Engaging China:The Human Rights Dimension
Published: February 05, 2012
Abstract:
Building a mature and constructive relationship with China is in Canada’s interest. Such a relationship depends on China’s compliance with its own laws and treaty commitments that promote economic and trade cooperation together with human rights protection. Prime Minister Harper should encourage an integrated approach to trade and human rights to further human rights protection while also promoting economic and trade relations.
Op-Ed
When the Prime Minister visits China this week, many Canadians will be wondering how he will deal with the human rights dimensions of the Canada-China relationship. A recent Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada survey of Canadians professionally engaged with Asia found that 72% perceive China’s human rights record to be ‘poor.’ Many also view Canada’s record of action on human rights in the region to be ineffective, with 62% believing the actions have made no real difference. Many Canadians believe that serious human rights problems persist in China and we need to engage, and yet they feel uncertain about how to proceed.
China’s performance of international human rights standards has been conflicted. China has accepted many international human rights standards and incorporated them into its Constitution and domestic legal system. Yet persistent and credible reporting on human rights violations continue, particularly in the areas of repression of political dissent, harassment of lawyers and human rights advocates, and suppression of religion and ethnic minority cultures.
However, there are also important good news stories on human rights in China. China’s recent Human Rights Action Plan commits the government to improving a broad array of human rights conditions, ranging from economic and social development to political participation. Targeted government policies in the areas of health care, poverty alleviation, education, and labor relations suggest a broad commitment to improving people’s daily lives. Revisions to China’s tax system reflect the government’s efforts to redress human rights issues of income disparity. Policy initiatives on transparency and government accountability, along with formal (albeit belated) responses to injustices in Wukan and other rural communities indicate a willingness to redress human rights issues involving abuses of political authority. Like many other countries, China has found that human rights protection is not a matter of abstract ideals but rather an essential dimension of economic and social development. Canada’s relations with China should proceed from an appreciation of these complexities.
Mindful of the contradictions in China’s human rights performance, Canada’s engagement with China should proceed with an appreciation that human rights issues are inseparable from economic and trade relations. Recalling that internationally-recognized human rights include social, economic, and cultural rights as well as political and civil rights, we should acknowledge that economic relations and human rights are mutually supportive dimensions of our mature relationship with China. International human rights standards on labor relations, healthcare, and sustainable development, for example, have a direct impact on productivity and hence on economic and trade relations. Similarly, international trade standards on transparency and the rule of law support not only trade relations but more open and inclusive civil and political relationships generally.
Mindful of occasional expressions of China’s resistance to international law, such as the recent Global Times editorial calling for greater opposition to WTO trade standards, Canada should emphasize the importance of China’s performance of its domestic and international legal obligations that support both human rights and trade. Mindful that a government which sidesteps its own laws in attacking lawyers and writers who stray from official orthodoxy may also be tempted to ignore local and international legal standards on trade, we should continue to emphasize legal compliance. This is not about preaching ‘Western values,” but instead is about encouraging compliance with China’s own laws and international obligations. Canada can constructively encourage China’s leaders to promote compliance with China’s domestic laws and international commitments that require human rights protection while also supporting economic and trade relations.
Of course there are human rights issues such as political expression and religious freedom where the sensitivities of this year of political transition in China may inhibit free discussion. However, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that more open debates about governance in China can work not only to satisfy civil and political rights standards but can also promote better policy-making, while more openness on issues of religious belief and practice can support China’s stated goals of social harmony.
Building a mature and constructive relationship with China is in Canada’s interest. Such a relationship depends on China’s compliance with its own laws and treaty commitments that promote economic and trade cooperation together with human rights protection. The Prime Minister should encourage an integrated approach to trade and human rights to further human rights protection while also promoting economic and trade relations.
This piece was first published in the Globe and Mail on February 6, 2012.
Rev. Dr. Pitman B. Potter is Professor of Law at UBC Law Faculty and HSBC Chair in Asian Research at UBC’s Institute of Asian Research. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
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