2008년 04월 30일
How American understand China
I worte this artice as a result of my internship in D.C. How Americans understand China. 4 Consequently, the U.S. has the last card only, i.e. it now admits the Chinese role in the international politics as a stakeholder. There still are some Americans who are strongly against this opinion and insist that they should not keep the relationship with a devil who commits human rights abuse at home and abroad. As a matter of fact, the real politics are not as chaste as it appears. The U.S. has also committed a number of human rights abuses. It backs up dictatorships to maintain regional hegemony and ignores human rights abuses, conducted by dictators from countries like Uzbekistan, Egypt, Israel, and Pakistan among others. There was a demonstration against a military regime in Gwang-ju, South Korea on May 18th, 1980. During the demonstration, the American government who was essentially in charge of the Korean military command, allowed the Korean side to mobilize its troops against its own people. Additionally, the U.S. sent fleets to Busan, which has the largest port city in Korea, because the American government was worried about more violent riots. This was very similar to what happened in the Tibetan areas last months.
Thus, the perspective of this article is not related to AAI's perspective.
This is not a mere instance. The U.S. tortured prisoners of war in the Guantanamo Bay and justified it under the name of “enemy combatants,” who could not be prosecuted under the Geneva Convention. The prisoners of war do not even have rights to see an attorney and have a hearing in an open public court. These are the basic human rights, guaranteed by Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Though human rights are taken as granted, it is actually an upshot of the political leadership after the WW I and II. The political leaders realized that guaranteeing basic human rights would prevent horrific genocides and ethnic cleansing, ensure equality to all before law, and foster rule of law. However, this has not prevented the formation of political power, leading to vacuum continuation of human rights abuses in one or the other form. That said, we also need to realize that guaranteeing universal human rights would not produce homogenous situation all over the world because this issue is subjective in nature and is intricately intertwined with culture and norms in a given country. The situation in China might not have been as serious as has been reported in the media. It is our incompetence to comprehend the Chinese role and their concerns that we have been so headstrong on hearing the story of the Tibetan sides only. It is high time that we rightly recognized the role of China in the world economic and political matters and help them resolve the Tibetan issue amicably. This is especially significant at a time when the U.S. has lost its influence in several regions. Its time we acknowledge China as major stakeholder in all the international issues, including human rights.
# by | 2008/04/30 05:00
