China raps US meddling

China has called on the United States to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights issues.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei gestures for questions at a press briefing in China’s capital Beijing

China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei urged Washington to focus on its own human rights conditions, saying, “We advise the US side to reflect on its own human rights issues and not to position itself as a preacher of human rights,” the state-funded BBC reports.

“[The US should] stop using the issue of human rights reports to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” the Chinese politician added.

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Hong says China welcomes talks about rights on the basis of equality and mutual respect. However, he added that Beijing resolutely opposes meddling in other countries’ affairs.

The development comes following the annual release of US State Department’s report on human rights, which criticized China for rights abuses.

The American report, considered by many observers as more of a political document against countries not in good terms with the US, accused Beijing of stepping up restrictions on lawyers and journalists.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also claimed on Friday that Beijing’s record on human rights was worsening.

“We remain deeply concerned about reports that since February, dozens of people including public-interest lawyers, writers, artists, intellectuals and activists have been arbitrarily detained and arrested,” Clinton said.

The Asian country has also been accused by the US of tightening controls on civil liberties and imposing more restraints over the press and internet access.

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China: Free Unlawfully Detained Legal Activists, Relatives

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Government Expands Use of Extralegal Detention and House Arrest

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately release three prominent lawyers arbitrarily detained and feared forcibly disappeared this month, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also reiterated its call for the Chinese authorities to end the arbitrary house arrest imposed on Liu Xia, the wife of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and on the blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng and his family.

Lawyers Tang Jitian, Teng Biao, and Jiang Tianyong were separately taken away by Public Security agents last week in Beijing and have not been seen or heard from since. The authorities have failed to give any reason or formal notification to their relatives, and all three are believed to be at risk of ill-treatment and torture.

“Citizens’ demands for the state to respect its own laws are getting louder,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “But the government is responding with even less regard for legal procedures, arbitrarily arresting lawyers and placing well known activists and their family members under illegal and indefinite detention.”

Police forced their way into Tang Jitian’s Beijing apartment early on the morning of February 16, 2011, and immediately took him away, returning later to search the apartment. Jiang Tianyong was arrested in Bejiing on the afternoon of February 19 while visiting his brother. Several men forced him into a car, and the police returned later that day to seize his computer. Teng Biao, a lecturer at China University of Political Science and Law, was arrested the same afternoon. Police searched his home the next day and seized two computers, as well as several books, documents, and DVDs.All three activists are leading lawyers from the weiquan, or “rights protection” movement, whom the government has deprived of their professional licenses in recent years. Judicial authorities have done this apparently in retaliation for the lawyers’ refusal to desist from cases that the authorities see as politically sensitive such as abuses of power, wrongful convictions, and illegal land seizures.

Under international law, authorities commit an enforced disappearance when they fail to acknowledge holding someone in custody or provide no information on the person’s fate or whereabouts. “Disappearances” increase the likelihood of torture or other ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said.

WikiLeaks: US and China in military standoff over space missiles

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The United States threatened to take military action against China during a secret “star wars” arms race within the past few years, according to leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

The two nuclear superpowers both shot down their own satellites using sophisticated missiles in separate show of strength, the files suggest.  The American Government was so incensed by Chinese actions in space that it privately warned Beijing it would face military action if it did not desist. The Chinese carried out further tests as recently as last year, however, leading to further protests from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, secret documents show.

 

satellite

 

Beijing justified its actions by accusing the Americans of developing an “offensive” laser weapon system that would have the capability of destroying missiles before they left enemy territory.

The disclosures are contained in the latest documents obtained by the Wikileaks website, which have been released to The Telegraph. They detail the private fears of both superpowers as they sought mastery of the new military frontier.

 

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