COLUMN: Think Again – China’s communist government is evil

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/05/2020 (1810 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On March 8, 1983, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and said it was “the focus of evil in the modern world.”

By making this statement, Reagan publicly rejected the notion that free market capitalism and totalitarian communism were morally equivalent. Reagan knew that communist governments take away individual freedoms, destroy a county’s work ethic, and impoverish millions of people. His speech was a stunning moment of moral clarity.

We need the same moral clarity today regarding China, or more specifically, the Chinese Communist Party that governs China. In power continuously since 1949, the Chinese government brutally oppresses its own citizens. From its inhumane one-child policy to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, China’s government has long shown a complete disregard for human life and this pattern continues today.

For example, approximately one million Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group in western China, have been forcibly relocated to “vocational retraining centres.” These are essentially high-security jails where detainees are subjected to atrocious working conditions and intensive indoctrination sessions. The Chinese government has long denied this is going on but leaked government documents reveal that the oppression of the Uyghurs is real and ongoing.

Sadly, the Chinese government lies so often that we have come to expect it. Sometimes, however, the impact of China’s deception reaches far beyond its own borders.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a case in point. When doctors in Wuhan, China first tried to warn the public about this virus, the Chinese government pressured them to keep quiet. By the time the Chinese government acknowledged that COVID-19 could be spread by human-to-human contact, it had already infected thousands of people. Had China not tried to suppress the true nature of this virus, we might not be in the midst of a global pandemic today.

Last month, more than one hundred politicians and international policy experts signed an open letter blasting the Chinese Communist Party for its complicity in the spread of COVID-19. One of the signatories was Irwin Cotler, a respected law professor and former Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General. The letter also criticized the World Health Organization for bowing to pressure from China to downplay the severity of the COVID-19 virus.

In addition, the Chinese government is no friend to Canada. Remember that two of our citizens have been rotting in a Chinese prison for nearly a year-and-a-half. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested in December 2018 and later charged with espionage. However, Kovrig and Spavor have not had proper court hearings, do not have access to legal counsel, receive only limited consular visits, and have been prevented from communicating with their families. In other words, Kovrig and Spavor are hostages of a corrupt government.

While China won’t admit it, the Kovrig and Spavor arrests were in direct retaliation for the Canadian government’s legal arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei. This tit-for-tat approach to arresting people shows the corrupt mentality of the Chinese government.

When it comes to respecting due process, there is no comparison between Canada and China. Canada follows the rule of law and ensures that all prisoners, including Wanzhou, receive their full legal rights. In contrast, China arrests people arbitrarily and mistreats its prisoners.

This is not the time for appeasement or trying to find common ground with the Chinese Communist Party. Instead, we should support the brave Chinese men and women who are risking their lives to expose the ongoing human rights abuses in their country.

Canada and other democratic countries must have the courage to speak out against China’s oppressive government. We must oppose evil, not appease it.