over the past 25 years.
The $25 Billion Chinese Gas Deal
Foreign Minister Wong also explained at her press conference, “We seek a stable and productive and mature relationship with China,” and confirmed that, “Australia opposes the death penalty in all circumstances for all peoples.”But it seems there was no discussion about deaths by forced organ harvesting in China, where prisoners of conscience are killed by having their organs cut out for sale and transplant, while they are still alive. That should be recognised as a heinous crime that invokes immediate investigation and the strongest possible condemnation.
The CCP designates that anything it wants to avoid or conceal is an “anti-China position,” and not to be discussed. That is how it seeks to manipulate and control countries like Australia.
If the Australian government’s approach is to “manage” the relationship with the CCP, it needs to be aware of what the CCP is, and act accordingly. Otherwise, our government will instead, be “managed” by Beijing.
In March 2002, during a press conference in Australia, the CCP’s then-foreign minister, Tang Jiaxuan, told the Australian government to refrain from supporting the activities of Falun Gong to preserve the “friendly and cooperative relations” with China from being damaged in any way.
As a result, during Mr. Tang’s visit, Australia’s then-Foreign Minister Alexander Downer issued certificates to prevent Falun Gong adherents from holding banners across the road from the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.
By August 2002, an Australian-based consortium had a contract to supply China with liquefied natural gas worth up to $25 billion (US$15.65 billion).
The issuing of Mr. Downer’s certificates did not cease until December 2006, following a successful legal challenge by Falun Gong practitioners in the ACT Supreme Court.
A Time When We Really Understood the Threat of Communism
The CCP’s communism is a Marxist-Leninist system. A Marxist system focuses on economic outcomes with public ownership of assets, and in theory, an equal distribution of wealth. Leninism is a political doctrine that enforces control over everything.The CCP has morphed into a Marxist-Leninist regime with aspects of capitalism that create wealth around the privileged leadership group, while enforcing total control on the people to preserve party rule, and denies the existence of God or religious meaning in life.
Former U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr warned of misunderstanding the CCP in a speech on China Policy at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum on July 17, 2020.
“The CCP’s campaign to compel ideological conformity does not stop at China’s borders,” he said.
“The ultimate ambition of China’s rulers isn’t to trade with the United States. It is to raid the United States.
“The CCP has launched an orchestrated campaign, across all of its many tentacles in Chinese government and society, to exploit the openness of our institutions in order to destroy them.”
The above is also true for Australia. We could do with a statesman like former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who not only understood communism, but was guided by a belief in God and a higher meaning in life than materialism.
Mr. Reagan loathed Soviet communism because it mandated atheism for all its subjects and thus engaged in a vicious persecution of Christians and other people of faith.
He saw communism as a vile idea to be defeated, rather than a geopolitical rival to be managed or contained. In this battle of ideas, he also called out the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”
It is the same today with Communist China.
It persecutes people of faith, cultivates vassal states, expands into and occupies other territories, supports socialist and Marxist revolutions in the developing world, uses its “Belt and Road” to entrap nations, and infiltrates Western democracies with communist ideology that breaks down the family, morals and ethics founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs.
The propaganda against Falun Gong that accompanies the persecution in China has been extended around the world. The CCP has been extremely effective at linking silence on human rights atrocities with a nation’s trade relationship.
Human Rights as a Foundation of Trade
It has become a cycle of Australia compromising its essential values and becoming beholden to the workings of an authoritarian regime that abhors human rights and is a corrupt and dangerous regime hostile to the rule of law.
But trade and human rights are not mutually exclusive or necessarily opposed.
In fact, China’s own traditional culture spoke of the importance of acting on principles such as justice and proprietary, and once that was done, good societal relations would follow.
If we accept that prioritising trade over human rights is acceptable to serve our perceived short-term national interests, then we threaten our own freedoms.
If we accept that remaining silent on barbarous acts such as killing innocents through forced organ harvesting is okay, then we are threatening our own humanity.
John A. Deller is a committee member of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia.Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
