Individual rights and state sovereignty

The Falun Gong, a religious mainland Chinese dissident group operating on Saipan, is reportedly circulating a petition to have the United Nations take some kind of action against the People’s Republic of China. Don’t sign it.

The spiritual political group, reportedly persecuted by the Chinese government, might well have some legitimate human rights complaints. The Chinese government, learning from their historical experience with the Boxer Rebellion, tends to be suspicious of religious groups. Communist governments also tend to be intolerant of religious freedom. But, as Ghandi once said, two wrongs don’t make a right.

Sure, it is wrong for mainland China to suppress religious freedom and individual rights. People should be as free as possible and controlled only when they violate the legitimate rights of other individuals. The Chinese government has yet to fully respect this vital concept of individual rights.

But it is also equally wrong for the United Nations or any other foreign government entity, for that matter– including the United States–to interfere with the sovereignty of states. Sovereignty is to nations what individual rights are to individuals: a basic moral protection that promotes liberty, autonomy.

China basically has a sovereign right to govern its people as it sees fit. It is not for the United Nations or the United States to be the world’s policeman or the world’s supreme government. America must lead by example, not by coercive force.

As liberal philosopher Rousseau might put it, the people of America have a “social contract” with the United States government. We do not have a “social contract” with China or any other sovereign territory. The Constitution of the United States applies to the United States only; it does not apply to mainland China. China has sovereign immunity. China is out of our legal jurisdiction.

Those who support U.N. global intervention essentially promote a meddling, intrusive, and decidedly undemocratic form of one-world
government. The UN is not governed by America’s founding principles of liberty. International law is not grounded upon the pro-liberty principles of the U.S. Constitution. When the U.N. makes decisions, it is not directly represented by the people. The American people and the Chinese people do not directly elect U.N. representatives.

It is wrong for a government to oppress its own people. But it is also wrong for a foreign government–an outside power–to so directly interfere in the affairs of sovereign entities.

It is interesting that the 6 April edition of the Wall Street Journal should, on its front page, decry China’s “dated, 19th-Century vision of state sovereignty” in an increasingly globalized world where the notion sovereignty is reportedly in decline. I say it is interesting because on the Journal’s very own editorial page, on the very same day, the WSJ rightly blasted the “European socialists” and other pro-U.N. types for trying to force dubious Kyoto-type environmental policies upon the United States, which would essentially amount to both taxation and regulation without representation.

Thus, unless we are fully prepared to accept violations of our own state sovereignty and self-government, we should be extremely careful about violating the sovereign rights of others–including China. State sovereignty should never be callously cast aside.

Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com