January 28, 2000	atimes.com

China EU unlikely to join US in human rights censure By Brian Kenety BRUSSELS - The European Union appears unlikely to heed calls from rights groups to support a US-sponsored proposal to censure China for ''deteriorating'' human rights practices at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in March. Since 1990, the US and the EU have co-sponsored several resolutions on China. But as the EU and China began talks this week toward reaching an agreement that would smooth Chinese accession to the World Trade Organization, an EU trade official told IPS that there was no ''consensus'' to endorse the censure. There have been eight similar proposals in the past decade. Although the EU had once taken the lead in introducing these proposals - with the US, Japan and other countries following suit - two years ago the EU decided it would not sponsor them, according to Lette Leicht of the Brussels branch of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international watchdog group. To preserve consensus within the 15-member bloc, the EU no longer allows individual member states to co-sponsor non-EU proposals, Leicht says. ''But it is self-defeating for the EU not to act on human rights issues, the rule of law, freedom of information and assembly when seeking trade deals,'' she told IPS this week. An official at the US Mission here told IPS this week that as a final text of the resolution had not been prepared, the EU could not be expected to give an official reaction to it just yet. However, the official said that given the high profile of both Chinese accession to the WTO and human rights issues, he expected the proposal for the censure to be positively received. The European Parliament on January 20 called on the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, to ''continue to exert pressure on China to improve her human rights record in accordance with international standards''. It also urged the commission ''to make clear to the Chinese Government that progress in EU-China relations, including China's WTO accession, is linked to such an improvement''. The call, couched in a parliamentary resolution, noted that ''the human rights situation in China has continued to deteriorate with an increasingly high number of executions, further suppression of organized political dissent, intensification of controls (on spiritual and ethnic movements).'' It also urged the EU ruling Council to join efforts with the US and co-sponsor the resolution on China in Geneva in March. ''This is the first time that the European Parliament has put itself on record so early'' with respect to resolutions on Chinese human rights, says HRW's Leicht, praising the non-partisan effort as ''courageous'' and calling on the national parliaments of member states to take up the issue. US State Department spokesman James Rubin said when announcing the proposal on January 11 that Washington has taken the view that linking normal trade relations and WTO membership with human rights issues ''hasn't worked to improve the human rights of the people of China''. Last November, the US and China signed a key agreement paving the way for Chinese membership in the WTO and for China not to be subjected to annual debates in the US congress on whether its human rights record should preclude it from having normal access to US markets. Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote in the Washington Post recently that ''the administration's tougher public stance on human rights abuses is an essential component of its 'all out' campaign to win congressional approval for the (WTO) trade deal,'' explaining that ''when the day of the vote (on permanent trade status for China) comes, the administration needs to be able to argue that it is already addressing the human rights problem but doing so in the appropriate forum.'' Leicht says while US President Bill Clinton might have had to introduce the proposal ''to sell WTO to congress, the bottom line is that the resolution is there. [And] the EU is faced with that very same challenge, giving WTO membership'', while advancing human and labor rights, rule of law, and other concerns. HRW notes that in recent years, Western governments have focused mainly on ''dialogue'' with China to promote human rights, avoiding genuine pressure for fear of antagonizing Beijing or endangering trade deals. ''The US is right to say that China's human rights record has deteriorated,'' says Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of HRW's Asia division. ''While China has been negotiating WTO agreements, it has simultaneously cracked down on dissidents, unofficial religious groups, labor organizers and others.'' Jendrzejczyk calls on EU foreign ministers to endorse action during their January 24-25 meeting in Geneva. Arguing that a ''weak and divided response from the international community'' will allow Beijing ''to act with virtual impunity'', the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International in a January 24 press statement called on the EU to move beyond ''dialogue'' to sponsor the censure of China. ''The EU has tried to engage China through high-profile attempts at dialogue, but dialogue cannot be meaningful if it has no impact on the human rights situation, which has steadily deteriorated since the end of 1998,'' said Amnesty International. ''The crackdown on peaceful dissent in China is becoming harsher by the day.'' Since 1995 the overall approach of the EU towards China has moved beyond traditional development initiatives, notably in the rural sector, to one of ''constructive engagement'' within a co-operation program. Current projects include the EU-China legal co-operation project which supports the rule of law; the EU-China village governance project promoting the process of local elections at the village level; statistical work; and support for the implementation of WTO rules. During EU-China talks last December, the EU called on Beijing to ratify UN human rights' covenants, whilst China defended its position on the use of capital punishment, the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and the occupation of Tibet. When still a prospective EU foreign affairs Commissioner, Christopher Patten told members of the European Parliament that trade links with China should not be allowed to ''overshadow'' concerns for human rights, and human rights groups have praised him for speaking frankly about China's rights record. (Inter Press Service)

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