PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson should read Human rights treaties China has ratified
By Jerome A. Cohen
I’ve been following the case of Yang Hengjun, an Australian blogger detained in China since January this year. Here’s the latest excellent Guardian piece on Yang’s case. It vividly brings home the millions of individual, unfair tragedies inflicted by PRC criminal justice.
Once again, the PRC has issued a preposterous response to the Australian Government’s condemnation of the terrible abuse of one of its nationals. Can the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson not realize how ridiculous his statement makes his government appear? To say that Australia is interfering with China’s “judicial sovereignty” by protesting the PRC’s violation of the international human rights to which the PRC has freely committed itself in the exercise of its sovereignty is nonsense. Perhaps PRC spokesman Geng should be reading the UN Convention against Torture in addition to the latest words of Xi Jinping. To say that Yang has been treated in accordance with Chinese law is a shocking, frank indictment of the PRC legal system before the world. It is good to have a recently-published retranslation of DARKNESS AT NOON, since the Chinese Communist Party’s daily actions illustrate how it perpetuates the tradition of endless incommunicado detentions and coercive interrogations. What a perfect way to celebrate the PRC’s 70th anniversary!