Immodest Proposal
Part I: Initial Research
Why are people protesting in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong is a special administrative region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of the SAR specify that the SAR enjoys a high degree of autonomy under the “one country, two systems” framework, except in matters of defense and foreign affairs. Throughout the year, however, domestic and international observers continued to express concerns about central PRC government encroachment on the SAR’s autonomy. In March 2017 the 1,194-member Chief Executive Election Committee, dominated by pro-establishment electors, selected Carrie Lam to be the SAR’s chief executive. In 2016 Hong Kong residents elected the 70 representatives who compose the SAR’s Legislative Council (LegCo). Voters directly elected 40 representatives, while limited-franchise constituencies elected the remaining 30. (Page 90)
Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. (Page 90)
Human rights issues included substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; restrictions on political participation; and trafficking in persons. (Page 90)
The government took steps to prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses. (Page 90)
Why does Tibet want to leave China?
The United States recognizes the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Tibetan autonomous prefectures (TAPs) and counties in Sichuan, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Gansu Provinces to be a part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee oversees Tibet policies. As in other predominantly minority areas of the PRC, ethnic Chinese CCP members held the overwhelming majority of top party, government, police, and military positions in the TAR and other Tibetan areas. Ultimate authority rests with the 25- member Political Bureau (Politburo) of the CCP Central Committee and its seven-member Standing Committee in Beijing, neither of which has any Tibetan members. (Page 73)
Civilian authorities maintained control over the security forces. (Page 73)
The most significant human rights issues included: forced disappearances; torture by government authorities; arbitrary detentions; political prisoners; censorship and site blocking; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; severe restrictions of religious freedom; significant restrictions on freedom of movement; and restrictions on political participation. (Page 73)
The government strictly controlled information about, and access to, the TAR and some Tibetan areas outside the TAR. The Chinese government harassed or detained Tibetans as punishment for speaking to foreigners, attempting to provide information to persons abroad, or communicating information regarding protests or other expressions of discontent through cell phones, email, or the internet, and placed restrictions on their freedom of movement. (Page 73)
Disciplinary procedures were opaque, and there was no publicly available information to indicate senior officials punished security personnel or other authorities for behavior defined under PRC laws and regulations as abuses of power and authority. (Page 73)
How much of an impact has Tiananmen Square have?
The government still had not provided a comprehensive, credible accounting of all those killed, missing, or detained in connection with the violent suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. Many activists who were involved in the 1989 demonstrations and their family members continued to suffer official harassment. (Page 3)
Authorities placed many citizens under house arrest during sensitive times, such as during the visits of senior foreign government officials, annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, and sensitive anniversaries in Tibetan areas and Xinjiang. Security agents took some of those not placed under house arrest to remote areas on so-called forced vacations. (Page 10)
Government censors continued to block websites or online content related to topics deemed sensitive, such as Taiwan, the Dalai Lama, Tibet, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. (Page 31)
On June 4, tens of thousands of persons peacefully gathered without incident in Victoria Park to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The annual vigil and a smaller annual event in Macau were reportedly the only sanctioned events in China to commemorate the Tiananmen Square anniversary. (Page 98)
In June approximately 200 persons participated in a vigil at Senado Square to mark the 29th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. (Page 117)
Who is Xi Jinping?
In March (2019) the National People’s Congress removed the two-term limit for the positions of president and vice president, clearing the way for Xi Jinping to remain in office. (Page 44)
What are the conditions of the people in China?
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount authority. CCP members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions. Ultimate authority rests with the CCP Central Committee’s 25-member Political Bureau (Politburo) and its seven-member Standing Committee. Xi Jinping continued to hold the three most powerful positions as CCP general secretary, state president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission. (Page 1)
Civilian authorities maintained control of security forces. (Page 1)
During the year the government significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Authorities were reported to have arbitrarily detained 800,000 to possibly more than two million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims in internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities. Government officials claimed the camps were needed to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism. International media, human rights organizations, and former detainees reported security officials in the camps abused, tortured, and killed some detainees. (Page 1)
Human rights issues included arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; forced disappearances by the government; torture by the government; arbitrary detention by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison and detention conditions; political prisoners; arbitrary interference with privacy; physical attacks on and criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others as well as their family members; censorship and site blocking; interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws that apply to foreign and domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); severe restrictions of religious freedom; significant restrictions on freedom of movement (for travel within the country and overseas); refoulement of asylum seekers to North Korea, where they have a wellfounded fear of persecution; the inability of citizens to choose their government; corruption; a coercive birth-limitation policy that in some cases included sterilization or abortions; trafficking in persons; and severe restrictions on labor rights, including a ban on workers organizing or joining unions of their own (Page 1) choosing. Official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly of Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas and of Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang worsened and was more severe than in other areas of the country. (Page 2)
Authorities prosecuted a number of abuses of power through the court system, particularly with regard to corruption, but in most cases the CCP first investigated and punished officials using opaque internal party disciplinary procedures. The CCP continued to dominate the judiciary and controlled the appointment of all judges and in certain cases directly dictated the court’s ruling. Authorities harassed, detained, and arrested citizens who promoted independent efforts to combat abuses of power. (Page 2)
Some activists and organizations continue to accuse the government of involuntarily harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, especially members of Falun Gong. The government denied the claims, having officially ended the long-standing practice of involuntarily harvesting the organs of executed prisoners for use in transplants in 2015. (Page 5)
There were few known government actions to increase respect for human rights by the security forces. On April 28, police in Shanwei, Guangdong, arrested a security official for administering extrajudicial punishment, illegal detention, and illegal use of police equipment. On April 24, the security official caught a teenager who tried to steal money from a nearby Taoist temple, handcuffed him to a flagpole, beat and tortured him with a police electric shock baton, filmed the process, and uploaded it to social media. (Page 8)
According to media reports, officials had detained Bishop “Peter” Shao Zhumin, the leader of the underground Catholic Church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, five times since he was ordained in 2016. Shao spent more than seven months in custody from May 2017 to January 2018. Authorities sent Shao to Qinghai for “reeducation” during some of his previous detentions for refusing to join the state-sponsored Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. (Page 11)
What is Macau's stance?
Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and has a high degree of autonomy, except in defense and foreign affairs, according to the Basic Law. In 2017 residents directly elected 14 of the 33 representatives who comprise the SAR’s Legislative Assembly. In accordance with the law, limited franchise functional constituencies elected 12 representatives, and the chief executive nominated the remaining seven. A 400-member Election Committee re-elected Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai-On to a five-year term in 2014. (Page 112)
Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. (Page 112)
Human rights issues included criminal libel, restrictions on political participation, and trafficking in persons. (Page 112)
The government took steps to prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses. (Page 112)
In June approximately 200 persons participated in a vigil at Senado Square to mark the 29th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. (Page 117)
United States, Congress, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. “2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) – China.” 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) – China, 13 Mar. 2019. www.state.gov/reports/2018-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/china-includes-tibet-hong-kong-and-macau-china/.
Part II: Philosophy Cover Letter
I want Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and others to gain independence because that is what the majority of citizens desire and what I think is morally right in the philosophy of Telos. Having no representation, no freedom of religion, and lending land that is rightfully yours is what China has been contributing to East Asia. For a country that places people on a social credit system, I do not want anyone to be restricted in their ability to do anything peaceful in that matter. I suppose that I want to advocate for liberal democracy, as it is the best alternative to bring order and peace to a civilization that oversees the best for the majority instead of individuals. Not necessarily who runs everything in politics, but the “free will” that resides in everyone’s desire to do things that they want.
I feel that China is violating the most basic actions that every human does, create, express, and live to achieve their Telos, not the state’s. “In December 2017 police entered (a woman’s) home, forced her to undergo a medical check, and determined she was six weeks’ pregnant. The next day those authorities ordered her to get an abortion. Although initially refusing, she consented when they threatened to send her brother to an internment camp, which authorities did anyway after the abortion was completed” (on Page 52 of Human Rights Protections). The current Chinese government undervalues human rights in order to make a system for the “greater good” along with having a democracy ruled by one party.
I believe that Telos should be in the individual and not the government, although a state is required to ensure the freedoms and security of itself, it should not decide how the lives of its citizens are spent. “The fundamental objective of the SCS (Social Credit System) is instituting cybernetic mechanisms of behaviour control, where individuals and organizations are monitored in order to automatically confront them with the consequences of their actions” (Creemers 3-4). While it governs the state from mishaps, the system also invades the privacy of the multitudes of people who live in the country of what they do, even in private. You are not able to do anything that does not contribute to society (be it watching movies, taking road trips, and just watching the sun set); whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is not up for argument, a human being always does both. When you work non-stop, you turn into a robot, when you don’t do anything, you become a sloth. A balance of both is needed, the work ethic of China’s current political party has shown what has already been known for centuries. My belief in Aristotle’s Telos of a way to run things is certain in the face of the effect of communism in the individual’s life as a whole.
Creemers, Rogier. China's Social Credit System: An Evolving Practice of Control. 2018, pp. 1–32, China's Social Credit System: An Evolving Practice of Control, 22 May 2018. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3175792.
United States, Congress, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. “2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) – China.” 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) – China, 13 Mar. 2019. www.state.gov/reports/2018-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/china-includes-tibet-hong-kong-and-macau-china/.
Part III: Approach Analysis
The approach that I chose was Orwell’s 1984, a satirical book about the rise of governing states viewing what everyone does. His book grabbed the attention of many with having a government in control of what people can do at anytime. Although it did show how living in a surveillance state would look like, being a satirical piece, it was not practical. With the approach I can show what would happen while living under China’s Social Credit System while giving concrete data of what is currently going on.
Part IV: Proposal
A solution to the problem is to make people aware of what is happening in China through a satirical paper about living in a society that benefits the majority through security. I am trying to make an impact with the general audience who are oblivious to what China has been doing to their citizens.
Part V: Reflection
I choose the events that China is involved in due to the nature of the Tiananmen Square Massacre since I was horrified at the level of inhumanity that was present there. My proposal aligns with my interest in writing and conveying information with others. For my senior project, I am thinking something with writing except I would like to create more than that. I learned the value of academic papers for research since in the past I have always gained my information from historical and news websites. I was really surprised about how much China has been doing to the people who live in and around it. The vast amount of human rights violations was incomprehensible due to the fact that they are happening in real time, currently and no one is doing anything about it. I would have benefited to more sources on the topic since there were barely any when I searched for them.