China Has History of Ignoring Treaties -- Beijing Agents Blackmail Japanese Diplomat

In addition to not respecting basic human rights(1), the People's Republic of China (PRC) also seems to have a problem with following the treaties they enter into.(2) According to the facts, as uncovered by Japanese authorities, the PRC has violated the Vienna Convention governing the treatment of diplomats.(2) Specifically, "[o]ne of the convention's clauses says: 'The receiving state shall treat consular officers with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their person, freedom or dignity.'"(3) Chinese intelligence officers were actively blackmailing a Japanese diplomat, and that eventually led to his suicide in 2004.(4)

And this is only one of such treaty violations. "During [violent protests in April of 2005], the Chinese police did not take measures to prevent the demonstrators carrying out such acts, in an abandonment of the country's duty to protect diplomatic establishments, as stipulated in the Vienna Convention."(5) The government of the PRC does not stop at just omission or covert blackmail when it comes to violating the convention; they are not shy about brazenly entering a consulate with armed forces in broad daylight. "In May 2002, Chinese armed police officers entered the Japanese Consulate General in Shenygang, China, to seize North Korean asylum seekers, in violation of diplomatic immunity at foreign establishment. The Chinese government has never apologized for the incident, and no settlement has been made between the two governments over the matter." (6) And why shouldn't they do this? The United States government keeps giving them what they want. What is their incentive to change their behavior?
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(1) See: Ho, Stephanie. "Zhao Ziyang Described as Reluctant Reformist Warrior," Voice of America, 2005 January 19, paragraphs 11 & 12, http://128.11.143.114/english/archive/2005-01/
2005-01-19-voa4.cfm?CFID=6610905&CFTOKEN=95051560 (last accessed 2006 April 01) [The PRC maintains that the military crackdown on the "counter-revolutionary rebellion" at Tiananmen Square was the correct policy]; Sky Staff Reporters. "Six Die In Rural Protest," Sky News, 2005 June 17, http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13371337,00.html (last accessed 2006 April 01) [The PRC used armed enforcers to forcibly remove unarmed peasant farmers from their own land, 6 were murdered and 50 were injured in this fashion]; and Taylor, John. "Panchen Lama remembered," ABC Radio National: Correspondents Report (Australia), 2005 May 22, http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2004/s1373897.htm (last accessed 2006 April 01) [In 1995, PRC authorities kidnapped a six-year-old "boy endorsed by the Dalai Lama as the re-incarnation of Tibet's second highest spiritual leader, the Panchen Lama." Neither he, nor his family have been seen since; "[h]e's been called the youngest political prisoner in the world]."
(2) Yomiuri Staff Writers, "China threatened diplomat / Envoy's notes suggest Chinese agents pushed him to suicide," Yomiuri Shimbun, 2006 April 01, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20060401TDY03003.htm (last accessed 2006 April 01).
(3) Ibid. at paragraph 5.
(4) Ibid. at paragraphs 6-8, & 12.
(5) Ibid. at paragraphs 16-18.
(6) Ibid. at paragraph 21.

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 10:05 AM

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