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China's Human Rights Struggle, 5/1/09
Overview:
Join Active Minds as we look at how modern China continues to struggle with the balance between authoritarian government and basic human rights 20 years after the Tiananment Square Massacre. We will highlight the ways in which Chinese society is restricted as we peer through the lens of American freedoms we sometimes take for granted.
Key Lecture Points:
• Spring 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The issue of human rights in China continues to be of global interest and concern. Despite recent legal, social, and economic advances, there are many instances of continued repression and abuse within the Chinese governmental system. The U.S. State Department's 2007 Human Rights Practices and International Religious Freedom Report noted that Chinese government’s intolerance of dissent as well as the inadequacy of legal safeguards for basic freedoms.
• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a complicated recent history that has sought to maintain and encourage communist ideals while simultaneously competing in a world market that frequently works from a different ideological viewpoint. In addition, the country’s history of both political unrest and political suppression has sharply illustrated the often brutal nature by which the government maintains control.
• The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing brought China into world focus as many waited to see how a country that was shrouded in mystery for so long would handle the spotlight. Although the Games were proclaimed a success by many world powers, China included, many human rights groups complained about China’s practices of political suppression, information control, working conditions, and other aspects of daily Chinese life that were essentially “swept under the rug” for the Games in order to present a rosy view of China to the world.
• China continues to practice policies of population limitation, which has resulted in a significant gender imbalance within the country, among many other social issues. In addition, the lack of grown women is considered to be a primary factor in the alarming rates of human trafficking in and out of China, primarily of young women and children.
Exploration Questions:
• Do you feel that there have been any benefits to China as a whole when it comes to the tight control that government tries to maintain over society?
• Consider if China had not initially adapted the Soviet communist system or had eventually adopted a different economic system, such as the one the U.S. and many European countries hold. How do you think the history of China would have changed?
Reflective Questions:
• Have you ever been to China? What was your impression? Does it fit with what you’ve learned here?
• What did you think of the China presented through the lens of the 2008 Olympics? Do you feel it was an accurate portrayal of Chinese life?
More to Explore:
• CIA Factbook: www.cia.gov
• U.S. State Department Human Rights Report: www.state.gov
• Amnesty International: www.amnestyusa.org/china
Books For Further Reading:
• Worden, Minky. China's Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges. Seven Stories Press, 2008. 330 pages. Illuminates China's recent history and outlines how domestic and international pressures in the context of the Olympics could achieve human rights change. Click here to order.
• Svensson, Marina. Debating Human Rights in China: A Conceptual and Political History. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002. 400 pages. Tracing the concept of human rights in Chinese political discourse since the late Qing dynasty, this comprehensive history convincingly demonstrates that--contrary to conventional wisdom--there has been a vibrant debate on human rights throughout the twentieth century. Click here to order.
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