How do you say Get Up in Mandarin?

ALMOST the moment David Hicks was being measured up for his orange Gitmo jump suit, Get Up was up and running a very vocal campaign, castigating the evil Yanks for incarcerating one of our own and demanding that his rights be protected.

A petition was sent to then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announcing that “All Australians have a right to receive a fair trial.” Then there were television advertisements, full-page newspaper ads and carbon-offset mobile billboards. Candlelight vigils were held, public addresses given and a “Postcards to the PM” campaign demanding action.

The Get Up guys say on their website that “we will continue to fight any infringements on the basic rights and liberties of all Australians.”

Ok, so where is Get Up on Stern Hu, the Australian-born Chinese Rio Tinto businessman who has been detained by Chinese authorities and apparently stands accused of espionage and stealing state secrets?

As The Herald Sun noted last week, “China's vague spying and national security laws give authorities wide latitude in deciding what to prosecute. The government treats a sweeping array of economic and other data as state secrets. The maximum penalty for a conviction on espionage charges under Chinese law is life in prison. A formal arrest in China means an almost automatic conviction.”

According to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith after consular officials visited the detained Australian, “Mr Hu appeared well and raised no health or welfare issues during the meeting." Heck. What a surprise. A man held by Chinese authorities is reticent to complain about his treatment.

So far we don’t know what Mr Hu has been charged with. He appears not to have access to a lawyer and has no contact with his family. This is sounding like a fairly clear infringement of the basic rights of an Australian. So Hu can surely look forward to a vocal and passionate campaign from our ever-vigilant human rights activists to free him from the clutches of a Chinese justice system that is hardly known for delivering justice. Or perhaps not.

I checked Get Up’s website. Nothing there. It was a case of Mr Who? Same absence of interest over at Liberty Victoria. But let’s be fair and give them time. Maybe we will soon hear from Amnesty International, the various trade unions and civil libertarians who so eagerly became involved in the Fair Go For David campaign and the International Day of Action for David Hicks? Will we see a Fair Go For Stern operation? Or could it be that the brigade of do-gooders who paraded their commitment to human rights for David Hicks were largely driven by the fact that Hicks was imprisoned by Americans under the watch of President George W Bush?

Poor Mr Hu had the misfortune to be arrested by the Chinese hence there appears to be lacking the same level of angst for human rights among our activists. No doubt Mr Hu’s status as a businessman, rather than a restless young man from Adelaide who went off to Afghanistan to fight for the Islamists also accounts for a certain lack of fervour for Mr Hu’s human rights.

To his credit, Greens leader Bob Brown has demanded more action from the Australian Government, telling ABC Radio that. He had no brief for Hu but “I've got a total brief for his rights and his rights are non-existent when you compare them with the, what's required under Australian law. And we should be standing up for Australian norms to be applied to this Australian citizen who's under arrest and at great threat for his future wellbeing under the Chinese communist system.”

Surely any time now that regular troupe of church leaders, human rights lawyers and other motley activists will line up to echo the same sentiments and demand that the Rudd Government “do something” to protect Mr Wu’s human rights.

Or maybe not.

Over to you...