HONG KONG, Feb 27, 2001 -- (Reuters) Rights groups and activists in Hong Kong on Tuesday welcomed the release of a U.S. report which said China's human rights record had deteriorated in the past year, saying such high-profile international criticism will help push Beijing to change.

"It's a very objective assessment of Beijing's treatment of human rights and of how it has deteriorated in the past few years," said Chinese dissident Frank Lu who has lived in exile in Hong Kong since escaping from a mainland jail in 1993.

"It shows no matter how hard the crackdowns in China and clampdown on information, the truth gets out," said the founder of the Information Center of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China, a key disseminator of China's rights information.

Catherine Baber of Amnesty International told Reuters: "I think less would change if there weren't these reports.

"I think it's very important to keep up the international pressure to show the Chinese government the world is watching what is happening and is concerned about the human rights of such a large proportion of the world's population," she said.

The U.S. State Department, in its annual global human rights report, said on Monday that China's poor human right record worsened in 2000.

The report, issued as President George W. Bush works out his approach to the communist giant, said Beijing's respect for religious freedom deteriorated markedly.

It detailed widespread use of torture and accused Beijing of cracking down on underground Christian groups, Tibetan Buddhists and the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned on the mainland.

It also said Washington would again sponsor a motion at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva this year condemning Beijing's record.

As in previous years, China denounced the report and state media said Beijing would soon respond with a catalog of rights abuses in the United States.

AMMO FOR CHINA'S DETRACTORS

Lu said the report would give China's detractors new ammunition to gun down Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics.

"This report would surely affect its bid. Some U.S. lawmakers will make use of it to oppose China's bid. And then again, this report should trigger some self-examination in China," Lu said.

Tom Lantos, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives' International Relations Committee, has said the report would help his plans to table a resolution in March opposing China's bid.

Lu hoped the report would prod Beijing into speeding up ratification of two rights covenants - the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Observers are watching to see if the two covenants will be ratified by Chinese lawmakers when they convene their annual plenary session on March 5.

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