魏京生受邀参加在比利时的欧洲议会大会并就经济危机问题讲话
Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A430-W237
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A430-W237
Release Date: December 13, 2008
发布日：2008年12月13日
Topic: WEI Jingsheng Attends a Conference by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group of the European Parliament and Gives Speech on the Economic Crisis
标题：魏京生先生受邀参加在比利时首都布鲁塞尔举行的欧洲议会自由和民主联盟的大会并就当前的经济危机问题讲话
Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
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WEI Jingsheng Attends a Conference by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group of the European Parliament and Gives Speech on the Economic Crisis
From December 11 to 13, 2008, both WEI Jingsheng and HUANG Ciping were invited to attend meetings in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. During the period, both Wei and Huang also met with various people of different ranks from dozens of countries. They were also invited to a lunch at the members' diner that was hosted by the European Parliament members Marco Cappato and Marco Pannella of the Transnational Radical Party.
On December 12, 2008, Wei Jingsheng delivered his speech at "Satyagraha for Secularism and Rule of the Law", a conference by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group of the European Parliament. More than 100 attended the conference. In his speech, Wei Jingsheng pointed out that the current economic crisis has its roots in China, especially due to the trade deficit. The following is excerpted from his speech.
"In the current world, everyone is talking about the economic crisis, so when we talk about human rights, people think we are not in coordination with them. In reality, these topics are closely tied. From the day I arrived in the USA a decade ago, I tried to point out that human rights in China, especially the Chinese workers' rights issue, is closely tied to the interest of the whole world. Unfortunately, while people such as those in the AFL-CIO agreed with me, they did nothing. Now, as this huge economic crisis is going on, many people have realized that this crisis has its root of the accumulated trade deficit with China year after another year. This deficit empties Western economy.
Several years ago, scholars and economists questioned as why there was this problem under "free trade". Unfortunately, that is because they were under the wrong assumption of the word "free". The relationship between the West and China was never "fair trade", under this word "free". What the West gave China is a normal open market, yet what the Chinese Communist government offered back was an abnormal and deformed market. Chinese workers have no rights to guarantee their reasonable pay. So their wages were pushed to the very minimum. Thus the West investment flew into China, while cheap goods from China flew back to the West. This kind of trade is unbalanced. This trade is unfair. This trade is exactly lacking in human rights.
Recently, I have been in Washington, in Paris, in Berlin, and we have all talked about this problem. If we do not solve this trade deficit, I am afraid that the West cannot get over this obstacle of economic crisis. Americans want to solve their economic crisis by taking so many billions dollars to save their banks, but that is not a fundamental way to solve this economic crisis. It is really taking the money out of their right pocket and putting it into their left pocket. To solve this problem in a long term, you must solve the trade imbalance problem. How to make the balance then? The trade protectionism could only achieve a short-term goal.
To solve this problem in a long term, you must expand the Chinese market. Everyone complains that the Chinese market is too small for them. How about working to increase the market? You must increase the wages for the Chinese workers so they are able to afford to buy. Half of the trade imbalance is with China, which has a lot to do with the Chinese market. Chinese workers' wages are forced so low, so the consumers market in China is expanding only very slowly.
Where does the money go from this huge trade deficit? It went to the pockets of the big business and corrupted officials of the Chinese Communists. China has received a lot of profit from this trade imbalance. Unfortunately, this huge sum of money was neither used to improve the Chinese economy, or expand the Chinese market. This is the root and long-term problem of the trade deficit.
As I was talking to people in Washington, Berlin and Paris, I felt the political circles in these places are trying to think of a way to solve the trade deficit. If we do not solve these problems, then small and medium sized business in Europe will continuously go bankrupt, and the European unemployment will keep going up, while the trade deficit will keep going up. Maybe we should take some measures to stop the Chinese government from dumping their cheap goods in Europe and America. I have noticed some actions have been taken accordingly. But there is a big resistance in Europe and America and it has produced limited effect.
On the other side, to expand the Chinese market and improve the Chinese workers' life could be the long-term solution to solve this trade deficit problem, thus the economic problem. Of course, European's problem cannot be solved solely by decisions by the government in Berlin or Rome, but it needs to be done under the frame of the European Union. So I wish when the European Union is thinking of how to solve this economic crisis, you will also think of how to improve workers' rights in China.
In the past, we have always said that there are close ties between the economy and political and human rights issues but the politicians did not like to hear it. But look now how this economic crisis exactly proves what we said was right, so we hope the politicians will listen more carefully this time. Let me repeat what I have said in the past one decade: Chinese workers' rights are closely related to Western workers' rights, so I hope that today people here will play an important role, and the Radical Party will play a leading role in Italy. This issue will be an important issue for everyone to discover. Because it seems the politicians in the West do not know how to solve this economic crisis in the best way. This could be the only way."
Related photos:
1. Wei Jingsheng Speaks at the European Parliament:
/news/data/uploadfile/200812/20081219144146721.webp
2. Member of the European Parliament Marco Cappato invited Wei and Huang for lunch (from left to right: WEI Jingsheng, HUANG Ciping, MEP Marco Cappato, Italian Senator Marco Perduca):
/news/data/uploadfile/200812/20081219144148162.webp
3. In the European Parliament:
/news/data/uploadfile/200812/20081219144149658.webp
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中文版
Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A430-W237
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A430-W237
Release Date: December 13, 2008
发布日：2008年12月13日
Topic: WEI Jingsheng Attends a Conference by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group of the European Parliament and Gives Speech on the Economic Crisis
标题：魏京生先生受邀参加在比利时首都布鲁塞尔举行的欧洲议会自由和民主联盟的大会并就当前的经济危机问题讲话
Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2008/report2008-12/EuropeanParliamentALDE081213WeiJSspeechA430-W237.htm
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魏京生先生受邀参加在比利时首都布鲁塞尔举行的欧洲议会自由和民主联盟的大会并就当前的经济危机问题讲话
2008年12月11日至13日，魏京生及黄慈萍受邀参加在比利时首都布鲁塞尔举行的欧洲议会自由和民主联盟的大会。其间，他们与来自几十个国家的各类人物会面并交谈，并受欧洲议会议员马寇﹒卡帕投（Marco Cappato）与马寇﹒帕那拉（Marco Pannella）的邀请在欧洲议会的议员餐厅共进午餐。
2008年12月12日，魏京生先生在一百多人参加的欧洲议会自由和民主联盟的大会上受邀发言。在他的讲话中，魏先生指出目前的经济危机的根源在中国，尤其严重的是与中国的贸易逆差。以下是他讲话的大意。
“现在这个世界上大家都在谈经济危机，我们却在谈人权。这好像有点不协调。但其实这是很协调的。从十一年前我刚到美国，就开始谈这个话题：就是中国人权，特别是工人的权利和言论自由的权利是和西方人的利益紧密联系在一起的。当时美国工会的头头们说，这样说也对，但他们却什么也没做。现在发生了严重经济危机。在观察这场经济危机时，很多人开始发现，其实多年积累的贸易逆差，才是经济危机的根本原因。为什么有这样严重的危机？许多人搞不清这样的问题。这是因为贸易逆差在逐步地抽空西方的经济。
好几年以前，西方的政治家和学者都说：我们是在自由公平的贸易中，为什么还出现这样的问题？我认为这整个设计就是错误的，它的前提就是错误的。因为美国及欧洲与中国的关系并非公平贸易的关系。在这个“自由贸易”中，西方给中国的是一个正常的、自由的市场，而中共给西方的是一个不正常的、畸形的市场。中国的工人没有权利来保障他们的工资，他们的工资被压得非常低。所以西方的资本大量流入中国，而中国的廉价商品大量流往西方。因此，这样的贸易是不平衡的贸易，这样的贸易也不可能平衡。它的不平衡，恰恰是因为人权的不平衡。
最近我在华盛顿、巴黎、柏林和政治家谈话的时候，大家都看到了这样的一个问题。这个问题不解决，西方的经济危机很难绕过去。美国人想的办法，用多少多少钱来救银行，这个办法解决不了问题。这其实是从这个口袋里拿出钱，装到另一个口袋里。从长期的观点来看，要解决贸易的问题，就得先达到贸易的平衡。怎样达到贸易平衡？靠贸易保护主义，只能达到短期的作用，却起不到根本的作用。
要想长期解决这个问题，就必须扩大中国市场。所有的商人都抱怨，中国的市场太小。那么如何扩大中国的市场？首先就应当保护中国工人的权利，提高他们的工资。因为这个贸易不平衡的一半问题出在中国，那是由中国的市场所决定的。中国工人的工资被压得很低，因而其消费市场扩大的很慢。
那么和西方贸易逆差的巨额利润到了谁的口袋里？到了西方的大企业和中国的大官僚的手里。中国从对西方的贸易里获得巨额利润十几年，但这个利润并没有用来扩大中国的市场，也没有用来改进中国的经济。这正是现在贸易逆差的根本和长期的问题。
我觉得目前的华盛顿、柏林和巴黎等首都都在考虑同一个问题：怎样能改变这个贸易不平衡的状况。如果不解决这个问题，那么欧洲的中小型企业会继续破产，失业会继续增加。也许我们应当采取一些防治中国倾销的政策，我注意到欧洲与美国已经在采取一些措施了。但这些做法阻力很大，收效甚小，也无助于改变目前欧洲的失业状况。
我想从另一个方面，扩大中国的市场，保护中国工人的权益可能是比较长久的方式。当然欧洲的问题不可能在罗马或柏林单独解决，而需要在欧盟的框架中解决。所以我希望大家在考虑欧洲采取贸易平衡政策之时，也能充分考虑到中国工人的权利。
过去我们总在讲，人权和经济，和政治有紧密的关系，那些政治家总不爱听。但现在的这个经济危机恰恰证明我们是对的，所以我们应当提醒政治家们注意这些问题。我还要重复我十年前说过的话：中国工人的权利是和西方工人的利益联系在一起的。我今天来这里，就是希望大家走在各国工人的最前列。因为这个问题很快就会成为大家共同关注的问题，政治家们也实在想不出什么有效的办法，这可能是唯一的办法。”
相关照片：
1. 魏京生在欧洲议会里演讲：
/news/data/uploadfile/200812/20081219144146721.webp
2. 欧洲议会议员马寇﹒卡帕投（Marco Cappato）邀请魏京生和黄慈萍在欧洲议会的议员餐厅共进午餐（从左至右：魏京生，黄慈萍，卡帕投议员，意大利参议员帕杜卡）:
/news/data/uploadfile/200812/20081219144148162.webp
3．欧洲议会主席台：
/news/data/uploadfile/200812/20081219144149658.webp
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