Perspective

The Slow Crawl Forward: Experiences in Modern China

By Tyler Brandon

I was feeling fairly optimistic about my trip to Beijing. At least until the plane suddenly landed with a loud thud. Weren’t we still flying amidst the clouds, thousands of feet in the air? I quickly scolded myself for my naïveté. Those “clouds” were thick billows of disgusting white haze. I had hoped that reduced coal usage, a new subway system, and the permanent implementation of some Olympic environmental policies would mean a greener China. Chinese citizens enjoyed clean air so much during the Olympics they demanded the continuation of several policies, including closing many factories and allowing cars on the road a limited number of days per week. Are there constant blue skies? For now, no such luck—and pollution is not the only thing making China’s shifting policy a little dirty.

But my optimism did not just concern pollution. After all, environmental improvements were just one promise China made during its Olympic bid. They also vowed to improve human rights.

Eight months after the Olympics, where does China fall on a scale of human rights? After facing international criticism during the violent Tibetan protests of 2008, China stubbornly refused to budge their stance on Darfur. The government failed to cut off relations with Khartoum, and the “genocide Olympics” indeed became more of a reality than slogan. Activists were repressed during the Olympics, and censorship was high.

Recent headlines have revealed China’s consistent willpower and capability to carry out threats against those fighting for discourse. Last December, China cancelled an EU-China summit in protest of French President Nicolas Sarkozy meeting the Dalai Lama during a reunion of Nobel Peace Prize winners in Poland. Censorship has not abated. During spring break, I tried to access YouTube from my house in Beijing and received this message: “Network Timeout. The server at youtube.com is taking too long to respond.” YouTube was blocked for over two weeks, and the government refused to give a reason why. Many believe that the move responded to a YouTube video of Chinese Police Officers beating up Tibetans.

This March, the story of the ‘grass-mud horse’ became a favorite online New York Times article. A Chinese song about the mythical grass-mud horse became a YouTube phenomenon, logging over 1.5 million views and receiving international attention. A documentary about its life and habitat gained nearly 200,000 views, and industry emerged for grass-mud horse dolls. Why the sudden craze? In Chinese, the name for ‘grass-mud horse’ sounds like an obscenity, so this mythical creature ridicules and challenges government censorship. If the government didn’t censor the horse, they would allow obscenities to pervade across the media. By censoring the horse, they are combating the benign protest movement with an iron fist. For the government, it is a lose-lose situation.

As far as I could tell, only images of Mao could override Beijing’s far-reaching censorship. One morning, on an excursion an hour and a half outside the city, we struggled with a frustrated taxi driver and poor directions to locate a small artists’ village. A few miles down a dirt road we found an inconspicuous grey complex, which opened up into a beautiful courtyard with two art galleries. The place was a ghost town, which the owner attributed to the global economic crisis. Yet this rural gallery, along with roadside art stands and District 798, the hotspot of Beijing modern art, held countless satirical, comical, and politically bold images of Mao. Paintings of a gangster Mao. Mao in a Hawaiian shirt. Mao examining Duchamp’s “Fountain.” Mao’s portrait in the style of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. Why is this tolerated while the mythical grass-mud horse is not? The owner explained that Mao is a man of the past, posing no threat to the Chinese government. Granting artistic freedom makes the government appear more tolerable of self-expression, while in reality, the government saves its energy to control more contemporary political threats, including the Dalai Lama and political blogging.

Abuses against Tibetans, minorities like Mongols and Christians, and activists also raise questions about China’s record. According to Amnesty International, approximately 500,000 people are currently serving time without charge or trial. The legal system is inaccessible and unfair. My own parents, economists working on environmental issues at the World Bank, are wary about surveillance. We assume our phones are tapped and know the government can access all of our emails and Internet searches. More significantly, harassment, house arrest, and imprisonment are constant threats for human rights defenders nationwide. Although the Supreme People’s Court is now reviewing death penalty cases, China still has the highest rate of capital punishment worldwide.

On paper, however, China is changing. On April 13, the government released the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010), a 54-page document revealing proposed human rights advances for the next two years. The Plan aims to provide fair trials, discourage torture, ban abuses of detainees, and protect civil liberties, especially those of women, children, elderly, and minorities.

However, on many different levels the Plan doesn’t reach par. First, it does not suggest reforms of the country’s single-party system, rather it focuses on promoting tolerance and human rights within existing government agencies. Second, it fails to propose an overhaul of the administrative detention system. This system provides local law enforcement officials with extensive powers to convict people without a trial. Third, there is no guarantee to close unregistered jails that local governments across the country are currently operating.

The National Human Rights Action Plan is undoubtedly a big step in the right direction. Yet far greater steps are needed to ensure that the Plan becomes a reality. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told China that “the US considers human rights concerns secondary to economic survival,” Now more than ever, we can’t let China off the hook. While applauding the Human Rights Action Plan, the international community must pressure China to stay true to its words. And just as the Chinese pressured the government to combat air pollution, they too must continue to fight for freedom of expression. May the legacy of the grass-mud horse live on.