China fails to silence Montreal woman at UN
Daughter pleads for release of democracy leader jailed 12 years ago
OTTAWA — China has failed to silence a Montreal woman who made an impassioned plea to the United Nations for the freedom of her father, a democracy leader who’s been in solitary confinement for half her life.
The poignant moment unfolded before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, which has been holding hearings this week about human rights abuses in China.
“I’m the daughter of a Chi- nese political prisoner,” TiAnna Wang calmly told the large meeting hall this week. “I wish to use my family’s experience to draw this council’s attention to the situation of human rights in China.”
Wang, a Montreal-born McGill University graduate, has been a tireless campaigner for her father, Dr. Wang Bingzhang, who was given a life sentence in 2002 after trying to foster democracy in China from abroad.
The hearings were part of the UN’s periodic review of the rights records of member states, and this continuing re- view has sparked complaints from Beijing that the process has been unfair.
“He is the father of the overseas China democracy movement,” said Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a respected human rights advocate who has also worked for Wang’s release. “He is, in a sense, the poster child for the China democracy movement.”
Wang said her father was abducted while travelling in Vietnam and taken to China.
“He was tried, falsely convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. It’s now been 12 years, and my father is still behind bars, in solitary confinement,” Wang said.
Wang, who is 24, said she wanted to express her “sincere gratitude” to the Chinese government for the recent transfer of her father to another prison, where she said his treatment and conditions had improved significantly.
“But still, my heart is broken from the last 12 years of my father’s imprisonment,” Wang said, before she was cut off by the Chinese representative to the council.
The Chinese delegate said he objected to Wang’s statements. He said Wang should not be allowed to address specific cases, such as her father’s, but should only be allowed to speak generally about human rights.
The representatives of Cuba, Pakistan, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia offered their support.
The United States and Britain defended Wang’s right to speak, and were backed by France, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Canada did not enter the fray.
The U.S. delegate, who led Wang’s defence, said it “was essential that civil society voices be heard here in an atmosphere of open expression.”