Author: AFP
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: February 20, 2009
URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090220/pl_afp/usdiplomacyasiachinarights
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: In case
of every other country in the world, including India, Clinton would have made
human rights concerns as a condition for a visit.]
Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group
voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not
to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.
Paying her first visit to Asia as the top
US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China
on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.
"But our pressing on those issues can't
interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis
and the security crisis," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before
leaving for Beijing.
T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA said
the global rights lobby was "shocked and extremely disappointed"
by Clinton's remarks.
"The United States is one of the only
countries that can meaningfully stand up to China on human rights issues,"
he said.
"But by commenting that human rights
will not interfere with other priorities, Secretary Clinton damages future
US initiatives to protect those rights in China," he said.
Students for a Free Tibet said Clinton's remarks
sent the wrong signal to China at a sensitive time.
"The US government cannot afford to let
Beijing set the agenda," said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of the New
York-based advocacy group.
China has been pouring troops into the Himalayan
territory ahead of next month's 50th anniversary of the uprising that sent
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile in India.
"Leaders really need to step up and pressure
China. It's often easy to wonder whether pressure makes a difference. It may
not make a difference in one day or one month, but it would be visible after
some years," Dorjee said.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
had sent a letter to Clinton before her maiden Asia visit urging her to raise
human rights concerns with Chinese leaders.
Before she left, State Department spokesman
Robert Wood said human rights would be "an important issue" for
Clinton and that she would "raise the issue when appropriate."
China has greeted President Barack Obama's
administration nervously, believing he would press Beijing harder on human
rights and trade issues than former president George W. Bush.
