Chinatimes: U.S. Frustrated in Pressing PRC to Improve Human Rights Records

http://www.chinatimes.com.tw//english/epolitic/89122308.htm

Washington, Dec. 22 (CNA) The U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights affairs admitted Friday that there are frustrations in pressing Communist China to improve its human rights records and that certain congressional sanctions ought to be imposed on a country "engaged in such unusually severe violations."

In an interview with the Voice of America radio station, Harold Koh pointed out that expectations were raised in the summer of 1998 when China's President Jiang Zemin made statements during U.S.

President Bill Clinton's visit about opening dialogue on the issues of human rights and Tibet with the United States. Mainland China also signaled at the time that it intended to sign and ratify the two major covenants on international human rights, Koh added.

Since then, he said, "we have had disappointing trends across the board with regard to suppression of democracy activists, issues of religious freedom, Internet restrictions, and restrictions on free labor." "One of the reasons the Chinese government finds these movements -- Christian, Uighurs, Tibetans -- worrisome is that they think they are 'splitists,'" he added.

In other words, Koh explained, these movements "may bring about the separation of political entities and may lead to the breakup of China, something the leaders in Beijing seem to be very worried about. So they associate religious freedom with some sort of breakaway movement." Secondly, he noted, for a

Communist system to have people who believe in something more fervently than communism is very threatening to the system itself. The Falun Gong, which is a group of individuals with a certain set of beliefs that are not particularly political, poses that kind of threat, he said.

The Communist Chinese have therefore pursued a really severe and enhanced crackdown policy against the extremely well-organized Falun Gong movement. And in response, Koh said, the Falun Gong has only become more organized and has started to make better use of the Internet to publicize its concerns.

Meanwhile, the ranking U.S. official confirmed, at least five churches and two Buddhist temples in the Wenzhou area have been destroyed by mainland Chinese authorities in the last few weeks.

"This is completely appalling, particularly at Christmas time.

Frankly, it's extraordinarily counterproductive," he said.

Koh said it is for these three reasons, among others, that "we have focused so much on human rights conditions in China in our daily statements, in our human rights reports." "And for the last two years, I have designated China as a country of `particular concern' for the International Religious Freedom Act," he added.

In response to the VOA reporter's question as to what his definition of a country of `particular concern' is, Koh replied that it is one "that is engaged in unusually severe violations on which certain sets of congressional sanctions ought to be visited." Koh did add however that "there have been astonishing changes in China -- much greater economic freedom, expansion of commerce, the development of markets. All of these have given the Chinese people a much greater interest and lust for freedom and a greater capacity to communicate with one another."