What’s Next for the Chinese Regime After Libyan Sanctions?

When Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi turned the military on anti-government demonstrators, he justified it with the Chinese regime’s deadly crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy protestors in 1989. On Saturday, the Chinese regime supported a United Nations Security Council resolution to sanction Gaddafi for his actions. These include a referral to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for investigations on the killing of civilians.

[David Kilgour, Canadian Human Rights Lawyer]:
“They voted for it. But I am sure they weren’t happy about it. They were, of course, worried that [the sanctions] might someday be applied to them.”

The Chinese regime has long opposed U.N. intervention in the domestic matters of countries. This is mainly because it doesn’t want its own actions against civilians to be scrutinized. In 1989, the Chinese Communist Party rolled tanks into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to crush an uprising by students who demanded democracy and reform. Since then, the regime has continued to abuse the rights of citizens, such as practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, Tibetans and Uyghurs and has forced women to have abortions under its one child policy, to name a few.

Chief Editor of Beijing Spring Magazine Hu Ping believes the Chinese regime had no choice but to vote with the United Nations.

[Hu Ping, Chief Editor of Beijing Spring Magazine]:
“If [the Chinese regime] doesn’t support the resolution, it would be binding itself to Gaddafi, and would become the target of international condemnation. In voting for the resolution, the regime has effectively admitted what the government did in 1989 was a crime against humanity, which should also be held accountable in the International Criminal Court.”

With a vote for sanctions on Libya, the Chinese regime may have paved the way for it to ultimately be held accountable for its own human rights violations.

Foto: NTD