U.S. Accuses China of Broad Human Rights Abuses
Let's see what's on the menu today...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States accused China of a broad array of human rights violations on Monday including summary executions, torture, forced confessions, suppressing political dissent and denying religious freedom.
In its annual human rights report, the State Department said China took steps to address international concerns during the year by releasing some dissidents, inviting U.N. monitors to visit, allowing representatives of the Dalai Lama to enter China and expanding permitted religious activity in Tibet.
But these were undermined by its actions toward the end of the year that a senior U.S. official said had left Washington uncertain about the direction of human rights in China.
"The government's human rights record throughout the year remained poor, and the government continued to commit numerous and serious abuses," the Department said in its section on China, which ran to an estimated 70,000 words.
"Late in the year, (the) positive developments were undermined by arrests of democracy activists, the imposition of death sentences without due process on two Tibetans and the trials of labor leaders on 'subversion' charges," it added.
"Authorities were quick to suppress religious, political, and social groups, as well as individuals, that they perceived to be a threat to government power or to national stability," it added. "Citizens who sought to express openly dissenting political and religious views continued to face repression."
While saying China carried out some reforms in the areas of democracy and the rule of law -- allowing direct elections at the village level in several provinces -- the report reserved some of its harshest words for the Chinese judicial system.
"Abuses included instances of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention and denial of due process," the report said.
Yep, it's all here- murder, torture, arbitrary arrest, open-ended extrajudicial detention, summary execution, forced confessions. It's a veritable smorgasbord of human rights abuses. As if there were any doubt previously, the Communist Chinese government and human rights abuses really do go together like peanut butter and jelly.
