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The Dark Side of China
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Pollution
• Air pollution is a huge problem is China’s cities
– China’s massive (and still growing) energy needs are
fueled primarily by coal
• Water pollution is a major issue in China’s rivers
and lakes
– Factories and farms dump waste into rivers and lakes
with few repercussions
• Together they cause well over a million deaths a
year
Tibet
• We’ve already discussed the issue with
Tibet
– It’s people feel it was invaded and forcefully
absorbed by China in the 1950s
– Buddhist monks are oppressed, have their
freedom of expression and movement
supressed
– Large numbers of monks have been killed or
arrested
Other oppressed groups
• Uighers (Chinese Muslims)
• Falun Gong practitioners
• Christians who practice outside of statesanctioned churches
• These people are subject to arrest, torture,
indefinite imprisonment, and execution
Freedom of Speech
• Press is tightly controlled by the
government – they are told what to say
and deviance brings serious
consequences
• The internet is severely filtered by the
“Great Firewall of China”
• The government tracks down and arrests
people based on internet communications
concerning democracy and human rights
The ICCPR
• International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights is a UN human rights
treaty
• China signed it in 1998
Key Provisions
• The right to life and freedom from torture and slavery
• Freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention and the right
to habeas corpus
• The right to due process, a fair and impartial trial, and
the presumption of innocence
• Freedoms of movement, thought, conscience and
religion, speech, association and assembly, family rights,
the right to a nationality, and the right to privacy
• prohibition of any propaganda for war as well as any
advocacy of national or religious hatred that constitutes
incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence by law
• Political participation, including the right to join a political
party and the right to vote
• Non-discrimination, minority rights and equality before
the law
China and the ICCPR
• Which provisions has China violated?
– Tibet
– Falun Gong
– Human Rights activists
– Media and internet censorship