Thoughts on a Lecture by the New Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations

[Minghui Net] On March 29, 2000, Shen Guofang, China's new permanent ambassador to the United Nations, gave a lecture at the Yale Law School on the topic of Sino-American Relations. When questioned about the current human rights situation in China, Shen Guofang said, "different countries have different human rights standards. There is no international human rights standard." The audience was stunned by this; the writer later learned from a Yale Law professor that China has actually joined or signed eleven international human rights committees and treaties. These include China's agreements to cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Committee Against Torture, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and others. As a matter of fact, the Chinese government's behavior has already seriously violated the covenants agreed to by the signatories of these commissions. Since Shen Guofang could not deny these violations, he could only use this relativistic argument. When the subject of Falun Gong was brought up, Shen Guofang just repeated Jiang Zemin's slander. As soon as he reiterated the old theme about "Falun Gong does not allow people to take medicine," a Falun Gong practitioner pointed out that Li Hongzhi's books have never said such a thing. To this, the ambassador heedlessly answered, "The book you read is the 'edited version'." We wonder if Shen Guofang could indicate where and when an "unedited version" was published? It is no wonder they do not dare to let the Chinese people see Falun Gong books. Without the original books as references, it is much easier for them to lie to and cheat the world. How much credibility still exists in Chinese diplomats' words?