New AFL-CIO TV Campaign Highlights Human Rights Abuses in China and Urges Members of Congress to Vote No on Permanent Normal Trade Relations April 4, 2000 Help | Search:

Washington, D.C. — Just one week before thousands of working men and women come to Washington, DC on Wednesday, April 12 to participate in a Capitol Hill rally and lobby day against proposals to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations status, the AFL-CIO has launched a new television campaign focusing on human rights abuses in China.

Sixty and thirty second TV spots, including excerpts of an interview with former Chinese political prisoner Wei Jingsheng, will run in Washington, DC and New York City for two weeks, then in key congressional districts during the April Congressional recess.

Wei Jingsheng was first tried in China in 1979 for speaking out about human rights abuses inflicted upon Chinese workers by the Chinese government. He remained a political prisoner for 18 years.

'I spent 18 years in jail simply for speaking my mind...in 1979 when I voiced my opinion that China ought to protect workers' rights, people ought to have human rights and that China ought to develop a democratic system to protect those rights. For that reason, I spent nearly 18 years in jail and was nearly executed,' said Wei Jingsheng.

According to a 1999 Amnesty International Report on China, at least 2,000 people currently in Chinese jails are there for political crimes, including 250 who were imprisoned for participating in the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 that were crushed by the Chinese army.

"China — which has not yet ratified the two United Nations covenants on human rights it agreed to sign before President Clinton's trip to China in 1998 — continues to flagrantly violate the human rights and religious freedom of its citizens," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Even as China stepped up its efforts in 1999 to enter into new trade accords with the U.S. and the rest of the world, "China's poor human rights record deteriorated markedly throughout the year and the government intensified efforts to suppress dissent," according to the US State Department's Human Rights Report on China.

"Our growing trade relationship with China has not led to reform, despite what supporters of permanent free trade status claim. China continues to brutally suppress freedom of religion, expression and association and the price of free speech and freedom of religion for Chinese citizens is extremely high: imprisonment, reeducation in forced labor camps and even death," Sweeney added.

The new television spots urge working families to tell their elected representatives to vote against permanent normal trade relations.

The AFL-CIO's campaign is the first front of a major new multi-year campaign to "make the global economy work for working families." The campaign has four tracks: educating union members and the general public, fighting for workers' rights in the global economy, building global solidarity among working families and holding multinational corporations accountable for their role in speeding up the "race to the bottom."

On Wednesday, April 12, more than 10,000 working men and women will take part in a Washington rally and lobby day to urge Congress to vote against granting permanent normal trade relations for China. Passage of permanent NTR would end the current system of annual reviews by Congress of China's human rights and trade record.

The AFL-CIO will also mobilize working families to join people of faith in the Jubilee 2000 rally on Sunday, April 9 to call for debt relief for developing countries, and join a broad coalition of citizen organizations, students, environmentalists and human rights activists to peacefully protest destructive IMF and World Bank policies on April 16.

For information: Deborah Dion 202-637-5036