Resisting Evil

As China prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games, it is time to examine China's horrendous human rights record. The repressive Chinese regime intends to use the Olympic Games as propaganda, as a means of gaining worldwide recognition and legitimacy. It is also a perfect opportunity to showcase Chinese attrocities.

Darfur:

Since 2003, between 200 000 and 400 000 thousands black Africans have been murdered by the state-sponsored Arab janjaweed militiamen in Darfur. Thousands have been slaughtered or raped, villages have been razed and horrible war crimes have been committed. A strong UN force is needed to stop the genocide in Darfur. The Sudanese President has repeatedly refused to allow an international force into Darfur, preposterously claiming that it is an attempt to recolonize the country. He has been able to get away with this largely because China, a permanent member of the Security Council, continues to protect him with the threat of using its veto. China, in an attempt to fuel its booming economy, is desperate for new sources of resources. China is trying to diversify its oil sources beyond the crisis- prone Middle East, and Africa is one obvious alternative. Already, 7 percent of China's imported oil comes from Sudan.

Sending international forces to protect Darfur, over the protest of Sudan's government, conjures up fears in Beijing of a UN force intervening in Tibet. China's continued support for the Sudanese president and refusal to condemn the ethnic cleansing in Darfur is one of the primary obstacles in ending the wanton slaughter.


Organ Harvesting:

In 2006, a report emerged that China was harvesting organs- lungs, hearts, kidneys, livers, etc.- from healthy prisoners, and Falun Gong sect members, and selling them at exorbitant prices to keep its lucrative organ market operating. Some dismissed this as slander. In response, the Canadian government appointed two respected attorneys, David Matas and David Kilgour, to investigate the allegations. On May 8, 2006, their submitted report confirmed the worst: that thousands of healthy prisoners were being slaughtered in order to harvest their organs.

Rabbi David Druckman, the Chief Rabbi of the northern city of Kiryat Motzkin and an outspoken opponent of Land of Israel withdrawals, says Jews must take the lead in condemning China for its murder of prisoners of conscience in order to harvest their organs.

"The atrocity is so great," Rabbi Druckman says on a recently released video, "that there are simply no words to express it. From a certain standpoint it is even worse than what the Nazis did... to cut organs from people under the cover of medical help for other people is simply astonishing and shocking from every human vantage point."

"It is especially incumbent upon us as Jews to lead the campaign that expresses total disgust at this phenomenon," Rabbi Druckman says. "Especially us, the Jewish Nation, that suffered the crimes of the Nazis, may their names be blotted out, and those of the Communists under Stalin - who can stand by and comprehend the world's silence at all this?"


Burma:

Burma has one of the worst human rights records in the world. According to one report, "The Burmese military regime is allowing its troops systematically and on a widespread scale to commit rape with impunity in order to terrorize and subjugate the ethnic peoples" in the country's northeast. It is ruled by a brutal military junta and the people suffer tremendous repression. The international community has threatened to sanction the oil-rich kingdom but to no avail as the West has little leverage over Burma. But China does. China is the country's biggest investor, major consumer of its resources, and primary arms supplier, and thousands of Chinese laborers have flowed into the country. Because of Chinese economic interests in Burma, China supports a regime that oppresses its own people and has killed tens of pro-democracy protesters.

Tibet:

In 1949-1950, Chinese troops were sent in to occupy Tibet. In the following years, the Chinese set out to destroy and eradicate Tibetan culture and history. 1.2 million Tibetans, one-fifth of the country's population, died as a result of China's policies; many more languished in prisons and labor camps; and more than 6000 monasteries, temples and other cultural and historic buildings were destroyed and their contents pillaged. There has been a huge influx of ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet and in certain regions, Chinese outnumber Tibetans two to one. This population shift is an attempt by the Chinese to weaken Tibet's autonomy and identity and to erase Tibetan culture. Unarmed demonstrators have been shot without warning by Chinese police on five occasions between 1987 and 1989. Amnesty International believes that at least 200 civilians were killed by the security forces during demonstrations in this period. There are also reports of detainees being summarily executed. Chinese has replaced Tibetan as Tibet's official language. Tibetan speakers find it increasingly hard to find employment in Tibetan. Religious practice was forcibly suppressed until 1979, and up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines have been destroyed. Resettlement of Chinese migrants has placed Tibetans in the minority in many areas, including Lhasa, causing chronic unemployment among Tibetans. In 1990, the Chinese admitted that there were 44,000 Chinese in Lhasa and around 80,000 in the whole of the TAR. But independent observers believe the figure is in fact far higher. In the east Tibetan border provinces of Kham and Amdo, the Chinese outnumber Tibetans many times over. China is currently violently suppressing Tibetan protester.

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China's human right abuses are really not surpising given China's atheist Communist ideology. Communism is doctrinally opposed to G-d and religion. [Consider China's campaign of repression against Tibetan and Burmese Buddhists or of Chinese Christians.] Communism believes that everything can be reduced to economic worth, therefore a human being has a purely economic value, and an undesirable such as a Falun Gong adherent, a Tibetan monk or a political dissident, has thousands of dollars worth of organs to be harvested. According to their perverted philosphy, humans have no inherent value and are disposable should an individual oppose the policies of the Chinese government.

Such was the belief on many ancient societies. The Greeks used to dispose of unwanted or weak babies by leaving them to die on abandonned mountains or forests. Thousands endured horrific conditions in Egyptian, Greek or Roman slavery. And along came the Jews with a new system of morality. This system was based on the Torah, which gives humans spiritual value due to their creation in the image of G-d. The sanctity of human life is inviolable because it is divine in origin.

Jews are commanded to disseminate the Universal Noahide Laws around the world. One is them is the prohibition against murder, which many have unfortunately forgotten. It is a religious duty for every Jew, and Noahide, to oppose China's evil human rights abuses.

Rabbi Druckman says: "When there is evil in the world, every person with a human conscience, and every person with intelligence, must protest against it... Jewish Law requires of us to spread values of faith in the Creator and of maintaining the human image throughout the world. The same Torah that tells us to keep the Sabbath and to eat only Kosher food, also requires that we influence all of mankind - as is written, 'From Zion shall go forth Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem.'"

"We must also do whatever will result in a sharp condemnation of these animals that are doing these things in China. This will help raise the standard of the entire human race in the world, and the more the world improves and becomes more gentle, this will bring us closer to the Redemption and the arrival of the Just Redeemer."

As the Olympic torch travels around the world, let us light a different type of torch. Let us light a torch of human rights, of being "a light unto the nations". Let us illuminate the world with the timeless and eternal wisdom of the Torah. May the day come when nations shall not lift up swords against other nations, neither shall they learn war anymore. Amen.

Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake