An Outsider Looking In
by Chris Gelken
Credit Where It Is Due
President Clinton has rebuked China over the Tiananmen Square massacre - and he did it during a press conference broadcast nationally across China. Clinton also raised the issue of Tibet, suggesting that the Dalai Llama and Jiang Zemin might even become friends - if they ever got down to seriously talking about the future of the Himalayan country.
POTUS continued his assault on China's human rights record at the start of a state dinner. Clinton is being diplomatic and choosing his words carefully - but he is raising important issues. If this is kow-tow'ing - then I'd hate to see Clinton get abusive!
The fact that today's post-summit press conference was broadcast live across the nation is a clear indication that China is relaxing some of its restrictions on the flow of information. They didn't need to do it, and not so long ago it would have been unthinkable. Okay, critics will still say that China isn't doing enough and what advances they are making are coming very slowly, too slowly for some. China has changed, is changing, and with the right sort of encouragement will continue to change. It may be hard for some, but give credit where credit is due.
A lot of what happens during Clinton's 9-day visit will be largely symbolic. Take the de-targetting of ICBMs for example. Anti-visit campaigners made a big deal out of reports that a portion of China's ballistic nuclear arsenal was pointed in the general direction of the United States. Re-targetting the warheads is no big deal either - and would be done well before any crisis between Beijing and Washington reached a critical stage.
There's a lot that won't happen. Several differences between the U.S. and China might be addressed, but will not be resolved. A few weeks ago a reader took issue with me and suggested that I supported the one-child and forced-abortion policy. I don't. But a simple search on the Internet will find plenty of people in the West who can see the practical benefits of family planning - it is just a question of how that policy is implemented. I am totally opposed to forced abortions - just as I am totally opposed to those who would deny the right of choice to those who have a legitimate reason to have an abortion. Hey, it cuts both ways.
Religious freedom is another issue. According to independent sources the number of Christians in China has increased since 1949 - that is a statistic that even surprised me! Tibetan Buddhism - let's get controversial! When I covered the so-called "Miss Tibet" competion in 1991 I saw thousands of pilgrims around the temples and religious sites in Lhasa - and they were practising their religion without any obvious interference by the authorities.
In Lhasa as a photographer for a London magazine, I was working with a journalist who was not above a little 'creativity' to add spark to his copy. I remember snapping pictures as my writer colleage interviewed the Italian manager of a Lhasa hotel. After a few drinks the interview took a more conversational turn. The manager eventually took a framed photograph of his family off his desk and removed the back. Underneath were prints of Mussolini and Hitler.
He also related how he had helped a team from a German news magazine get some exclusive pictures of Chinese police beating up monks. The 'police' and the 'monks' he told us with a grin, were all hotel employees and the whole event had been staged. Apparently, the manager added with a note of pride, the pictures made the front page of the magazine - a real scoop.
My trip to Lhasa had been very educational, but the education didn't end when we left the city. Because of fog we arrived late in the city of Chengdu, missed our connection and had to stay overnight. By chance we picked up copies of Hong Kong newspapers that had been brought into the city by other travellers.
A wire service story caught my attention. It told of how members of the group invited by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong to cover the "Miss Tibet" competition were under virtual house arrest in the hotel unless they were on an escorted tour. It told of how we had to seek permission to leave the hotel alone, and when we did, we were conspicuously followed by up to 6 members of the Public Security Bureau. Take it from me the whole story was B.S. from start to finish - and I have little doubt about who was responsible for it.
The reason I relate this story isn't an attempt to diminish the human rights problems faced by people in China as a whole and Tibet in particular. But it is important to remember that not everything we see on television or read in the papers should be taken at face value. I don't have the details to hand but I also remember a case last year when a German television news producer was unmasked as a total fraud - he staged just about every 'scoop' he ever broadcast.
How do you tell the difference between what is real and what isn't? Exaggerated or played down? What we should get enraged about and what we should take in our stride? Tough call, real tough call.
"People," opined Sandy Berger, "are not debris to be swept up for a visitor." He was referring to the reported temporary detention of dissidents ahead of Bill Clinton's arrival in Xi'an. For some reason his words immediately reminded me of the 1991 World Bank/International Monetary Fund meeting in Bangkok - and to a lesser degree, the 1996 Asia European Summit.
The beautification of Bangkok for the visiting delegates included sweeping 'human' debris from the streets. While I feel sorry for the dissidents who suffered temporary detention and agree that Chinese authorities were guilty of overreacting, the dissidents' discomfort was relatively insignificant when compared to what happened to thousands of poor people in Bangkok.
Slum houses were demolished and the people 'relocated' to areas well away from the city centre where they couldn't find work. Garland vendors who normally gathered at traffic intersections were shooed away, without a thought of how they would support themselves or their families. These folks live day to day, they don't have credit cards to meet immediate expenses until thing return to normal. These people were not trying to make a political statement, they were just trying to survive. I don't remember their misfortune being the subject of a press conference that made top story on international news networks.
It is just my opinion, okay? But I think what happened to them was as serious an abuse of human rights as what happened to the Xi'an dissidents.
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