China Says It Is Willing to Resume Rights

由阳光男孩周三二月 27, 2008 12:11 am

BEIJING, Feb. 26 -- China declared Tuesday it is willing to resume a long-stalled human rights dialogue with the United States, seeking to improve its image before this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.

The announcement was made by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the close of talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who passed through Beijing after attending Monday's inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul.

Following discussions here with Yang, Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao, Rice planned to move on to Tokyo for talks Wednesday with Japanese leaders that will touch on nuclear weapons programs in North Korea and Iran, human rights issues in Darfur and Burma and other topics.

Rice said she urged Chinese cooperation on those issues during her meetings in Beijing, including asking China to press North Korea to disclose its nuclear programs, so a stalled disarmament deal could move forward. But Yang, a former ambassador to Washington, veered away from those diplomatic concerns to talk about the human rights dialogue, seeming to aim his announcement at the U.S. news organizations accompanying Rice.
Reading from notes, Yang said: "We are willing to resume the human rights dialogue. We are willing to have exchanges and discussions on human rights with the United States and other countries on the basis of mutual respect, equality and non-interference."

Rice, in a later briefing, welcomed the Chinese gesture and said U.S. diplomats will seek to pin down a date for renewing the dialogue as soon as possible. "That is something we've been trying to do for some time," she added.

China suspended participation in the regular U.S.-China human rights dialogue in 2004 after the United States sponsored a resolution in the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission urging condemnation of China's record. Chinese officials considered the U.S. move in Geneva as interference in Chinese affairs and a display of hostility that made further formal dialogue impossible.

Hu, the president and Communist *** leader, indicated to President Bush during a visit to Washington two years later that he would be willing in principle to resume the dialogue, according to U.S. reports. But in practice, Chinese officials eluded U.S. attempts to get the discussions started again. According to diplomatic sources, prospects for a resumption seemed to brighten last year, but then Washington gave the Dalai Lama a warm reception in October, chilling the atmosphere once again.

Even without the formal dialogue, U.S. officials have made human rights a routine topic during discussions with their Chinese counterparts. Rice brought the subject up again Tuesday, reminding Yang that human rights are "near and dear" to the United States and citing three cases of particular interest to Washington.

Yang's declaration seemed designed as a response to the growing volume of criticism from Western human rights groups that China is not a fit host for the Olympics because of rights abuses. In particular, the groups have condemned China's imprisonment of government critics who speak out on the Internet. A half-dozen such critics have been tried in recent months on the basis of their online comments.

In addition, some human rights activists and U.S. entertainment figures have urged a boycott of the Beijing Olympics unless China applies more pressure on Sudan to allow U.N. and African Union peacekeeping troops to deploy in the conflict-torn Darfur region. China has been targeted by these activists because of Beijing's extensive commercial ties to the Sudanese government, including purchase of Sudanese oil, arms sales and several infrastructure projects.

Chinese officials have dismissed the charges from both fronts, saying it is out of place to mix politics with sports. Bush said he will also follow that line during a planned visit to attend the Olympics opening ceremony. "The president has been very clear that this is a sporting event," Rice reminded reporters.

Nevertheless, Communist *** leaders have put a high priority on displaying a benign face for the Olympics, viewing the event as international endorsement of their stewardship of the country over the last three decades. They are particularly eager to avoid demonstrations that could mar televised Olympics ceremonies, including reported plans for protests this spring at stopover points of the Olympic torch.
The concern is that the congratulatory spirit the party seeks to foster among foreign visitors and television viewers could be dampened by the crescendo of human rights complaints. For instance, Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director, created an international publicity splash two weeks ago when he withdrew as artistic adviser for the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.

Xi Jinping, a new star in the party hierarchy and Hu's most likely successor, was put in charge of Olympic preparations soon after Spielberg's announcement, which a Chinese official interpreted as a sign of concern by the party's top leaders.

Since Xi's appointment, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games has noticeably accelerated the rhythm of news conferences and journalists' tours of showy Olympic installations to counter the negative publicity.