US Secretary of State Colin Powell berated China on Monday for not doing enough to improve its human rights record but thanked Beijing for its efforts on North Korea.
A State Department official said Powell had urged Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) during talks at the State Department to make Beijing act on promises made at US-China human rights talks last December.
"The secretary took note of our disappointment that China had not moved forward to implement commitments made at last year's human rights dialogue and subsequently discussed by Assistant Secretary of State [Lorne] Craner during his March trip to China," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Craner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor who attended Monday's meeting, has been strongly critical of China's rights record.
The US is troubled by China's refusal to allow UN human rights investigators to examine allegations that China jails people without due process.
China also promised to allow a US Commission on International Religious Freedom to visit but the trip was postponed after China insisted the group not visit Hong Kong.
Washington is also concerned about the execution of a Tibetan, the arrests of a number of pro-democracy activists and harsh sentences handed down to labor protesters and others.
The State Department official said Powell and Li had also discussed North Korea, the Middle East, the situation in Iraq and nonproliferation during their talks.
"The secretary reaffirmed our commitment to a strong, cooperative relationship with China and again expressed appreciation for China's efforts in the recently concluded six-party talks on North Korea in Beijing," the official said.
Diplomats from the US, South Korea, North Korea, Japan and Russia met in China last month for talks aimed at curbing the nation's nuclear weapons program.
The talks produced no breakthrough but the six nations have agreed to meet again on a date still to be determined..
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