AFP: EU To Press China Over Rights At Summit

BRUSSELS - The European Union plans to turn up the heat on China over human rights at summit this week, official said Tuesday, as Amnesty International released a damning new report on the country's record.

EU leaders Chris Patten, the EU's external affairs commissioner and former Hong Kong governor, will not shy away from the issue at the one-day EU-China summit in Beijing on Thursday, they said.

"The situation remains unsatisfactory in terms of international standards," said an EU official, adding talks on the subject were not enough. "Dialogue (needs to) be increasingly followed by concrete progress on the ground."

Patten will be on the Brussels delegation -- led by Commission president Romano Prodi -- for talks on everything from boosting trade to seeking to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who currently holds the EU presidency, will head the EU team.

Patten's spokeswoman Emma Udwin noted that the EU "frequently" raises its human rights concerns with "our Chinese friends."

"The reinforcement of this element of our relationship is on the agenda" at the summit, she said, adding: "We do think that the human rights dialogue brings results .. It has to be made more operational."

The comments came after Amnesty released a 20-page report that said hundreds of thousands of people continue to be detained across China, executions are carried out after unfair trials and torture and ill-treatment are widespread.

Amnesty said it would monitor the Beijing meeting closely for signs of a change of attitude by the EU.

"Until now, the European Union has been held hostage to China's insistence on mutual respect and non-confrontation on human rights issues," said Amnesty's Brussels office boss Dick Oosting.

"The EU should not just upgrade its human rights dialogue with China but start exerting political pressure on China to achieve concrete improvements, in particular, on the issues raised in this latest Amnesty report," he added.

The 15-country EU -- set to expand to 25 members next year -- aims to ink at least two key accords in Beijing: one to boost cooperation on satellite navigation and tourism, and another to boost industrial links.

The bloc will underline the increasingly important role China is playing in international diplomacy -- in particular at the moment in the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"We (will) encourage China to pursue its efforts for a resolution of that problem," said an official, adding: "We recognize their increasing role in the region and in the world."

On economic affairs the EU will press Beijing to fulfil commitments made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Its failure to do so is fueling some concern among foreign businesses operating in the country.

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Patten's spokeswoman declined to say whether the human rights issue would be raised personally with the Chinese head of state. "It is there at every level of our discussions with the Chinese," she said.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/cl/Qeu-china-amnesty-rights.RD4-_DOS.html