The US and China braced for a second day of human rights talks yesterday after a two-year hiatus, with a feud brewing over US support for efforts to crack China’s Internet firewall.
Chinese state media acknowledged the talks provided a golden opportunity for reconciliation after months of rancor, but warned Washington not to treat Beijing like a “schoolchild.”
“Relieving the once strained bilateral ties with the US and advancing human rights demands concrete steps. The upcoming human rights dialogue may start a move in that direction,” the Global Times said in a commentary.
“The easy temptation of teaching China like a schoolchild must be resisted. Mutual learning is the only option that will create forward movement,” said the English-language newspaper run by the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece.
Senior officials on Thursday opened the two-day talks, which offer US President Barack Obama’s administration a chance to show it also cares about human rights as it seeks a wide-ranging partnership with China on issues ranging from the economy to North Korea’s nuclear program.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the US would raise the “rule of law, religious freedom, freedom of expression, labor rights and other human rights issues of concern ... We are fully committed to promoting human rights everywhere, including ... China, and look forward to candid and in-depth discussions.”
Ahead of the dialogue, the first since May 2008, the US said it was considering funding the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, software run by the Falungong spiritual movement to circumvent Internet censorship.
China strictly bans Falun Gong, a Buddhist-inspired movement known for its spiritual exercises, whose organizational clout has alarmed Beijing.
“We firmly oppose any government or organization providing support to anti-China forces in their anti-China activities,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) told reporters in Beijing.
The US Congress approved US$30 million in this year’s budget to combat cyber censorship in China, Iran and elsewhere.
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