WASHINGTON — The United States scolded China on Wednesday for a litany of human- rights abuses last year even though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested during her recent Beijing visit that the issue would take a back seat to broader concerns such as the global financial crisis.
In a report on the state of human rights around the world, the State Department singled out China for numerous violations while noting a general deterioration in conditions in other countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe.
The report noted some improvements in Afghanistan and Iraq, two countries where American troops are fighting insurgencies. The document also made it clear that the Obama administration welcomes comments about U.S. human-rights practices.
In its section on China, the State Department accused the nation of stepping up “severe cultural and religious repression” of minorities in Tibet and elsewhere as well as increasing its detention and harassment of dissidents.
The report noted that Chinese authorities continued to limit citizens’ right to privacy, freedom of speech, assembly, movement and association.
It said authorities also committed extrajudicial killings and torture, coerced confessions from prisoners and used forced labor.
The report said the abuses peaked around high-profile events such as last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing and unrest in Tibet and that toward the end of last year the government began harassing activists who signed a petition calling for respect of human rights.
The report covers 2008 and was largely drafted during the Bush administration, but Clinton signed off on the findings.
Clinton was criticized by human-rights groups for saying on a trip to Asia last week that while the Obama administration is deeply concerned about human rights in China, the matter could not interfere with attempts to cooperate with Beijing on the worldwide economic meltdown and fighting global climate change.
Clinton said then that a continuing debate over human rights with the Chinese government was not necessarily productive, drawing fire from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as several Republicans in Congress. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., accused Clinton of “a shocking display of pandering” to China and of having “dismissed, devalued and debased human rights” in the country.
During her trip, Clinton also questioned whether the current U.S. policy on military-ruled Myanmar, which relies heavily on sanctions, was effective in attempting to restore democracy.
Wednesday’s report said Myanmar’s military regime committed “severe human-rights abuses” and “brutally suppressed dissent” through a campaign of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture.
In its section on the U.S. human-rights record, the State Department said the Obama administration would “hear and reply forthrightly to concerns about our own practices.”
The report noted that President Barack Obama has pledged to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of the year and has barred harsh interrogation techniques of prisoners.
The report also took Russia to task for failing to protect the rights of its citizens.
Tibet
