Gonzaga Debate Institute 2010

Credibility Adv. – China Module – US Credibility K2

We have no leverage on China’s human rights violations given our liberal use of torture

Eland 7 (Ivan, http://original.antiwar.com/eland/2007/03/13/china-returns-fire-on-us-human-rights-abuses/ , date accessed:6/25/2010) AJK
The authoritarian government in China gleefully responded to the U.S. censure of its policies with return fire on the Bush administration’s abysmal record on civil liberties. Things are getting bad when an autocracy chastises a republic for its human rights abuses and the criticism has merit. The Chinese condemned U.S. practices of kidnapping, torture, and indefinite detention without the opportunity for legal challenge. They also pinged the U.S. government for increased spying on American citizens. Of course, these are the same abuses that the U.S. government has criticized the Chinese government of perpetrating. China also cited Martin Sheinin, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as saying that parts of the U.S. Military Commissions Act violate the Geneva Conventions. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that habeas corpus – the ancient right of a prisoner to challenge his or her detention – could not be denied to detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, simply because they were not being held on U.S. territory. Despite this ruling, in late 2006, the Republican Congress passed, at the urging of President Bush, the aforementioned Military Commissions Act, which prohibited federal courts from hearing habeas petitions from prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere. The denial of habeas corpus rights for these prisoners – despite a February 2007 ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the act – is clearly unconstitutional. The Constitution clearly states that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, except in times of rebellion or invasion – neither of which applies in this case. In addition, no exception is made for non-citizens or persons held by the U.S. government outside U.S. territory. The Chinese criticism has merit. If habeas corpus can be so denied, the U.S. government can kidnap people off the streets anywhere in the world, declare them "enemy combatants," and hold them secretly and indefinitely without being charged, having access to legal counsel, being able to challenge their detention, and having a trial. In fact, foreigners have been kidnapped, sent to foreign countries for torture, and are now rotting in perpetuity in Guantanamo and other secret prisons around the world. At Guantanamo, some prisoners have already been held for five years without proper due process.

Credibility Adv. – China Module – China Civil Unrest

Increased governmental repression causes civil unrest

Hartzell 9 (Kathryn, http://www.nixoncenter.org/index.cfm?action=showpage&page=Unrest-in-China-09 , date accessed: 6/27/2010) AJK
Following the 2008 Olympic Games, there appeared to be a spike in the number of incidents of civil unrest, attributed by many – including the Chinese government - to the financial crisis.  Yet there is little evidence to support a direct causal link between the economy and unrest, though the Chinese government chooses to frame the discontent in that light. In fact, civil unrest has steadily increased over the past decade, even in times of historic levels of prosperity. The government’s responses to protests and petitions have created impediments to social justice and have continually failed to address the root causes of citizen dissatisfaction.  The Nixon Center’s May 1 roundtable, “The search for harmony: Prospects for social stability in China amid the global financial crisis,” with China experts Murray Scot Tanner of CNA and Louisa Coan Greve of the National Endowment for Democracy, focused on the rising number of mass incidents and protests in China's provinces over the last twenty years and the steps Beijing is taking to contain the problem.  Tanner began the discussion by examining what appears to be a dramatic increase in civil unrest in the past few months, which has coincided with the deepening of the global financial crisis.   The “spike,” contended Tanner, can be attributed to a deliberate attempt by the Chinese government to suppress statistics on social unrest during the last four years
Government repression leads to civil unrest, which quickly escalates

Allen 9 (Michael, http://www.demdigest.net/blog/backlash/chinas-repressive-policies-at-root-of-urumchi-unrest.html#hide , date accessed: 6/27/201)AJK
At least 140 people have been killed and hundreds more arrested following clashes in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, home to the country’s Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group. The World Uyghur Congress, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, explained that the peaceful protests were organized in response to a recent attack on Uyghur workers at a toy factory in Guangdong:“ On Sunday, July 5, 2009, Uyghur students organized a protest in Urumchi to express discontent with the Chinese authorities’ response to the mob killing and beating of Uyghur workers at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong on June 26, 2009. The aim of the protesters was to seek justice for the victims in Shaoguan and to express sympathy with the families of those killed and injured.   Reports indicate that between 1,000 to 3,000 protestors marched through the Döng Körük (Erdaoqiao) area of Urumchi on July 5, 2009, some of whom were waving the flag of the People’s Republic of China. The protestors were met by a fierce Chinese government response to quell the protest, which included the deployment of four kinds of police (regular police, anti-riot police, special police and the People’s Armed Police). Protest participants, who wish to remain anonymous for safety reasons, have indicated in phone conversations with the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) that an unknown number of Uyghurs were fired upon by Chinese authorities and killed.