Signs of Tension Over U.S.-China Rights Meeting
Originally published by The New York Times,22 Apr 2011
By IAN JOHNSON
BEIJING — The United States and China are to meet next week for their annual meeting on human rights, but there are signs that the session may be more tense than usual.
According to a statement issued by the State Department, the two sides are to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Beijing for what has become a regular springtime meeting on human rights.
But the statement was highly unusual in several regards, not least the fact that Washington made the announcement for a meeting to be held in Beijing — which runs counter to diplomatic protocol — and that it was made just days before the event.
Indeed, the Chinese government confirmed the meeting late Friday only after repeated calls to the Foreign Ministry. A day earlier, a ministry spokesman said details still had to be “discussed and arranged.”
“Objectively speaking the announcement is being made at the last minute,” said Joshua Rosenzweig of the Dui Hua Foundation, a rights group, in Hong Kong. “It’s also interesting that the U.S. is making it unilaterally and that they’re using this language.”
The American announcement bluntly says the talks will focus on “the recent negative trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions and arrests and convictions” — highly unusual in such a statement and likely reflecting Washington’s growing frustration with the human rights situation in China.
China is in the midst of a crackdown on dissent in which dozens of lawyers and activists have been rounded up. Some have been detained for brief questioning; others have disappeared for months without a trace.
The most prominent is Ai Weiwei, a well-known artist and critic detained this month when trying to board a flight to Hong Kong. Government-run media have hinted that he will be charged with “economic crimes.”
The immediate catalyst for the crackdown seems to have been a call by dissidents for Chinese to emulate the “jasmine” revolutions of North Africa. Even though few people heeded the calls to protest, the government has reacted strongly.
Western human rights analysts say the clampdown shows the limits of government-to-government human rights dialogue. Besides the United States, other countries and the European Union have similar sessions, which usually take place in private once a year. Typically, Western countries bring up problems or lists of detained dissidents, and China responds by saying that it is a country ruled by laws and that those people violated the law.
“Having the meeting now that so many human rights activists are missing puts the spotlight on the fact that these kinds of meetings are toothless,” said Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. “It’s a talk shop more than anything else.”
These discussions were begun in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to reassure domestic constituencies that human rights were being addressed, Mr. Bequelin said. But an unintended effect is that it has compartmentalized the discussion of human rights into a two-day annual event.