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Rights On: A private Chinese-Vietn



The VNese who wants to see freedom and democracy in their own
country should try to help the Burmese freedom fighters, the
Chinese freedom fighters, the Laos freedom fighters, the
Cambodian freedom fighters.  But uniting, we have better chance
to force the changes.  By working together maybe we can create
the trend that would effect the changes everywhere in Asia.

If China becomes democratic, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam
would have no choice but also become democratic, or at least
be on that way.

(posted on soc.culture.burma 
[vacets-gen] - Mesg from Hai Tran <haitran@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

=====================================================

Far Eastern Economoc Review
Editorial


Rights On
A private Chinese-Vietnamese rapprochement

April 30, 1998

Wei Jingsheng knows a fellow traveller when he sees one. In
scarcely two weeks' time, China's most prominent dissident will be in
Washington to address a May 11 Vietnam Human Rights Day rally that
will also feature Dr. Sein Winn of Burma and two Nobel laureates. The
choice of date is no accident: It was on this day in 1990 that Dr.
Nguyen Dan Que founded the Non-Violent Movement for Human
Rights in Ho Chi Minh City and issued a manifesto expressing the
group's peaceful and democratic purposes. One month later he was
arrested and clapped into prison. The rally is to remind the world that
Vietnam remains a nasty place for people like Dr. Que.

Nearly a year ago, Madeleine Albright pressed unsuccessfully for Dr.
Que's release, along with two fellow democrats: Doan Viet Hoat, a
professor, and Thich Quang Do, secretary-general of the United
Buddhist Church. But Mr. Wei's appearance on Dr. Que's behalf
suggests a new wrinkle. Back when Ho Chi Minh was travelling the
world to rally support for the fight against the French, communism
thought of itself as an international brotherhood whose real interests
did not stop at national boundaries. Yet at the dawn of the 21st
century it is the communist nations--North Korea, Vietnam and
China--who rank among the region's most narrow and xenophobic, as
jealous of their prerogatives as any colonial power.

In contrast, the internationalist pressure is coming from the trade and
human-rights camps. Now, we concede that all too many of those
pushing for the latter think the way to do it is to restrict the former.

This, however, is a question of means, not ends. Indeed, we continue
to believe that though government-to-government pressure a la
Secretary Albright has its place, markets have historically proved a
more potent tonic--especially if the goal is inducing a long-term
change in the socio-political landscape (such as the transformation of
Taiwan) as opposed to extracting a short-term concession (e.g., this
month's release of dissident Wang Dan).

Already this is creating real commonalities of region-wide interests.
Just as Asia's businessmen have long since recognized that their own
prosperity increasingly depends on region-wide improvements,
human-rights proponents appreciate the cause of freedom is mutually
reinforcing, whether it involves a Dr. Que in Vietnam, a Wang Dan in
China or an Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. This may not sound like
much, but the cooperation and clarity it has inspired among Asia's
business and human-rights communities stand in stark contrast to the
mostly empty gestures of government-led Asian groupings from Apec
to Asean.

No one expects, of course, that Mr. Wei's appearance on Dr. Que's
behalf is likely to persuade Vietnam to reconsider. But the symbolism
of China's most popular democrat making common cause with his
Vietnamese counterparts is hard to escape. Uncle Ho, a prisoner once
himself, would not have dismissed it lightly.






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