Human rights in China deteriorating—US official

A Chinese Communist Party leader of the Beijing Municipality, left, bows while his peers clap during a press conference to introduce the city’s newly elected top Communist Party leaders in Beijing, July 3, 2012. After holding two days of talks in Washington with leading Chinese officials, US assistant secretary of state for human rights Michael Posner said on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, that human rights in China are worsening. AP PHOTO/ALEXANDER F. YUAN

WASHINGTON—Human rights in China are worsening, a top US official said Wednesday after holding two days of talks in Washington with leading Chinese officials.

“The overall situation of human rights in China continues to deteriorate,” said Michael Posner, assistant secretary of state for human rights, saying he had raised at least two dozen specific cases with his Chinese counterparts.

“We’ve focused on a number of cases – lawyers, bloggers, NGO activists, journalists, religious leaders and others are asserting universal rights and calling for peaceful reform in China,” Posner told reporters.

He said many of them have been arrested as part of a policy “of arrests and extra-legal detentions of those who challenge official actions and policies in China.”

During the talks with the Chinese side, led by Chen Xu, a director general from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US also raised the issue of China’s crackdown on the Uighurs, as well as the self-immolations of Tibetans.

US officials also voiced concern about the lack of access to legal counsel for detained activists, and called on Beijing to release many of the detained lawyers and democracy activists, including Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

“In every society we believe it is incumbent on government to give its own people an opportunity to voice their concerns and pursue their aspirations,” Posner said.