Seattle Times: Powell to press China on human rights [Excerpt]

By Robin Wright

Friday, July 27, 2001

HANOI - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that the Bush administration intends to follow up on the release of three scholars convicted as spies by pressing China on the fate of other detainees with U.S. connections.

In his first talks in China tomorrow, Powell will also press the [party' name omitted] leadership on broader human-rights matters despite resolution of one of the thorniest recent issues between the two nations, he said at a news conference.

"It's not so much individual cases that should be our principal focus and concern but the system that occasionally might go after people who perhaps should not be gone after or who are not being given the full protection of law," he said.

Powell, who is on the second leg of a weeklong tour of Asia and Australia, said the United States is reviewing other detention cases to see if there is a basis to raise them with Beijing.

He did not specify the detainees, but the United States has expressed concern about Wu Jianming, a U.S. citizen held on suspicion of spying for Taiwan, and two permanent U.S. residents, Liu Yaping and Teng Chunyan. Liu was picked up because of a business dispute; Teng was sent to a labor camp for her membership in the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement.

"We will continue to monitor these individual cases in China and discuss them with our Chinese colleagues," said Powell, in Vietnam for the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

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