China said yesterday it had much work to do to improve its human rights record, but a government report gave Beijing passing marks for advancing civil liberties, living standards and Internet freedoms.
“China is a developing country with a population of 1.3 billion,” said the official report entitled, Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2009. “Due to its inadequate and unbalanced development, there is still much room for improvement in its human rights conditions.”
The report laid out government efforts to raise living standards, boost health care and education, ensure equal rights for ethnic minorities and the handicapped, increase employment and respect civil liberties.
“With their right to freedom of speech on the Internet protected by the law, Chinese citizens can voice their opinions in a wide variety of ways,” the report said.
Efforts to use the Internet has opened channels for the public to criticize government work while increasing transparency, it said.
International human rights groups have long criticized China for curbing political rights and the basic freedoms of speech, press and religion, while Beijing’s efforts to censor the Internet have been widely lambasted by the global online community.
However, the report praised international efforts to advance human rights, especially the UN promotion of civil, political and economic rights.
“The full realization of human rights is an important goal for China,” the paper said.
“Working closely with other countries, China will, as always, spare no efforts and contribute its due share to ensure the continuous progress of China’s human rights, as well as the healthy development of human rights in the rest of the world,” it said.
The document was China’s ninth “white paper” on human rights since 1991, it said, but the first since the government issued its “National Human Rights Action Plan of China” last year.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS