Human Rights Watch believes that broader trade with China
can be consistent with advancing human rights, but only if it is
combined with effective, sustained pressure on China to respect
basic civil and political rights.
Questions for EU-China Dialogue, October, 2000
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The WTO and China
WTO membership in itself will not guarantee the rule of law, respect for
worker rights, or meaningful political reform.
Questions for EU-China Dialogue
Ocotber, 2000
Human rights and China's Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
As a WTO member, China will commit itself to respecting global trading rules. This is a step towards China's integration into the international system regulating not only trade relations but also governments' treatment of their own citizens. Restructuring China's economy to fit WTO standards will give a boost to those within China arguing that it must further open up both politically and economically if it is to be a respected member of the international community.
But WTO membership will not itself lead to political changes. It could be an important catalyst for change over the long run if combined with consistent pressure from outside China. For instance, greater transparency in economic matters could increase demands and expectations from within China for more openness in other areas.
China is a long way from having a legal and court system that functions independently of the Party and the State. Demands to modernize China's legal system to handle commercial disputes, protect contracts and combat corruption could help lay the groundwork for an independent judiciary and the rule of law that might extend to the political and security realms. As the World Bank has pointed out, "economic reforms have made legal rules matter" in China.
The closing of thousands of state-run enterprises -- there are currently about 300,000, nearly half of them industrial -- could push workers to insist on greater collective decision-making on workplace issues and the need for a social safety net. They may increasingly insist on exercising the worker rights guaranteed in the U.N. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (China signed this treaty in October 1997, but has not yet ratified it.) The official national employment rate is about eight percent, and in some rural areas it's much higher. A rise in the unemployment rate may create more instability in the short run, with the authorities clamping down on attempts by workers to organize. But eventually the government may be forced to create channels for workers to negotiate over their grievances. The alternative to allowing greater freedom of association is to risk disaffected workers turning against the state.
But I must emphasize that WTO membership in itself will not guarantee the rule of law, respect for worker rights, or meaningful political reform. Economic openness could be accompanied by tight restrictions on basic freedoms and a lack of governmental accountability. The Chinese government might seek to build the rule of law in the economic sphere while simultaneously continuing to pervert and undermine the rule of law elsewhere. For example, Chinese authorities claim to be upholding the "rule of law" by arresting and throwing in jail pro-democracy activists, and the nationwide crackdown on the Falun Gong movement has been cloaked in rhetoric about the "rule of law."
We believe the U.S. and China's other major trading partners must increase pressure on Beijing for significant improvements in human rights. It makes little sense to bring China into the WTO and expect it to abide by global trading rules when Beijing flaunts international rules of human rights with impunity. China must be moved to go beyond opening its markets to opening its jails, easing restrictions on the press and the Internet, and protecting the rights of workers, Tibetans, Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.
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