HK Prisoners in China Part 4

 

HK Prisoners in China Part 4

A firm believer in the Peking Government's policy of modernization, he also became a consultant to a newly formed Chinese investment company which was set up to attract foreign investment.

A former classmate from the Diocesan Boys' School recalled that Mr. Huang was "extremely intelligent" but "extremely arrogant. He claimed to have known Chinese leader Mr. Deng Xiaoping personally, which somewhat justified his claim of inside knowledge of Chinese affairs. Another former friend said: “There is no way Hanson was a spy. “He was too pro-China and wanted to help China any way he could.”

Like many parents of prisoners who were not informed about their children's incarceration or conviction, Mrs. Huang waited two years before she was allowed to visit her son in his Peking detention center.

She does not believe her son is a spy either. In a recent interview, she is reported to have said prison life does not appear to have affected her son's outlook on life and he has set up a strict reading schedule -- economics and natural science during the day and law and literature at night.

Despite a few grey hairs, he was in good health, she said. Mrs. Huang says she has not sought the help of the Hongkong Government in securing her son's release.

Like Mr. Liu, she is prepared to wait it out. Observers point out the issue of human rights will become increasingly important in Hongkong in the runup to 1997.

"If political prisoners now languishing in China's jails are any indication, imagine the repercussions if the Chinese found out the names of those who are voicing their objections on the joint declaration to the assessment office?" asked one analyst.

Although the joint declaration on Hongkong's future makes it clear individual freedoms will be respected under the United Nations covenant on civil and political rights after 1997, it fails to point out China is not a signatory to this pact. 

“We have to trust the Chinese will respect and observe the covenant as it affects Hongkong residents and so far there is no indication they will not," said a political analyst

Said another: "Even though China's has lagged far behind ours, they could have imposed their own judicial system on us any time they wanted to in the last 35 years.”

“The fact that they didn't must mean something. “

 

Is it merely a paper promise?

 ANN Quon's interesting article (SCM Post, October 7) on Hongkong prisoners in China, is a timely reminder that it would be unwise to assume that the continuation in force, after 1997, of the provisions of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights is an adequate guarantee that the provisions will be respected. 

China's ratification of those covenants might well give greater confidence. But it will still not be a guarantee. Among the list of states that have ratified the covenants, according to Amnesty International's report for 1982, are the Soviet Union, East Germany, Iran and El Salvador.

The message is, as with so many other seemingly reassuring features of the draft agreement, that as soon as it has been signed, Hongkong people have got to organise themselves to make sure that these paper promises become realities.

 JOHN WALDEN

 

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