WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - A new U.S. watchdog commission on Wednesday called for the United States to play an active role in improving human rights in China by speaking out at the highest level and providing much-needed technical assistance.
In its first report, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China took Chinese leaders to task for human rights abuses, including the imprisonment of political dissidents and religious leaders.
The panel, which includes members of Congress and senior Bush administration officials, also raised concerns about Beijing's treatment of ethnic minorities, conditions facing Chinese workers, intimidation of journalists and government censorship.
Its recommendations come just a few weeks before President George W. Bush will host Chinese President Jiang Zemin at his Texas ranch at the end of the month.
While acknowledging the country has come a long way in the past two decades of economic reform, "China's leaders still do not respect fundamental international standards on many rights for the Chinese people," the commission said.
Congress created the commission in October 2000 as part of a deal worked out by the Clinton administration to win support for an historic trade agreement that paved the way for China's entry last December into the World Trade Organization.
The trade pact also required the United States to establish "permanent normal trade relations" with China.
That ended what had become in the aftermath of Beijing's bloody crackdown on peaceful pro-Democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 an often bitter annual debate in the House of Representatives over China's trade status.
The panel approved its report on a 18-5 vote, with all five representatives from the Bush administration voting in favor. The five dissenting lawmakers said the report wasn't tough enough.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In the area of religious freedom, the panel highlighted Beijing's suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual group and the recent case of Pastor Gong Shengliang, founder of the banned South China Church.
Gong, whose Christian church group has an estimated 50,000 members in eight provinces in eastern and central China, was sentenced to death last year on charges of establishing a "cult organization," the panel said.
The first of the panel's 13 "priority recommendations" called for the president, Bush administration officials and members of Congress "to continue to raise human rights issues, as well as individual cases of victims of human rights, ... whenever they meet with Chinese government officials."
Other recommendations urged:
- Congress and the administration to make greater use of radio, television and the Internet to promote human rights, worker rights and the rule of law in China.
- The Bush administration to work multilaterally to encourage China to cooperate fully with the U.N. officials investigating allegations of the use of torture to extract confessions.
- Congress to provide funding for training programs to help U.S. church groups assist Chinese religious leaders fully exercise their right to practice their faith.
The panel also called for U.S. support for legal clinics focused on Chinese labor concerns and funding for programs aimed at improving the Chinese judicial system.
In another area of long-standing concern, it urged the administration and Congress to press Beijing to "engage in substantive dialogue" with the Dalai Lama or his representatives over the future of Tibet.
The panel also criticized the Chinese leadership for using the U.S.-led war on terrorism as an excuse to crack down on the Uighur Muslim population in the western province of Xinjiang. [..]
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1522824
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