Organised by ADHDES and Global Governance Institution (GGI) 5th July 2022. 8.00 pm – 10.00 pm.
Notes.
1. Most of the economic and related sanctions in vogue in the world today have been initiated and deployed by the United States in a unilateral manner.
2. The sanctions against China often in the guise of protecting human rights are motivated largely by geopolitical concerns. They are actually meant to undermine China’s dramatic but peaceful rise as a world power in the last 3 decades. The US sees Chinese power as a challenge to its global dominance and control.
3. Apart from targeting what it perceives as a challenge from the world’s largest nation in terms of population, sanctions have also been imposed upon small and medium sized nations for a much longer period if they seek to chart their own paths to the future without kowtowing to the US. Asserting one’s sovereignty and independence in pursuit of one’s national goals is a mortal sin in the eyes of the world’s foremost imperial power. This has been Cuba’s sin since its Revolution in 1959 and it is now the sin of other Latin American states such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Since 1979, Iran has also been under severe US sanctions mainly because after its popular Islamic Revolution it has chosen an independent foreign policy which opposes US’s hegemonic designs in West Asia and elsewhere.
4. It is against this backdrop that one should view the latest US sanction against China in the form of the Uighur Forced Labour Prevention Act which came into force on the 21st of June 2022. This law which prohibits imports into the US of products made in Xinjiang allegedly by forced labour is purportedly aimed at not only safeguarding the rights of Uighurs but also protecting the integrity of US commerce, and by implication, global trade practices.
5. The veracity of the claim that forced labour has been used in Xinjiang has not been established by any independent body. The way in which this claim has been trotted out gives the impression that it is yet another attempt to target and tarnish China’s international image. The primary purpose is to tell the world that China is an oppressive, exploitative state that is contemptuous of minority rights.
6. Attempts by Uighurs living in Xinjiang itself, by the Xinjiang provincial government and the Chinese authorities to tell their side of the story in the American and Western media have been sidestepped. Indeed, on the Uighur situation as a whole there has been a great deal of misinformation, distortion and lies generated by a segment of the Western NGO community which have been repeated ad nauseam by NGOs in the non-Western world. This propaganda serves a larger geopolitical goal that we have already alluded to.
7. How should the victims of sanctions respond to this challenge? Telling the truth about the real situation whether it is about the Uighurs or the Tibetans or about Hong Kong or about Taiwan- China relations or about China’s trade or its technology is part of the solution. This goes for other victims of unilateral sanctions also such as Cuba and Iran. Counter lies with facts and figures. Use rational arguments against biased, self-serving propaganda. Of course, this in itself may not be enough in a situation where the global flow of news and information is controlled by the hegemon and its allies.
8. Independent analysts and intellectuals also have a big role to play. They should have the courage and the conviction to take principled positions on major global issues and challenges. The manipulation of sanctions by powerful political actors which has been going on for ages demands an honest response from intellectuals. When we know that sanctions have brought widespread suffering and misery to millions in so many parts of the world, we have no choice but to speak up. Silence in the midst of such tragedies is not only a betrayal of our own conscience but worse, it is treachery of the most despicable kind committed against the weak and vulnerable wherever they are.
9. Combating sanctions also demands that we re-appraise and reform the procedures and processes that we employ to impose sanctions especially through the United Nations. It is only the UN General Assembly that should have the authority to propose and apply sanctions upon any entity. The UN Security Council with its veto-wielding permanent members should not exercise this power. And even in the General Assembly, 90% of the members should support a motion to impose sanctions before it becomes reality. Sanctions should be seen as a coercive measure of last resort used in an extraordinary situation against a recalcitrant individual, institution or state that cannot be persuaded or coaxed to adhere to minimal standards of justice upheld by the rest of the human family. In recent history, the almost unanimous support for sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa would be a case in point.
10. Sanctions would become a rarity, if everyone is committed to the well-being of everyone else through deeds rather than words. Equality and justice would become living norms. In such a world, sanctions will not impede the free flow of goods and services. No hegemonic power would divide the human family. There would be equitable access to the resources of the good earth —- the good earth that will be the sacred responsibility of all creation.
Dr Chandra Muzaffar,
Malaysia.
4th July 2022.