Most of us in Washington are well accustomed to seeing protestors outside the Chinese embassy. For years activists stationed themselves in the small park across from the embassy made their calls heard for a free Tibet or the end to the persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners.
Jin-Hae Jo, right, with North Korean Freedom Coalition Chairwoman Suzanne Scholte
With the beginning of the Olympics in Beijing such demonstrations have become even more frequent. While the large United States media outlets are fixated by Michael Phelps and his quest for eight gold medals and a Chinese girl lip-synching the country's national anthem, they generally tend to overlook and momentarily forget China's egregious human rights violations.
Back in our nation's capital, one woman risks her life in an attempt to make us remember these injustices, with hope that China will become a "country of gold medals in human rights." But, in the midst of all the banners and protestors who file in and out of the park everyday, a lone blue Bass Pro Shops tent went unnoticed.
The tent was home to Jin-Hae Jo, a 21-year-old North Korean defector who was on a hunger strike since August 3 in opposition to the Chinese government's policy on repatriation of North Korean refugees. In the months directly preceding the Olympics, China has reportedly increased its detention and deportation of North Korean refugees, the majority of whom Christians, fearing that they could create negative publicity during the games.
For most of her time across from the embassy, Ms. Jo lived alone, with a cell-phone her only connection to the outside world. This is exactly how I found her when I visited her early last week. Jo doesn't speak English. She called Sam Kim of Voice of America on her phone and he was able to fill me in on Ho's generally untold story.
Ms. Jo's hunger strike is symbolic on a personal level, given the fact that six members of her family starved to death due to the food shortages that plagued the northern region of the nation. Jo was unable to attend school, as she was forced to find food for her family, which included wild animals and tree bark. Jo, along with her mother and sister, eventually fled North Korea and headed to China where they were repatriated by by the Chinese government three times, spent fifteen months in a Chinese prison, and endured numerous other hardships and cruelties, before they were granted asylum by the United States in March of this year.
On July 25, Jo met with President Bush at a human rights forum held at the White House, urging him to pressure the Chinese government to stop deporting North Korean refugees. The North Korea Freedom Coalition requested that Bush wear a black wristband to express solidarity for the refugees during his visit to Beijing. Jo has also voiced her concerns in her own letter to the Chinese government. There is little domestic media coverage of the forum, yet several articles from Korean newspapers briefly mention the meeting and the press release from the White House is available online.
President Bush has appeared to take Jo's grievances into consideration in his recent visit to Beijing for the Olympics. In his meetings with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese officials in Beijing, Bush expressed his concern over China's stances in regards to North Korean refugees and other human rights issues. In his visit with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak, both presidents issued a joint statement condemning North Korea and China's treatment of the refugees.
Jo fell into a coma for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and was taken to Georgetown Medical Center. She planned to hold a press conference on Monday morning outside of the Chinese embassy. Her condition forced her to cancel this conference.
Who knows if this unfortunate turn of events will help her gain more attention from the media, which has yet to pick up on Jo's harrowing story?
The U.S. State Department estimates that 30-50,000 North Korean refugees are currently hiding in northeastern China. Non-governmental groups believe that the number of refugees is closer to 300,000. More than three-quarters of these refugees are women who flee to China to escape starvation and political persecution. The Chinese government continues to deport these refugees under the pretense that they are "illegal economic migrants" and refuses to grant the U.N. access to them. For a brief overview of the conflict, look at the Congressional Research Service's 2007 report to Congress on the issue.