China's iron fist: human rights, Taiwan, military buildup, cloud U.S.-China relations

Current Events, Sept 18, 1995

BEIJING, CHINA--I'm going to die. That was the horrifying thought that shot through the mind of Harry Wu one dark day last month.

Wu, 58, a Chinese American, had been arrested in China on June 19 on charges of spying for the United States. The arrest took place on China's border with Mongolia (see map on p. 4) as Wu attempted to cross into China with cameras. In 1993, Wu had embarrassed the Chinese government by secretly videotaping conditions in China's forced labor camps.

'Americans Can Do Nothing'

After his arrest, Wu was kept in a tiny room of only 43 square feet (about 6 feet by 7 feet). He was watched 24 hours a day and not allowed privacy even when going to the bathroom.

In spite of his repeated requests to see U.S. authorities, Wu was told by his Chinese guards that, even though he was an American citizen, "the Americans can do nothing for you."

But the guards were wrong. In Washington and in Beijing, the U.S. let it be known that, if Wu was not released, Hillary Rodham Clinton's trip to China for this month's U.N. Conference on Women might be called off. If that happened, the Chinese knew, world opinion would be against China.

So on August 23, Chinese authorities took Harry Wu from his cell, tried him, found him guilty, and expelled him from the country.

Back in his California home, Wu told reporters that being an American saved his life.

Worsening Relations

The case of Harry Wu marked yet another incident in the worsening relations between the United States, the world's most powerful nation, and China, the world's most populous nation. Some other recent incidents:

* Friction Over Taiwan. This island off the coast of China has long been a source of friction between the U.S. and China. In 1949, after Mao Zedong and his Communists took over mainland China, the U.S.-supported Nationalist government fled to Taiwan. There, the Nationalists set up a government that claimed to be the rightful government of all China.

The United States supported the Nationalist claim until 1975, when this country formally recognized Communist rule of mainland China. But the U.S. continued to support Taiwan's right to remain a separate country. China, however, still considers Taiwan a breakaway part of China and says it has the right to invade Taiwan.

The U.S. opposes China's right to invade and has recently sold jet fighters to Taiwan. This summer President Clinton also allowed the president of Taiwan to unofficially visit the United States. Those actions so angered the Chinese that last month they fired missile and artillery shells into the South China Sea near Taiwan in a show of force.

* Violation of International Treaties. Last month, in violation of international treaties, China sold missiles to Pakistan. China has also recently sold other countries materials that could be used to make nuclear bombs, angering the United States, which opposes the spread of nuclear weapons.

* Continuing Human Rights Violations. China's crackdown on human rights has long been a sore point between the United States and China. According to Harry Wu, more than 50 million prisoners have been through China's system of forced labor camps, known as Laogai ("reform through work") . In the camps are common criminals and people whose only crime has been to criticize China's government.

According to Wu and others, Laogai prisoners are used by the government as free labor to make products-from clothes to TVs-sold in the United States and in other countries. Wu's 1993 documentary caused a major U.S. clothing maker, Levi Strauss, to stop making clothes in China.

The Laogai system also is reportedly a place for an even more shocking trade. Critics charge that human organs--hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, parts of eyes--from executed criminals are regularly sold by the Chinese authorities to other countries for organ transplants.

As a young man, Harry Wu spent 19 years in Laogai before being released in 1979 and leaving for the United States in 1985. His books tell of starvation and torture in camps where "human life has no value." At one point, Wu and other inmates killed and ate barely-cooked rats and snakes to survive. Wu broke bones in his back from heavy lifting and watched as guards broke his arm with wooden clubs.

U.S.-China Meeting

U.S. authorities have pledged to try to get the Chinese government to improve human rights in China. This October 24, President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin will meet in New York City to discuss U.S.-Chinese differences.

"If human rights is not on the top of the agenda, I don't think President Clinton should meet . . . Jiang Zemin," says Harry Wu.