DATE=1/31/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-US-HUMAN RIGHTS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258609
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  China has warned the United States against 
introducing a resolution criticizing Beijing's human 
rights record at the United Nations Commission on 
Human Rights.  VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison 
reports China says such a move would be harmful to 
Sino-US relations.


TEXT:  Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Guangya is 
quoted by official news media Monday as saying 
Washington's intention to criticize China's human 
rights practices will make it impossible for the two 
countries to hold private talks on the subject.

The U-S-China dialogue on human rights has been 
suspended since NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in 
Yugoslavia last May.  

The United States has said China's human rights 
performance deteriorated during 1999 and that 
Washington will sponsor a resolution critical of 
Beijing at the U-N Commission in March.  Washington 
pointed to China's crackdown on political dissent, its 
suppression of the Falun Gong exercise and meditation 
movement and its restrictions on Christians and 
Tibetan Buddhists.

Mr. Wang says the American move is unjustified and 
doomed to fail because -- in his words -- China now 
has the best human rights situation in its history.

The Chinese diplomat accuses what he describes as 
anti-China forces in the United States of using human 
rights to undermine China's political stability and 
development.  He says no country should venture to be 
the teacher of others on human rights.

Mr. Wang is also quoted by the official English -
language China Daily as accusing Washington of using 
double standards.  He says the United States did not 
shrink from using force to suppress the Branch 
Davidian cult.  So -- he asks -- why should it 
criticize China's crackdown on Falun Gong.

China maintains that Falun Gong is an evil cult 
because -- among other things -- it advised its 
adherents not to seek medical help.  The government 
says that, as a result, about 14-hundred Falun Gong 
members died.  Mr. Wang says China would be guilty of 
trampling on the human rights of its citizens if it 
had tolerated Falun Gong.

Previous attempts by the United States in recent years 
to get a resolution critical of China through the U-N 
Human Rights Commission have failed, mainly because 
Washington was unable to attract European support for 
the move.  (signed)

NEB/RW/FC/JO



31-Jan-2000 05:34 AM EDT (31-Jan-2000 1034 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.