Elizabeth Lindley

@benedictrogers Fabulous speech

Friends, this afternoon I had the privilege of speaking at the Cambridge University United Nations Association, in the Cambridge Union. The other speaker was the well-known spokesperson for China's CCP regime, Victor Gao. The discussion was under Chatham House rules and I respect that, so I will not quote what Mr Gao said or any of the questions from the audience. But I hereby publish simply my own remarks, because I think the argument I outline here needs to be heard widely. -- Speech to Cambridge University United Nations Association “China’s Role in Global Governance and the Human Rights Regime” It is a privilege to be here again in Cambridge, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to discuss this topic with Victor Gao. Let me start by saying – very importantly – that I am not anti-China. On the contrary, I love China and its people. I first went to China when I was 18 to teach English for six months, I lived in Hong Kong for five years, and I have visited China more than 50 times. It is not China that I oppose, it is the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. And when I use ‘China’ from now on, it is shorthand for the Party and the State, not the country or the people. Indeed, it is only because the regime denied me entry to Hong Kong in 2017, and later threatened me with a prison sentence, that I have been unable to continue to visit. I have also received dozens of threatening letters, as have my neighbours, and even my mother, in this country, telling me to “shut up”. Perhaps my first question for Mr Gao would be: if China is a confident, stable and secure superpower, why is it afraid of someone as inconsequential as me? Our topic is China’s role in global governance and the human rights regime. But before we explore this, let me get one point out of the way. Mr Gao will use “whataboutism” to defend the CCP’s actions. So let me state from the outset: colonialism, illegal invasions and wars are wrong, and the behaviour of the United States today, retreating from its role as a global human rights champion and becoming more unpredictable as an ally, has provided China with a golden opportunity to increase its global influence. Now let us focus on the topic at hand, China. To address this, I would like to look at four issues briefly. · China’s domestic human rights record. · China’s support of other regimes that violate human rights. · China’s undermining of the UN system and the rules-based order. · China’s threats to open, democratic societies. First, China’s domestic human rights record. One only has to read the CCP’s Document No 9, issued in 2013, to know where it stands. It explicitly prohibits the following values: democracy, “universal values”, civil society, a free press, criticism of the CCP and its record. It is a comprehensive rejection of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Across the board, China has seen a significant deterioration in human rights over the past 13 years of Xi Jinping’s rule. Not even CCP officials are safe. Many of Mr Gao’s colleagues have disappeared, including several defence ministers, the foreign minister, various generals, and even the former Chinese head of Interpol, Meng Hongwei. In democracies like ours, ministers resign or are sacked as a result of scandal or incompetence, but they aren’t disappeared. Perhaps Mr Gao could tell us what he thinks has happened to Qin Gang, General Zhang Youxia, and others, and why? In Hong Kong, former elected legislators, lawyers, journalists and activists are in jail, including a 78 year-old British citizen and former newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai, in deteriorating health, who last month was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Why? For publishing a newspaper that dared to talk about democracy, and for talking to foreigners like me. That is in effect a death sentence, because unless he is released urgently he will die in jail. In Tibet, an estimated one million Tibetan children have been separated from their families and forced into boarding schools where they are denied the right to speak their language, practice their religion, or celebrate their culture. This has been reported by United Nations experts who have expressed their alarm. In Xinjiang, Uyghurs face what has been increasingly recognised by several parliaments and governments around the world, and an independent tribunal, as a genocide, and by the United Nations as “serious human rights violations” which may constitute “international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”. Second, China’s support of other regimes that violate human rights. I highlight just three examples, but there are countless others. China has kept alive the illegal military regime in Myanmar, which seized power in a coup in 2021, overthrowing a democratically-elected government. That regime has arrested more than 30,000 people since the coup and still holds more than 22,000 in jail today. It has killed over 7,800 civilians. Almost 4 million people have been displaced by the junta’s almost daily airstrikes on civilians. These crimes against humanity and war crimes are facilitated by China. Secondly, North Korea. Kim Jong-Un’s regime –found by a UN Commission of Inquiry to be committing crimes against humanity – is kept alive by Beijing. Even worse, China has a policy of forced repatriation of North Koreans who escape across the border – sending them back to certain torture and possible execution, in violation of international norms. And thirdly, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. China’s foreign minister said last year that China could not afford to let Russia lose its illegal war in Ukraine. This admission shows that China does not respect human rights or the territorial integrity of other countries, as it continues to be what the NATO Secretary General has described as the “chief enabler” of Putin’s war. Turning now to my third point, China’s undermining of the UN system and the rules-based order. China is not a benevolent donor to the UN and other multilateral institutions. Instead, it exerts its influence to subvert the values of the UN. At the UN Human Rights Council, it deploys a growing army of puppet organisations to threaten and intimidate those engaging with the human rights mechanisms. In 2022, China lobbied successfully to defeat a Human Rights Council motion to debate alleged crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. If it is such a believer in the UN, why did it do that? Why does it repeatedly seek to block investigations and criticism? And why is it always so late in its reporting for treaty body reviews? Why has China not signed on to the individual complaints procedures for the human rights treaties it has signed? And why has it not agreed to standing visits by UN experts? How does Mr Gao reconcile the National Security Law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong with Hong Kong’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Labour Organisation conventions and Hong Kong’s own Basic Law? China cannot be trusted to keep international treaty promises. It has completely broken its promises to Hong Kong under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and it has already broken its obligations under the Sino-Vatican Agreement. And then remember Covid-19, and the four-week delay in China reporting to the World Health Organisation. Finally, China threatens open, democratic societies. Its increasing aggression towards Taiwan is the most obvious example. But the threats it poses through espionage and transnational repression – threats both to diaspora communities and foreign critics – are growing. I point to the Chinese diplomat calling for the beheading of the Japanese prime minister, and the assault by Chinese diplomats in Manchester on peaceful Hong Kong demonstrators, as well as the threats to academic freedom, with the threats to Professor Laura Murphy’s research at Sheffield Hallam University and the silencing of Professor Michelle Shipworth at University College London being just two recent examples. Mr Gao was Deng Xiaoping’s translator. Yet I wonder whose foreign policy he prefers – that of his former boss, who opened up China to the world and focused on economic growth and quiet soft power, or Xi Jinping’s aggressive bullying? Which leader proved better for the Chinese people and China’s place in the world? So what is China’s role in global governance and the human rights regime today? In short, it is building an alliance of authoritarianism to threaten democracies, subverting, undermining, destabilising and seeking to rewrite and redefine global governance and the human rights regime on its terms. As such – though it pains me to say so, given how much I love the country – it is a grave danger.

@hkfp Hi all, I made a brief video about the Kwok’s case and its significance, for anyone interested: youtu.be/DjDfIrmaUkY?si…

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@Reuters Hi all, I made a brief video about the Kwok’s case and its significance, for anyone interested: youtu.be/DjDfIrmaUkY?si…

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sometimes while reading Party docs I feel like my brain is glitching out

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@lukedepulford That being said, interesting and illuminating article - & I very much hope your predictions aren't realised

There’s a tendency in the China policy world (a cliquey place full of people with zero serious political experience) to over complicate very simple things. Realism, not kool aid or partisan brown-nosing, is what’s called for. This will be a critical period for UK foreign policy.

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@lukedepulford That, and people with competing interests and value systems being unable to reach a balanced view. Which is of course less possible if certain groups are confrontational and exclusionary🤔

@lukedepulford I'm new to this world so forgive my potential ignorance, Luke, but surely this kind of attitude is counterproductive? I was under the impression the cliquishness is a direct result of the complexity of looking at relations with the PRC..

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@Discoplomacy excellent

@Elizabeth_AWL Acapella

Pleased to say our event tonight has sold out. Not bad given we are in competition with Glastonbury. If the panellists play their cards right, I might even serenade the audience with a closing rendition of Clocks by Coldplay

@salisbot brilliant

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