The US is likely to call for international criticism of China's human rights record at the upcoming meeting of the UN's top human rights body, a senior US official said.
The Bush administration is moving toward introducing a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission condemning China because last year "it was radio silence from Beijing" in addressing human rights concerns, the official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
At last year's session, the US decided not to introduce a China resolution because Beijing took some significant steps on human rights in 2002: It invited the Dalai Lama's representative to visit for the first time in 20 years, it talked to the US special representative on Tibet and it released more political prisoners than in any year in the 1990s, the official said.
China routinely rejects scrutiny of its human rights record as interference in its affairs. But the communist government has begun in recent years to acknowledge a need for change -- albeit on Chinese terms -- and to accept foreign technical advice on improving its courts and some other institutions, which includes guidance aimed at improving respect for human rights.
Washington is concerned that more and more Chinese are being arrested, that in several cases lawyers trying to defend clients are ending up in jail and that only two prominent prisoners were released last year, the official said.
The US is also concerned that Beijing did not keep its promise to allow the UN investigators on religion and torture and a working group on international detention into the country last year, the official said.
Beijing also broke a promise to allow the US commissioner on international freedom to visit.
China's human rights record was the subject of a lengthy discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Jan. 29. According to a transcript, Lorne Craner, the US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, raised the possibility of introducing a resolution criticizing China.
"As a result of our concern about backsliding across a range of key human rights issue, the US is seriously considering sponsoring a resolution on human rights in China at this spring's UN commission -- a decision that will be made at the highest levels of our government," Craner said.
In the past, China has blocked US attempts to get the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission to pass critical resolutions. The US official said Beijing would likely try to thwart any resolution introduced this year, but it wouldn't matter because Washington's aim is to raise the issues.
China is trying to persuade the world that its human rights practices are on the way to meeting the standards of democratic countries, the official said, "but the fact is they're a long way from that and we haven't seen the progress over the past year that gets us to that."
The six-week annual session of the Human Rights Commission starts March 15 in Geneva.
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant