CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA Part 2

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its excerpts from The Congressional-Executive Commission on China Report.

The Chinese government continued its hardline approach to exerting control over journalists and other independent voices. In 2019, China reportedly had detained the highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world. This past year, the Chinese government expelled New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post journalists from mainland China and Hong Kong while strengthening government and Party control of domestic media outlets. Hundreds of citizens have been penalized for sharing online information and concerns about the COVID–19 outbreak and have been accused of ‘‘rumor-mongering.’’ Authorities reportedly detained two Beijing-based legal scholars—prominent civil society advocate Xu Zhiyong and leading public intellectual Xu Zhangrun— in connection with their criticism of Xi Jinping.

Civil society played a critical role in the COVID–19 response, as citizens worked through civil society organizations and grassroots volunteer groups to assist the most vulnerable people impacted by the pandemic. The people of China continued to participate in diverse forms of collective organization for mutual and public interest, including popular protest, issue-based grassroots advocacy, and professionalized charities and social enterprises. In recent years, rights advocates working on a broad range of issues, from gender equality to labor to disability rights, have been targets of government repression and exclusion. For example, several rights advocates who gathered informally to discuss civil society developments in December 2019 were detained and charged with ‘‘inciting subversion of state power.’’ Meanwhile, organizations aligned with official priorities have become integral to providing public services.

Criminal law and police power continued to be used to punish government critics, rights advocates, religious believers, and ethnic minority groups. Various types of arbitrary detention, including some forms of extrajudicial detention, were used to deprive individuals of their liberty, contravening international human rights standards.

Five years after the July 2015 ‘‘709 Crackdown’’ on human rights lawyers and rights defenders, many of those Chinese lawyers and rights defenders are surveilled by public security authorities in what one leading expert has termed ‘‘non-release release.’’ Lawyers continued to face repression, intimidation, and punishment for attempting to protect human rights in China. Besides detention and imprisonment, the Chinese government used administrative measures, including disbarment, to target lawyers who express critical views or who advocate for clients whom the Chinese government has tried to suppress.

The Chinese government further intensified the campaign of ‘‘sinicization’’ to bring religion in China under closer official control and in line with officially sanctioned interpretations of Chinese culture, thereby curtailing religious freedom. The rights of religious believers continued to be violated, as churches, mosques, and temples were demolished; underground religious groups were targeted; surveillance was expanded; and religious leaders were detained and imprisoned. Wang Yi, the founder and pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church, was sentenced to nine years in prison for ‘‘inciting subversion of state power,’’ despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention deeming his detention ‘‘arbitrary’’ according to international human rights standards.

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The Chinese government has increasingly worked to suppress free speech outside China. Economic coercion, surveillance, intimidation, and censorship on China-based social media platforms were all employed to silence critics, punish foreign organizations for private speech of individual employees, and encourage self-censorship. Most visibly, the Chinese government retaliated against the National Basketball Association after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey posted a tweet in October 2019 in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The targets also included Chinese students studying abroad, Uyghurs living in the United States, and U.S. and international companies. Authorities even attempted to silence or otherwise intimidate individuals living in the U.S.—particularly Uyghurs—by coercing or threatening their family members living in China.

Women in China have faced even more difficult circumstances due to the disproportionate risks and burdens associated with the essential role they have played in the COVID–19 response. During the pandemic, domestic violence rose substantially, and experts predicted that already existing gender gaps in employment and well-being would be further exacerbated by the economic and social disruption caused by the outbreak. Women’s rights advocacy continues to face heavy repression, but the inclusion of anti-sexual harassment provisions in the Civil Code in May 2020 shows that their advocacy has had an impact.

Independent trade unions are banned in China. Labor rights advocates and citizen journalists continued to be targeted and detained for their work, including for documenting numerous workers’ strikes and subsequent crackdowns. The level of unemployment and labor unrest is significant, although the severity is difficult to ascertain due to censorship and government control of information.

Everyone deserves a government that respects their human rights, their culture, and their hopes and dreams for a better life for themselves and their families. As the Chinese government expands its global influence, the international community must be aware that intensifying authoritarianism in China is also a threat to internationally recognized human rights norms as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is essential that the U.S. Congress and the Administration work together to promote effective policies to support human rights and the rule of law in China.

Photo: China Defence Ministry

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.