Human Rights Issues, Not a Priority in Talks with China

Carina Gibson

Feb 20, 2009

10:46 AM

United States relations with China will not be halted because of Human Rights topics. On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated that despite China’s reluctance in addressing human rights issues, cooperation between Washington and Beijing concerning climate change, the global economic crisis, and security threats (for example, North Korea’s nuclear program) will not stall. Clinton said “…we pretty much know what they are going to say", concerning human rights issues. China has been known in the past several years, to be slightly dismissive of many human rights regulations. This has provided for much pressure on such groups as Amnesty International to stress for better regulations. Seven major human rights organizations wrote a joint letter to Clinton urging her to tell Chinese officials that US cooperation will not continue until the Chinese government has agreed to take significant steps to secure “human rights norms.” The Obama administration is relying heavily on China’s cooperation in environmental issues on reducing harmful greenhouse gases, as well as talking with North Korea in hopes of preventing the testing of long-range missiles. US diplomats have been known to always assure that human rights issues are an urgent topic in their agenda, whether or not this is true. Clinton, however, is taking the much more direct approach in saying that the economic, environmental and safety concerns will be the priority. She states that her directness "… is unusual because you are supposed to be so careful that you spend hours avoiding stating the obvious. But that is just not productive in my view. It is worthwhile being more straightforward. . . . That's how I see it and that's how I intend to operate." She assures the human rights groups that she is not dismissing these issues (that she has been an advocate for many years) but feels that these pressing matters should be dealt with first, while the full cooperation of the Chinese government is available.
While I understand that the current topics, especially concerning the ever looming economic crisis, are a priority, the rights of people should never be pushed aside. It is a right for all humans to be provided substantial equality, no matter when or where, and this topic should be a priority in international relations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022000967.html?hpid=topnews