wfn.org | Lutheran Academic Calls for a New Approach

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

16-July-1997 
97279 
 
    Lutheran Academic Calls for a New Approach 
    on Human Rights in China 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
HONG KONG--An Asian Christian academic urged churches and governments July 
10 not to engage in direct confrontation with the Beijing government over 
human rights violations. If people won the trust and friendship of China 
first, he said, then they would find they had much more success in dialogue 
on sensitive issues. 
 
    Choong Chee Pang, professor of New Testament studies at Trinity 
Theological College, Singapore, and, since 1988, visiting professor at 
Beijing University, told journalists at a press conference held during the 
ninth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, which is taking place in 
Hong Kong:  "Chinese [people], like most Asians, do not appreciate direct 
confrontation. I would like to see the West, especially government leaders, 
working for mutual trust with China. Once they trust you, it is easier to 
challenge them." 
 
    Choong, who grew up in West Malaysia and is an ordained  Lutheran of 
Chinese descent, said to the journalists and in his keynote address to the 
Assembly today that questions over human rights in Asia  were often 
perceived by Asians as a product of Western attitudes. 
 
    "The perceived Western preoccupation with the issue has undoubtedly 
jeopardized the universal nature of its principle as well as the validity 
of its application. Moreover, the human rights record of the West, both 
historically and morally speaking, has not been too impressive either. 
Neither have its standard and practice been very consistent." 
 
    Choong admitted, when questioned by journalists, that there were human 
rights violations in China. He added that these caused him concern but 
"everything has to be set in the relevant context."  Compared to the 
situation in China in the 1950s and '60s, especially during the Cultural 
Revolution (1966-76), the present government's record was reasonable, he 
said. 
 
    Choong urged the Assembly to handle the Chinese human rights issue with 
"great care and sensitivity ... in order to avoid unnecessary 
misunderstanding and misinterpretation."  He later told journalists that 
churches' comments on the issue would be more useful "if we can give 
China the impression that we are concerned as human beings and not taking 
up [human rights] on behalf of Washington or London." 
 
    Asked about difficulties faced by some Christians on the Chinese 
mainland, he said part of the problem was "inconsistent" implementation at 
a local level of directives from the government's Bureau of Religious 
Affairs in Beijing. 
 
     He added that Christians did not pose any major problem for Beijing. 
"Socially, culturally and politically, [the government] is more concerned 
about Tibet and about the Islamic insurgence and its links with Islam 
internationally."  
 
 

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