Fatal flaws in Chinese law

The Dalai Lama, a thorn for communist China (Photo: AP)

28/12/2009
Bangkok Post
EDITORIAL

China is a rapidly emerging nation, in the jargon of the day, but it has shown defects that will prevent it from being a true world power. Industrially and in many economic areas, China measures up to its reputation as a global player. Its defence forces are modernising. But two recent events, at home and abroad, show that Beijing has not earned and cannot command the respect of a 21st century superpower.

The ''state subversion'' trial of the dissident Liu Xiaobo failed all possible tests of fairness. Outsiders were not permitted and the witnesses did not testify in public. Mr Liu, a 53-year-old former literature professor, was brought into the court, heard his accusation read, and then was taken away for 11 years in prison, plus two more years of enforced censorship.

The procedure was no trial to determine guilt or innocence. Instead, it was a harsh warning to others who might dare to write or to voice complaints against central authorities.

The second case took place in Cambodia, and the proceedings were even murkier and more opaque than the trial of Prof Liu. Chinese diplomats or other authorities gave Cambodia orders, threats or an ultimatum - who knows which, or what combination? - that caused the Hun Sen government to reverse its old policy of granting asylum to political refugees. Now, Cambodia has ''decided'' to deport 20 Chinese Uighurs, including two infants back to China. Beijing has said the 20 were criminals, involved in last July's riots which left at least 197 people dead in Urumqi city and the surrounding Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

China offered no public proof that the Uighur refugees were criminals or violent. The refugees themselves said they feared punishment, jail terms or the death penalty. Cambodian authorities who had previously drawn strong praise from the United Nations for helping refugees from regional minority groups clearly felt the Chinese breath on their back of the neck over the case. It was obviously no coincidence that just days after Cambodia deported the Uighur, China announced 14 separate aid deals, worth US$850 million (30 billion baht).

Like all countries, China uses its diplomatic and economic strength to try to gain its strategic goals. But Beijing officials too often go overboard, seem unwilling to suspend their own questionable beliefs, and consider that there is more than one way to approach an issue and to solve disagreement.

For example, China has bullied Thailand for three decades over the Dalai Lama. The Chinese embassy and senior government officials on visits to Thailand have made it clear there would be severe repercussions if the former Tibetan leader stepped foot on Thai soil. It is a shame that Thai officials have bent to this threat, but there is no reason to make such an issue out of a possible visit to Thailand by a world Buddhist figure. China, of course, made exiled Thai communists welcome and gave them strong support for the violent plans to overthrow the government and institutions of Thailand. Nor has any harm come to Thailand because of failure to crack down on the Falungong group, detested and banned in China.

The single-minded cruelty of the Liu trial and the Uighur deportation is a serious blemish on the makeup of the Chinese administration. It is clear from examples in China and other countries that Prof Liu posed no real threat to central power. Both he and the Uighur families deserved fair hearings instead of the deeply flawed justice of today's China.