Clinton asked to talk tough with China on human right issues

Seven leading human right groups have asked US secretary of State Hillary Clinton to send a strong signal to China during her forthcoming visit that the quality of the communist nation's relationship with America will partly depend on Beijing's compliance with universal human right norms.

In a letter to Clinton released ahead of her China visit, they asserted sending a strong signal to China will be a key test of the Obama administration's pledge to return the United States to a  position of leadership in defending human rights.

Ordinary people in China, it said, will also appreciate hearing the US raise human rights issues in ways that echo their own day-to-day concerns about rule of law and government accountability.

"And we urge that you be mindful of the converse: that the Chinese government and people take careful note when the US is silent," it emphasized.

The letter was signed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Reporters Without Frontiers, Freedom House, International Campaign for Tibet, Human Rights in China and Human Rights first.

The letter regretted that human rights agenda has been progressively pushed to the margins of US-China relationship because of Beijing's growing financial, diplomatic and
military strength coupled with its hostility to reforms that challenge the Chinese Communist Party's grip on power.

"But the advancement of human rights in, and with, China is arguably more central to US interests than ever before," it said, pointing out that press censorship in China makes it possible for toxic food and public health crises to spread globally.

"Suppression of dissent removes internal checks against environmental damage that has global impact. Abuses of low-wage labour implicate international firms operating inside
China and compromise goods that come into the US," the human rights watchdogs said.

"The export from China of internet-censoring technologies and its provision of unconditional aid to repressive regimes increases the US' burdens in fighting censorship and human rights crises worldwide, it added. 

Besides, sending a strong signal to Beijing would be especially important given the United States "unfortunate" absence from the UN Council of Human Rights when it held
periodic review of China's human rights record.

The United States is not a member of the Geneva based Human Rights Council.