WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Thursday it was increasingly concerned about human rights in China, which has launched its biggest crackdown in years amid a wave of democracy protests in the Arab world.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said that the United States made “strong statements both in public and private” on human rights during President Hu Jintao’s state visit in January.

“Recent events in China, including the forced disappearances of rights lawyers and crackdowns on Chinese and foreign journalists, have only further increased our concerns about human rights,” Campbell told a congressional hearing.

Human rights groups say that at least 26 activists have been detained and more than 30 others have “disappeared” without charge, including prominent rights attorneys and bloggers who had otherwise been tolerated for years.

Chinese authorities have ratcheted up their crackdown since February, when online calls — inspired by the Arab unrest — urged people to gather weekly for “strolling” demonstrations across China.

President Barack Obama’s administration has faced repeated criticism from activists that it has been too soft in raising human rights abuses with China.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton started her term saying that such concerns would not “interfere” with cooperation with the rising Asian power, although she has since spoken more forcefully on human rights.

Campbell said that the United States and China would hold the next round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a key forum between the world’s two largest economies, in May in Washington.

The annual talks are led by Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110331/pl_afp/uschinarightsdissentinternet_20110331194037