“Be wary of China, for when she wakes, she will shake the world”. – Napoleon Bonaparte

The United States have long exerted themselves moral leaders in the geopolitical community. Their bilateral relations with China however, especially given the new economic playing field in the wake of the international economic recession, has left U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration on the ropes in the field of human rights.

Indeed, of late human rights have fallen to the background of his administration’s priority list, most recently noted in its absence from being raised during the Asian tour, in part due to the growing economic strength emanating from China.

Incredibly, while Chinese President Hu Jintao smiled broadly and shook the hand of Mr. Obama, the Chinese government was covertly preparing to hold trial proceedings for Zhou Yongjun. Mr. Yongiun faced fraud charges at the trial in Shehong County in southwest Sichuan province, his long-time girlfriend and a friend at the courthouse has stated.

Zhou was a leader of the Beijing Students’ Autonomous Union in the 1989 protests that ended in a near-massacre, army-led crackdown in the streets around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. He later obtained a green card from the United States, giving him residential rights, but not full citizenship.

“I know from the lawyers that he’s on trial today, but the whole process has been kept secret. This came out of the blue,” Zhang Yuewei, Zhou’s girlfriend, said from Los Angeles where she lives. She said Zhou’s immediate family had also told her of the trial.

“Holding the trial at this time was to show the U.S. President,” Zhang said in a separate email. “The Chinese government maybe believes that it has the power and cash to go up against the United States and international society.”

Because Zhou is not a U.S. citizen, Washington has scant formal power to intervene, and Chinese authorities have no obligations to tell the United States of any developments.

The message is clear – normative values of the west, such as (in the Chinese government’s perspective, human rights) have no standing in China.

The Arcadia Foundation will be documenting these proceedings as they occur, and wish to make clear our support of the rights of businesses and individuals in China, who together are burdened by censorship and ideology.