How To Avoid China's PR Machine: Daily Brief

How can diplomats engage with the Chinese government without becoming a tool for its propaganda machine? First, tone matters: Don’t pose for a smiling photo with a representative of a government that is committing crimes against humanity such as mass arbitrary detention, torture, and cultural persecution against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.  Second, don’t let the Chinese embassy tell only one side of the story: Release a statement explaining the issues raised. When China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, met with senior staff from Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, the embassy publicized that the ambassador asked the broadcaster to “report on China-Australia relations more rationally and objectively.” The ABC later revealed it had actually asked Xiao to allow a correspondent to return to China, after their previous reporter had to flee the country due to fears he would be detained. Third, challenge the Chinese government on misleading claims: At a University of Technology in Sydney event, Xiao responded to a question about Xinjiang saying that “Xinjiang is not a question of the so-called human rights or freedom. It’s a question of national unity or separatism … [N]ecessary measures are being taken in the interest of both the people in Xinjiang and also the people in China.” This blatant falsehood went unchallenged by the discussion moderator.  

China has become a human rights black hole under the Xi Jinping regime. Read this op-ed by Human Rights Watch experts Mei Fong and Yaqiu Wang on another problem, the country's population crisis: "It feels like we have been documenting the melting of glaciers; a calamity, but a slow-moving one. For the past six years China moved swiftly from a one- to two- to three-child policy only to be met with plummeting birth rates. Every marker of demographic decline is a reminder of why regulating family size by force is a human rights disaster."

Egypt is another example of a country with a terrible human rights record. The regime uses arbitrary travel bans to target key members of civil society for their peaceful work, including rights lawyers, journalists, feminists, and researchers. The bans, which authorities usually do not formally announce and provide no clear way to challenge in court, have separated families, damaged careers, and harmed the mental health of those subjected to them. “Arbitrary and open-ended travel bans enable the Egyptian authorities to impose a life-altering system of punishment that is barely visible to anyone except those whose lives they are destroying,” says James Lynch, director of FairSquare. “The bans have allowed Egypt to silently pummel its critics without fear of attracting the ire of its donors and supporters in London, Paris, and Washington, DC. Egypt needs to end these arbitrary abusive practices immediately.”

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion when the court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional guarantee of abortion access in the United States, is sounding alarm bells for LGBT rights advocates. It should. At protests across the US, signs have warned: “they won’t stop at Roe.” HRW's expert Ryan Thoreson agrees: "The conservative Supreme Court has shown it cares little for precedent or restraint." Want to know more? Read his op-ed published by The Advocate.

Poland has ended its state of emergency, reopening a strip of land parallel to its border with Belarus to outsiders. This “exclusionary zone” created 10 months ago, blocked aid groups, media, and civil society groups from seeing what happened in this stretch of the border, where migrants and asylum seekers often attempt to cross into the European Union. The state of emergency also made it a crime to help people stranded in the forest. While the end of the state of emergency is a positive development, the humanitarian crisis on the border continues. Poland’s authorities should act to protect the rights of these migrants and asylum seekers. Instead, restrictions to entry remain in the area 200 meters from the Belarus border, and the construction of a 187 kilometer-long wall along this border is nearly complete.

Policy wonks like to have a theory of change. If X and Y happen, then Z will be achieved. For Sudan, the United States government's theory of change seems to go like this: If we support a deal among the Sudanese military who took power back by force and political elites, we will see civilian-led democracy come to Sudan. "That's magical thinking," writes HRW's deputy Washington D.C. director Nicole Widdersheim in an op-ed published by Newsweek. "U.S. officials believe that the same military actors who staged a coup to stop democracy will now give up power with no deterrents or financial costs. One thing I've learned over 20 years working on Sudan is that its leaders play the long game. They're already finding ways to deflect pressure from the international community. The United States welcomes small cosmetic actions, while real change remains elusive."

And there's good news regarding the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar and human rights. Several media outlets have reported that Hugo Lloris, captain of the French team, Harry Kane, captain of the England team, and Christian Eriksen, a top player from Denmark, are discussing a possible collective action for human rights during the World Cup.