Reaction & Commentary
Deaths the protests take place at a sensitive time for the CCP and how the regime responds could determine its future Benedict Rogers a renowned British human rights activist and author of China Nexus 30 years in and around the Chinese Communist party’s tyranny breaks down the evolution and various atrocities
Perpetrated by the CCP over the past 30 years Rogers explains the significance of the current protests how they are likely to impact Global events moving forward and why Americans should care hey Benedict Rogers thanks for being on Crossroads thank you very much for having me thanks for coming to the US I
Know you just wrote this new book The China Nexus and the timing couldn’t have been better because you’re talking about Chinese human rights and here we are large-scale protests in China Jiang zamin just died Chinese human rights are front and center um absolutely I mean we we couldn’t have
Planned uh for this but it has been extraordinary uh as we’ve launched the book in different cities uh you know we had the incident of hujin Tao being removed from the party Congress that was a few days before the London launch uh we had the German Chancellor Olaf
Schultz going to Beijing just after Xi Jinping secured his third term and that was around the time of the Brussels launch we had uh XI jinping’s encounter with Justin Trudeau just as I was arriving in Canada and then this past week the the extraordinary protests across China whilst I’ve been here in
The U.S so um I’m grateful to the Chinese Communist party for for helping create an environment that makes the book very topical well and you’re in an interesting position because you’re talking about human rights in China and you’re not limiting limiting it to just one group you’re talking about pretty
Much the whole spectrum of what’s been going on there I know you’re involved in the tribunals on organ Harvest thing you’re talking about the Muslim uyghurs the house Christians Tibetans falun gong you know not not everyone touches on the full picture and that’s what you’re doing with this book so it’s an
Interesting timing I want to talk first though in your book you mentioned something very interesting which is the United Nations and a lot of people when they maybe not these days maybe become maybe becoming more aware but these you know a lot of people they think international human rights abuse where
Do you go you go to the United Nations you bring it up there and you hope they do something about it you expose something very concerning which is there’s a slush fund root involved this tell us about this yes um so before I started researching The
Book of course I was aware of China’s influence at the UN its ability to um you know effectively buy votes on resolutions um but what I was not aware of uh was the extent to which China has basically bought and penetrated uh the office of the UN Secretary General himself and I
Only learned about this through interviewing uh Ambassador Kelly Curry the former U.S ambassador to the economic and social council at the the UN and she was one of I did about 80 interviews for the book but she told me in some detail that uh basically China has given uh 10 million
Dollars to the secretary General’s office and the oversight of this fund uh is only with the Secretary General himself and some Chinese appointees so there’s no accountability beyond that and it’s basically for the Secretary General to spend as he wish wishes on uh you know development project but um
Totally in in partnership with uh with China and I had always wondered with this particular Secretary General Antonio guterres you know he’s been completely silent on the uyghurs he’s totally silent on the dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms he’s silent on all the other issues in in China and on some
Of the neighboring issues uh North Korea and Burma or Myanmar he’s said very little um and I you know used to wonder why he’s so inactive and uh and so quiet and I think now we can understand why he’s he’s basically been bought by China well that is concerning but it makes sense
Because we can look at the actions of the United Nations I mean we can look at individual I think most of the folks have been individual branches of the UN right individual agencies but what you’re saying is from the top this is from the top and you’re saying bought off it’s it’s a
Strong statement can we can we say bought off well in a way I think we can because this this fund that as I say is only accountable to the Secretary General and to the Chinese funders uh you know certainly suggests that there’s no coincidence between that and his
Inactivity on China human rights issues and it was um you know Ambassador Kelly Curry who told me this um she is very willing to talk about this publicly although she told me that I’m the first person to actually be willing to quote her on it she’s offered
It to uh to other media and and they haven’t taken taken it up but it’s incredible yeah well that’s the end that’s the top level that’s a big deal the other concerning parts are there as well we actually did an infographic at Epic Times is maybe a year ago or
Several months ago where we looked at the different agencies of the United Nations that have Chinese Communist party members as leaders and there’s a large number of them we can talk about the Human Rights Council which of all things you would not expect the CCP to have leadership positions in but they do
And we can look at the behavior of the UN you know the U.N Human Rights Council and what they’ve been doing on human rights they’re more going after the United States than there are anything else and North Korea involvement and so on it’s very strange and then we can talk also
About World Health Organization which cannot demonstrate its independence from the CCP and you know a lot of people would say oh well so what if it’s a Chinese leader you know if you’re with the United Nations you do you no longer recognize your own Nation your United Nations and
There’s a separation but if we remember Interpol you know International police essentially there was a CCP head of that as well who was actually punished by the Chinese Communist party for not enforcing the ccp’s laws through the United Nations what do you think that tells us about you know in your studies
You know how much control does a CCP actually have over the United Nations and how have you seen them using it well I think it has a fairly extensive control um and that’s Illustrated in two particular ways among many others um you know we saw just uh very recently
A a month or two ago um the defeat of a resolution at the Human Rights Council buy just two votes uh on uh whether the Human Rights Council should discuss the UN High commissioner’s report on uh the situation of the uyghurs in the in the xinjiang region and uh it’s
Extraordinary that even a resolution that was as mild as that just just uh creating an agenda item for the Human Rights Council uh was able to be defeated because of China’s influence but I think one other anecdote which I describe in detail in the book um is that dulcan Isa the president of
The World uighur Congress in a very respected human rights activist for the uyghur people who’s received many awards for his work around the world um Interpol had red notices for him he was arrested in several different places but also um even though he was invited to the UN
By the U.S Mission uh he was denied accreditation because China objected to him being allowed into the building so it it can go to as basic things as that yeah they don’t let him in the first place yeah we also know stories for example of people going to actually
Testify in front of the United Nations Human Rights Commission the U.N Human Rights Commission reporting these people to the CCP and these people being arrested before they can go and testify Alex Newman investigative reporter I was doing some reports on that it’s shocking stuff actually absolutely you know I
Want to get into some of the issues happening right now the student protest well that’s impressive the protests happening in China but I want to talk about your story first and also I want to get into the different groups persecuted there’s not many people focus on all of them
But you have an interesting story you know you’re someone who deeply appreciates Chinese culture you were teaching in China what happened
