US Talks Human Rights With China
(FoxNews | Beijing | December 17, 2002)
A US delegation was in Beijing for human rights talks Monday amid appeals by activists to press China to release political prisoners and rescind a death sentence imposed on a Tibetan activist.
Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner, the chief State Department human rights official, told reporters the delegation hoped for a "very productive session." He didn't give any details and wouldn't answer questions.
The delegation arrived amid a flurry of high-level American visits to China this month by members of Congress and the commander of US forces in the Pacific. Accompanying Craner were Ralph Boyd, the US assistant attorney general for civil rights, and John V Hanford, III, the US ambassador for religious freedom.
Though China rejects criticism of its human rights record as interference in its affairs, it has carried on such dialogues with the United States, the European Union and other governments since the mid-1990s. Activists, however, complain that such contacts produce little, while muting official criticism.
Activists have called for Craner's delegation to press the communist government to agree to a firm timetable for improvements in a wide range of areas. They include releasing prisoners, stopping torture in Chinese prisons and ending a crackdown on independent churches and on Tibetan, Muslim and other ethnic activists.
Tibetan activists have appealed for Craner to take up the case of Lobsang Dhondup, a Tibetan who was sentenced to death Dec 2 in connection with a series of bombings in western China. Dhondup is an aide to Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist leader who received a suspended death sentence in the case.
Activists reject the trial as unfair, citing reports that the pair were denied lawyers and mistreated in detention. "These sentences, coming at this time, are an insult to the United States and our good faith efforts to discuss our human rights concerns with China in a constructive fashion," the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said in a letter to Craner, a copy of which was sent to reporters. After two days of talks in Beijing, Craner is to visit China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Beijing is trying to crush pro-independence sentiment among the Muslim Uighur minority.
The communist government has been accused of misusing the US-led anti-terrorism campaign to justify a crackdown on nonviolent activists who oppose Chinese rule in Xinjiang and Tibet. After rejecting earlier Chinese attempts to link its struggle in Xinjiang to the anti-terror campaign, Washington this year added a group cited by Beijing to its list of terrorist organizations.
Friends of Tibet (INDIA),
PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050
www.friendsoftibet.org