One reason to give Zhou U.S. citizenship is to light a fire under the U.S. State Department, which has rusted shut in the area of human rights. That rusting shut is not by accident, it is by design -- first by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and now by his wife Hillary Clinton as the U.S. Secretary of State. The word "Clinton" is a brand name of indifference to human rights, and perhaps a subspecies of slithering sociopaths.
Both Beijing and Washington are mishandling Zhou's case. Let's consider what's up in Washington. The response on the case of Zhou Yongjun makes it seem like the State Department is a branch office of the Chinese Communist Party. I went to the transcript of the Daily Press Briefing of the State Department for May 13, 2009. I copied-and-pasted the relevant exchange into a text file that I named "Blather at State Dept 2009-05-13.txt."
They were ready when the question came up -- the State Department had its boilerplate answer. Spokesman Ian Kelly said:
"We are disturbed by reports that prominent Chinese human rights activist Zhou Yongjun has been charged with fraud after months of detention in China. It is our understanding that contrary to Chinese legal procedure, Mr. Zhou's family was not officially informed until May 13. As you noted, he was one of the student leaders of the Tiananmen Square movement. And the Embassy in Beijing has raised our concerns with the ministry of foreign affairs."
However, the Blather file also caught this jaw-dropping exchange over a follow up question:
Question: So are you looking for him to be released?
Mr. Kelly: We are calling on the government to ensure that all legal and administrative proceedings against him are conducted in a manner that is both transparent and consistent with Chinese law and international human rights norms.
Sometimes, there ought to be translation to help as we interpret the blather of officialdom. The reporter's question was simple enough, "So are you looking for him to be released?" With translation, the answer said, "Nah. This is an occasion for State Department jawboning."
This tells me things. First, I can cancel my plans to write to the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. Under the axis of Ian Kelly, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, I might as well save my postage stamp. The pressure to free Majer Zhou needs to be focused on Congress and the Chinese embassy. The U.S. Executive Branch never did take its feet off the desk about Tiananmen Square. That now amounts to 20 years of whistling Dixie, from a series of Presidents whom I nominate for a "Mount Rushmore of Corruption."
If anyone asks me, "Who should appear on the Mount Rushmore of Corruption?", my reply is the rhetorical question, "Who has been President since Tiananmen Square?" The more literal answer would be Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama. Barack Obama is exhibiting a Clintonian indifference to human rights, and any embrace of Clintonism is enough to flag a leader as corrupt in my book. Do you suppose that those four men secretly admire mass murderers? Could they be closet Maoists?
The May 13 exchange at the U.S. State Department was shameful. In answer to the simple question, "Are you looking for him to be released?," a simple "yes" answer would have been fitting and appropriate and offered encouragement to the human rights community. May 13 was Ian Kelly's missed opportunity to be remembered on the right side of history. It was also a missed opportunity for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Above, I compared and contrasted Beijing's differing treatment for the cases of Yang Jianli and Zhou Yongjun. I see Zhou's detention as an arbitrary and capricious misuse of government fiat. Ian Kelly wants Zhou to have due process, but in a case that is honked from the get-go, the "international human rights norms" that he holds up are those which I quoted above from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under that, Yang and Zhou have the right to return to their country. If the State Department was truly "on the page" with international human rights norms, they would be demanding the release of Zhou. His detention is already indefensible.
The Chinese government has it in their power to put Zhou on a plane to Taiwan, as they did with Yang Jianli. Their capricious and arbitrary behavior is now fully visible in the public handling of this case, during the run up to the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square's uprising and massacre. It bears repeating what I said to the AFP: "Zhou was stopped when entering China. So, he could not have committed any crime within Chinese jurisdiction. The government's charges are simply not credible."
Earlier this year, on a trip to China, Hillary Clinton went out of her way to telegraph her intentions to downplay human rights. That was a nod and a wink to the Chinese government. I wonder if she envies the Chinese leaders, because they can be openly Maoist on the one hand, while on the other hand, she has to keep it in the closet and pretend to honor American values? --Well, she's got Ian Kelly to help with jawboning in a manner that I'd describe as "CYA." Kelly, Clinton, and Obama will find the minimum words that they can mouth in order to sound "truthy" on human rights.
Personally, I am not taken in by slithering sociopaths who pose as saviors of the nation. To the Chinese government (and on behalf of the China Support Network), I am demanding the release of Zhou Yongjun, Wang Bingzhang, Liu Xiaobo, Gao Zhisheng, and all prisoners of conscience, and for that government to entirely abandon Maoism.
Liu Xiaobo Gao Zhisheng
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