The US said on Wednesday the human rights situation in China was deteriorating and it was time for its authoritarian government to allow dissent.
US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner was speaking after an annual US-China human rights dialogue that ended in Washington on Tuesday.
Posner, whose portfolio covers democracy, human rights and labor issues, said there was growing frustration among many Chinese people that they do not have the ability to express their differences with the government.
“Our message to the Chinese government is you’ve made progress on the economic front, this is the moment to open up the space to allow people to dissent, to question government actions and to do so without fear of retribution,” he told reporters.
Posner said the US raised with the Chinese delegation dozens of individual cases of those persecuted that included lawyers, bloggers, non-government group activists, journalists and religious leaders.
He declined to characterize China’s responses. He said the visiting delegation had questioned the US’ own human rights record, asking about discrimination and prison conditions.
The Chinese delegation was led by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for International Organizations and Conferences Chen Xu (陳旭). China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the dialogue.
Skeptics, including in the US Congress, have questioned whether the formal talks that China holds with Western powers on human rights have any use and may help it fend off critics without taking action.
“A human rights dialogue with the communist regime in Beijing matters for little until the rule of law is genuinely rooted in Chinese soil,” said US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Posner said that activists in China, including family members of detainees, want the US to speak in public and private with Beijing and pointed to growing attention rights issues draw among Chinese on the Internet and in blogs.
The US said it raised the conditions of ethnic and religious minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang; the cases of imprisoned democracy activists Chen Wei (陳衛) and Chen Xi (陳西); Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波); jailed lawyers Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) and Ni Yulan (倪玉蘭); and Feng Jianmei (馮建梅), a woman forced to have an abortion at seven months.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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