USA: Assistant Secretary of State Says that China's Human Rights Record Remains Poor

(Clearwisdom.net) On April 22, 2004, Lorne W. Craner, United States Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor expressed in a hearing hosted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China's human rights record remains poor.

Craner said, "The Chinese Government's mistreatment of its citizens is manifest. Most recently, we have noted increased surveillance of the Internet and detention of those who express opinions about democracy. Democracy activists and some spiritual or religious adherents, including Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and the Falun Gong practitioners, continue to suffer harsh treatment. We have received reports of religious adherents being mistreated or beaten in prison. We have regularly raised the need for prison reform, the right of children to receive religious training, and our extreme disappointment over egregious abuses against religious groups. Mr. Chairman, this Administration has repeatedly - and at the highest levels - expressed strong concern, publicly and privately, over the detention of persons for the peaceful expression of their faith or political views and over restrictions on religious freedom, and we will continue to do so."

Craner pointed out, "These concerns were deepened by the Chinese Government's failure to carry out commitments made to U.S. officials to work with the UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Religious Intolerance and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made during the December 2002 Human Rights."

He continuted, "This backsliding prompted President Bush to authorize the State Department to pursue a resolution criticizing China's human rights practices at the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva this month." Said Craner, "we urged members of the Commission to join us in expressing 'concern about continuing reports of severe restrictions on freedom of assembly, association, expression, conscience and religion, legal processes that continue to fall short of international norms of due process and transparency, and arrests and other severe sentences for those seeking to exercise their fundamental rights."

Although the Chinese Government was successful in getting a sufficient number of members to vote in favor of a "no-action" motion, Craner said, "But our work in Geneva was not in vain. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture will indeed visit China at the end of June. And now the European Union is factoring China's human rights situation more prominently in its calculus of whether to lift its arms embargo against China. In pursuing a resolution at the Commission, we made a strong statement about our unwavering concern over the human rights situation in China. Other countries and the Chinese government itself have been compelled to take notice of our concern. And those who fight courageously every day to have their voices heard know that the United States has not forsaken and will not forsake them."

Craner stated, "We have an obligation to speak out against the lack of freedom and protection of human rights in China because we see the people of China doing this for themselves on a weekly basis."

"In other words, we see individual, ordinary Chinese doing the extraordinary week after week, month after month. And I believe that we have the responsibility to support these extraordinary efforts and try to expand the political and legal space so that individual Chinese can keep pushing the boundaries." Said Craner.

In the end, Craner summarized, "With regard to China, I believe our best policy is to speak out against human rights abuses, as we did this month in Geneva, and to encourage the reforms that are making such significant inroads there, as we are doing annually through the State Department's Democracy, Human Rights and Rule of Law Program."

Source: http://hongkong.usconsulate.gov/ushk/state/2004/042201.htm