China wants to let the Green party member of Parliament, Margarete Bause, in the framework of a tour of the digital Committee not to enter. In the DW-Interview Bause talks about the backgrounds.
Member Of Parliament, Margarete Bause (Alliance 90/The Greens)
Deutsche Welle: Ms. Bause they wanted to travel end of August with a Delegation of the Bundestag to China. But to enter, you must not be obvious. Why?
Margarete Bause: We have so far, unfortunately, it is not Written by the Chinese Embassy and, in particular, no justification for it. The Chinese side has repeatedly made it clear that for me there is no invitation for a trip to China. The Embassy has established the first form of alien: I was not a regular member of the Bundestag Committee on Digital Agenda, which is in this Form correctly. I am registered for the period of the trip by my parliamentary group, Alliance 90/The Greens as a member of this Committee with a full seat. This is a completely normal practice all groups. So I have all of the rights, the member of each Committee. And there is no formal reason to exclude me.
In a later Call, the Chinese side has not tried this Argument then. Then you have just very clearly, as long as I’m on this delegation list will be available for the whole of the Committee, no entry. You have not explained to why there is now for me, so to speak, a de facto travel ban.
Re-education camp in Xinjiang
You even have a guess as to why the Chinese government does not want to let you into the country?
I have, of course, a guess. I am involved since many years for the human rights and especially the rights of Uighurs in the Western Chinese Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. I had come across in the autumn last year, a Bundestag debate on the internment of over a Million Uighurs in Camps, and about their oppression, of torture and the obliteration of their cultural identity. There was a very intense debate in the German Bundestag. Before the debate, the Chinese Embassy had called in my Bundestag office and asked me to take this item from the agenda of the German Bundestag, which is of course utter madness.
After the debate, there was a Letter from the Chinese Embassy to me and to all the other members who had spoken during the debate. In the so-called “serious Demarche” (A diplomatic protest note, note stick. d. Red.) was accused of the German Bundestag interference in the internal Affairs of China. Then also the President of the Bundestag has held, however, because the Bundestag decides in its own authority, on which topics he discussed and about which it does not.
It may well be that I’m struck by this commitment to human rights, particularly the Uighurs, the Chinese side unpleasant. It seems that I have to “Persona non grata” (Unwanted Person, Anm. d. Red.) was declared.
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Uighurs in China
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Uighurs in China
They had already had similar experiences with China in the past?
I was in the fall of 2014 in China. At the time, as a member of the Bavarian Parliament and Chairman of the Green party in the Bavarian Landtag. I was there with the then Minister-President Horst Seehofer. Since there were no problems. I had a meeting in the framework of this trip was the occasion of Ai Weiwei in Beijing, which was then still under house arrest. Also, since there were no problems.
(Archive) Bause, with artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing in 2014
I had, however, before that, when I first heard of the Uighurs, contact with the Chinese Consulate-General in Munich. The called me and said, you know, that I have an invitation to the world Congress of Uighurs (the Association of exiled Uighurs, based in Munich, Anm. d. Red.) would and that I should go on because otherwise, Bayer would be-threatened Chinese relations. I was very surprised and asked, how do you know that I have this invitation. And then the Chinese Consul General said that they had channels of their own information. Means: We spy!
I then filed a complaint for espionage. The General office of the attorney General was determined, however, discontinued after half a year of the procedure, because they have been able to determine a perpetrator. But even then, the Chinese side has tried to interfere and to make rules for me, what I do and what I have to.
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Cultural genocide in China?
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Uighurs-bearing: Cultural genocide in China?
How did the other members of the Bundestag Committee, when they learned that the trip to China is at risk?
Now I had personally with the other members not yet in contact. Dieter Janecek, the Chairman of the Committee, had, with other Chairpersons colleagues contact. I still have no official response. I know that there was some spontaneous solidarity. But I don’t know yet, as a total of the colleagues behavior there.
It is impossible to me, whether I may now enter the country or not, but it’s very fundamentally a question of whether the German Bundestag can be rules, who is agreeable and who are not suitable members. The a may enter, and the other is not allowed to enter. This is an Assault on the rights of a freely elected Parliament, the German Bundestag not to like may.
Bause is a spokesperson for human rights and humanitarian aid of the parliamentary group Alliance 90/The Greens
Their experiences have shown, if there are issues about human rights, shows China is becoming more and more aggressive. What can the German government do about it?
Just because China is trying to stress the issue of human rights from the Agenda, because they are trying, even at the UN level, a new Definition of human rights to enforce, it is all the more important that we retreat, that we can withstand this pressure.
The German Bundestag, the Federal government and the European Union share a clear attitude. The human rights are our core values and, moreover, there are also the fundamental values of the mankind, written in the Convention on human rights of the United Nations. And we will not doubt or in question.
Margarete Bause is a member of the German Bundestag and spokesperson for human rights and humanitarian aid of the parliamentary group Alliance 90/The Greens. 2003 to 2017, she was group Chairman of the Greens in the Bavarian Parliament.
The Interview was conducted by Da Yang.
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China – total Surveillance
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