3.19.2005
U.S., China Strike Deal Over Human Rights Decisions, Record (USATODAY.com)
Posted 3/18/2005 5:49 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — China's decision to ease up on political prisoners and religious practices was worked out quietly last week with American diplomats in exchange for the Bush administration agreeing to sidetrack a resolution criticizing China's human rights record, a senior U.S. official said Friday.
As part of the agreement reached last week, Chinese authorities released Rebiya Kadeera, a businesswoman and a member of China's Muslim minority, who was arrested in 1999 for sending newspapers to her husband. He is a U.S.-based activist for independence for the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang.
Other steps taken by China cited by the State Department as reasons for shelving the resolution were promises of leniency for some prisoners of conscience, the opening of a Red Cross office in Beijing this summer, willingness to talk with U.N. officials on torture allegations and making clear that religious education of children was not a crime, the official said.
The resolution was to have been submitted to a 53-nation U.N. human rights conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The official, speaking on condition that his name and title be withheld, said prospects for adoption were bleak in the first place.
All past U.S. resolutions critical of China have failed.
(More ... USATODAY.com - U.S., China strike deal over human rights decisions, record) ¶ 16:37
WASHINGTON (AP) — China's decision to ease up on political prisoners and religious practices was worked out quietly last week with American diplomats in exchange for the Bush administration agreeing to sidetrack a resolution criticizing China's human rights record, a senior U.S. official said Friday.
As part of the agreement reached last week, Chinese authorities released Rebiya Kadeera, a businesswoman and a member of China's Muslim minority, who was arrested in 1999 for sending newspapers to her husband. He is a U.S.-based activist for independence for the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang.
Other steps taken by China cited by the State Department as reasons for shelving the resolution were promises of leniency for some prisoners of conscience, the opening of a Red Cross office in Beijing this summer, willingness to talk with U.N. officials on torture allegations and making clear that religious education of children was not a crime, the official said.
The resolution was to have been submitted to a 53-nation U.N. human rights conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The official, speaking on condition that his name and title be withheld, said prospects for adoption were bleak in the first place.
All past U.S. resolutions critical of China have failed.
(More ... USATODAY.com - U.S., China strike deal over human rights decisions, record) ¶ 16:37
