Northwest China Council presents

photo credit: Harvard Crimson and Karen Ding

Human Rights: What Role in US-China Relations?
by John Kamm

Although the issue of human rights does not occupy the central role it played in US-China relations during the 10-year debate that ended with China's entry into the WTO in 2001, it is still a critically important issue in the relationship. The GOP's victory in the midterm elections virtually guarantees that Congress, notably the House of Representatives, will pay more attention to human rights in China in the run-up to the 2012 elections. Cases of American businessmen of Chinese descent who find themselves on the wrong end of the Chinese legal system as well as more general concerns over censorship and corruption are having an impact on business confidence in the country. The sharp increase in the number of arrests for endangering state security and the corresponding drop in the number of early releases of political prisoners means that there are now more people in Chinese prisons for expressing their political and religious beliefs than at any time than in the immediate aftermath of Tiananmen.

Not all is bad news however. The resumption of the human rights dialogues, notably the legal experts dialogue, demonstrates that the two countries are still willing to address their differences, and an innovative approach to exchanging information and opinions on human rights issues where the two countries share much common ground raises the hope that the countries can in fact cooperate on human rights, and not simply talk past each other on issues where agreement is unlikely.

This event is co-sponsored by PSU Institute for Asian Studies

About John Kamm

John Kamm is an American businessman and human rights campaigner active in China. He is the founder and chairman of The Dui Hua Foundation, based in San Francisco California with an office in Hong Kong. Kamm was awarded the Department of Commerce’s Best Global Practices Award by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights by President George W. Bush in 2001.  In September 2004, Kamm received a MacArthur Fellowship for “designing and implementing an original approach to freeing prisoners of conscience in China.”

John Kamm received a B.A. (1972) from Princeton University and an M.A. (1975) from Harvard University.  In 1979, Kamm started a chemical company with offices in Hong Kong and China.  He also served as the Hong Kong representative of the National Council for U.S.–China Trade (1976-1981), and president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (1990).  He holds honorary professorships at the Guangzhou Foreign Trade Institute and Qingdao University in China, and is a visiting professor at Renmin University in Beijing. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and directs the Project in Human Rights Diplomacy at Stanford University.