DATE: Demonstration against Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's trip to China

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sharply criticizes the planned visit of Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to Beijing, where he will take part in a military parade to commemorate the Chinese victory over Japan in World War II. “Schröder’s participation in the event is disgraceful – and it shows lack of instinct. This demonstration of power by the Communist Party will stoke tensions in East Asia, as the neighboring countries already see China’s highly armed troops as a threat,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s China-expert in Göttingen on Monday. “Also, the parade mocks the victims of the massacre on Tiananmen Square who were crushed by tanks 25 years ago – just because they called for more democracy. As long as the victims of the massacre are not rehabilitated, military parades on the square should be out of bounds for democrats.”

"Gerhard Schröder, who is a lawyer himself, does not seem to mind that Chinese lawyers are currently experiencing the darkest hours since the Cultural Revolution. Instead of taking sides with those who are in power, he should at least visit some of the more than 270 lawyers who were arbitrarily arrested in the past few weeks,” says the STP. Some of the lawyers were arrested because they advocated for Christians who took part in peaceful protests against the destruction of churches in Zhejiang Province. By order of the authorities, more than 1,200 crosses were taken down from officially recognized churches since 2013. This is a serious violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

In an interview for the state news agency Xinhua last Saturday, Schröder insisted that he wanted to show his sympathy with the victims of the “Japanese aggression”. “To be consistent, he would also have to travel to Taiwan, because it was especially the Kuomintang troops who resisted Japan’s occupation,” said Delius.

“Our criticism is not directed against commemorations of the victims of the serious war crimes in Japan – but we are against this kind of demonstration of power by the Communist Party,” said Delius. The STP has issued several human rights reports documenting the serious war crimes the Japanese committed in China – and has repeatedly called on Japan’s government to apologize formally.

Attention editors:

On Thursday, September 3, we will demonstrate against Schröder’s visit to the parade. We will meet in front of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin (Jannowitzbrücke). Wearing masks that resemble Schröder, Putin and Xi Jinping, we will assemble tanks on a road play mat. To denounce the ongoing persecution of Christians in China, we will unveil a red three-meter-high cross and display many smaller red crosses to protest against the arbitrary destruction of churches. In China, red crosses are a common sign of solidarity with the persecuted Christians in the country.

Header photos

left: André Zahn via Wikimedia

right: Patrick Rodwell via Flickr