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Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: China sends a message, and we tremble and obey
Mr. Greg Sheridan,
The Australian,
newsroom@NEWS.com.au
Dear Mr. Sheridan
We refer to your article and readers' comments below for your information.
We praise our Australian government for its very laudable motives in ensuring that the sodomy charges against the leader of the opposition parties Mr. Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia is not just a political ploy of the ruling government to get rid of him by using the backside of his so-called victum Saiful.
We are very jealous of the democratic rights of our citizens in Australia. However, it is a shame that something equally pugnacious is happening to our citizens in this lucky country. Australia cannot boast that it is a true democratic nation when it is guilty of perpetrating injustices infringing on the human rights of its own citizens.
We should examine what is happening in our backyard before we can be proud that we are condemning that the ruling Malaysian and Chinese governments are both using a backside trick to swindle the people of those two respective countries as we have two examples of Chinese-Australians who are being mistreated by our Federal and WA State governments and its statutory authorities in our own backyard. Look at our website: www.unitywa.org and http://twitter.com/unitywa for further information of those two victims: Ms. Lili Kang and Mr. Nicholas N Chin. You can also look at the blogspot of Mr. Chin by typing "nicholasnchin" in Google for full details.
Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://twitter.com/unitywa
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 26-Mar--2010.
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China sends a message, and we tremble and obey
Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor -The Australian 25/3/2010
STERN Hu's confession in a Chinese court to allegations of bribery has exactly the same moral and forensic credibility as the confessions captured journalists make in Taliban custody.
The confession itself tells you absolutely nothing about Hu's conduct. If I had been in a Chinese jail for nine months and had the prospect of earlier release with a confession or later release without one, I'd confess to anything. It's probably as near to a plea bargain as you'll get in the Chinese system.
Labor MP Michael Danby, chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs subcommittee, says: "I have no faith in the Chinese legal system and believe the confession was probably extracted from him [Hu] with the promise of an early release."
An obsession with confessions has a long history in modern China. This emerges more from communist than Chinese culture.
Indeed, those two-bob sages of Chinese culture (who abound in Australia, especially in the less academic arts of the Australian National University), who analyse every move of the Beijing government in the light of millennia of Chinese history, ignore the deliberate and sustained efforts of the Chinese Communist Party to rupture the link between the Chinese people and their traditional culture. This went as far as simplifying the characters used in Chinese language to cut the people off from the classics of their literature.
But in modern Chinese communist culture, confessions have long had a big part.
The classic work on Chinese prisons was by a French Chinese, Jean Pasqualini. His Prisoner of Mao details an astonishingly gruesome experience that included, among other things, 15 months of interrogation leading to a 700-page confession.
China's gulags produced somewhat fewer literary classics than the comparable Soviet gulag, in part because fewer Chinese were released and fewer had any meaningful access to the West or opportunity to publish their experiences.
China has changed since Pasqualini's experiences of 35 years ago. But it hasn't changed altogether. The hardest heads in the Australian system understand what the Hu business is all about. Beijing has sent a message to Australia: tremble and obey.
The Hu case changes the context for all Australians doing business with China, whether commercial or political. Former treasurer Peter Costello captured this most clearly when he remarked soon after Hu's initial detention last June: "Since Stern Hu is now in detention, someone else will have to lead Rio's negotiations with the Chinese steel mills. My guess is they will not push the negotiations as strenuously as Hu." The manner of iron-ore price negotiations is changing substantially, but Costello's broad point is certainly correct.
Evidence that the Chinese intimidation has worked is sadly mounting up. As this newspaper revealed last Saturday, the government made a secret commitment to the Chinese that neither Kevin Rudd nor Julia Gillard would see the Dalai Lama on his visit to Australia last December. This was a change in policy, as Rudd had seen the Dalai Lama in opposition and said he would be happy to see him in government.
Similarly, I have learned that the government has pretty much decided that no Australian minister will visit Taiwan during the Rudd government's the first term. This is a big change of policy and a big act of appeasement of Beijing.
Australia follows a one-China policy that recognises a notional Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. At the same time, Australia opposes any threat or use of force by Beijing to change Taiwan's status, which is de facto independent.
Consistent with the one-China policy, Australia has for many years sent ministers to Taiwan to support Australian trade. In truth these visits also recognise the political achievements of Taiwan.
Taiwan represents every single political value Australia admires: democracy, a free press, a pluralist society, respect for human rights, equal rights for women and a productive and economically successful society that provides for the wellbeing of its own people.
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says the Rudd government has not made a formal undertaking to Beijing that no minister will visit Taiwan during the first term of the Rudd government. But no Rudd minister has visited Taiwan so far and the spokesperson confirms that there is no plan for a visit.
This will be the first time at least since the Hawke government that a whole parliamentary cycle has gone by without such a visit. If the opposition were not such a complete political and moral vacuum on these issues you might have expected it to have had something to say. It is a signal act of cowardice and appeasement on Australia's part. For a long time we sent a minister to Taiwan every year, but Alexander Downer was weaker on China issues than John Howard and the practice slipped a bit, but certainly we never went a whole term under Howard without a ministerial visit. This is just another way in which China policy is worse, more cowardly and less effective today than it should be.
The world has watched the Hu case. And one lesson is that if you rely on the moral courage of the Australian government or opposition, you are relying on nothing at all.
Could it be that the Vietnamese government, which is preventing two Jetstar executives from leaving Vietnam, drew lessons from the Hu matter ?
Rio Tinto has produced a wonderfully convenient investigation that clears the company of all wrongdoing but leaves Hu's guilt or innocence as a matter on which it cannot pronounce.
Of course it is remotely possible that Hu, like millions of others in China, paid or received a bribe, although there is no reason to think so. But Beijing's decision to prosecute him, and the ostentatiously contemptuous manner in which it has dealt with the Australian government, was taken to intimidate Australia. In this, Beijing seems to have succeeded.
Readers' comment:
jhtan of Singapore Posted at 2:54 PM Today
Bribery exists everywhere, even in your own country. Why is it that in this case you pronounced that it did not and couldn't have happened? Confessions of crimes also happen on a daily basis in your country. The confessed felon did it for a variety of reasons including hoping for a lighter sentence(and rightly so). Do you have any evidence to suggest that in this case the confession was coerced? You cited historical evidence. Well, if you judge a case based on alleged historical propensities, there wouldn't be many free people walking in the streets of Australia.
blindsider Posted at 7:15 AM Today
I am not defending that actions of the Chinese legal system, however is there not a parallel also to the expeiences one of Hicks and Habib at the hands of our ally. Sadly, Mr Hu has become a victim of the morals we prescribe and 'defend'. So what is wrong with the Chinese replicating our actions? - If it is wrong for them, it is also wrong for us, or are we hypocrites?
Angry of Mayfair Posted at 8:15 AM Today
I guess, by your reasoning, any confession from anyone who'd been locked up in fetters at Gitmo could also be instantly dismissed as gained by coercion. And we tremble and grovel to America, too. Check your double standards, Mr Sheridan.
Bulldust of Perth Posted at 11:05 AM Today
Two simple questions... 1) Why would Stern Hu be accepting bribes? 2) Where is the money? I have seen neither of these questions addressed by the media or anyone else for that matter.
TBear of Sydney Posted at 11:20 AM Today
And Mr Sheridan just imperiously dismissses the possibility that Mr Hu did in fact receive corrupt payments. Did he? I don't know. But he has
apparently admitted as much and if the same conduct were committed in Australia, he would be looking at a fair stretch in prison.
Dave of Brisbane Posted at 12:13 PM Today
Why is that Australian nationals who commit crimes overseas are always presumed innocent by most Australian journalists. Why is that they expect the Australian government to come to the rescue of people who flout the laws of other countries. Why is it that Australians in general think the Australian government (a minnow on the world stage) has the clout to pressure foreign governments. And why is it so fashionable to constantly criticize China when that country is largely responsible for the high standard of living we enjoy in Australia. It's time you got a grip on reality Greg.
Ahmad again of NSW Posted at 1:06 PM Today
China is not only feared by Australia but every other nation on the planet . Why is that like so surprising when they have all aspects of strenght of a super power , But lets not forget one thing , China only claim the land it has historical and racial rights on . It has not invaded as yet and deployed permenant military basis all over the world like the USA . Question is why ? Maybe they actually dont have the passion to war for money and emperialistic objectives !! I thnk we owe respect and good relations with China as its in our best interest and I agree 100% with Mr Rudd polocies regarding our current relations . Thank you
Knee Jerk of Sydney Posted at 1:19 PM Today
Do people really think that the Chinese are incapable of making moral or ethical decisions? If anything, they are probably more moral in their own way which is not always the same as the West. We are so intimitely engaged in trade that any serious conflict can hurt business for both sides. Their justice system is no better or worse than ours.
GWhore Posted at 1:44 PM Today
Why don't you provide some evidence before pointing fingers? Or is it that everything that comes out of China is presumed false until proven true?
CP of Melbourne Posted at 2:39 PM Today
There probably is some truth in Mr Hu's confession. It seems that paying and accepting bribes and industrial espionage are just a normal part of doing business in China. But, let's face it, we are never ever going to "stand up" to China. Who are you kidding. The Chinese economy is the reason we dodged the bullet that was the worst of the GFC. THe Chinese economy is the reason why our economy is now doing so well and our super funds have regained much of the value lost 18 months ago. And how much American debt do they own? Frankly, the Chinese could pretty much do anything they liked right now and the best we would do is shake our limp and ineffectual fingers at them. We know it and they know it
Eyes Only Posted at 3:17 PM Today
Gre, I'm going to ask you the same question Joe O'Brien on the ABC News Breakfast asks Liberal politicians: What would you do differently? If it's welcome the Dalai Llama, visit Taiwan and criticise China, well now, your Golden Boy The Man of Steel didn't do that when in power either, eh?
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