Beijing Olympics Fail to Improve China Human Rights, Group Says
03/08/2007 |
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China is failing to ease restrictions on human rights activists and is intensifying its crackdown on the media a year before the Beijing Olympics, Human Rights Watch said.
The Chinese government is concerned about political stability before the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Aug. 8, 2008, the New York-based group said in a report today.
``Instead of a pre-Olympic `Beijing spring' of greater freedom and tolerance of dissent, we are seeing the gagging of dissidents, a crackdown on activists and attempts to block independent media coverage,'' Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
China has a well-documented history of human rights abuses, including widespread torture, censorship, controls on religious freedom and repression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang, the group said.
The media office of China's embassy in Australia didn't immediately answer calls when contacted today. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing didn't immediately respond to a fax seeking comment on the report.
China has increased forced evictions, abuses of migrant workers on construction sites and the use of house arrests to silence political opponents in the buildup to the Olympics, Human Rights Watch said. The government extended its crackdown on lawyers and activists who try to uphold the rule of law and expose abuses.
``The starting gun has been fired on the assessment of China's commitment to rights at home and abroad,'' said Adams. ``Just as Chinese citizens will be rooting for their athletes to win medals, we are rooting for the Chinese government to move up in the league tables on rights protection.''
State Retribution
The group said victims of state retribution include the defenders of some of the communist country's most marginalized and vulnerable citizens.
Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-educated lawyer who documented abuses of China's family planning law, was convicted last year of instigating an assault on government offices, the group said. His lawyers were physically attacked and then detained by police to prevent them attending his trial.
Gao Zhisheng, a human rights advocate, said in April he agreed to write a confession to charges of sedition leveled against him in December after he was tortured and security officials threatened his wife and children.
``Political repression is not in keeping with the behavior of a responsible power and Olympics host,'' said Adams. ``The Chinese government shouldn't waste this unique opportunity to use the 2008 Games to demonstrate to the world it is serious about improving the rights situation in China.''
Expanding Ties
The group also criticized China's expanding ties with dictatorships and governments that abuse human rights in countries such as Sudan, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.
China and Russia on Jan. 12 vetoed a U.S. resolution at the United Nations Security Council to press Myanmar to free political prisoners and move toward democracy. Both have agreed to invest in the country of 47 million people this year.
China's influence in Africa is growing as it increases aid, trade and investment to fuel its rapidly expanding economy. China buys 60 percent of Sudan's oil exports.
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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