By REUTERS

March 20, 2001

BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced Tuesday that President Jiang Zemin will visit Cuba and five other Latin American nations next month, a trip seen as helping Beijing's fight to ward off U.N. human rights censure.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters Jiang would make state visits to Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He will also make a working visit to Brazil.

With the exception of Chile, each of the states Jiang will visit during his April 5-17 trip are members of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The 53-member body opened its annual six-week session Monday in Geneva.

China, an annual target of criticism in the run-up to the U.N. rights forum, expends great diplomatic energy to prevent examination of its human rights record in Geneva.

The United States has pledged to put China in the dock for alleged repression of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group and serious violations in Tibet.

But diplomats in Geneva say Beijing is likely to escape formal censure as it has for the last decade. The vote is slated for around April 18, just after Jiang's Latin America tour.

China, with wide support among developing countries at the forum, has used procedural maneuvers to avoid any examination of its record every year since the June 1989 killing of student protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

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