Countries that respect human rights must not legitimize criminal leaders such as Kim Jong-un or Min Aung Hlaing
By Benedict Rogers in UCA News
Earlier this week, some of the world’s most brutal tyrants, responsible for mass atrocity crimes and egregious repression, gathered in Beijing in a macabre dictator-fest.
Xi Jinping hosted Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, and Myanmar’s General Min Aung Hlaing, alongside the rulers of Iran, Belarus, and Vietnam, among twenty others, in a parade that ostensibly marked the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
In fact, it was an effort by China to showcase its weaponry and power, and galvanize an axis of authoritarianism to challenge democracies. It was a “Davos” of dictators.
That made the participation of a handful of democratically elected leaders, including Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim, and the president of Serbia and prime minister of Slovakia, disappointing — although India’s prime minister Narendra Modi deserves some credit for deciding to skip the parade.
The presence of Australian politician and former premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews, and two former New Zealand prime ministers, Helen Clark and John Key, at this anti-democracy jamboree was particularly galling.
The parade in Beijing followed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, a 10-member body that brings together the leaders of China, Russia, and India, alongside Pakistan, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Dialogue partners, including Turkey, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, and others, were also in attendance.
The gathering in Tianjin and the parade in Beijing were all designed to project China’s power against the West, and the United States in particular. Xi Jinping declared that while the world is “faced with a choice of peace or war,” China was “unstoppable.”
On display were his country’s massive armory, including intercontinental nuclear missiles capable of reaching America, unmanned fighter jets, robot dogs, and submarines, alongside troops goose-stepping across Tiananmen Square — designed to send a threatening message to Taiwan and a signal to the rest of the world to back off if Beijing invades the island.
Xi and Putin were overheard discussing prolonging their lives through organ transplants, with the intention of living to 150 years old. Given allegations of the barbaric practice of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China — first investigated by former Canadian politician David Kilgour and lawyer David Matas two decades ago, then by American researcher Ethan Gutmann in The Slaughter just over ten years ago, and then in a collaborative report by the three together in 2016 — this was particularly grotesque.
In 2020, an independent tribunal chaired by the British lawyer Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, who had led the prosecution of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, concluded that forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience was occurring on a widespread, systematic basis and constitutes a crime against humanity. As a consequence, the tribunal argued, China should be regarded as “a criminal state.”
Of course, that is not the only reason the regime in Beijing merits that epithet.
China stands accused — by the United States, several parliaments around the world, and another independent tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice — of the genocide of Uyghurs. It is also committing atrocities in Tibet, and has broken an international treaty by dismantling Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Three other aspects of the gathering in China this week are also noteworthy and profoundly disturbing.
First, North Korea’s tyrant Kim Jong-un — who is accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity — brought his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, along with him. Although her age is unknown, it is believed she is about 12 years old. It is very rare for world leaders to bring their young children to summits and military parades with other dictators and genocidal mass murderers, so it can be interpreted as a sign that she is being prepared to succeed him.
Could North Korea’s next dictator be a woman, in order to sustain the Kim dynasty’s rule?
Second, the alliance between Kim and Putin was once again on display, with the Russian leader thanking North Korea for its support of his illegal war in Ukraine. North Korea has sent an estimated 15,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russian forces in Ukraine, alongside missiles and long-range weapons.
And thirdly, Myanmar’s dictator General Min Aung Hlaing — who seized power in a coup in 2021, overthrowing his country’s democratically elected civilian government — was given the red-carpet treatment.
The bonds between Myanmar’s illegal junta and the dictators in Beijing, Moscow, and Pyongyang are becoming ever stronger, further facilitating its ability to perpetrate air strikes against its civilian population and continue to commit genocide against the Rohingya and crimes against humanity and war crimes against the rest of Myanmar’s population.
Just a day after the military parade in Beijing, a new report documenting air strikes in Myanmar’s Kachin and Karenni states was launched by Fortify Rights. It names 22 military commanders directly linked to deadly attacks on civilians, and calls for an arms embargo and a ban on jet fuel for the Myanmar junta.
It was symbolic that the gathering of some of the most evil men in the world this week took place overlooking Tiananmen Square, scene of a bloody massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators on June 4, 1989.
But the question for the world’s democracies is what to do in response?
Democracies should be concerned by the apparent boldness and cohesion among this growing axis of authoritarianism. But they should also recognize that the alliance between dictators is a marriage of convenience. If democracies can rediscover self-confidence in their values, strengthen their alliances with like-minded allies, and invest in their defence budgets, then Xi’s threat that China is “unstoppable” could turn out to be only a dream.
Certainly, democracies around the world should not allow Xi’s show of force this week to weaken support for Taiwan. On the contrary, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, together with Japan, South Korea, and others in the region, should strengthen their solidarity with Taiwan and send a clear message to deter Beijing. If Xi scents weakness, he will be emboldened, but if he thinks an invasion of Taiwan could be a miscalculation — because of the consequences that could follow for him and his regime — he may think twice.
And lastly, countries which respect human rights must not be lulled into legitimizing criminal leaders such as Kim Jong-un or Min Aung Hlaing.
Xi, Putin, Kim, and Min Aung Hlaing should not have been standing with pomp and ceremony at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing this week. They should have been standing in a courtroom, arraigned on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. And one day they will be.
This article was originally published in UCA News.