Human rights ‘best for 5,000 years’, says Chinese envoy

Date: 04/10/01

By David Cronin

EU LEADERS sometimes lack sufficient knowledge about China when they criticise its human rights record, Beijing's outgoing ambassador to Brussels claimed this week.

Song Mingjiang said that the EU, for example, did not have the full facts at its disposal about the "so-called persecution" of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

However he insisted that China was examining several of the concerns raised by EU leaders during Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to Brussels last month.

Belgium's EU presidency publicly took Zhu to task over alleged human rights violations in Chinese-occupied Tibet, the rise in executions brought about by the 'Strike Hard' anti-crime campaign and the forcible repatriation of North Korean asylum seekers from north east China. "The current situation for human rights in China is the best in our 5,000-year history," added Song. "But no single country in the world can have the courage to say that 'my human-rights situation is perfect'. We in China do have a lot of shortcomings and there's great room for improvement."

Although Zhu has described the Falun Gong as an "evil cult", human rights advocates have argued the harsh treatment meted out to its followers cannot be justified.

Amnesty International said last month that more than 250 people had died in detention since Falun Gong - a type of meditative exercise that has been compared to yoga and tai-chi - was outlawed in 1999.

It is believed that many of the deaths officially attributed to suicide were the result of beatings.

Amnesty spokesman Dick Oosting acknowledged that China, the world's most populated country with 1.3 billion inhabitants, has legitimate concerns about internal security. "If China turns into chaos all hell will break out," he said. "But to hold human rights hostage to that spectre is going too far."

China's EU ambassador since 1997, Song is due to return to Beijing in the coming weeks. His tenure has coincided with a frenzy of diplomatic activity aimed at improving EU-China ties. This led to a recent agreement, placing the annual EU-China summit on a firmer institutional footing.

He also reiterated that China expects to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) - after protracted negotiations - before the end of 2001.

The country will abide by the rules of international trade "to the letter", he said, and will open up its markets to foreign companies.

EU leaders sometimes lack sufficient knowledge about China when they criticise its human rights record, claims Beijing's outgoing ambassador to Brussels, Song Mingjiang.