A US envoy accused China of "serious backsliding" on human rights Thursday following talks on the issue that were held as Beijing carries out a severe crackdown on government critics. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner also indicated China rebuffed US appeals to soften the crackdown and resolve the cases of prominent artist Ai Weiwei and other detained activists and dissidents.
"In recent weeks we have seen a serious backsliding on human rights and the discussion of these negative trends dominated the human rights dialogue over the past few days," Posner told reporters. "The most senior officials of the United States are deeply concerned about the deterioration of human rights in China," he added. Posner, whose brief includes human rights, led the US delegation to the two-day US-China Human Rights Dialogue, a recurring discussion held this time in Beijing.
The US State Department had made clear beforehand that it would zero in on China's clampdown and a "negative trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, and arrests and convictions". Chinese authorities have launched their toughest campaign against government critics in years after anonymous online appeals emerged in February calling for weekly protests to emulate those that have rocked the Arab world.
Scores of Chinese activists and rights lawyers have been rounded up since the emergence of the "Jasmine" campaign, which has gone largely unheeded. Human rights groups had urged the Americans to step up pressure in the dialogue, which has been criticised as a toothless talking shop that had achieved nothing so far in pressuring China to improve its human rights record. But it appeared that the latest instalment had similarly achieved no breakthroughs, with China on Thursday repeating its insistence that its handling of dissent was its own business.