The Obama Administration will engage in its first human rights dialogue with China next month in Beijing. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
The meeting will be the first round of the dialogue for two years. Human rights activists see it as a measure of the administration’s stated commitment to civil rights in China.
“This is their first opportunity to raise human rights in a concentrated fashion,” says Joshua Rosenzweig, a researcher in Hong Kong with Dui Hua, a group noted for its work on behalf of Chinese political prisoners. “This is a chance to prove themselves.”
US State department spokesman Philip Crowley said he expected the two governments to have “a candid discussion” of religious freedom, Internet freedom, and the rule of law.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered activists here and abroad on her first official visit to Beijing last year by saying that “pressing” the Chinese authorities on human rights violations “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crises.”
