There is a huge party going on in China: Xi wants us to join
A reply to the Chinese Communist Party’s invitation to join its 100th birthday party
By Charles Parton
Reprinted from the Telegraph UK
It would be greatly appreciated if you could stop putting the Uyghurs in concentration camps and committing crimes against humanity. 7/2/2021 A reply to the Chinese Communist Party’s invitation to join its 100th birthday party
In May President Xi Jinping called upon the Chinese Communist Party to become ‘more lovable’. As the 100th anniversary of its founding approaches, the Party’s International Department, which is important in setting foreign policy, has been following up Xi’s call.
Its think tank, the China Center for Contemporary World Studies, sent a letter to foreign counterparts asking them to congratulate the CPC on the 100th anniversary. In its words: “We're expecting congratulatory letters from our partners and friends around the world.
We suppose your institution would be among those organizations that congratulate us
A reply to the Chinese Communist Party’sinvitation to join its100th birthday party It would be greatly appreciated if you could stop putting the Uyghurs in concentration camps and committing crimes against humanity.
We look forward to receiving your congratulation and hosting you in person in the near future!” Helpfully, it suggested topics for inclusion: the Party’s success in poverty alleviation and in controlling Covid, its advances in ‘diplomacy with Chinese features, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Party’s role in building a ‘new type of international relations and community with a shared future for mankind’.
Besides those topics we are encouraged to share ‘other topics of your interest that you deem crucial for furthering our cooperation and building a better world for all’.
One should not be churlish about such a request.
After all, in 2034, the Conservative Party will celebrate its 200th anniversary. Perhaps we can prevail upon the Center to send a congratulatory letter. In this spirit, here is draft letter of congratulation to the Center: "Thank you so much for alerting us to the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party and for the encouragement to write.
As it happens, I do have a few comments for your consideration on how to further cooperation and build a better world. In no particular order: ADVERTISING 7/2/2021 A reply to the Chinese Communist Party’s invitation to join its 100th birthday party
- Might the Party be more transparent, particularly on the matter of the origin of the Covid virus? This would help the world to prepare its defences against any future pandemic and perhaps the bigger threat of anti-microbial resistance.
- It would be greatly appreciated if you could stop putting the Uyghurs in concentration camps and committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and Tibet. The same applies to slave labour.
- The Party puts a lot of effort and resources into influence work. Nothing wrong with that. We all do it. It’s called public diplomacy. But just as you vociferously demand, might you stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, in our academic freedoms, politics, media?
- When it comes to furthering cooperation and building a better world, how about ceasing to claim islands and waters in the South China Sea which abut other countries, but which are a thousand miles from China? And militarising them? Neither international law nor common sense recognise the so-called ‘nine dash line’, which was drawn on an old map in 1946 by some of Chiang Kai-shek’s ministries. That does not constitute ‘historic rights’, but it does lead to tension in the waterways through which a third of the world’s trade passes
. - And could you perhaps allow 24 million people on Taiwan to decide their own future? Your perpetual president keeps talking about 'people centred governance’. Isn't the essence of that allowing them to decide freely how they might want to live?
- You will understand that, as a Brit, I have to mention Hong Kong. We signed the Joint Declaration with you in 1984 and it is an international treaty lodged at the United Nations. Abiding by international obligations is a good way of ‘furthering cooperation and building a better world’. ‘One country, two systems’ was an innovative approach. Is it too late to return to it? - A small thing, but might you tone down the hypocrisy? It grates.
- And while I appreciate the sentiment in wishing to host me in the near future, you will perhaps understand that while my friend Michael Kovrig languishes in jail for the third year as a hostage, I think I'll pass up on the invitation for the moment. Actually, it would be reassuring to all of us foreigners, if you released both Canadians, a brace of Australians, Yang Hengjun and Cheng lei, as well as a couple of other foreigners whose freedom has been curtailed. What we ex-diplomats call CBMs - confidence building measures
Finally, don't worry, we do love you, although, goodness, you do make it hard. Some years ago one of your diplomats had to behave badly with me over a human rights problem. As he walked me to the ministry’s door, he whispered, "But you do understand that we are professional, don't you?" Yes, I do understand: it is not easy being a member of the Chinese Communist Party. You have our sympathies. -
Oh, by the way. I am a bit puzzled. On which date should we send our congratulations for the 100th anniversary? The Party was founded on 23 July 1921. Is the Party's party being held on the real birthday, or the ‘Queen’s birthday’ one of 1 July, as has been announced? Mindful that denying Party history is a crime in China, we are a tad nonplussed by this very minor example of what your president Xi Jinping condemns as ‘historical nihilism’. Always a bad idea to get on the wrong side of history. Thanks. Charles Parton was a diplomat for 38 years, 22 of which he spent working on or in China.