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HUMAN RIGHTS SPOTLIGHT BACK ON CHINA

China RealTime Report, March 12, 2010

China is facing a choir of criticism on human rights, with three just-released reports from overseas highlighting poor conditions in the country.

The most-watched is the U.S. State Department’s 34th annual human rights report, released Thursday, which once again took aim at China.

“The government’s human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas,” the report said, citing “severe cultural and religious repression” in Xinjiang, harassment of rights activists and public-interest lawyers, and controls on the Internet and free speech.

The U.S. report was issued just hours after China’s chief justice and top prosecutor each released work reports for 2009 on China’s courts and criminal justice system before China’s legislature during its annual meeting in Beijing. The reports, intended to highlight the progress of law and order in China, also prompted human-rights concerns among observers.

In another report, the U.S.-based Dui Hua Foundation said that, based on data from the Chinese prosecutor’s report, it estimated that as many as 1,150 people were arrested and nearly 1,050 indicted for “endangering state security” in 2009, a decrease from 2008 levels but still high compared to previous years. It said that China arrested more people on state security charges in 2008 and 2009 than IT had during the previous five year period. The significant increase in the use of such charges represents a worrying trend for human-rights activists.

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