AFP: Human Rights Watch Urges Bush to Use Leverage on China

August 15, 2001

WASHINGTON, Aug 15, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) President George W. Bush should hone a human-rights policy for China and use his October visit to Beijing as leverage to press for more improvements, Human Rights Watch said.

"China's nervous leadership has a great deal at stake in pulling off a productive Bush visit," the Washington based group said in a statement issued here Tuesday.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji need to stabilize relations with the United States to better focus "on the leadership succession and other pressing issues at home," the group said.

"With his trip coming at such a time, Mr. Bush has some leverage -- an he should use it."

The White House "should creatively use Mr Bush's participation at the October 20-21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shanghai, and state visit in Beijing, to achieve measurable momentum on human rights," the group added.

The United States should press for the release of Chinese-American scholars still detained in China. "The Chinese government should be told that without these releases there is no way Mr. Bush's state visit can go smoothly."

Before Bush's visit, the White House should negotiate an agreement giving UN human-rights monitors, the foreign media and diplomats "unhindered access" to Tibet and the northwestern autonomous region of Xianjiang Uighur, "where repression accompanies development."

It should also put back on the table the issue of "re-education through labor by which Chinese can be sentenced up to three years in prison without trial."

And finally, on the economic front, Human Rights Watch urges the Bush administration to pressure China to ease its "draconian regulations" on the Internet.

"President Bush should consider visiting an Internet cafe in Beijing or Shanghai," HRW said in its statement.

The human rights group welcomed the improvement in the tone of U.S.-China relations following U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent visit to Beijing, and the release of Chinese-American scholars after Bush's telephone call to Jiang on July 5.

"But it's too soon to tell whether these are first steps toward a serious China human-rights policy, or mere tactical political maneuvers," the group said of the White House's intentions.

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