"King should ask in China attention to human rights'

Next Sunday begins state visit of King Willem-Alexander and Máxima Queen to China. Parallel to the visit there is a large trade mission with about 200 companies. The cabinet traveling minister Koenders of Foreign Affairs and State Secretaries Van Rijn (Health) and Dijksma (Economic Affairs) with.

"The human rights situation in China has not been so bad the past twenty years," said Amnesty director Nazarski. Since July, for example, more than 245 lawyers have become the target of police action. "People are really scared, people vanish and neither we nor their relatives know where they are. For the Chinese, it is therefore very important that the Netherlands come forth at this state visit on human rights and the rule of law."
Call

Amnesty tomorrow launch a campaign to raise awareness for the upcoming state visit. One of China's best known human rights lawyers, Teng Biao, makes it a direct appeal to the king.

"On behalf of many human rights defenders, I urge you, majesty and Dutch government representatives, human rights high on the agenda during your visit," he says in one commercial. "I hope you Majesty, the Chinese can tell that everyone who fights for justice can count on support from the Netherlands." The lawyer is referring to the words that the king spoke three weeks ago for the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
 Explicit attention

Garrie of Pinxteren, former China correspondent for, among other NRC and the NIS, and now connected with the Clingendael Institute, finds that the king should speak publicly about the deteriorating human rights conditions in China. "A German study shows that only quiet diplomacy yields nothing. The king should make a combination. The touch on publicly and behind the scenes elaborate on that."

In the program of the state visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima which is now before Van Pinxteren sees no explicit attention to human rights. "It is focused on trade, on selling technology. There are no projects openly visited that have to do with strengthening the rule of law, while the Netherlands does support such projects in China."
From Pinxteren see in Netherlands fear that China could be angry about such a call, and was afraid that it would trade with the country is under pressure. "And we do not want, because we can not sell our belongings to China, we can not invest there and then China will not do for us."

According to China expert Netherlands has been facing the Chinese "too humble". "And the effect is not that China has received thus respect for us, the effect is that China respects lost. China itself is always very strong for certain principles and is accustomed to other countries which are heavily do the same. If a country says: I let it all go, my own principles helm I do not, then you are already telling myself, I'm weak. "
Under pressure

The Dutch mensenrechtenambasssadeur Kees van Baar recognizes that civil and political rights in China are under pressure. "That is our concern, and we also want to discuss," he says. He does not anticipate the visit and does not address the call by Amnesty. "Human rights are part of our foreign policy. Any delegation of Netherlands who goes to China card also human rights. At an appropriate manner, each in its own share of land."

The Netherlands has a Human Rights Ambassador since 1999. Which should draw attention to how important do the State Department human rights.
COC

Last week Van Baar received a delegation from China, among others, the Chinese Human Rights Ambassador and a member of the Supreme Court. Concerns were also expressed over and again on human rights. At the invitation of the municipality of Amsterdam, the delegation met among others representatives of the COC and the Anne Frank about diversity and discrimination. The visits are part of the human rights dialogue conducted at the level of diplomats.

"The Chinese have clearly indicated that they want to talk. About the constitutional example, how do you deal with someone who is arrested, if he is arrested by the police, such a man will have access to a lawyer, how that goes all process? There they were very interested. " Baar, who does not go along to China next week, calls it "very encouraging".
Explicitly

President Xi Jinping spent last year in March as the first Chinese head of state a state visit to the Netherlands prior to the nuclear summit in The Hague. The last state visit by a Dutch head of state to China was in 1999. Queen Beatrix loved when no speech because the Chinese wanted to hear no criticism of its human rights policy.

King Willem-Alexander, join in 1999 as crown prince, keeps October 28 in Shanghai a speech at a training institute for senior officials. "From the administrative point of view is herein include the issue of balanced development in the long term," the Government Information Service announced the program of the state visit.
Reaction Koenders

According to insiders, the king will speak out about the Dutch concern over human rights and the rule of law in China. The question is how explicitly he will be.

Minister Koenders of Foreign Affairs called it in a press statement "self-evident" to the state visit of King Willem-Alexander to China will be an opportunity to put human rights in that country on the agenda.

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