Amnesty International attacks China on human rights

Amnesty International on Tuesday released a new report that alleges China has been intensifying its crackdown on activists inside the country in recent years.

During a news conference in Hong Kong the group said that in the last year, thousands of petitioners, reformists and others were arrested during a government campaign to “clean up” Beijing before the Games that begin Aug. 8.

Amnesty International alleges that many of the citizens who are being arrested have been sentenced to manual labor without a court trial.

“By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the games seven years ago,” Roseann Rife, a deputy director in Asia for the London-based group, said during the news conference. “The Chinese authorities are tarnishing the legacy of the Games.”

The Associated Press quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao as saying that people "who know China will not agree with this report.”

“We hope Amnesty can take off the tinted glasses it has worn for many years and see China in an objective way,” Liu said during a regularly scheduled news conference.

The group also faulted the International Olympic Committee for its “reluctance” to push China publicly on its human rights record. This past weekend, IOC President Jacques Rogge maintained during a European newspaper interview that "the IOC is not authorized and has no means to interfere in sovereign matters," Rogge said.

Amnesty International also alleged in a separate report that its website is being blocked inside China.

-- Greg Johnson

Photo: Amnesty International's Mark Allison speaks during a Tuesday news conference in Hong Kong about human rights issues in China. Credit: Andrew Ross / AFP / Getty Images

Comments

[Sycryc]

FIx the title bud ... InterNational

[Michael]

yeah yeah yeah...whatever. These people come out every time there is some big gathering. They have a hollier-than-thou atitude and they are the arbiter of ultimate "truth". Everyone else is just peons of brainwashed mind control. China will do well to ignore these static noises, and move ahead its own path.

i wonder why Hong Kong would allow such an idiot a forum on its territory. There should be a sign that states clearly "no idiotic westerner allowed".

[Vinny]

Hundreds, if not thousands of factories shut down to improve air quality - blue sky seen on a couple of days after all these years!
Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of vehicles banned or usage limited.
Hundreds of thousands of people affected. Are they getting paid for their sacrifices?
Not a pipsqueak of protest from Tibetans or they are not reported at all anywhere!
Eyesores walled up all over Beijing.
Parents of school children killed in badly constructed schools at earthquake sites muzzled.
Visitors 'told' how to behave!

Send your young athletes to breathe the polluted air. If they suffer any health complications will China compensate? They don't take care of their own suffering sports vets. Will IOC compensate?

Where is the spirit of Olympics?

I am sure China 'rejects' this opinion. Can China backup its claims by allowing international reporters free access everywhere?

Yeah, right! Way to China! Way to go IOC!

[dagnemrth]

Amnesty International aren't very smart, the Olympics is a big deal for the very humans in that human rights, to pick on it for anything, no matter how well intentioned you think you are, won't do any good to its reputation. Thanks to these groups human rights has been associated with Tibetan separatists and people attacking torch barriers, none of which get any sympathy in China. To put all your effort in demonizing China's human rights outside China is cowardly at best, what good does it make if Americans care about China's human rights if it come at a cost of being disliked by Chinese in China? Chinese government could even thank groups like Amnesty International, the Internet is suppose to liberalize China but thanks to these groups it instead fueled ultra-nationalism and fortifying Chinese government's authority, they voluntarily provided an external enemy for Chinese goverment to gather people around in the information age.

Amnesty need to get smarter, if they continue with the off topic accusations and supporting things that don't get any love in China, the more they help Chinese goverment gain popularity at home. At this pace Chinese public is starting to view the word "human rights" the same way the west view the word "communism".

[Foster Winans]

As someone who just spent four years writing a book focused on the history of modern China, I am disturbed by the China-Bashing Syndrome that is becoming popular now. No one approves of repression, pollution, or corruption, but China bashers seem to be oblivious to the fact that "new" China is only six decades old, and "modern" China is really only two decades along its path. That's after 4,000 years of feudalism and war. In working on the new Random House book "The Man on Mao's Right," with author Ji Chaozhu, I was amazed at the profound misinformation and misperception that pervades American attitudes toward China. And, I would add, hypocrisy. How easy it is to forget that while criticizing China for suppressing free speech, our own government illegally spied on us and disseminated false information to justify military adventurism. How easy it is to criticize China for pollution when we welcomed the rapid industrialization of China because it caused our own productivity to soar and tremendous wealth to be created. How easy it is for Americans to criticize China for beefing up its military when American-made weapons are being supplied to a rogue regime in the Chinese province of Taiwan, and to nearby Japan which, 65 years later, still has not officially apologized for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens during World War II. This pile-on bashing is based on a superficial understanding of China and its people, and ignores the most important factor of all: China is not yet a stable society and all of the problems we see, they see and live with every day. China's revolution is not yet over, just as America's was not yet over when it was 59 years old, in 1835, when our greatest test, the War Between the States, was yet to be fought and the fate of the nation yet to be decided. The People's Republic has a long way to go and I hope in time we in the West will look past the easy targets and find ways to lead China into the 21st century, as opposed to beating a drowning dog, a Chinese expression not unlike "kicking someone when they're down."

[Virginia]

GIVE ME A BREAK. Amnesty is proving as disreputable as their colleagues Reporters Without Borders. Do we have ONE human rights group left that is impartial to the interests of the U.S. Government??

Apparently not.