The Silk Road Journal – by Mahika Ming

When the United States of America (USA) and Canada were constructing their first ever railroads, thousands of Chinese slaves were taken across the Pacific by the colonial rulers to work in these mega projects. As per records thousands of Chinese peasants have died constructing railroads in the Americas. To this date extremely few have ever appreciated the contribution of Chinese slaves to build railroads in the Americas. The railroads constructed by the Chinese slaves have contributed immensely to the development of USA and Canada and they still play a pivotal role in the supply chains and economic development of these countries. It was after the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1949 by the Communist Party of China (CPC) that the large scale exploitation of Chinese labour by western multinationals came to an end. Since 1949 the PRC had grown to become the second largest economy of the world and has developed its own railroads to world number one level. The PRC by 2020 had more than 120,000 KMs of high speed railroads. PRC engineers are in the process of developing the Maglev technology which can run a train at approx. 600 KMPH. World’s longest railroads are laid along the 21^st Century Silk Road (The Belt and Road Initiative – BRI). Japan which bombed the hospital for mentally ill in Mulleriyawa, Sri Lanka during Easter 1945 and used Chinese peasants as laboratory rats to develop biological weapons during World War II are now using the BRI railroads to transport Japanese made automobiles to Europe (Ref. China Rail records).

The USA imposed sanctions on many Chinese companies and Chinese nationals associated with those entities from working with US companies and entering its territory etc recently. Analysts say that it was because the US and Japan didn’t like PRC developing islands in East China sea which was originally occupied by Great China and by Japan and France during the colonial era. Also senior managers attached to Chinese telecom giant Huawei were subjected to various grilling processes going beyond accepted principles of human rights. The PRC not only released its human rights report on USA recently but has also taken steps to impose sanctions against selected individuals and an organization in USA and Canada. According to records these sanctions are as a result of the unilateral sanctions imposed on individuals and an organization in Xinjiang. USA and Canada has not given any proof of evidence for this action (Ref. Chinese sources). As a response the PRC has imposed sanctions on the Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Gayle Manchin, Vice Chair of the USCIRF Tony Perkins, Member of Parliament of Canada Michael Chong, and the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the House of Commons of Canada. Accordingly the individuals are prohibited from entering the PRC and its special administrative regions. PRC citizens and entities will not be allowed doing business with the relevant individuals and conducting any sort of exchanges with them. This isn’t the first time PRC has imposed sanctions on other person and organizations that undermined the reputation of the PRC.

The writer is an analyst with interests in the financial and sustainable development sectors with postgraduate exposure in the Far East (mahika.ming@gmail.com).