issues

Tibetan Self-Determination

Adjournment speech - 1st April 2008

In a 2005 article, Ms Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur human rights defender boldly stated:

I am a terrorist. 1 would argue that I'm not, but because the Chinese Government says 1 am a terrorist, it must be true.

A matter of weeks ago I harboured this so-called terrorist in this very Parliament. Ms Rebiya Kadeer, a Nobel peace prize nominee, an internationally recognised human rights defender and democratic leader of the Uyghur people, served six years in prison for questioning repressive Chinese policies. Ms Kadeer—whose two sons are currently imprisoned as a result of her critique of the Chinese regime—forewarned that Chinese authorities would attempt to quell popular, non-violent uprisings by various minorities under the justification that these groups were terrorists, murderers and violent revolutionaries.

During her visit to Parliament Ms Kadeer outlined the systematic and egregious violations of human rights including the banning of Uyghur language in schools and subjection to compulsory unpaid labour called hashar. Ms Kadeer knows the Chinese military modus operandi well. On 14 March, protests began in the Tibet autonomous region on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. The Chinese National Peoples Party quickly suggested a sinister collusion between violent Dalai separatists and Uyghur people of East Turkestan who currently reside in the north-western Xinjiang region of China. China's newspaper the Peoples' Daily stated that:

The Dalai clique has also strengthened collusion with East Turkistan terror organisations and planned terror activities in Tibet.

Therefore, I stand here as a member of the Dalai clique, an East Turkestan terrorist, a Falun Gong and Christian minority subversive. I will be subversive and tomorrow night will attend the Falun Gong Chinese cultural extravaganza at the cultural centre in Sydney. The Dalai Lama and his followers, Falun Gong, Christian minorities and Uyghur Muslims are only a threat to a corrupt and repressive institutional organisation developed by the Chinese Government from revolutionary times—which, incidentally, I have supported in the past. These groups are not violent separatists. Their aspirations are for freedom or, more accurately, freedom from religious persecution, unpaid labour, forced abortions, torture, political imprisonment and arbitrary government expropriation of their land.

Repackaging the repression of legitimate political movements that seek fundamental human and cultural rights as a fight against terrorism is a sad misappropriation of the term and a gross manipulation of the truth. Such rhetoric is beyond fantastical and our political representatives should not for one moment buy into its sentiment. With the Beijing Olympics just over the horizon many hold to the hope that the Games will have a modernising effect on the nation, translating to increased institutional transparency and a strengthened rule of law. Paradoxically, recent events show the reverse trend. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy recently described the effect of the new Chinese Olympic identity on Chinese human rights in the following way:

The facelift the Chinese Government hoped to achieve hasn't worked. In fact, the only tangible result has been an increase in human rights violations.

Rather than staging false press releases to create a veneer of national harmony, efforts need to focus on securing the sustainability and longevity of China by acknowledging and accommodating cultural diversity. The catalyst for claims to self-determination is the oppression of basic human rights. Trampling of minorities rightfully opens the door to succession. In this sense China can control and determine the future of its territorial integrity in the way it manages cultural and religious minorities. A dilution of China's territorial integrity will be the price of its inability to accommodate economic, religious and cultural rights of its minorities.

Denying fundamental rights to culture and self-determination as outlined in Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is at odds with a nation forging ahead with rapid economic modernisation and development. China cannot with one hand champion a commitment to international diversity and human advancement as embodied in the spirit of the Olympic Games then deny and suppress basic human rights with the other. It is hypocrisy of epic proportions. The reactions of the Chinese Government in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics will be a significant historical crossroads for the future of the Government. I only hope that the Chinese Government can combine the egalitarian philosophies of the people and the rich traditional cultural tapestry that is also an integral part of the Chinese nation.

Requests that China exercise restraint in its response to Tibetan protests have clearly fallen on deaf ears. The softly-softly approach that aims to balance trade implications with moral concerns must fade into the background. Australia must play a role in modernising China's approach to human rights abuses. Only when China embraces its minorities and values their basic human rights can we support the Olympic Games and the spirit that the Games embody.