U.S. drops China rights censure
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
WASHINGTON (CNN) - -- Citing "important and significant steps" by China to improve its human rights record, the State Department has said it will not introduce a resolution condemning Beijing this year at the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Deputy department spokesman Adam Ereli said on Thursday that while "persistent systemic problems" remain, the Chinese government has taken action to increase religious freedoms and allow more leniency for political prisoners.
Those steps include allowing political prisoners the same rights to sentence reductions and parole as other prisoners, Ereli said.
He also pointed to Beijing's agreement to visits by the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Religious Intolerance and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Chinese government has also agreed to host the U.S. Committee on Religious Freedom.
China has also begun to allow family churches to operate in their homes without registering with the government, Ereli said.
"Taken together, these are important steps that get at some of the structural issues concerning human rights in China as well as noteworthy steps in the reduction of the number of prisoners," he said.
He cited the release of Rebiya Kadeer, an Uighur businesswoman who was detained in August 1999 and sentenced to eight years in prison on espionage charges when she sent newspaper clips to her husband in the United States. The State Department has been pushing China for Kadder's release. She was released Thursday on medical parole.
A senior State Department official added that out of 58 high-profile cases of political prisoners that the United States was following, 20 have been released early, 33 have received reduced sentences and five are being considered for early release or reduced sentences this year.
The announcement comes days before the visit of Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice to China, although Ereli said the two events are unrelated.
The annual State Department Report on Human Rights, released two weeks ago, called China's human rights record "disappointing" and criticized Beijing for continuing to arrest activists, deny religious freedom and abuse prisoners.
U.S. criticism of China's human rights record has been a major thorn in Sino-American relations, although most previous U.S. attempts to censure Beijing before the U.N. commission have failed to secure the votes needed to pass a resolution.
If Beijing does not continue to improve its human rights record, Ereli said, the United States could debate a resolution censuring China next year.
He said the United States would probably propose a resolution condemning the human rights situation in Cuba at the six-week session of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission, which began Monday.
In addition, a State Department official told CNN the United States is expected to sponsor resolutions critical of human rights in Sudan, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Belarus.
