Wrap-up Post/ Annotated Bibliography

Over the course of the semester I’ve been researching the states of human rights violations in Communist China and the offenses that have been committed by the communist state and independently in China as a result of policies of the state. In order for the CCP to keep a firm grasp on its people and keep the system running smoothly without bumps that might hinder the efficiency of the giant machine China has become. Personally, I’m not ready to put a value judgment on some of China’s policies. The Chinese government would argue that the west place far too much importance on individual freedom, and criticizing those who do not offer such freedom in their governments. However, China would suggest that while they harshly discourage a large degree of political dissidence and keep a heavy hand in controlling the media, they do so for the benefit of their people as a mass. By having these policies in place, the state minimizes disturbances and keeps itself held as the supreme force of control within the country. In this way, it would argue, China has created almost unprecedented growth and raised millions of people in its population out of poverty. China would argue that as a result of allowing such a large percent of its population freedom to eat, have work, and have shelter, the fact that their people don’t have the freedom from government censorship is irrelevant. To some extent, I have to agree with them. However, I would also pose the question as to what the life they are preserving is worth if a person is not allowed the right to live it and express themselves as they wish.

The Chinese government cares about the form their people makes, the overall structure of society, and to a large extent, so do the people. The collective good is worth more than that of the individual. Hu Jia and Liu Xiaobo are still imprisoned for their political work and their attempts at bringing significant change to the government. The death penalty still remains a popular form of punishment for serious crimes, ideally deterring any criminals acting against the public good. Strict birth laws exist to ensure that the population is kept down in hopes of staving off a crisis like India’s in which the country has more people than it can provide with necessities, education, and health care. China place a large emphasis on controlling the image of the country, both internally and externally. Within the borders of China, the media is very much controlled, with the government censoring all websites and controlling what goes on the air with regards to television and radio broadcast. When the 2008 Summer Olympic Games were held in Beijing, the Chinese took extra care to reform what people would see in the city when coming to the games, clearing down low-income housing and leaving many homeless or without proper compensation for the loss of home and property. In the future as China grows more and more powerful economically and secures for all its people the tools for life and mobility, the test will be to see how China opens up to freedom of speech and freedom on expression. Will the most populated country in the world continue to oppress the speech of its people or if it will allow its citizens a full definition of freedom.

Annotated Bibliography
Since most of my research focused on current human rights violations in occurring in China, a drew a significant source of information from new publications, supporting that information with theory and background information found in a large array of books and journals. However, I really do believe many of those news sources were of infinite importance, being up-to-date in a way that man books and journals were not.

News Publications

Asia Times
Kuppusamy, Baradan. “Asia Times – Malaysia’s Hot New Import: Chinese Sex Slaves.” Asia Times Online. 16 July 2003. Web. 07 May 2010. .

New York Times
Barboza, David. “China Executes Briton Despite Appeals.” The New York Times. 29 Dec. 2009. Web. 01 May 2010. .

Jacobs, Andrew. “Leading China Dissident Gets 11-Year Term for Subversion.” New York Times. 24 Dec. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. .

“Hu Jia.” The New York Times. 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 7 May 2010. .

Times Magazine
Fitzpatrick, Laura. “A Brief History of China’s One-Child Policy – TIME.” Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews – TIME.com. Time Magazine, 27 July 2009. Web. 07 May 2010. .

I’ve found news sources to be an extremely useful source when it comes to finding out specific information pertaining to an issue I happen to be researching at the time. When I was doing research on the political dissidents Liu Xiaobo and Hu Jia, The New York Times provided me with a concise and clear explanation of the event leading up to their arrest and the more well know facts surrounding their imprisonment. I also was able to access case studies of specific people when writing about the death penalty in China. The same case was had when I wrote a series of blogs stemming from the One Child Law in China and its recent reconsideration. The article in Time Magazine overviewed the basic aspects and gave me a good preliminary understanding. The Asia Times was also infinitely helpful when it came to researching stories that weren’t widely known or cared about in the west, but were worth writing about for people who had a specific interest in Asia, such as the article about the trafficking of North Korean Refuges.

The U.S. State Department
United States of America. U.S. State Department. TIP Report. PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TIER 2 WATCH LIST). U.S. State Department, June 2009. Web. 7 May 2010. .

From State Department and their website I was able to gain an understanding of the position of the United States on a lot of the humans rights issues I was focusing on. From doing this, the issue of accountability expands. While researching ways in which the Chinese government violates the human rights of its people, I was also able to gain an understanding of how the United States supports the practices of the Chinese government, or doesn’t but provides their reasoning for not taking any action no putting any pressure on the Chinese government. In this way, I was able to explore the issue of the One-Child for instance, from a view other than mine, the newspapers, and that of China.

Amnesty International
“Hu Jia Jailed for Three and a Half Years | Amnesty International.” Amnesty International | Working to Protect Human Rights. 04 Apr. 2008. Web. 07 May 2010. .

Amnesty International also serves as a great resource for learning about various Human Rights violations. Even in the blogs I didn’t reference it in or cite Amnesty International, I did review what it had to say on my issues at some point during my research. The website provides a large degree of details on the violation in question and steps that are being taken to correct it. However, the site’s information is naturally one-sided, considering the intent is to provide information on how the rights are being violated, not necessarily the back story surrounding the events and possible other reasons in the scenario that are affecting it.

Books and Journals

Kelly, Petra K. The Anguish of Tibet. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax, 1991. Print.

I utilized this source primarily for my post on the politics of Tibet as an independent state being occupied by China, however I also utilized the information it provided on China as a whole and more specifics on Tibet in regards to the family planning policies. The book is compromised of a long series of articles and things written by a broad range of people about almost any topic involving Tibet. For anyone interesting in the occupation of Tibet and current Chinese policies on the region, this book is indispensable.

Aird, John S. Slaughter of the Innocents: Coercive Birth Control in China. Washington, D.C.: AEI, 1990. Print.
This piece of work served as a significant basis for my posts on Family Planning policies in China. It contains extensive information on different aspects of the birth control policies through the years of China and their eventual consequences on the female, and therefore male, population of China.

Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance co-edited with Elizabeth J. Perry, 2009 (3rd edition).
I utilized this article in my research on the Falun Gong. The article gives significant information on the cultural revolution, which served as the begging to the issues surrounding the persecution of religious minorities. For anyone doing research on government destruction and persecution on religion and culture, this article serves as a good basis for learning about the Cultural Revolution, one of the most destructive programs Communist China ever implemented.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United Nations. General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of State, United States of America, 1949. Print.
Quite obviously, I believe, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a completely necessary reference. This document serves as the basis from which western bodies think of and address human rights violations. When indicating that something serves as a human rights abuse, quoting the specific article that makes it so in legal terms is always a good place to start.

Blogging has been great!

Five More Years of My Life

Through the course of reading Five Years of My Life, I found myself continually struck by the atrocious conduct of the United States administration. It seems as those a large number of these policies stem from America’s lack of understanding when it comes to cultures that are not our own, and therefore a large degree of prejudice and sense of supremacy. The government has moved American Imperialism into a new age. The questions Kurnaz is asked during his interrogations while imprisoned display this extreme ignorance when it comes to Islam, a religion foreign to many Americans, only related to terrorism. When the Germans are interrogating Kurnaz they ask him,

“How important is it to you?
“Do you feel superior to other people?”
“Do you hate non-religious Muslims?”
“Do you hate Germans because they’re not religious?” (pg. 170)

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the television show The West Wing released a special episode hoping to educate Americans against hate and unreasonable discrimination against people simply because of their religious beliefs and practices. In this episode, a group of students visiting the White House are asked what the Christian equivalent to the Islamic extremists is. The answer, the Ku Klux Klan. Islam and those who practice the faith cannot be likened to terrorists any easier than any practicing Christian can be accused of being a member of the KKK. However, this is exactly what the American government is doing. Their policies are intentionally discriminatory against a group of people they refuse to take the time to understand.

“When I arrived here,” he said, “our superiors said that you were killers and dangerous terrorists, They showed us movies about September 11 and gave us several weeks of training. Over and over again, they drove home how dangerous you were. I believed them at first. But then I saw you praying and reading the Koran. I found out that many of you are very friendly. I can even trust you. You don’t take drugs, you don’t steal and you don’t commit adultery. I didn’t know any of that before. You share your food even though you are all very hungry” (pg. 194)

The American government intentionally mis-educates its soldiers to hold severely negative portrayals of the Islamic population. These sentiments then lead them to see every brown skinned man with a beard as threatening, a possible extremist. I don’t believe the guards to be the problem in Guantanamo. The sentiment and conditions prisoners were placed in without a doubt were coming from above. The feeling of the prison and the disrespect were heavily calculated. Kurnaz gets the same impression,

I didn’t think the guards were acting on their own accord, just to be evil. People higher up had drawn up regulations so that they could one day say that there had been rules, clear and fair, but no one would ever find out about the one overarching, unspoken rule that mandated that the rest of the regulations were to be constantly broken. On paper, I would always be the one who had broken the rules. I thought a lot about this in the darkness. (pg.180)

This unfair balance of power is also displayed in the distribution of who in Guantanamo was given the opportunity to have access to a lawyer; Kurnaz, a German, and two English men. Regardless of how innocent the other detainees in the prison may be, they do not have enough power behind them to compel the United States to comply with anything. The United States of America strolls around much of the world, flexing it’s muscle. In this so called war on terror they have exerted the President’s executive power far behind the reach it should safely have. The United States has declared itself outside of international, military, American, or any existing system of law, arresting people around the globe and holding them against the treaties of the world. As an American citizen, I am horrified with the conduct of my nation, terrified by the power it wields, or at least thinks it wields. What, as concerned citizens, can we do to stop it?

Death Penalty/ Judicial System

Along with the United States, China is one of the fewer than 60 countries in the world still utilizing the death penalty as a popular form of punishment. In fact, out of all the countries in the world that still retain the death penalty as a punitive measure, China sentences the most detainees to this end, though this may very well be due to the relatively large population of China in comparison to other nations on this list.

Countries retaining the Death penalty

China keeps statistics and figures of the executions it carries out private, labeling them as a state secret. However, Amnesty International estimates that 470 recorded people were executed in 2007 with another 1,860 sentenced to death. This number, in reality, is thought to be much higher. Despite supposed commitments from The People’s Supreme Court to carry out fair capital trials in a public setting allowing the suspect due process, most trials continue to be held behind closed doors. Often, detainees are tortured in able to obtain the necessary confession for their prosecution. It’s not unusual for a detainee to be denied access to a lawyer in order to prepare a proper defense case for trial. A person can be sentenced to death for any one of 68 different offenses, including corruption, drug trafficking, tax evasion, forging bank documents, and bribery.

In a video released by Amnesty International, the case of Nie Shubin is described. Arrested on charges of rape and murder, was held in jail for about 3 years. During this period of time his mother and sister were not allowed to visit him. More shocking yet, they were not even informed that he had been executed. Following his death, another man admitted to the crime, adding Nie Shubin to the long list of people who have been wrongfully murdered by their own governments. His lawyer attests that the case and punishment seemed to have all ready been decided upon before he even stepped foot inside the courtroom. The prosecution seemed unwilling to listen to counter-evidence presented.

Another YouTube video also describes the unfair way in which the Chinese judicial system acts. The system is structured to keep its people under an iron fist with minimal wiggle room. It strives for efficiency within the society. This goal leaves little tolerance for dissent. A country that’s willing to massacre its own people in Tienanmen Square, feels little need to restrict its death penalty policy. Here, the point is also stressed that in country with a 90% criminal conviction rate, the defense it left little time to cross-examine witnesses and acquit a person the state wants to convict.

Recently, the discussion of China’s death penalty laws came to the forefront of international politics when Akmal Shaikh of Great Britain was sentenced to death and later executed in 2009. Shaikh, 53-years-old, was caught entering the the country with a suitcase full of heroin, and accused of drug trafficking, a crime punishable by death. During the course of his case, his family informed the Chinese Government that Shaikh suffered from severe mental disorder. Various human rights groups and even the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, pleaded for clemency, or at least an independent psychological evaluation. The Chinese government refused to grant these requests and proceed with his execution by lethal injection. Shaikh was the first European to be executed in China for at least 50 years. This ruling was handed down only days after Hu Jia, the most prominent Chinese dissident I referenced in one of my first blog posts. China seemed to be sending a very firm message to the world that it controlled its own internal affairs and judicial system and the world did not have the authority to medal with them, no matter the opinion of the matter.

Akmal Shaikh

Tibet

* Before I begin my post, I feel as though I should preface it with a disclaimer warning any one who may be reading this that the issue of the relationship between Tibet and China is significantly more complicated that my condensed overview of situations presented in this blog will indicate. Scholars debate back and forth whether or not Tibet is an occupied country or legitimately a part of China. I cannot attest to my ability to answer that question with any assurance, however I do have my somewhat informed opinions on the matter.

In my view, one that is shared by many outside of formal state politics, Tibet is nothing less than an occupied nature, distinct people from whom sovereign rule was taken when the Red Army invaded. From the fall of the Qing Dynasty until the Communists marched across the Dalai Lama’s land in 1950, Tibet had complete self governance. Yes, there were some Chinese officials in the region, however they had little to no authority. If one wished to request entrance to Tibet, they asked the Tibetan government. Furthermore, in 1949 following the Communist Revolution, Tibet evicted all Chinese from Lhasa. “This was the Tibetan world, self-governing, self-sufficient, apart in race, language, thinking, and behavior from the Chinese,” is written in The Anguish of Tibet (1991). In 1951, when faced with the endless numbers of soldiers in the red army and Tibet’s inevitable forceful invasion, the Dalai Lama was forced to agree to terms of the “peaceful liberation of Tibet”. China would argue that their invasion of Tibet was entirely justified for two reason. One, that Tibet was an economically poor reason and they were attempting to heighten growth and prosperity in the region. In response to this, one would argue that in comparison to much of Asia at the time, Tibet was fairly economically stable. Secondly, China argues that Tibet has always been a part of China, particularly citing their relationship with the Mongols. However, this reasoning is nothing short of an imperialist argument, though the Chinese refuse to acknowledge it as such because Marxist reasoning says colonialism can only arise as a product of capitalism.

In 1959, following a failed uprising for independence, the Dalai Lama and thousands of supports fled into India where they continue to reside in exile. To this day, the Tibetan government in exile is the most democratic and well organized of any exiled government. In response to this uprising, the PRC dissolved any semblance of a Tibetan government still in place (Tibet Since 1950). Additionally, they proceeded to bomb Buddhist monasteries and temples, destroying 6,000 in total. This includes Marcos Darada Monastery in which only 360 of the 4,000 monks in residence survived (Kelly, Bastion, Aiello, 1991). Also after this date, the PRC refused to acknowledge any llamas reincarnated after 1959 and mandated Buddhist monasteries have an entrance exam prospective monks first pass (Kelly, Bastion, Aiello, 1991).

14th Dalai Lama

The Cultural Revolution brought in a new wave of destruction as young people from all over China streamed into Tibet to help destroy the ’4 olds’. This included demolishing sites of Buddhist worship all over the region. By the end of the Cultural Revolution, only 12 of 6 thousand monasteries remained untouched. The PRC imprisoned and tortured outspoken Tibetan nationals. After a series of uprising in 1989, China declared Martial Law in Tibet. During this period 5-6 thousand Tibetans were detained for participation in non-violent political protests or religious beliefs. 41% of the Tibetan political prisoners arrested between 1987 and 1997 were kept in custody for months without charge or access to legal representation before they were released (Tibet Since 1950). Even after Martial Law was eventually lifted, 300,o00 Chinese troops remained stationed in Tibet. In total, from 1951-1989, an estimated 1,200,000 Tibetans died (Kelly et. al., 1991).

Cultural Revolution destruction of monestary

Presently, Tibetans worry about the chance of eventual independence dimming as China urges Han citizens to “go west” into minority areas and assist in the assimilation of minority cultures (Davis, 2007). The PRC has helped rebuild many monasteries destroyed during the Cultural Revolution for tourism purposes, turning Tibet into a “Disneyland of Buddhism” (Hess, Formeranz, Wassarstrom, 2008). Tibet, as a designated autonomous region, has some self-rule, only those who are willing to bow to the ultimate rule of the PRC are allowed any position of authority. The Communist Party of China bars any members from practicing Tibetan Buddhism (Davis, 2007). Public ceremonies and religious expression, previously a large part of Tibetan life, are severely restricted. Mandarin Chinese, as opposed to the Tibetan language, is the language most publications are printed in, which has hindered the academic advancement of Tibetan students (Kelly et. al., 1991).

Furthermore, China has intervened in the direct religious affair of Tibetan Buddhism. In May of 1995, the Dalai Lama announced the 1th reincarnation of the Panchen Llama, the highest religious leader still in Tibet. This six-year-old boy has not been seen since the Chinese government placed him and his family on house arrest following the announcement. Instead, Beijing has appointed their own Panchen Llama, requiring the boy to appear in public making statements of support for China, violating the right of children to be free from exploitation. Most Tibetans refuse to acknowledge this Panchen Llama. Personally, I’m quite unsure of how this does not violate into the rights a region gets for being an ‘Autonomous Region’.

Recent Riots in Tibet

Five Years of My Life

In our last class, a discussion ensued on the debate of the power of a journalistic collection of narrative and statistics versus a first-person narrative in the situation being discussed. In response to that question, I think the collection of the two provides for a total encompassing effect. Monstering gives an intense, but perhaps intellectual as opposed to emotional picture of the American use of torture and hash interrogation techniques in wars in the Middle East. Five Years of My Life wallops the reader with the realities of what Monstering was presenting. Reading Murat Kurnaz’s nightmare tale of his time in Guantanamo and the events leading up to his transfer there after reading Monstering heightened the horrors and empathy one feels, because they know the story of Murat Kurnaz is shared by thousands of others. Therefore, the experience of reading either book is magnified for each one of those possibly innocent prisoners that went through the system.

Through the reading of the first part of Five Years of My Life I noticed a lot of themes that had come to my mind during the reading of Monstering and over the course of class discussions played out. Particularly striking was the demonizing of the other by the military personal Kurnaz has interaction with. In reality, one can hardly call their treatment of him anything other than racism, still blatant even when disguised as a war on terror. Looking like one comes from the Middle East automatically makes people suspicious.  Even though the overwhelming number of Arabs and Muslims are by no means terrorist just as most Americans aren’t members of the KKK, they are automatically placed in that possible category. There is little thought given to the individual, everyone wearing a Turban or looking Arab is placed into one large, uniform blob of people, all without personal identities. Already, they have been made less than human. In the same way, simply because someone is Arab and in the custody of the United States, it’s obviously reasonable to assume that they not only are a terrorist, but also know secret plans and Osama Bin Laden. Not only is that absolutely absurd, but also belittles a significant group of people in a way very typically and very clearly racist. This comes out quite blatantly in Kurnanz’s interrogations.

Suddenly, the American asked: “Are you a terrorist?”
“Terrorist? No, I’m German. I’m Turkish, but I live in Germany. I’m born in Germany, in Bremen.”
“Do you know Osama/”
“No.”
“Where is Osama? Tell me!”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me and I’ll let you go…”
“No! No! I don’t know…”
(Pg. 44)

This same form of interrogation happens continues to happen only getting more and more absurd, though it continues to not yield any sort of result. Especially when interrogating someone in a language that they barely speak, only confusing them more.

I was led to a tent. There were several officers there. They spoke to me in English, although I hardly knew two words of the language. They asked:
“Where is Osama?”
“Are you a Taliban?”
That’s as much I could understand.
They kept repeating the same questions.
“Are you part of Al Qaeda?”
“No.”
One of the soldiers punched me in the face.
(pg. 59)

The entire situation detainees through is absolutely horrifying and I fail to see any justification for the actions of the United States government in letting such treatment persist. It is nothing short of inhumane, merely terrorism under the name of fighting for American safety. There is no other name to call the practice of literally purchasing people, even though there is hardly any sort of actual intelligence against them, especially little pointing toward dangerous activities, just so they can be tortured. I would not be surprised to turn on the evening news one night to hear a story about how the U.S. criticized another country for using the very same harsh techniques, torture, that we do. If the United States or our allies employ such techniques, it goes unnoticed and is justified. In my opinion, such a situation brings the world farther and farther from existing in a state in which everyone can agree that torture is unnecessary.

Kids, there actually is a monster in the closet

It’s hard to deny that those responsible for the unnecessary torture of prisoners have a degree of personal responsibility that they must face in some form, whether it be official reprimands or the relentless nagging of a guilty conscious. However, as has already been covered, the soldiers and civilian interrogators were placed within a situation that was only too conducive to the maltreatment of detainees. The military is structure around a strict in-group/out-group system. When the troops were sent into the Middle East, any one who appeared to be Arab was suspect, was placed in the out-group. The lives of Iraqis became more or less disposable. The United States became more focused on a concept of winning then they were on protecting the lives of the Iraqis.

That is the only idea I can come up with that helps explain the rational behind the Iron hammer campaign. In attempts to capture/kill a few insurgents the lives a larger number of civilians are put at risk and often die. the extinguishing of innocent lives in the hopes of subduing a small number of insurgents is despicable. Their lives are hardly seen as equatable to those of Americans. Furthermore, once the Iraqi’s are brought into US custody, their treatment reduces them to much less than human. McKelvey quotes Miller as saying, “A detainee never leaves the cell if he’s not escorted by two MPs in leg irons, and hand irons, and a belly chian. And there was no mistake about who was in charge. And you have to treat these detainees like dogs (pg.12)”. Provance reported, “You see these people. It’s hard to imagine they’re human. They’re just the stock detainee. Like a movie prop (pg.17)”. The very nature of how detainees are handled in the prison system creates the conditions for abuse.

I also find the rational behind the use of torture extremely suspect as well. The United States invaded Iraq and proceeded to arrest suspected Baath Party members left and right. I fail to see how so many false arrests do anything to suppress anti-American sentiment. Torture is likely to create the admission to crimes one has not committed and inaccurate information. McKeleny sites The U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Lieutenant General John F. Kimmons as saying,

No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think the empirical evidence of the last five hard years tells us that. And, moreover, any piece of intelligence obtained through the use of abusive techniques would be of questionable credibility. It would do more harm than good when it inevitably became known that abusive practices were used. And we can’t afford to go there. (pg. 87)

The use of torture and harsh techniques also perpetuate anti-American sentiment. No one, nor anyone they talk to, is going to leave an American military prison supporting their captors. After the famous Abu Grahib photos were released the Iraqi support of the occupation dropped from 63% to 9%. McKelvey writes, “Not only had Graner forced his his subjects into grotesque poses, he also had trophy shots, hundreds, if not thousands, of photos of Iraqi men and women in pornographic acts. He passed them around. The man who appears at the top of the pyramid, al-Zayiadi, testified that he believed Americans were good when they removed Saddam from power in April 2003. However, the events of November 7 and 8, the night of the pyramid, changed his view (pg.101)”. The United States is only making itself less safe by it’s occupational practices in Iraq.

Chinese Labour Conditions

It’s no secret that industry is booming in China. If one walks into almost any grocery store in the United States looking for a cheap product, of even not so cheap good, it will have a label on it somewhere saying “Made in China”. Companies from across the globe have moved their manufacturing plants to China, producing good for only a fraction of the cost they face in developed countries. The difference in costs comes from the low cost of labor in China and the lack of laws protecting laborers, allowing them to be used to the extent of their labor capacity. Chinese labors get paid a fraction of what manufacturers can pay workers in developed countries and can work them for outrageous work days. However, it should be noted that these jobs are seen as ‘good’ and well-paying to the Chinese that can get them. Here, I intend to give a few examples of paint a picture of the lives the Chinese laborers making our clothes live.

Even popular electronics now are assembled in Chinese plants. Reports on Apple Insider released information on the conditions under which Apple’s popular ipods are manufactured. Foxconn, the name of the company assembling the electronic items a large number of Americans own, does so at the expense of the workers it hires. For our expensive technology, workers are payed only 85 cents an hour. They work 12 hour days for a total of $220 a month. Conditions while they are working are such that employees are reduced to little more than machines, not even allowed to talk on the job.

Foxconn of Prison?

Claire Harvey, an Australian journalists, took a look into the relocation of Australian brand name clothing stores to China in her article “Sew Cheap- Inside China’s $1 factories ” (found on LexisNexis Academic) published May 2009. Harvey initially investigated the conditions at the factories of Wuxi in Jiangsu Province. Workers from the surrounding rural areas flood to this urban and economic center for employment. When they arrive they live in a dormitory setting provided by the factories, working 6 days a week and making about $1.20 an hour for a total of $2950-3800 a year. Though this may seem small to an American, such an income is far above the minimum annual wage for Wuxi of $1940/year. Wages have been growing consistently, but often not nearly enough to keep up with inflation.

Factories such as these that are often shown to journalists frequently have seemingly favorable conditions simply for the ability to show them off as the typical situation an employee is placed in. However, this often is not the case. Geoffry Cruthall of the China Labor Bulletin reported, “Of course the factories look good on the surface. Factory owners are not going to show you their sweatshops, but they exist. There is a well-established system of five-star factories and shadow factories”. it’s hard to get an accurate picture of the real distribution of the realities workers face in their day to day lives in such a closed environment, but hopefully by seeing what is considered a ‘good job’, one can get a sense of what else is out there.

The United States State Department has also noted cases of child exploitation for labor. In Southwest China from Sichuan to Guangdong thousands of children as young as 7 are working in factories. These children often work 10 hours/ day, 7 days/ week, for 30cents/ hour. It’s not unheard of for elementary school children to work in factories and on farms under the pretense of ‘vocational training’. In Xinjing thousands of students are forced to labor through work-study programs to meet harvesting quotas.

A typical problem arises as a result of large economic workers that results in the mistreatment of workers. Dunngai (2004), details the current case in the ShenZhen Special Economic Zone. Many rural residents knowingly give up their bodies to move to this area and personal space to earn a living. Over 4 million residents are listed in Shenzhen, however 3 million of those are temporary. This means housing, education, and other infrastructure related things are not provided to the majority of residents. Additionally, laws applying to the dismissal of these residents do not apply. Chinese law must be reformed on the subject of labor, and more importantly, upheld.

Nike Factories

Monstering

High level government officials can talk for ages on how they believe that harsh interrogation techniques and violations of the Geneva Protocols are necessary in situations such as this in order to ensure the safety of American citizens, however, I have hard time believing that the the practices carried out on Tier 1 of Abu Ghraib are in any way ethical or making Americans and Iraqi civilians safer. The systematic dehumanization of large numbers of people is not an effective way to learn the truth or suppress insurgency.

McKelvey’s book leaves me with the impression that, though the government and military officials are not necessarily willing to condone the worst of the offenses committed by the soldiers of Tier 1A, their policies led to the dehumanizing view the soldiers must have had of their charges in order to treat them in the manner they did.The memo issued in 2002 through the Legal Council of the Justice Department which later came to be known as the “Torture Memo” gave interrogators a narrow definition of torture which allowed them to do as they liked to prisoners as long as the pain was less than “that which accompany serious injury such as death or organ failure (McKelvey, 2007)”. This memo allows for significant liberty in how one is able to treat a suspect and can easily be used as justification for all sorts of behavior.

Earlier that same year on January 19 the Joint Chief of Staffs released a memorandum reading, “The United States has determined that Al Qaeda and Taliban individuals under the control of the Department of Defense are not entitled to prisoner of war status for the purposed of the Geneva Conventions of 1949″. The United States in this way has released itself from the obligation to treat human beings as such in their in their interrogations, insisting that the situation they currently are encountering is significantly different from any before faced by the countries in the world, allowing them to step outside ethical boundaries.

Exterior Abu Ghraib

Specific policies were then issued that furthered the negative treatment of detainees and disrespect for the quality of their life. Province indicated that the interrogators were taught hold to beat someone up and knock them out without leaving marks. Since Abu Ghraib was such a popular target for insurgency attacks people were instructed by the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center, “In the event US casualties occur– perform immediate first aid. In the event detainee casualties occur–MPs will direct all assistance where and when necessary.” McKelvey responds to this, “In other words, Americans should be treated promptly if they are wounded. Iraqi victims made me treated differently (p.63)’”. Policies coming from on high that directly imply that Iraqis do not have as much worth as Americans lead to increasingly poor treatment.

Famous leash picture

The way the detainees were treated dehumanized them in the eyes of their interrogators, starting from the time they are let into the prison to how they’re allowed to interact with others. “Miller made the following observations at the meeting describing how prisoners are treated at Guantanamo, “A detainee never leaves the cell if he’s not escorted by two MPs in leg irons, and hand irons, and a belly chain. And there was no mistake about who was in charge. And you have to treat these detainees like dogs (p. 12)”. “You see these Iraqi people. It’s hard to imagine they’re human. They’re just the stock detainee. Like a movie prop (p.17)”. The status of a detainee’s person hood gets demoted to that of a dog, an abiotic factor in the lives of others, void of emotion or consequence. From here it is easy to see how a misguided soldier can go from seeing the person as a human detainee to an object with which to act out violent fantasies.

Iran Awakens Again

I’m absolutely in love with Shirin Ebadi. She managed to convey a sense of calculated action and poise. I respect her infinitely because I don’t see her decisions plagued by strict ideology. She managed to walk the line between compromise and effectiveness. She was not plagued by the Martyr complex Joya seemed to have. Ebadi seems to realize that as a lone woman she cannot stand alone against a government good at suppressing the voices of their citizens, that at some points keeping quiet and preserving livelihood allows one to effect greater change in the future. The Iranian government has plenty of its citizens in jail as political prisoners serving as Martyrs. The publicity Ebadi and awareness Ebadi would gain from unbending criticism of the government is nothing in comparison to that which she was able to garner through her lawsuits.

Ebadi exemplified this method of compromise with a system in which one disagrees so one can collect benefits that will later assists them in overcoming the system when she muses about her daughters’ schooling. “It was a delicate balance,” Ebadi writes, “trying to reach my daughters progressive values and the emptiness behind the revolutionary dogma they were fed in school, while ensuring that they learned and superficially obeyed all the dogma anyway, o they could pass through the education system. ‘A lot of this is simply wrong.’ I would usually say, ‘but you need to study it anyway, so you can pass your exams and go to college.’ (Ebadi 119)”. Her daughters could make a very visual statement and refuse to obey policies and doctrine that they feel strongly against, however that will not help them get the education they need to lead the fulfilling lives that are exactly what the religiously conservative government believes womens’ lives shouldn’t be. Later, as protests against the government break out on college campuses all over Tehran she again gives her daughters a word of caution when it comes to being brash and visibly outspoken,

“Please pay attention to this,” I said, turning to the girls, guiding them slowly back to the group.”It is not important whether what he is chanting is true or not, whether you believe in it or not. Your decision to chant along with him is no measure of your commitment to justice or freedom or whatever lofty principle is at hand. Sometimes, radical slogans are a trap. They are shouted by infiltrators so that a group of students protesting a press crackdown can be depicted as seeking to overthrow the regime. Sometimes they are not traps at all but the frustrated stand of a brave person. But how are you to know? Your objective is to avoid being a pawn, to avoid getting dragged into trouble because you are curious, or believe you are seeing history being made (Ebadi 151)”.

The funeral Ebadi organized for Arain Golshani, the little girl who was horrifically abused to the point of death by her brother and father after her mother lost custody due to a divorce, I thought to be a perfect demonstration of her extremely effective way of garnering public awareness and support. She drew many people to the service, sharing with them the horrors of the child’s misfortunes, drawing in their sympathies. Then she directed the attention of listeners to the cause of this tragedy, deeply reaching many more than she would have through a press conference. She recounts the scene following the funeral,

Within half an hour, the busy streets surrounding the mosque were strewn with white petals and the tazi drivers and commuters crawling through traffic paused to look at the mosque. Newspapers covered the story, and universities began holding seminars on child abuse. Suddenly, women’s custody rights were at the center of a self-generated campaign of public awareness (Ebadi 124).

This approach also exhibits Ebadi’s demonstrated belief that change in the Islamic Republic must come through the downtrodden and oppressed, the women and children. Their rights are not simply something that can be granted to them by the west or their government giving in to foreign pressure, but rather they must be fought for and won through the voices inside the nation demanding equal rights and protections. Ebadi insists, “I see foreign pressure as useful, but it must be the rights kind of pressure, targeted and with a purpose. For in the end, the Iranian Revolution has produced its own opposition, not least a nation of educated, conscious women who are agitating for their rights. They must be given the chance to fight their fights, to transform their country uninterrupted (Ebadi, 215)”. Ebadi works to bring that change to Iran, awaken the spirit to push for equality within citizens. There is nothing inherently wrong with Islam of with Iran, but rather the people in charge and running the country. “It is not religion that binds women, but the selective dictates of those who wish them cloistered,” Ebadi explains, “That belief, along with the conviction that change in Iran must come peacefully and from within, has underpinned my work (Ebadi, 204).” Ebadi’s welcoming as she returned to the country after winning her Noble Peace Prize demonstrates that she is leading that change from within.

Chinese Sex Trafficking

It would seem as though, to a country calling themselves Communist and championing the working class, slavery and the treating of people as commodities would be abolished at any cost. In China however, this is no where near the case. The trafficking of humans is an abundant industry, especially among women. Each year, tens of thousands of women are bought and sold annually in China according to the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women. Women from other parts of Asia, Russia, and the Ukraine are brought into the country to help fill the hole in the number of marriageable women, while Chinese girls lured out of the country and into prostitution. However, most of the trade never passes the national boundaries, with kidnapped women being sold as wives in different areas of the country.

The Asia Times recently ran a story on the sex trafficking of Chinese women. Women sold outside the Chinese border are typically lured through false advertising offering jobs as office staff, nurses, and interpreters in foreign countries, with travel costs paid for. However, after these women are shipped out of the country their passports are confiscated and they are told they now need to work as prostitutes to pay back the debt accumulated from travel costs and lodging. While women are exported all around the world in this manner, the problem is especially prevalent in Malaysia. Many of these girls are kept in brothels, locked up as ‘noon brides’, women used to service wealthy businessmen away on business trips.

At the same time Chinese women are being coerced into leaving the country, women are being imported from all around Asia.The unbalanced sex ratio within China has given caused a shortage of brides. Since the family is a crucial part of any society, especially Chinese, men are willing to go to large measures to secure wives. As a result, more and more men are ending up with Korean wives. This stems from the stream of refugees trying to escape North Korea through China. 70%-90% of these women potentially end up as brides or sex-slaves. One woman reported of her experience, “I was locked into a house and raped every night. My teenage daughter was sold three times by traffickers. She was recycled”. When women flee to refuges to seek shelter the very people they think are protecting them are the ones who often end up enslaving them. These women rarely report their slavers because being discovered by the Chinese authorities means immediate deportation back to North Korea (Spencer, 2005).

North Korean Refugees

The majority of the trafficking of women in China occurs without ever leaving the borders of the large nation. Many men have trouble finding wives on their own and the price for purchasing wife is often less than that of an actual wedding. To support the demand of brides, an industry of kidnapping women from the countryside and selling them throughout other parts of the country has grown. Though this practice stretches far back in Chinese history, cases started being widely reported in the 1980s. In 1990, 14,385 traffickers were sentenced by the the Chinese courts. An accurate estimate of the number of women abducted and sold as wives is hard to gauge since many kidnappings go unreported. When a girl disappears, families often attribute it to a marriage unapproved by the parents, prostitution, or something else that would bring dishonor onto the family. Furthermore, many locals do not see wife-buying as wrong, taking pity on men unable to find wives and turning a blind eye. In fact, it is not uncommon for rescue agencies entering a town to save a women to be met with physical resistance by the villagers (Gates, 1996). Even a smaller percentage of the known cases result in the women being rescued from the enslaved marriage. In the years 1991-1996 only 88,000 women were freed. It estimated that only 1 in 28 women that are the victims of reported abductions are returned to their homes and families.

The Chinese government easily shoulders a large amount of responsibility for this problem due to loose laws governing trafficking, as the U.S. State Department summarizes. For instance, the law does not prohibit non-physical coercion, debt bondage, involuntary servitude, and forced labor. Children over the age of 14 find themselves in a legal gray zone when it comes to minors in the commercial sex trade. The country is almost entirely reliant on NGOs to find and support victims. The government itself provides very little assistance for victims with inadequate shelters and little attention paid to the victims psychological needs before returning them to their community. One method by which China could make considerable strides in the elimination of sex trafficking in the country is through a tightening of these laws. However, the rest of the world needs to find the initiative to pressure China to do so.