December 13, 2002

BEIJING - Complaining about a lack of Chinese progress, Amnesty International exhorted American diplomats Friday to set specific goals and demand the release of political prisoners during a new round of human rights talks in Beijing next week.

"We remain deeply concerned by the lack of progress," the London-based organization said in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Without progress on these fundamental topics the effectiveness of the dialogue remains in question."

The meeting Monday in Beijing is part of a periodic series of human rights exchanges held by China since the mid-1990s with the United States, the European Union and other governments. Activists say such meetings produce little, while muting official criticism of China. U.S. and other officials release few details of their talks.

Amnesty cited a wide range of outstanding issues despite past talks with Washington, including torture in prisons and crackdowns on Internet dissent and the Falun Gong spiritual group.

Beijing routinely rejects human rights criticism as interference in its affairs. But it has carried on such dialogues since the mid-1990s with the European Union, the United States and other governments, and in recent years has shifted its public tone to acknowledge progress is under way -- though on China's terms.

Amnesty called on U.S. diplomats to tell Chinese officials that human rights will be an "integral part of the political dialogue" with Beijing.

"The U.S. government should specify the overall aims, concrete objectives and time frame," its letter said. "Benchmarks for progress should be identified and complemented with a clear time frame for the achievements of these objectives."

The group said it sent a copy to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner, who will represent Washington at the Beijing talks. Craner is head of the State Department's human rights bureau.

The letter asked U.S. officials to convey a list of specific requests.

They include the release of Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Muslim businesswoman imprisoned for sending newspapers to her activist husband abroad, and dissident Xu Wenli, who is serving a 13-year prison term and is reported to be suffering from Hepatitis B.

Amnesty said it recognized that engagement with China is a long-term process, and that "dialogue may not produce major changes in the short term."

However, it said that in some cases abuses have worsened, such as a recent Chinese crackdown on Internet use in which it said at least 30 people have been arrested on vague subversion or state-secrets charges.

Amnesty also complained of imprisonment, torture and sometimes death in the government's crackdown on independent Christian churches, Falun Gong and Tibetan, Muslim and other ethnic minority activists.

China has been accused recently of misusing the international campaign against terrorism to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment in Tibet and among Uighurs, a Muslim minority in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

"Thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns remain in detention, while ethnic Uighurs, many of them Muslims, are falsely accused of being 'separatists' or 'terrorists,'" Amnesty said. "Many have been executed after secret trials."

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