Jan 28, 2004

Radical MEPs question the European Commission on "Cultural genocide" in China


Parliamentary question signed by MEPs Marco Cappato, Marco Pannella, Maurizio Turco, Emma Bonino, Gianfranco Dell'Alba, Benedetto Della Vedova and Olivier Dupuis
Provided that in her intervention during the discussion on the Prets Report on Cultural Diversity last Jan. 13th in Strasbourg Commissioner Viviane Reding expressed her satisfaction about the EU "won battle" at the UNESCO General Assembly concerning the creation of an international instrument for the preservation of cultural diversity, in which the EU initiative relied on the support of China: "(...) D'ailleurs, les Chinois nous soutiennent à l'Unesco. On a parlé d'éducation aussi, tout cela avec un immense pays comme la Chine qui compte sur l'Europe pour l'aider à préserver sa diversité culturelle.(...)", and that Commissioner Reding invited the Parliament to reflect on the aspects "(...) susceptibles d'être développés dans cette future Convention pour se mettre à l'écoute de nos partenaires intéressés (...)";Provided that the communist regime of China has been systematically implementing a policy of cultural genocide against minority peoples like the Tibetans and the Uyghurs for the last half a century with measures such as forcibly sinicizing the Uyghur names, abolishing Uyghur language teaching at higher education, destroying Uyghur cultural heritage in Kashghar and other cities, burning tens of thousands of Uyghur language books, forcibly changing the Uyghur alphabet 3 times in four decades, discriminating against Uyghur language school in favour of the Chinese schools, to name but a few;-How does the Commission intend to assure that the future UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity will be an effective tool to act against such henous crimes of cultural and political genocide?-In the framework of the enhanced cultural co-operation with China, and on the basis of the publicly available information on the matter, does not the Commission consider that it would be necessary to carry out a preliminary study on the extent and forms of current cultural genocide in China, in order to ensure that the EU cultural co-operation with China shall never, directly or indirectly, give momentum to the cultural alienation and criminal sinicization of the peoples of China?