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Nation Urges Rights Talks
high-ranking Chinese official has called on the United States to abandon confrontation and turn to dialogue to resolve differences with China on human rights issues.
"The door for dialogue is open," said Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Guangya. "We hope the US side will give up the practice of confrontation using the excuse of human rights and go back to dialogue."
China and the United States conducted several rounds of talks on human rights in the 1990s, but the momentum was lost when NATO bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May, 1999. The heads of state of the two countries agreed in principle last November during the informal leadership meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation to resume dialogue.
"The Chinese side has made lots of efforts to put into effect the agreement by the leaders and we hope the US side will create a constructive environment for the resumption of human rights talks," said Wang during an interview with China Daily. "But what the United States has done in Geneva is unpopular and it is doomed to failure."
"It is not conducive to the resumption of Sino-US human rights talks," he added.
Wang's words came as the United States plans to table a draft resolution at the current session of the United Nations (UN)Human Rights Commission , claiming that China's human rights conditions deteriorated last year. This will be the 10th year in a row that an anti-China draft resolution has been submitted to the commission.
None of the previous draft resolutions have won enough votes.
The vice-minister cited China's achievements in poverty alleviation, the development of the Internet, enhanced protection of religious freedom, crack-downs on corruption and its legislative efforts as examples demonstrating the nation's promotion of human rights.
Official statistics indicate that in the last year alone, the Chinese Government helped more than 8 million people shake off the shackles of poverty.
Internet subscribers in China already exceed 22 million.
In the latest move to promote human rights, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in February.
The Chinese Government will ensure the rights and fulfil the duties enshrined in the convention in line with China's conditions step by step, Wang pledged.
He also revealed that another covenant, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is now being studied by the relevant departments in China.
Concerning the issue of Falun Gong, Wang said that the cult should be seen as a threat to people's rights as it has resulted in the death of some 1,700 people.
"The Chinese Government has taken the right step in banning the cult," he said. "It is a move that protects the human rights of the Chinese people."
Prior to the March-April UN Human Rights Commission, the United States dished out a country-specified human rights report in February, in which China's human rights conditions once again came under fire.
"It has been widely acknowledged in the world that China's human rights conditions have never been better," said Wang. "Anyone without prejudice will come to that conclusion. The US accusation does not hold water."
He criticized the United States for "making the human rights issue a toolfor political confrontation and made the UN Human Rights Commission a court to judge the human rights record of other countries, particularly those with views different from the United States."
The human rights issue has often been at the centre of bilateral relations between China and the United States in recent years. The US Congress last year agreed to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations only after adding provisions to the bill that censure China's human rights conditions.
Last week, the US House of Representatives' International Relations Committee passed a bill that interferes with China's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games by accusing the country of human rights violations.
Wang tracked the root cause of the confrontation on human rights issues between the two countries to the great differences of concrete conditions in the two countries as well as a lack of understanding.
He added that some US statesmen are reluctant to give up their Cold War mentality. He called for equality and respect in handling differences.
According to Wang, the status as the world's only superpower allows the United States to impose political pressure on other countries using the excuse of human rights.
Confrontation using the cover of human rights is also caused by bipartisan politics in the United States, he added.
"Imposing one's own value system on others is neither realistic nor conducive to the establishment of a just and rational world political and economic order," said the vice-minister.
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