March 13, 1998
ON MY MIND / By A.M. ROSENTHAL
A Tour of China
In October 1994, when President
Clinton was packing for a trip to
Syria, I prepared and printed a proposed tour for him, in Damascus or
an easy limousine ride away.
But Mr. Clinton was very busy,
closeted with the local dictator and
so adding to Syria's prestige, even
though the country was on the U.S.
terrorist list. That was certainly a
neat trick to accomplish.
But unfortunately it meant that the
President had to miss all my suggestions -- such as visiting nearby terrorist camps, looking around the town
where his host had slaughtered 20,000
of his countrymen, and dropping in at
Saha al-Ta'dhib. That is a suite of
torture chambers in Damascus, one
of the best equipped in the Mideast,
complete with a chair to which a
prisoner is strapped while a heated
metal skewer is thrust into his anus.
I did not get a word of thanks, but
never mind, that's blood under the
bridge, and I have worked out another
good trip for him, in China. He is
planning to go in June instead of November, because China is getting
antsy about pressure from Congress
and American churches against its
human rights brutalities; Mr. Clinton
is not happy when China is not happy.
One interesting thing for Mr. Clinton would be to see various demonstrations on increasing work production.
He could find them all around
China, including Beijing, at thousands of prison labor camps.
Names, addresses and the products they make, which earn billions
for the Government and military
budgets, are in a 141-page handbook
on the laogai, the Chinese gulag. It is
the work of Harry Wu, who spent 19
years in the camps for thinking unofficial thoughts. Now he lives in California, when he is not risking his
head by sneaking back into the
camps for more exposés.
Mr. Clinton, for instance, can see
the huge variety of cuffs and screws
for hands, thumbs and genitals, leg
irons weighing up to 60 pounds and
the world's finest electric prods. And
he would quite charm the guards by
asking for a demonstration of menbanliao -- wooden doors laid on four
low legs. Political prisoners or Chinese rounded up for slave work are
shackled flat and immobile, for
hours or days.
Gui ban, or "down on knees whipping," is available everywhere for
the President to see, and so is guihua
deng, chaining a prisoner over a full
toilet bucket for the night.
Since the President is a regular
churchgoer, the tour includes religion. He can go to a church where
clerics and services are regulated by
the Chinese Communist Party; he
will be richly photographed. Or he
can search out a "house" church, one
of the thousands of underground
churches attended by Christians who
insist on worshiping as they were
taught and believe.
Yes, the members, and clergy, of
that church will be arrested, as are
all known faithful of underground
churches. But he would be out of the
country by then so the arrests cannot
be included in the tour schedule.
He might visit the Marian shrine
at Donglu, where tens of thousands of
Catholics go on pilgrimage. That is,
where there used to be a shrine and
pilgrims used to come.
In 1995, soldiers in armored cars
and helicopters swept into Donglu,
destroyed the shrine, arrested two
bishops, banned pilgrimages and
made the area a closed military zone.
Foreigners entering the Donglu area
are detained, but that definitely would
not happen to Mr. Clinton.
The Donglu raid took place well
after Mr. Clinton embarked on a new
policy of pressuring China on human
rights: Stuff China with scores of
billions in U.S. trade and investment,
honor the political and military leaders, pretend we believe that they have
not been selling missiles and other
tech weaponry to America's enemies.
Certainly no visit would be complete without a trip to Tibet, where
there is so much to see.
Of course, after a half-century of
the Chinese occupation, there is less
to see -- like the thousands of temples that have been burned down,
and the million Tibetans who have
been killed or driven out to be replaced by Chinese colonists.
About the Balkans that is called
genocide and ethnic cleansing. About
Tibet Washington does not put a
name to it.
But after his trip, perhaps the President could think of the right words
about what has happened to Tibet, to
his pledge to fight for human rights in
China, and to himself.