[corp-focus] Human Rights Hypocrisy: Hidden In Plain Sight

[robert weissman]

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Human Rights Hypocrisy: Hidden In Plain Sight
By Robert Weissman
February 29, 2008

There was a time, not so long ago, when U.S. governmental hypocrisy on 
human rights and corporate interests was at least acknowledged.

But now it seems that the Bush administration has so degraded society's 
standards, and Big Business so routinely claims that it is bound by no 
ethical standard except to make money and follow the law -- even as it 
aims to define that very law, and then frequently flouts the remaining 
legal restraints -- that the hypocrisy is no longer even acknowledged.

At his news conference yesterday, George Bush angrily said they he could 
not and would not meet with the new President of Cuba, Raul Castro, 
because of Cuba's human rights record. Then, eight minutes later, he 
explained how excited he was to visit China for the Summer Olympics -- a 
visit during which he will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Just a 
month-and-a-half ago, the same George Bush visited with the Saudi King 
Abdullah, having a grand time with the King on his extravagant ranch.

Won't talk to Castro. Conferring with Hu. Relaxing with King Abdullah. Hmm.

Why not talk with adversaries in Cuba, Bush was asked.

His reply: "What's lost by embracing a tyrant who puts his people in 
prison because of their political beliefs? What's lost is it will send 
the wrong message. It will send a discouraging message to those who 
wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of 
prisoners. It will give great status to those who have suppressed human 
rights and human dignity."

The questioner pressed: "No one is saying embrace him, they're just 
saying talk."

Bush responds: "Right, okay, good, thank you for reminding me to use a 
different word. Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken 
with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the 
office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by 
saying, look at me, I'm now recognized by the President of the United 
States."

Then again using the term "embrace," he adds: "Now, somebody would say, 
well, I'm going to tell him to release the prisoners. Well, it's a 
theory that all you got to do is embrace and these tyrants act. That's 
not how they act. That's not what causes them to respond."

Eight minutes later came the question about China and the Olympics.

What messages does it send when you go to China, where human rights are 
suppressed?

Bush said he was going primarily to enjoy a sporting event,

However, Bush added, it was especially useful for him to go to China, 
because he could meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao! "And maybe I'm 
in a little different position. Others don't have a chance to visit with 
Hu Jintao, but I do." (Note how a meeting in Cuba is an "embrace," but a 
meeting in China is a "visit.") "And every time I meet with him I talk 
about religious freedom and the importance of China's society 
recognizing that if you're allowed to worship freely, it will benefit 
the society as a whole; that the Chinese government should not fear the 
idea of people praying to a god as they see fit. A whole society, a 
healthy society, a confident society is one that recognizes the value of 
religious freedom. I talk about Darfur and Iran and Burma. And so I am 
not the least bit shy of bringing up" human rights concerns.

There certainly is a lot to discuss related to China's human rights 
conditions. The U.S. State Department's most recent human rights report 
notes:

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state. … The 
government's human rights record remained poor, and in certain areas 
deteriorated. There were an increased number of high-profile cases 
involving the monitoring, harassment, detention, arrest, and 
imprisonment of journalists, writers, activists, and defense lawyers, 
many of whom were seeking to exercise their rights under law. … Other 
serious human rights abuses included instances of extrajudicial 
killings; torture and coerced confessions of prisoners; and the use of 
forced labor, including prison labor.

Then there's China's repression in Tibet, its support for the Sudanese 
government, and on and on.

Of course, it's not as if Hu Jintao won't have a shockingly long list of 
human rights complaints to raise as regards the United States, from 
authorized torture to the mass slaughter in U.S.-occupied Iraq.

China is not unique. President George Bush is quite happy to meet with 
leaders of countries characterized by pervasive human rights abuses. In 
January, Bush visited with his friend Saudi King Abdullah. He spent time 
with the King at his palace, and at his horse farm, which is reported to 
provide air-conditioned stables and aqua-therapy for the horses, 
according to the BBC.

Bush and King Abdullah talked about the weather. They talked about Iran. 
They talked a lot about oil. There is no indication they talked about 
human rights in Saudi Arabia, though the Saudi King did actually raise a 
human rights issue -- Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

Just fyi, here's an excerpt from the State Department human rights 
report for Saudi Arabia:

"The following significant human rights problems were reported: no right 
to peacefully change the government; infliction of severe pain by 
judicially sanctioned corporal punishments; beatings and other abuses; 
inadequate prison and detention center conditions; arbitrary arrest and 
detention, sometimes incommunicado; denial of fair public trials; 
exemption from the rule of law for some individuals and lack of judicial 
independence; arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, and 
correspondence; and significant restriction of civil liberties--freedoms 
of speech and press, including the Internet; assembly; association; and 
movement. The government committed severe violations of religious 
freedom. There was a widespread perception of serious corruption and a 
lack of government transparency, as well as legal and societal 
discrimination and violence against women. Other religious, ethnic, and 
minority groups faced discrimination. There were strict limitations on 
worker rights, especially for foreign workers."

After the Tiananmen Square massacre, Big Business spent more than a 
decade trying to fully normalize U.S.-China relations. Corporations and 
their government allies offered their standard line about how commercial 
engagement would spur political freedom, but not many people took that 
seriously. It was widely understood that the government simply 
subordinated whatever concern it had for advancing human rights to its 
aim of advancing corporate interests.

One has to be very cautious in making blanket statements in this area, 
but in general the idea of refusing to meet with national leaders is 
foolish. If there are legitimate objections over other countries' 
policies, top-level meetings can be helpful to voice those concerns and 
perhaps improve conditions. So, the objection to Bush's varying 
standards with regard to Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia is not that he 
chooses to meet with the Chinese and Saudi leaders.

But the differing treatment for the countries, so obviously correlated 
with U.S. economic and corporate interests, mocks whatever claim the 
United States still makes to advancing democracy and human rights. It is 
no small commentary on the state of affairs in the United States that 
this hypocrisy barely raises an eyebrow.


Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational 
Monitor, <http://www.multinationalmonitor.org> and director of Essential 
Action <http://www.essentialaction.org>.

(c) Robert Weissman

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