{"id":6777,"date":"2016-03-23T07:27:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T11:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=6777"},"modified":"2016-03-25T04:38:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T08:38:51","slug":"german-president-slams-communism-in-provocative-speech-to-shanghai-students-on-his-china-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/german-president-slams-communism-in-provocative-speech-to-shanghai-students-on-his-china-visit","title":{"rendered":"German president slams communism in provocative speech to Shanghai students on his China visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JoachimGermany\u2019s president has condemned the illegitimacy of Communist rule in East Germany and lauded the benefits of human rights in a provocative speech to Shanghai university students on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

China has been ruled by the Communist Party as a one-party state since 1949. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s administration, authorities have tightened control over academics, lawyers and the media, activists say.<\/p>\n

Drawing on Germany\u2019s history and his own life in the former East Germany, President Joachim Gauck \u2013 whose role is largely ceremonial \u2013 condemned \u201cdictatorship\u201d to students at Shanghai\u2019s prestigious Tongji University.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people were neither happy nor liberated,\u201d he said of East Germany under Communist rule, according to an official English translation of his speech.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the entire system lacked proper legitimacy. Free, equal and secret public elections were not held. The result was a lack of credibility, which went hand in hand with a culture of distrust between the rulers and those they ruled.<\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a state that, as part of the union of Communist countries dependent on the Soviet Union, silenced its own people, locked them up and humiliated those who refused to comply with the will of the leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Difficult to predict\u2019: German ambassador on China\u2019s bid for market economy status with EU<\/a><\/p>\n

His outspoken comments are a marked contrast to most diplomatic visitors to China, who prefer to focus in public on the benefits of trade ties with the world\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n

Gauck, who was in the commercial hub as part of an official visit, said Germany was \u201cconcerned\u201d about recent news regarding China\u2019s civil society, though he gave no specific examples.<\/p>\n

\u201cVibrant and active civil society always means an innovative and flexible society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also told the students that academic freedom could benefit society.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cA university has to be a place of unhampered research and free and frank discussion,\u201d he said, speaking in German with translation into Chinese to an audience of around 100 students and professors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis freedom is a precious commodity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauck dismissed the notion that human rights as outlined under a UN declaration were a \u201cWestern product\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the universal applicability of human rights does not yet mean that every person can de facto enjoy those rights… they can nonetheless lay claim to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Last month, China rejected as \u201cirresponsible\u201d comments by UN rights chief Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein calling for the immediate release of rights lawyers and activists detained by Beijing.<\/p>\n

Zeid had raised concerns about the arrests of an estimated 250 lawyers and activists in a crackdown since July.<\/p>\n

A day before Gauck\u2019s speech in Shanghai, the English-language edition of the Global Times<\/em> newspaper said that human rights were not a priority and were only a \u201ctrivial matter\u201d for his visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe West should evaluate China\u2019s human rights based on the facts. The progress China has made in its 1.3 billion citizens\u2019 rights of life and development deserve applause,\u201d the newspaper, known for its nationalistic stance, said in an editorial.<\/p>\n

Source: South China Morning Post\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany\u2019s president has condemned the il … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[1589,1586,1587,433,1588],"views":6305,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6784,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777\/revisions\/6784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}