Improving Relations With China's Neighbors

How should the US view China's developing relations with her neighbors? Should the US modify its foreign policy toward these same nations in light of their changing Relationships with China?

Clearly, the US must encourage relations that serve to reduce security concerns and improve the economic well-being of all parties involved. From stability comes peace, and it is in everybody's best interests for China to maintain peaceful relationships with her neighbors. By the same token, the US must discourage hostile overtures from China to her weaker neighbors.

The US is already actively participating in China's huge economic growth by opening manufacturing concerns that employ thousands of Chinese workers at a fraction of the US labor cost. India has the next great opportunity for growth as the US is poised to take advantage of the low cost of manufacturing in that country (possibly at China's expense?).

Since some of China's neighbors have Muslim populations, the US would do well to reconsider its position on Iraq. Improved relationships and an end to hostilities in this country could only help improve the relations with China's neighbors, and perhaps influence China to stop persecuting its own Muslim population.

Uyghur Minority Chafing Under Chinese Oppression

In an article published April 15, 2008 from Khotan, China entitled, "A Second Restive Minority Faces China's Heavy Hand," the author argues that while Tibetan protests have grabbed headlines, the social unrest among China's 8 million Muslim Uighurs in the resource-rich far western territory have gone virtually unnoticed by the press.

Despite reports of police shootings and arrests at a protest demanding Uighur independence on March23, the world has paid little notice. China is doing its best to downplay ethnic tensions that threaten national security as well as the upcoming Beijing Olympics, claiming that the state has stabilized ethnic areas.

Human rights activists disagree. Nicolas Bequelin, a researcher for Human Rights watch in Hong Kong, claims China's policies are alienating, and that they are "efficient in that political political repression works. But they have ethnic tensions."

While Han Chinese live and work beside their Uighur neighbors, the interaction ends there. Muslims report discrimination, and are discouraged from practicing any religion. It is in the best interest of Han China to try to assimilate the Uighurs into their culture in order to protect their hold on the oil, coal, and mineral reserves in Uighur territories. However, their methods of assimilation border on the extreme - maintaining one's ethnic identity is not encouraged. People who attempt to help Muslims often end up dead at the hands of police during interrogation.

To further their aims, the Uighur people have created the World Uyghur Congress to draw attention to the plight of the Uighur people. To this point, they have been successful at maintaining the elements of their society that set them apart from the Han Chinese. How long the Han Chinese will allow this to continue is another story.

Susan

Child Labor Scandal in Shanxi

In an article posted June 18, 2007 entitled "China: Child Labour Scandal Exposes Gross Corruption," Antoaneta Bezlova detailed the ordeal endured by 32 migrant workers who had been forced to work as slave laborers in a brick kiln for over a year. The workers were routinely beaten and starved, and were forced to handle hot bricks bare-handed, and were so filthy that the grime could be scraped off their bodied with a knife.

What's even more shocking is the revelation that, over the last few years, at least 1,000 children between the ages of eight and 16 have been enslaved in the brickworks in the Shanxi province. It is no coincidence that the brickworks is owned by by the son of the Communist Party chief. Local police ignored illegal labor practices due to an agreement between the police and local officials.

Fathers of the kidnapped children claim that their children were kidnapped and sold to the factory bosses for 500 yuan each. The laborers were forced to work and live in unbelievable squalor. "The places those children lived in were worse than dog kennels," said Chai Wei, a father of a missing child, upon searching several brickworks searching for his son. He described children sleeping on wooden planks, and walls covered with excrement. He and other fathers were horrified at what they saw on their rescue efforts, and get no help whatsoever from the local police.

The discovery of webs of provincial slave labor coincides with the development of new labor laws designed to protect workers from local labor abuses. Unfortunately, many local officials chose to ignore directives from the central government. Workers' advocates argue that directives will only be enforced if independent labor unions are allowed to form.

Based on what I have learned in this class, I am not surprised that child labor or slave labor exists in China. China is a country with little respect for human life or human rights, so why should we expect them to treat migrant worker or their children well? They also have no respect for the law, and corruption is just as rampant as ever. As long as there is profit to be made from slave and child labor, they Chinese will find ways to circumvent any "laws" they can put on the books.

Susan