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Selling Out Human Rights

The Big Business Chancellor

Part 2: Part Two: Can greater economic cooperation bring more freedoms?

Nowadays, Schroeder wants people to believe that his goal is to promote human rights without demanding them too vocally. He says that economic cooperation will automatically bring about greater openness. As exciting as developments in China are, according to Schroeder, they could just as easily turn sour. In this environment, Schroeder doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, particularly as China's state-controlled media does an excellent job of preventing the Chinese public from getting wind of any foreign leader's expressions of opinions, no matter how bold.

Instead of taking the Chinese to task for human rights violations, Schroeder prefers to expose them to German legal sensibilities. Since 1999, German experts, including a group led by Hamburg law professor Hinrich Julius, have been assisting the Chinese in developing their legal system.

Chinese judges have been observing the daily routines in courtrooms in Berlin and Hamburg for some time now. In the past seven years, more than 2,000 Chinese government officials and judges, at the invitation of Germany's Society for Technical Cooperation, have attended courses in business and administrative law. The outcome of the program, says Julius, has been positive: "30 to 50 percent of our suggestions have found their way into Chinese draft legislation."

But the truth of the matter is that hardly anyone pays attention to the new laws. In practice, the new legislation enacted with German assistance is often worth less than the paper it's printed on. "That's why we prefer to work with young judges," says Julius. "We want them to learn to hand down judgments based on the law, and not other criteria." The criteria he's talking about are orders from the party secretary.

Nevertheless, the German-Chinese legal dialogue gives Schroeder an excuse to circumnavigate human rights in Beijing. By playing up this legal exchange program, he can engage in his favorite pastime without spoiling the atmosphere: drumming up business for German companies. German businessmen are ecstatic.

Courting Moscow

Schroeder's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin is based on similar motives. The chancellor seems just as loathe to irritate his chum in Moscow as the Beijing leadership.

Although Schroeder's confidantes claim that the chancellor spends "entire nights" discussing the civil war in Chechnya, there is no evidence of that in the impression he gives to the public. In fact, Schroeder has even taken to standing up for his friend Vladimir in front of the cameras. In August, referring to the elections in Chechnya, which are widely considered to have been manipulated, he said that he was "unable to recognize any irregularities." And any significant response on Schroeder's part to the attempted election fraud in the Ukraine -- a fraudulent outcome that was initially recognized by Putin -- came too late to be taken seriously.

SPD foreign policy expert Gert Weisskirchen says Schroeder is firmly convinced that "economic modernization inevitably leads to democratization."

Meanwhile, at least the business world is pleased. Between 1999 and 2003, the value of German exports to Russia -- primarily machinery, cars and chemical products -- increased from €5.1 billion to €12.1 billion. During the same time period, imports -- mainly oil, gas and raw materials -- grew from €8.4 billion to €14.2 billion.

Members of Schroeder's own party are less enthusiastic. Weisskirchen is demanding that "we must express our criticism of Russia's disastrous positions more clearly."

Turning a blind eye to Turkey

In two meetings, Weisskirchen and a number of his SPD colleagues were at least able to convince the chancellor to "accept the addition of a critical note to his governmental strategy." But that was about the extent of it. Last week in Moscow, however, the leading foreign policy experts in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, were also taking pains to respect Russian sensitivities.

In its dealings with Turkey, Berlin is also taking an increasingly generous approach when it comes to human rights. It's certainly true that the European Union's strict criteria for membership have placed considerable pressure on the Turkish government -- a positive example of how prospects for economic cooperation can promote collaboration in the legal arena.

But ever since Schroeder decided, two years ago, to lend his support to Ankara's case for joining the EU, Berlin has been handing out all kinds of political favors. This fall, for example, Guenter Verheugen, Schroeder's commissioner in Brussels, announced that "systematic torture no longer exists" in Turkey, raising the question as to whether occasional torture is acceptable.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has clearly parted ways with Schroeder when it comes to human rights policy. At two joint press conferences held this year with his respective counterparts from Moscow and Beijing, he had no qualms about voicing his critical opinion of Russia and China.

He rejects accusations with the meticulousness of an accountant. During a debate on Chechnya in the Bundestag two weeks ago, Fischer proudly announced: "I've had my staff pull the agency reports, all eight of them." Then he proceeded to quote a Reuters news agency report from February 12: "Fischer voices German concerns about Chechnya policy."

Fischer, who is also Germany's deputy chancellor, deliberately glosses over his difference of opinion with the chancellor. His objective is to keep his hands clean, but his fellow Green Party members have expressed themselves a little more clearly. Green Party Chairwoman Claudia Roth calls Schroeder's bid to end the weapons embargo against China "incomprehensible."

Green Party leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt says it's "nonsense" that the Chinese and the Russians will suddenly stop doing business with the Germans if "we shine a brighter light on human rights violations." In her view, an active human rights policy "will also benefit the economy in the long run."

Even Schroeder's own Social Democrats are resentful of his recent activities. "Human rights form the moral and legal premise of all political action," warned party chairman Franz Muentefering in a written statement issued last Thursday. According to Muentefering, the issue of human rights is "non-negotiable" in a social democracy.

Younger members of the Bundestag are especially suspicious of Schroeder's concessions. "A critical dialogue with the Chinese is certainly correct," says foreign policy expert Dietmar Nietan. "But the principal message should not necessarily be that the German chancellor strongly supports lifting the weapons embargo."

Saving jobs back home

Schroeder has remained largely unmoved by grumbling from within the coalition government. He's already been shifting into early campaign mode. Last Monday, he visited a gloomy industrial zone near Beijing, the future site of a DaimlerChrysler plant. Speaking directly to German TV cameras, Schroeder said that his main goal is to make sure Germans hold on to their jobs at home.

The following day, in the northeast Chinese industrial city of Changchun, he repeated the same message. Although Schroeder was speaking to workers at the local Volkswagen plant, his words were really intended for voters back home in Germany.

He said that the large percentage of Jettas, Santanas and Passats on Chinese roads helps stabilize VW back home. "This also helps people keep their jobs in Germany," he continued. Standing on the podium with Schroeder, the plant's own party secretary in charge of the joint venture, which is called FAW-Volkswagen, greeted the chancellor's words with loud applause. The speech ended with a display of fireworks, illuminating a banner that read: "Joining hands with FAW-Volkswagen to celebrate the Olympics in Beijing."

But the people in charge of diplomatic protocol during Schroeder's visit were concerned that too much real socialism could frighten people back home in Germany. That's why they made sure that at least the cultural portion of the visit would be completely above reproach.

A few days before the chancellor's arrival, the managers of a Beijing art gallery were discretely asked to consider taking down a picture of Otto Grotewohl, the first president of the East Germany. The chancellor's advance team was worried that the picture might offend voters in the eastern part of Germany.

When another gallery owner asked the chancellor what he thought about the cleanup, Schroeder showed a feisty side to his personality: "I'll have my picture taken with anyone," he confessed, "even with Marx and Lenin."

RALF BESTE, KONSTANTIN VON HAMMERSTEIN, HORAND KNAUP, ANDREAS LORENZ, HARTMUT PALMER, GABOR STEINGART

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan