U.S. to Back U.N. Resolution on Rights in China(Reuters) 

January 11, 2000

               WASHINGTON (Reuters) -  The United States said on Tuesday  there had been a deterioration in China's human rights performance and it would back a resolution critical of Beijing at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in March.

               State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters: "The  goal is to shine the international spotlight directly on China's human rights practices," and referred to restrictions on  freedom of speech, dissent and religion.

               The decision, sure to anger China's communist leaders, was  made as Sino-U.S. relations have been gradually improving after  last year's bombing of China's embassy during a NATO attack on Belgrade and allegations of Chinese nuclear spying. Rubin said  the Chinese government had been informed on Monday.

               "The United States will introduce a resolution on China's  human rights practices at the United Nations Commission on Human  Rights when it meets in Geneva in March. The decision to go  forward with this resolution at the commission is based on the  fact that the government of China's human rights record has  continued to deteriorate," Rubin said at a regular news briefing.

               "Over the past year, the government of China intensified  its crackdown on political dissent, initiated a campaign to suppress the Falun Gong (spiritual movement) and intensified  controls on unregistered churches and on the political and  religious expression of ethnic minority groups, especially  Tibetans," he said.

               Washington attempted to push a critical resolution at the  Geneva commission last year, but it failed to attract European support and was quashed. In 1998 the United States, citing  improvements in China's rights record, did not support such a resolution, but it had done so in previous years.