By Emily Lau


One of Hong Kong’s most outspoken and popular politicians, Emily Lau leads The Frontier party.

On 30 April, with 100 days remaining in the countdown to the Beijing Olympics, I moved a motion debate in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (Legco) about human rights in China and the right of Hong Kong Chinese to enter the mainland. Pro-Beijing legislators voted it down.

The motion urged the central government to honor its commitment of 2001 when bidding to host the Olympic Games that it would enhance human rights and develop democracy.

China’s appalling human-rights record has caused concern in the international community. A small breakthrough came on October 5, 1998, when China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Now, 10 years later, the National People’s Congress still hasn’t ratified it.

Hosting the Olympics should be a chance for China to showcase itself as a freedom-loving, prosperous and confident nation. But disturbances in Tibet and protests that dogged the Olympics torch relay have turned the exercise into a public-relations disaster.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who speaks fluent Mandarin and calls himself “a long-standing friend of China”, told a Beijing University audience on April 9 that Australia recognizes China’s sovereignty over Tibet, but believes that significant human-rights problems exist there. He called on all parties to avoid violence and find a solution by dialogue.

The protests that marred the Olympic torch relay alarmed the International Olympics Committee. After meeting for a week in Beijing, IOC chairman Jacques Rogge said on April 11 that the IOC had rejected a suggestion to end the torch relay, but warned that the Olympics faced a crisis.

He urged China to honor its human-rights undertakings made seven years ago when bidding to host the Games. But he was rebuked by Chinese Foreign Ministry officials who told him not to link politics to the Olympics. Regrettably, China itself linked politics to the Olympics in 2001, a fact it now conveniently ignores. That’s why I moved the motion debate.

The growing number of prisoners of conscience in China gives potent proof of deteriorating human rights. These people have been locked up and tortured for political or religious beliefs. They’re harshly punished for insisting on exercising their freedom of expression. Many, including writers, journalists, lawyers, human-rights defenders and workers, were found guilty of inciting subversion against the state, an offence that criminalizes free speech.

According to the Dui Hua Foundation, an organization set up by John Kamm that has secured the release of some prisoners of conscience, Chinese jails hold about 15,000 political prisoners, probably an underestimate.

The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, of which I’m a vice-chairman, has demanded the immediate release of Guangdong legal activist Guo Feixiong, blind Shandong legal activist Chen Guangcheng, Sichuan labor lawyer Wang Sen and Beijing human-rights activist Hu Jia. We also called on the mainland authorities to release Beijing human-rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and Shanghai human-rights lawyer Zheng Enchong from house arrest and to stop persecuting them and their families.

Faced with the outcry surrounding the Olympic torch relay, China seriously must address the problem of its human-rights violations. Before the Olympics open in Beijing on August 8, I hope the Chinese government will ratify the ICCPR, release political prisoners and allow Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists to visit the mainland.

ARCHIVES