China may restart human rights talks
p2pnet news | Politics:- Fearful that its Bejing Olympics might become the focus of serious boycott activities by human rights advocates, the Chinese government says it’s now ready to restart a dialogue with the US on improving human rights.
"The Chinese side is willing to keep contact with the U.S. in all areas,” Bloomberg News has Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi saying at the end of a Beijing press conference with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, "neither elaborating nor giving her the chance to respond".
Chinese president Hu Jintao wants to prevent the world’s largest sporting event, "from becoming a pressure point on issues from political freedom to China’s role in Sudan and Myanmar," says the story, going on:
"Director Steven Spielberg on Feb. 12 quit as an artistic adviser for the games’ opening and closing ceremonies, citing his concern over China’s failure to help end Sudan’s ethnic conflict.
China and the US halted talks in 2003 after the US State Department cited the execution of a Tibetan and the arrests of pro-democracy activists as "troubling incidents” that showed China was "backsliding” on human rights, says Bloomberg.
Yahoo’s Jerry Yang has a also asked Rice to give the company a hand in "alleviating the plight of political dissidents who have expressed their views over the Internet in China," and who were jailed after Yahoo handed the Chinese authorities information about them, and, "in addressing the related challenges confronting U.S. companies like Yahoo that invest in global markets".
Also See:
Bloomberg News – China Willing to Resume Human Rights Talks With U.S., February 27, 2008
political dissidents – Help Shi Tao, Wang Xiaoning, Yahoo asks US, February 25, 2008
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February 28th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Sure, China will be happy to talk about human rights, as long as it suits them. Once the olympics are over, they’ll clamp down just as bad as before. The government of China is full of lying weasels.