Clinton skirts rights issues on China visit

China's state media today described Hillary Clinton's trip to Beijing as a relief, after the US secretary of state steered clear of human rights to focus on cooperation between the two nations.

"Many had waited anxiously for the new administration's China overtures, wondering if the precious signs of stabilisation in bilateral ties at the end of the Bush years could survive the new White House resident's ambitions for change," the official English-language China Daily said in an editorial. "With Clinton in town highlighting common concerns, they finally received the much sought-after relief."

On the other hand, Clinton, who wrapped up her first overseas trip Sunday, which included Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, was strongly criticised by overseas rights groups for not speaking out on China's human rights situation.

But she maintained that Washington's concerns about rights in China should not be a distraction from vital trade and environmental issues, pointing to the need for cooperation between the world powers amid the economic crisis.

"If the point of Hillary Rodham Clinton's maiden voyage overseas in her new role as United States secretary of state was to assure and reassure, she made it," the China Daily said.

The Human Rights Watch slammed Clinton's reported remarks that it might be better for Washington and Beijing to "agree to disagree" on contentious issues like human rights, saying it sends "wrong message" to the Chinese government.

Clinton had said that human rights cannot interfere with resolution of the global crises caused by market meltdown and climate change and it might better for Washington and Beijing to agree to disagree on such issues.

Disagreeing with Clinton, HRW stressed that progress in each of these key areas is inseparable from securing progress in human rights. "Freedom for the press, whistleblowers, and critics is essential to preventing environmental damage and defective products that threaten China and the world," It added.

"Secretary Clinton's remarks point to a diplomatic strategy that has worked well for the Chinese government segregating human rights issues into a dead-end dialogue of the deaf,'" said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Focus on economy
On Saturday, Chinese officials and Clinton agreed step up their cooperation on the global economic crisis and climate change, while treading carefully around human rights issues.

In the final day of Clinton's inaugural diplomatic trip to Asia, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said his government had agreed in principle to her proposal to add iscussions of environmental and security issues to the high-level economic talks that dominate the official relationship.

"The two sides believe that energy and the environment will play an increasingly important role in the growth of bilateral relations," Yang said at a news conference after a meeting that ran more than an hour.

Clinton has been eager to expand discussions between the two countries, believing US cooperation with the Asian giant is a key to easing many world problems, including security challenges from North Korea and Iran.

Yang and Clinton announced that the two countries have agreed to divide their discussions into a "strategic" track, which will include political and environmental questions, and an economic track.

The two countries' relationship has been built around a "strategic economic dialogue" between top Chinese officials and then-Treasury Secretary Henry M Paulson. Under Clinton's proposal, she and Treasury Secretary Timothy F Geithner would be closely involved in talks. It remains unclear which Chinese officials would take part.

Yang made no commitment on how China, the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases, would deal with climate change. Although the Chinese government acknowledges the problem, it is heavily focused on strengthening its economy to provide jobs, and believes the developed world needs to put up more of the money to deal with the problem.

Clinton said that promotion of human rights "is an essential aspect of our global foreign policy" and that she had brought up the subject with Yang, as US officials do regularly with the Chinese government.

On Friday, speaking with reporters, she said that though the United States needed to continue to press human rights issues, it could not allow them to stand in the way of progress with the Chinese on other urgent areas of discussion.

In 1995, when she was first lady, Clinton won worldwide attention by strongly criticizing the Chinese for their human rights approach, including their one-child policy, during a United Nations women's conference in Beijing.

Yang, contending that most Chinese are not complaining about human rights, said, "You will see the biggest number of smiling faces here in China." But activists complained bitterly Saturday about their treatment during Clinton's visit.

Dissidents were put under house arrest and trailed by police to prevent them from getting anywhere near the secretary of state.

Among those detained was Zeng Jinyan, the wife of jailed activist Hu Jia. Zeng had tried to leave her home Saturday morning to meet with an AIDS activist who is scheduled to meet with Clinton today. Police officers stopped her, she said.

Other rights activists were told that they could leave home only if they were escorted by police and that they were not permitted to meet with Clinton or any other US officials, according to the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Clinton also met with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, and toured a high-efficiency natural-gas-fired power plant. US officials hope China will turn more to such plants, rather than less efficient coal-fired facilities, to meet its enormous energy demands.