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Other news, in another place.
China Lashes Out at US Human Rights Criticism
China has lashed out at US criticism of its humans right record — despite the fact that the State Department dropped it from its list of worse offenders. Human rights and other issues such as Tibet are threatening to tarnish China’s image ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
China may be hoping to present itself in a postive light when it hosts the Olympic Games in August (more…), but it is increasingly having to defend itself against international criticism of its human rights record, pollution and presence in Tibet.
On Wednesday, Beijing lashed out at US criticism of its human rights record — despite the fact that an annual US State Department report published Tuesday had actually removed China from its blacklist of worst human rights abusers.
China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi described the 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices as having a “Cold War mentality,” and said that China was ready to have a dialogue on human rights with the US based on “equality and mutual respect.” He also lashed out at groups who sought to “politicize” the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, which kick off on Aug. 8.
“We welcome suggestions and criticisms offered out of goodwill,” Yang said, but added that those “who want to tarnish the image of China … will never get their way.”
Chinese police teargas protesting monks in Tibet
Rosalind Ryan and agencies
Wednesday March 12 2008
New Delhi police officers arrest female activists during a pro-Tibet demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in the Indian capital. Photographer: Manish Swarup/AP
Chinese police fired teargas into crowds of monks who took to the streets of Lhasa yesterday for a second day of protests in the Tibetan capital.
Around 500 monks were marching near a police station to demand the release of fellow monks who had been held after protests on Monday. Eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia they were chanting “we want freedom” and “free our people or we won’t go back”.
The monks from the Sera monastery were surrounded by more than 1,000 armed police who fired tear gas into the crowd and used electric prods to disperse the protesters.
U.S. drops China from list of top 10 violators of rights
By Helene Cooper
Published: March 12, 2008
WASHINGTON: The State Department no longer considers China one of the world’s worst human rights violators, according to its annual human rights report released Tuesday, a decision that immediately earned the ire of human rights groups.
In the annual report on more than 190 countries, the State Department did say that China’s “overall human rights record remained poor” in 2007. China, the report said, tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Tibet and the Xinjiang region. The report said China’s abuses also included “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor.”
But the report dropped China from a list of 10 countries that it deemed the worst offenders: North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan.
Interesting sequence…
2 Responses to “Other news, in another place.”
The U.S. has a lot of nerve calling anybody out over human rights. They should have added themselves to the list of top ten abusers if they were being honest.
Same story, with the names reversed.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hh7IhvgSfKJX8xxoTKBKGyAKCq6QD8VCG52G0