BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. rights envoy Lorne Craner began two days of high-level talks with Chinese officials on Monday in which he was expected to press Beijing to free political prisoners and increase religious freedoms.
In the first bilateral talks of their kind since October 2001, Craner said he would discuss human rights and democracy issues, but did not elaborate on specific cases he would raise.
"We're hoping for a very productive session today and results in the coming weeks and new year," Craner, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour affairs, told reporters.
China's criminal justice system and workers' rights -- following the imprisonment of labour leaders during mass protests this year -- would also feature in talks with senior Foreign Ministry official Li Baodong and Chief Justice Nan Ying.
Predominantly Buddhist Tibet and the Muslim-populated region of Xinjiang would also be discussed during the talks, also attended by John Hanford, U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, the U.S. embassy said.
U.S. concerns about human rights in China have continued to stand out as a stumbling block in a bilateral relationship which has improved, along with closer cooperation, since the U.S.-led war on terror began in September last year.
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Craner was to visit Xinjiang on Wednesday and Thursday in a move that could placate rights groups worried that human rights issues may play second fiddle to broader bilateral political objectives.
Such fears erupted in September, when Washington put the East Turkestan Islamic Movement on its list of terrorist organisations in what some western diplomats described as a quid pro quo to win China's support for U.S. plans in Iraq.
SLEW OF CASES
The U.S. embassy declined to comment on specific cases Craner was likely to bring up during the talks.
But U.S. Ambassador to Beijing Clark Randt told businessmen last month he had consistently raised a series of unresolved rights cases involving prisoners of conscience and people held in defiance of China's own laws.
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http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-137754.html
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