Harry Wu case exposes China

If Beijing blundered when it underestimated the immense support Harry Wu enjoys in the U.S., it compounded the error last week by selling videotapes of the incarcerated human rights activist purportedly confessing to various crimes against the state.

Not only did the release of the taped confession prejudice any prosecution case against Wu, but it undermined the central charge against the Chinese-born American citizen.

Had Wu indeed fabricated evidence about the commercial sale of executed Chinese prisoners' organs, as was claimed in two BBC documentaries he helped make, he could no longer be detained for "stealing state secrets" -- the charge he now faces death for in a Wuhan jail.

Perhaps even worse from a national image point of view, the commercial exploitation of Wu's arrest -- tapes of the confession are on sale for $3,000 apiece from a government-controlled enterprise -- chillingly reinforces the BBC charges that so angered Beijing in the first place: That death row prisoners are inhumanely harvested for profit.

The whole Harry Wu episode raises some disturbing questions about modern China, its regard for the rule of law and general respect for human life at a time when Beijing is seeking to portray itself as a non-menacing force in the region and as the aggrieved party in its dispute with Washington.

The changes going on in China are likely to be turbulent, wide reaching and irreversible.

Time is running out for the communists and there is much the world can do to help China get through the changes that await it.

Turning a blind eye to Beijing' excesses, however, is not one of them.

Obviously isolating China is not an option either but it is important to remember the ball is in Beijing's court.

The various international spats that Beijing currently finds itself embroiled in are for the most part a result of its own overbearing policies and refusal to acknowledge the concerns of other parties.

The onus is on China to change as it comes out and not on the international community to lower its standards to accommodate Beijing.

To do that will only invite more trouble down the road.

-- The Nation, Bangkok