US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she saw no progress in China on human rights, regretting that neither economic reforms nor US pressure were making Beijing budge.

But Pelosi vowed to be “relentless” in keeping the heat on Beijing over its human rights record, rejecting suggestions that she backed away from her longtime advocacy on the issue during a recent trip to China.

Pelosi deplored that Beijing was still holding prisoners for taking part in the Tiananmen Square democracy protests crushed 20 years ago this week.

“Twenty years later people are still being incarcerated for speaking out about anything other than the party line,” Pelosi said. “I don’t know that this is an evolution.”

See also CDT’s exclusive interview with Pelosi during her recent trip to China (now with Chinese transcript).

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Q&A with Reps. Pelosi and Markey in China from China Digital Times on Vimeo.

The Chinese transcript of the Q&A follows (translated by Shilin Jia):
(...)
Read the rest of Q&A with Reps. Pelosi and Markey (Updated with Chinese Transcript) (136 words)

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Post tags: Ed Markey, global warming, Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Congress, U.S. environment, U.S. relations
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Beijing quietly pressured U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to curtail meeting with dissidents on last week’s trip to China, sources say.

Quoting people familiar with the situation, the Washington publication Politico reported that Chinese diplomats in Washington discreetly urged Pelosi to not show up the country’s leadership by loudly criticizing Beijing’s human rights record as she has done in the past.

Despite the pressure from Beijing, Pelosi did meet with human rights leaders in Shanghai and Hong Kong during her week-long trip that ended Sunday, but it was a far cry from the militant stance in support of dissidents she displayed in a 1991 visit, when she unfurled a pro-democracy banner in Tiananmen Square, Politico reported.

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Police quickly dragged away the small group demonstrating in front of a central government office — far from any of the sites visited by Pelosi and other Congress members, who have been focused on climate change negotiations.

Demonstrations over everything from pollution to crime are common in China, but rare in front of major government offices in tightly controlled Beijing. Some of the protesters spray-painted red slogans on the main gate of the State Council Information Office reading “Pelosi we love you,” “Warmly welcome Pelosi, pay attention to human rights” and “Down with corruption.”

See photos of the protest. See also an AFP report.

Pelosi has played down her usual focus on human rights issues during her visit and concentrated on building a cooperative relationship with China on climate change. From Time:

Ahead of this week’s visit to China, Pelosi’s first as Speaker of the House, there was some nervousness in China that the high-ranking Democrat would publicly raise human-rights concerns at a sensitive time in Beijing — just one week before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. But thus far, the American politician, who is facing questions at home about what she knew of the CIA’s waterboarding of terrorism suspects, has given her hosts little to worry about. When she did mention human rights, it was in the broad context of international relations, rather than specific criticism of China’s record. “In every country, not just China and the U.S., the global climate crisis is best surmounted with transparency and openness, respect for the rule of law and accountability to the people,” she said in her Beijing talk.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who collided with Chinese authorities in 1991 when she unfurled a banner memorializing those who died in the square, arrived here Sunday saying only that she planned to discuss climate change with Chinese officials.

At a briefing in Washington before leaving for her week-long trip, Pelosi declined to say whether she planned to discuss human rights with her hosts. Instead, she said only that she would focus on securing support for a global pact on reducing carbon emissions, in advance of a major international gathering on climate change scheduled for December in Copenhagen.

“We have to . . . learn from each other as we go forward. So that is the subject,” she told reporters, ignoring several requests to address human rights issues.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is due to visit China next week, in what observers here hope will be an improbable continuation of the Obama administration’s charm offensive in China.

Widely regarded as one of China’s sharpest and most public critics, Ms. Pelosi will arrive Sunday and stay a week, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. A Pelosi spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment, but an official from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed that Ms. Pelosi will visit China next week.

According to Western diplomats here, she will head a delegation of members of Congress and is expected to travel to Beijing and Shanghai.

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A violent storm of nationalist indignation is roiling the Chinese internet, as bloggers vent their anger at perceived Western insults in the wake of the Tibetan uprising last month.

Simmering resentment at the way the Olympic torch relay was treated by pro-Tibet demonstrators in London and Paris has boiled over this week into invective against a CNN commentator, a French supermarket chain, and Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives.

The government, which keeps a close eye on Internet debate through censors who delete unapproved comment, has given the campaign free rein. Indeed it has added its voice to the angry chorus, which some observers say echoes ancient resentments.

The Washington Post has a story on a student from Duke University who was harassed after patriotism online became overheated. New Freedom, and Peril, in Online Criticism of China from Washington Post:

Wang Qianyuan did not realize she would cause such a frenzy last week when she ran into a group of American students, Tibetan flags tied over their shoulders, getting ready for a vigil at Duke University to support human rights. She used blue body paint to write “Save Tibet” slogans on the bare back of one of the organizers but did not join their demonstration.

Wang, a Chinese national, knew she was treading on sensitive territory. “But human rights are above everything,” she said later in a telephone interview. Even national pride. Before long, a video of the 20-year-old freshman, seen standing between pro-Tibet activists and Chinese counterprotesters, was posted on the Internet. Within hours, an angry mob gathered online, calling her a “traitor” who should be punished.

The Chinese government has not accepted an apology from CNN over disparaging statements made by commentator Jack Cafferty, and has demanded that the network take further action to “take back the vile remarks,” the Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, Jin Jing, the wheelchair-bound torch bearer who became a national symbol after being attacked by protesters during the Paris leg of the Olympics torch relay, has spoken to the media about the experience:

Why were the protesters so angry? she was asked. “I hope you in the media can answer that for me,” she said.

She repeated the Chinese government’s line on the issue — “Tibet has always been a part of China” — and when asked if she had considered the Tibetans’ point of view, the minder sitting next to her whispered sharply.

“Everyone has their own point of view,” Jin said. But she said, addressing the protesters, “Your actions are wrong.”

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The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution Wednesday calling on China to end its crackdown on Tibet and release Tibetans imprisoned for “nonviolent” demonstrations.

Tibetan monks protest in San Francisco along the Olympic torch’s 85,000-mile route toward Beijing.
1 of 3more photos » more photos »

The vote was 413-1. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who recently dropped out of the presidential race, was the lone congressman voting against it.

The resolution passed just hours before runners were to carry the Olympic torch on a six-mile route around San Francisco Bay.

Read also: Pelosi: ‘We are Hearing the Call to the Conscience of the World’

And: Xinhua’s statement: China tells Pelosi to stop disturbance, sabotage of Olympics and torch relay.

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China’s government on Thursday publicly kept its cool on the Democratic party’s victory in US Congressional elections, but Beijing policymakers are unlikely to be pleased to see Nancy Pelosi become House speaker.

Asked about implications of the imminent ascent of a congresswoman who once demonstrated for democracy in Tiananmen Square, China’s foreign ministry gave a boiler-plate response on the importance of improving Sino-US relations. [Full Text]

Read also: Dollar slips on talk of China reserves shift by David McMahon from Reuters.

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