Letter from Chinese Writer Wang Qingmin to the Government and People of the Netherlands

On July 21, 2023, I went to the Dutch Embassy in Germany to present a letter to the government and people of the Netherlands, talking about the history of China and the Netherlands, the history of the victims of the Second World War, displaying the Dutch flag and the poster of Jan Ruff O'Herne, a comfort woman who had been forcibly recruited by the Japanese army, and appealing to the Dutch government to pay attention to the human rights of the Chinese people in China and the safety and security of the Chinese people of the former colonial colony of Indonesia, and to help the Chinese people and the Chinese people in Indonesia.

On August 11th, I went to the Dutch Embassy in Germany again to present the revised version of my "Letter to the Government and the People of the Netherlands" and to display posters of the "Black May Riots" in Indonesia in 1998, calling on the Dutch government to help the Chinese in Indonesia and to care about human rights in China.

Honorable

Embassy of the Netherlands in Germany

Government of the Netherlands

Dutch Parliament

All Dutch nationals and expatriates abroad:

I am Wang Qingmin, a Chinese writer, human rights protestor and political refugee. I would like to tell the government and people of the Netherlands some important history and reality, and ask for your help.

During the Second World War, China and the Netherlands were allies in the anti-fascist camp, and both suffered invasions by the then fascist states of Germany and Japan, and together they fought against the invaders and won the war. Queen Wilhelmina (Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden) was praised by the world for her resilience and courage.

In Asia, China and the Netherlands, as members of the "ABCD (America, Britain, China, Nederland) encirclement of Japan", jointly contained Japanese aggression at a relatively greater cost, civilian casualties, and abuse than the United States and Great Britain. In contrast to Nazi Germany, which treated the countries of Western Europe with some remnants of civilization, imperial militaristic Japan was even more ruthless. Whether in mainland China or in the Dutch East Indies, the Japanese invaders brutally killed people, raped women, and abused prisoners, women and children.

Among Japan's war crimes, their rape atrocities were the most cruel and heinous. Whether in Nanking, Jakarta, and various corners of mainland China ravaged by the Japanese army, the cities and villages of the Dutch East Indies and Southeast Asia, they raped women of all statuses (and sodomized some of the men), including girls, elderly women, and women of the upper class of respectability, as well as forcing members of the family to commit incest, raping and dissecting pregnant women, gang-raping women on a large scale and in public, and abusing and murdering the women who had been victimized, and so on, their sexual These sexual atrocities are not ordinary sexual atrocities, but are acts that go far beyond the bottom line of human civilization.

The extremely cruel "Rape of Nanking" and the sexual atrocities committed by the Japanese army against intellectual women in various parts of China, especially in big cities, were extremely destructive to the Chinese female elites at the beginning of the 20th century and devastating to the cause of women's rights in China, and caused the awakening of a generation of women and the formation of a female culture in China to be interrupted (and this consequence, because of various factors, was not only the result of the Japanese army's actions, but also the consequence of the Japanese army's actions in the early 20th century). interrupted (and this consequence, for various reasons, has been ignored or even deliberately covered up by all parties).

The Japanese army also used a large number of women from China, the Korean Peninsula, Holland, and Southeast Asia as sexual slaves, or "comfort women," as it was glorified. These people were subjected to long-term sexual assault and abuse by the Japanese army, and many of them died a tragic death. The vast majority of those who survived until after the war also lived under the shadow of great pain and suffering. Jan Ruff O'Herne, a Dutch victim of Japanese sexual slavery, was one of the few who was willing to come forward to complain, while more than 99 percent of the surviving victims were too afraid to speak out and remained silent under the humiliation and pressure until their deaths.

After World War II, due to changes in the international situation, especially the political situation in China, the war crimes of the Japanese army could not be liquidated. On the contrary, Japan took advantage of the Cold War and the changes in the situation in China to become extremely rich and stable, and the Japanese people, including those soldiers, the powerful and the rich, and other Japanese people who participated in the war crimes, are living happily. This is even more glaringly obvious than in Germany, which has paid a huge price and fully reflected on its crimes, or in mainland China, where poverty and violence abound. This is yet another injury and injustice to the victims who died and those who survived.

In contrast to the economic recovery and relative affluence of the Dutch people after World War II, the people of mainland China and the Chinese diaspora abroad (especially in Southeast Asia) were plunged into great disaster. Tens of millions of Han Chinese and other ethnic Chinese died as a result of the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which represented the forces of communism, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which represented the forces of nationalist liberalism, as well as the brutal rule of the CCP in mainland China.

The Chinese in Southeast Asia also suffered brutally, most tragically in the former Dutch East Indies and later in the Republic of Indonesia, where they were brutally massacred, raped, pillaged, and oppressed during the "930 Incident" in 1965 and for decades afterward. Even at the end of the twentieth century, at the new stage of human civilization, there was the "Black May Riot", a great tragedy in which a large number of Chinese were killed and Chinese women were raped (including in public in broad daylight), and there was despair and suffering among thousands of people.

And the mainland Chinese regime, ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), was indifferent to this and opposed to interfering in Indonesia's internal affairs. This is quite shameless, not only in disregard of fellow nationals, but also in lack of a humanitarian bottom line and internationalist spirit.

So many disasters and sufferings have made the Han Chinese nation, the Chinese people, and the Chinese outside China (especially the former Dutch East Indians/Indonesians) to live in a long time without dignity, full of insecurity, and impoverishment.

Since the occupation of mainland China by the Chinese Communist Party and related privileged interests, the victimization of the Chinese people and the Chinese diaspora abroad has not ceased. Tens of millions of people have been killed and starved to death since the time of Mao Zedong. The reform and opening-up under Deng Xiaoping, on the other hand, had boosted China's economy, but the people lacked rights and dignity and the majority of the population remained in poverty.

    Since 2013, the ruling clique led by Xi Jinping has torn off the mask of the enlightened Communist Party of China (CCP) and conducted an intensive and forceful sweep of civil society, banning speech and the media, persecuting political protesters, and using torture, imprisonment, and harassment against defiant people and various vulnerable groups. Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, and Guo Feixiong are three of the most typical recent prisoners of conscience. The "zero-zero" policy of countering the new crown virus has led to a widening and deepening of human rights abuses in China, an economic recession, massive unemployment and bankruptcy, and frequent instances of vicious violence. ......

   Under Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China (CPC), blue-collar workers in China work in "sweatshops" that lack labor protection and require years of overtime work, while white-collar workers are required to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, or "996";

    Farmers in China not only have to do heavy labor, but most of them are also very poor, earning less than 1,000 yuan (about 130 euros) a month, with a pension of only 100 yuan (about 15 euros) a month for those over the age of 60;

   Secondary school students in most parts of China (especially in Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Hunan provinces) are required to study from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., during which time their meal breaks are strictly limited, and they can only take a day off every two weeks;

    Many of China's service workers, especially self-employed and domestic workers, have no dignity and serve vested interests like servants, and many are evicted by city administrators, bullied and even sexually abused by their employers;

   Most women in China have been sexually harassed and abused, and some have been raped, domestically abused and mistreated, but they have no recourse and are in despair. They are also subjected to all kinds of discrimination and oppression at school and at work (including home-based work), and are unable to obtain status, dignity, pay or even a basic sense of security commensurate with the effort they put in;

   The majority of persons with disabilities in China are unable to go out on the streets because the environment is so inhospitable that they are forced to live at home, where they are often subjected to violence and abuse by their families.

   The vast majority of China's population, without freedom and happiness, survives for the sake of survival, and social security, such as education, health care, housing, and retirement, is lacking or of low quality. Young and middle-aged people spend half their lives earning money to pay off their mortgages, and when someone becomes seriously ill the whole family often loses everything, and many elderly people commit suicide because they cannot afford to pay for their old age and medical care;

......

    All this should be changed. China has a glorious history and has made great contributions to the progress of civilization in China, Asia and the world. But then, because of internal oppression and external invasion, it suffered greatly and went astray. The governments and people of the world should help China to realize freedom and democracy, so that the Chinese people can obtain and have the same human rights and life as those in developed countries.

China, on the other hand, made a great contribution to the victory of the international anti-fascist war in the Second World War and the war of resistance against Japan, and the sacrifices it made were tens of millions of lives and the abuse of countless women and children. However, the vast majority of the Chinese people, the Han Chinese people, after the Second World War are living in misery to this day. This contrasts sharply with the high degree of affluence and happiness of the nationals of Japan, the aggressor country, and is all the more unjust.

Such a great civilization should not degenerate in this way. Such injustice should also be corrected by the international community, so that the communities and individuals who have suffered the most and paid the most will receive the rights and compensation they deserve. The official and public assistance of all countries in the world in helping China to move towards democracy, freedom and the rule of law, realizing the equal rights and dignity of each and every one of its nationals, and further promoting China's prosperity and balanced income are the paths and contents of realizing equality among ethnic groups, the international community and humankind.

In modern history (especially during the Second World War), China and the Netherlands had a rather close and friendly relationship, sharing the same hardships and difficulties. Later on, they became estranged for various reasons, and the once-allied relationship was interrupted. But this was due to the theft of the mainland by the Chinese Communist Party, not the will of the Chinese people.

The people of Holland today are living quite happily, but the people of the former allies are in great suffering. And the colonies once ruled by Holland - Dutch East India/Indonesia, where the Chinese people were hardworking, kind, created all kinds of wealth and made all kinds of constructive contributions. However, they were oppressed, massacred, raped and plundered, which is against the dignity of basic human rights and unfair and unjust. In the movie "The Act of Killing (Indonesian: Jagal; English: The Act of Killing)", which reflects the "930 Incident" in Indonesia, the prototypical executioners showed no remorse. Similar killings may be repeated in the future.

And the 1.4 billion people in mainland China, who live in a large prison, need the Dutch people to speak up for them and pay attention to human rights here. Such a huge country, with its dictatorship and tyranny, is a threat to the world; let it move towards peace and democracy in order to realize security and development in Asia, Europe and the world.

If, in this world, the weak and victimized cannot get help, compensation and justice, while the victimizing community is rich and powerful and continues to enjoy the dividends of aggression, it means that black and white are inverted and right and wrong are inverted, and it is even more of an extremely undesirable demonstration and implication. It is only when "no good deed goes unpunished and no evil deed goes unpunished" that the world can remain civilized and rational.

If the perpetrators of evil are "rewarded" for their evil deeds and live long and happy lives, while the victims and the heroes who resisted the atrocities have no bones left and are in a state of misery. And the survivors and their descendants are also constantly subjected to secondary, secondary harm, all kinds of stigma and denigration, once the victimization experience has become the tool of the evil one to degrade and humiliate; while the descendants of those invaders are proud of their ancestors, once the experience of evil is treated as a man's majestic family and national glory. The resulting bad example and imitation will return the international order and human relations to the barbaric jungle model.

Even if we do not seek to punish the perpetrators, is it not the minimum requirement and bottom line of human civilization that the victims should be protected and compensated (even if it is limited and far less than the compensation for the damage suffered) to avoid being victimized again?

In addition, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and other leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, on behalf of the Chinese people, gave up pursuing the responsibility of the war criminals of Japan's invasion of China and claims for compensation. Regardless of their motives, objectively speaking, they have made a great contribution to tolerance, peace and development of the world, at the cost of the sentiments and interests of the hundreds of millions of Chinese people who have suffered from the harm caused by Japan's invasion and of the Chinese people overseas. Under such circumstances, Japan, many other countries, and even the whole world, should, as a matter of sense and reason, show more sympathy and reciprocation (not to mention contempt and bullying) to the Chinese people.

The core of human progress from barbaric violence to civilization is to achieve humanity and justice. Every human life and dignity is precious, and women and children need extra care. Over the past decades, at least hundreds of thousands of Chinese Indonesians have been brutally killed and thousands, if not more, of women have been raped. This happened in the 20th century, when mankind generally entered modern civilization, and is a shame for all mankind. Even strangers separated by thousands of miles share a common bond in the global village, not to mention those who are quite close to each other, former allies and compatriots.

Nowadays, China and even the Chinese world, because of the massacres, oppressions and abuses suffered over the centuries in various settlements, have generally become alienated, selfish, indifferent, egoistic, and advocate the social Darwinism of the strongest and the weakest, and there is a lack of dearness and mutual trust among the people, and there are all sorts of hatreds and mutual harms instead. This is the disease and aftermath of ethnicity caused by internal tyranny and external aggression. It is not the inferiority of the genes of the race or the ugliness of the national culture, but the internal and external forces that have harmed the nation.

Mainland China, dominated by such values, has a population of 1.4 billion. Such a huge population, under a poor humanistic environment, can easily be utilized by all kinds of evil forces to turn into all kinds of Nazi fascist believers, religious extremists, and hooligans who bully the weak and poison the world in various ways. In that case, both the Netherlands and Europe, as well as the world, will suffer from such ugly values, forces and behaviours, leading to the regression of human civilization.

If the Dutch government and the Dutch people can, through various direct and indirect ways, give limited but precious help to the Chinese and the Chinese people, so that they can see and feel that there is still true compassion, conscience, justice and love on earth, that would be a great achievement. This will become the key and chain to melt hatred, dismantle conspiracies, arouse conscience, bring about awakening, and transmit love and peace. More Chinese people will regain goodness and morality, and the Chinese, who account for one-fifth of the world's population, will come out of the haze and hatred, and devote themselves to repaying the world, becoming a great and beneficial force for promoting peace and democracy in the world. This is also a mild medicine for the world, which has become full of bitterness and antagonism due to the revival of racism, populism and extremism in recent years.

After World War II, the United States' Marshall Plan helped Europe recover rapidly after the brutal war, and the Netherlands also benefited from it; after the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the last century, Western European countries accepted refugees and participated in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, which also reduced the killing in Southern Europe. Later on, European countries also actively promoted post-war reconstruction, so that the Balkan Peninsula today has become stable and peaceful; after the Rwandan massacre, Europe and the United States intervened and helped the people there gradually get rid of hatred and despair and move towards harmony and prosperity. All these show that love and help are useful.

Only with more love can the injustice and pain suffered be dissolved; with understanding, mutual trust and mutual assistance, the hatred among the various ethnic groups and individuals in the world can be gradually eliminated. Caring for, respecting and helping the victims is the most important and necessary part of the path to a lasting and humane peace in the world.

Therefore, I hope that the Government and people of the Netherlands, whether out of love for their compatriots from the allied countries who once fought side by side, out of duty to the former colonial inhabitants, out of the pursuit of international justice, or out of sympathy and empathy for other human beings in the context of the most basic universal values, will pay attention to and help the people of mainland China, and the Chinese of the former Dutch East Indies (the present Republic of Indonesia).

In recent years, the Chinese Government has been carrying out political suppression and persecuting Hong Kong people in Hong Kong. The United Kingdom, as a former colonizer, has taken various ways to help the Hong Kong people, such as expanding the scope and extending the period of issuance of BN(O) passports, and admitting more Hong Kong people to settle in the United Kingdom. Can the Dutch government take a similar or other reasonable and feasible approach to the Chinese in Indonesia, so that former victims of persecution (including abused women and children), those who are in danger or will be in danger, and those who have been brutally victimized and survived but are facing secondary victimization, can be helped, protected and supported?

Is it possible for them to go to Holland, or to settle in other countries friendly to Holland with the help of Holland (just like the UK resettled refugees to Rwanda, Holland can also send the victimized and at-risk Chinese to safe countries or regions through various arrangements), or to remain in Indonesia, but with all kinds of legal, political, and livelihood protection and assistance? (Of course, it is also necessary to pay attention that (of course, with the care that it should not irritate the feelings of the Indonesian government and other communities in Indonesia, and that it should take into account the interests of the various communities in Indonesia, as well as the affordability of the Netherlands and the West to provide assistance)?

The Chinese are relatively the most moderate, hard-working and kind-hearted group of people, and have contributed greatly to economic development. This is true in central and southern mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and other countries in Southeast Asia (the savagery of mainland Chinese is the result of the Manchu rulers and the CCP, not the Han/Chinese as such). Yet they are brutally oppressed, exploited, massacred, raped, and all sorts of hardships and victimization simply because they are rich, and because they lack help from their home countries (and are even used and discarded as political tools). This is uncalled for. If they are given freedom, dignity, and stability, they can surely become a constructive force in Holland, Europe, China, and the world, and their labor will create and reward them a hundred times more than the help they receive. What is gained by a drop of water is rewarded by a spring of water.

For the 17.5 million Dutch people (including Dutch expatriates who have full consular protection abroad) who are living in stability, abundance, peace, and the rule of law, please think about these Chinese people who used to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the fight against fascism, in the building of civilization, and who have made great contributions to peace and development, but now they are living in hellish conditions (at least without a sense of security and dignity). I am a humble person, but I still hope that the Dutch government and people will pay attention to them and help them, especially the Chinese women (both women and girls) in Indonesia. They should not be subjected to rape, humiliation and persecution anymore.

For the Indonesian Chinese and mainland Chinese people, the prosperity and progress of the Netherlands is like a lighthouse and a star of enlightenment; the peaceful and stable life there is a model, a hope, a goal to pursue and a blueprint for the future.

I would like to ask you to help the Chinese in Indonesia and pay attention to the human rights in mainland China, thank you.

Mr. Wang Qingmin

2023.7.21