China, the Philippines, and U.S. Influence in Asia

By Renato Cruz De Castro on June 30, 2007

During his January 2007 visit to Manila, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared that Sino-Philippine relations are experiencing a “golden age of partnership” as the two countries upgrade bilateral cooperation and launch more dialogues on political, defense, and sociocultural affairs. This visit underscored the ongoing, rapid improvement in bilateral relations since Arroyo’s state visit to Beijing in 2004 and the prospect that the Philippines may be turning from the United States toward China as its main security and economic partner in Asia.

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Sara Segal-Williams
Topics: 
Politics
Keywords: 
East Asia
Philippines
International Relations
Wen Jiabao
Organization: 
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Hong Kong’s Return to Chinese Sovereignty: Ten Years On

on June 29, 2007

Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997 after more than one hundred years as a British colony. This report looks at how certain basic human rights have fared since the handover and assesses how far the HKSAR government has taken the opportunity of a fresh start to safeguard and enhance protection of the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. While public fears that there would be a significant deterioration in human rights in Hong Kong after 1997 have not been borne out, the HKSAR authorities have missed several key opportunities to take concrete steps to enhance protection of the basic human rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong over the last ten years. When it comes to human rights, the “fresh start” that Hong Kong was promised by former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa in 1997 has not materialized.

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Topics: 
Politics
Keywords: 
Freedom
Handover
Hong Kong
Human Rights
Organization: 
Amnesty International

The Dream of Catholic China

By Jonathan D. Spence on June 28, 2007

From the later sixteenth century until the end of the seventeenth, the Jesuit educational system was the most rigorous and effective in Europe. As one senior Jesuit wrote proudly in 1647, each Jesuit college was a “Trojan horse filled with soldiers from heaven, which every year produces conquistadors of souls.” Most of these young “soldiers,” before being assigned to their full-time studies in the Society of Jesus, would have spent several years learning the fundamentals of Latin and Greek grammar.

Mission to Mao

By Roderick MacFarquhar on June 28, 2007

“This was the week that changed the world” was Richard Nixon’s summing up at the end of his trip to China in February 1972.1 The hyperbole was justified, for this visit to China by an American president was a turning point in the cold war. Hitherto, the Soviet Union and China had been antagonists of the US. Thereafter, both Beijing and Moscow found it in their interest to come to agreements with Washington. For the Chinese it meant coming in from the cold.

State Secrets: China's Legal Labyrinth

on June 12, 2007

This report describes and examines the PRC state secrets system and shows how it allows and even promotes human rights violations by undermining the rights to freedom of expression and information, and by maintaining a culture of secrecy that has a chilling effect on efforts to develop the rule of law and independent civil society. The report also includes a set of concrete and specific recommendations relating to governance, legislative amendments, and strengthening implementation.

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Topics: 
Politics
Keywords: 
Governmental Structure
Human Rights
Law
Organization: 
Human Rights in China

No One Has the Liberty to Refuse: Tibetan Herders Forcibly Relocated in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and the TAR

By Sophie Richardson on June 1, 2007

This report describes the effects on Tibetan herders of Chinese government policies of resettlement, land confiscation, and fencing. The author draws on interviews with about 150 Tibetans from the areas directly affected, including Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and on Chinese academic studies. The multi-year campaign by the Chinese government to move Tibetan herders to urban areas has put traditional lifestyles and livelihoods at risk for the approximately 700,000 people who have been resettled in western China since 2000.Those moved to urban areas consistently describe their inability to secure anything other than temporary, menial labor, partly as a result of their inability to speak Chinese or their lack of capital to start small businesses. Some have been moved to farmland despite the fact that they have little experience farming. Human Rights Watch called on the Chinese government to impose a moratorium on all resettlements until a mechanism reviewing the resettlements, and its negative impact on the rights of herders, is put in place.

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Topics: 
Politics
Keywords: 
Ethnic Minorities
Forced Relocation
Tibet
Organization: 
Human Rights Watch