China's relationship with the West 1) There are various ways in which a country can put pressure on another country, and many such ways were used by the West regarding the poor standards of human rights in China.

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GCSE History coursework - Hannah Fulford, April 2004

History Coursework, 2004

China’s relationship with the West

1)         There are various ways in which a country can put pressure on another country, and many such ways were used by the West regarding the poor standards of human rights in China.

        The main tactic used by the West was to send an authoritative figure such as the Head of State to raise the issue in hand within the country. Both Britain and America sent representatives, however each country had a different method of addressing the situation. The President of America, who visited China in June 1998, chose a very direct, blunt approach. President Clinton used ‘some of the harshest  American language against China for years’ to tell the Chinese leaders that their state of human rights was ‘thoroughly unacceptable’. Britain on the other hand approached the situation delicately, desperate not to offend the Chinese and provoke conflict. Blair, who visited Chine in October 1998, said   ‘persuasion and dialogue achieve more than confrontation and empty rhetoric’. Britain’s main motive for such delicacy was it’s fear of China’s discontinuing their trading rights. However despite this fear Britain still felt it necessary to take action, as they too agreed that China’s standard of human rights was inadequate. Also, Blair was likely to face criticism if he was seen to ‘soft pedal on attacking human rights’ in China. Rather than confronting China  aggressively, Tony Blair at first complimented the country, before carefully addressing the ‘differences’ between the West and China regarding human rights. By using this conciliatory method of criticism, Blair hoped to gain China’s trust to prevent offending them when he came round to discussing the ‘universal’ issue of human rights in China.

        China also received pressure from human rights groups such as Free Tibet, Reporters Sans Frontières and Amnesty International. These groups supported Blair’s cautious censure of China’s human rights, and favoured negotiation and persuasion to the American’s aggressive approach. Alison Reynolds, the head of Free Tibet, hoped that Blair would ‘urge China to open dialogue with the Dalai Lama’. Amnesty International had what was perhaps the most aggressive argument against China, but even still they refrained from harshly or abusively accusing China of poor human rights. Instead they used persuasive language with strong implications, such as ‘they call into question China’s sincerity in signing key human rights conventions’.

        China also bore pressure regarding human rights from members of it’s own country. The Tiananmen Square incident, instigated by Deng in 1989, raised huge uproar in China. On the anniversaries of this event many people affected by Deng’s ‘crackdown on pro-democracy protests’ gathered to protest against the murder of thousands of students. These people, marked dissidents by China and victims by the USA, received huge sympathy from Western countries and human rights groups. China warned the West to discontinue this support of ‘Chinese dissidents living in exile’. This retaliation of the Chinese people against their own country was avidly highlighted by the Western press, as it provided a source of support for the Western efforts to improve Chinese human rights in China from within the country. Such supposed success would be welcomed within the West, acting as ‘proof’ that it’s efforts toward China were having an impact. Many press articles were exaggerated or cleverly worded to make events seem very drastic, which was likely to incense Western people. For example ‘dozens of police pulled two protestors … from Tiananmen Square. They were complaining about alleged abuse of power by police and prosecutors …’ The press also made a great deal of China’s warnings to the West not to support the dissidents of China. Eye-catching headlines were used, such as ‘China warns West to shun dissidents’.  In one article on this subject the journalist writes ‘China, displaying an unyielding stance on human rights …’ Here the journalist is suggesting that China is refusing to act on the encouragement of Western countries to improve it’s human rights.  Such supposed failure of their efforts would rile the Western people and probably cause further, more persistent pursuit of their goal - an acceptable standard of human rights within China.

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        Another source of coercion for China was from EU countries, led by Denmark. In 1997 France, Germany, Italy and Spain opposed an EU resolution to criticise China, stating that they thought China should be ‘treated differently to other less  important states’. Denmark therefore proposed the resolution of criticism of China’s human rights for the UN. Beijing immediately warned Denmark that, should it continue to support it’s resolution, ‘relations between China and Denmark [would] be seriously damaged’. However other members of the EU supported the EU resolution, and therefore supported Denmark, furthering the pressure put on China.  

        Finally, there was ...

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