Bertie turns a blind eye in China
There is no difference between Ireland's and China's obligations on human rights, or their understanding of them. To suggest otherwise is utterly disingenuous.
Tens of thousands of people continue to be detained or imprisoned in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and association. They include doctors who want to highlight the enormous threat of HIV/AIDS and people who simply want to practice their Christian, Muslim or other faiths.
In all cases, such people are at serious risk of torture, ill-treatment and even death while imprisoned. In many ways the situation is, if anything, getting worse.
Also bear in mind that China executes more than 10,000 people every year. Tax fraud is punishable by death.
The arguments the Taoiseach raised relating to the cultural relativism of human rights have long been discredited. China signed up to the Vienna Declaration after the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 and formally recommitted to the universality of rights.
The Taoiseach should have asked Ding Zilin, one of the Mothers of Tiananmen, who was detained last March in an attempt to silence her quest for justice, if she accepts the argument that she should enjoy less human rights than Irish people do.
And to use these flawed assumptions to suggest that the time is coming to end the EU arms embargo imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre is seriously misplaced.
No one has been held to account by the Chinese government for the thousands of people killed, injured or arbitrarily detained. Unknown numbers are still in detention and, as we know, political detention in China generally involves torture and inhuman treatment.
The terror of Tiananmen hasn't gone away in fact it is being reproduced daily in many parts of the country, such as Henan, Tibet and Uighur. In that sense, nothing has changed in China since 1989.
Yes to engaging with China, yes to developing as positive a relationship as possible, including trade and educational exchanges.
But please don't misrepresent or ignore the plight of millions of people who are depending on us to influence change.
Ireland's relationship with China is not only about money, and our Taoiseach should not pretend that changes have taken place when they categorically have not done so.
Colm Ó Cuanacháin
Secretary General
Amnesty International
Irish Section
48 Fleet Street
Dublin 2
