Seven leading human rights groups urged in a joint statement US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to make human rights a prominent topic in her upcoming trip to Beijing.
Clinton will leave today for her first overseas trip in her capacity as Washington’s top diplomat. She is to visit Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China on her week-long tour.
In a letter signed by Amnesty International USA, Reporters without Borders, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, International Campaign of Tibet and Human Rights First, the groups urged the US to send a signal to China that “the quality of its relationship with the US will depend in part on whether it lives by universally accepted human rights norms in its domestic and foreign policies.”
“Sending such a signal in Beijing will be especially important given the US’ unfortunate absence from China’s Universal Periodic Review on Feb. 9 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva,” said the letter, dated Thursday.
Holding Clinton to her own pledges, the groups said 13 years ago in Beijing she spoke about the “duty of all governments to respect the fundamental human rights of women and men,” the groups said, adding that contrary to public opinion, China does respond to external pressure on improving its human rights record. They said authorities agreed to move Chinese dissident Hu Jia (胡佳) to a prison closer to his family because of US intervention.
“We strongly urge that you raise these issues early in your tenure as Secretary. We are acutely aware that the US’ agenda with China is a broad one, but we believe that the desired economic, security and diplomatic progress can be reinforced through more vigorous and public defense of human rights,” the letter said.
Speaking at the Asia Society in New York on Friday, Clinton said relations with the countries she will be visiting and those in Asia and the Pacific are vital to US security and interests and that the administration is keen to strengthen ties with the region.
Recent reports from Washington showed that Beijing was ready to pounce on Clinton over arms sales to Taiwan and to use possible greenhouse gas emission reductions to further its position on the Tibet and Taiwan issues.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS