Friday, October 10, 2003

By Genevieve Long
Guest Columnist

A delegation of Chinese officials paid a special visit last month to the state of Washington and members of the Washington State China Relations Council. Led by Liu Jingmin, vice mayor of Beijing and chairman of the Beijing Olympic Committee of the 2008 Games, they were granted audiences with some of the most powerful politicians and business people in our state. The topic of discussion? Lucrative investment opportunities arising in concert with the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Backed by the council and such members as Microsoft, The Boeing Co., the Port of Seattle and the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, Washington is no stranger to two-way trade with China. It is a partnership that is political, cultural and most important, economic. Past experiences have led to more than financial returns and stronger intercultural ties for both sides; they have whetted the appetites of business leaders and public officials.

Yet if the financial and political leaders of Washington are to be so closely involved with investing the fiscal and moral capital of the people of the state in China, then the people deserve to know what they are buying into. The Olympics were conceived as a way to build bridges between world cultures, and the host country should represent the best of humanity and the spirit of brotherhood the Olympics fosters.

China consistently has demonstrated a lack of interest in a rule of international morality, even refusing to ratify international human rights agreements that would protect the lives and interests of the Chinese people. Instead, China has invested untold sums of money in persecuting innocent people, the starkest example being the four-year-plus government-sanctioned campaign to "eradicate" the peaceful meditation practice Falun Gong (also
known as Falun Dafa).

All forms of media, the police and military, all branches of government and social organizations have been used in this one-sided war against innocent people. Such vigilance requires massive amounts of capital, of which a great deal has come directly from overseas investment from such places as Washington state.

Washington's status as one of the most trade-dependent states in the nation places it high on the list of those helping to directly finance the persecution of Falun Gong and those who practice it. This is dangerous for the future of the people of the state. And it is dangerous for Falun Gong practitioners being targeted in China.

Let us hope that, during the Chinese delegation's visit to discuss investment plans in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, our leaders had the courage to ask where the money will truly be spent.

Genevieve Long lives in Olympia. Submissions for Our Place in the World, of up to 600 words, can be e-mailed to [email protected]; faxed to 206-448-8184 or mailed to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, P.O. Box 1909, Seattle, WA 98111-1909.

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