Friday, April 11, 2003

US won't sponsor resolution criticizing China's human rights record

Two weeks after declaring that China had a poor human rights record, the State Department said Friday it will not seek a resolution criticizing China in the top United Nations rights forum.Spokesman Richard Boucher credited China with "some limited but significant progress" in protection of human rights, including the release of a number of political prisoners.He said much remains to be done, adding that the administration will continue to press China's new government to improve its human rights record.Since China's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tienenman Square in 1989, the United States has introduced China resolutions almost every year at the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.