National Post: China weak on human rights

July 12, 2001

OTTAWA - Jean Chretien yesterday criticized China's record of human rights abuses and suggested it should play a part in deciding who gets the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The Prime Minister, who in the past has been reluctant to criticize China's bid, spoke out just two days before the International Olympic Committee votes on the host city for the Games.

Mr. Chretien said China's human rights record is "a factor for a lot of people."

"Of course, if you compare Canada to China we have less problems with human rights than them. It's obvious, everybody recognizes that," the Prime Minister said after a Cabinet meeting and just hours before leaving for Moscow to lobby for the Toronto bid.

He added that China's human rights record is "part of the debate for those who have to vote. But I don't have to explain that we have a good record there."

[..]

"On the question of human rights, everybody knows my position," he said. "I was the first leader of a government to make a speech on human rights at Beijing University. Our position is very clear and everybody understands it very well."

Mr. Chretien warned China about interfering in freedom of expression when he was there in February on a trade mission.

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Last week, the European Parliament passed a resolution opposing the Beijing bid because of China's "disastrous" record on human rights. It said the bid is "inappropriate."

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In its 2001 report, Amnesty International said, "2000 saw a continued repression of peaceful dissent throughout the country. There was no sign of any relaxation of the 1999 crackdown on fundamental freedoms." It noted thousands of Chinese citizens are arbitrarily detained for "peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association or religion."

Practitioners of Falun Gong have also accused China of torturing thousands of their members and killing more than 250 since 1999, when the [party' name omitted] government began a crackdown on what it called an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]. Last week it was revealed 14 female members died in a Chinese labour camp in June. The movement says they were tortured to death but China says they hanged themselves.

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