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| Sunday, 23 January 2005 |
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US prods China on human rights after Bush's global freedom push WASHINGTON, Saturday (AFP) The United States prodded China Friday to improve its human rights record, a day after President George W. Bush vowed to spread world freedom and end tyranny during his second term in office. Human rights is a key stumbling bloc in US-China ties and unless China practises democracy and respects human rights, it cannot be among America's "best" friends, the State Department said. "As China has taken on world standards in so many other areas, we want to see them adopt the world standards of human rights as well," department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. He said the United States, China's biggest export market, had been able to develop relations to a "great extent" in many other areas with Beijing but human rights "remains a problem that we have to deal with. I think if you look around the world and you see where are our best relationships, you'll always find that our relationships are better with the nations that are democratic and respect human rights than they are with nations that don't," Boucher said. President Bush began his second term at the White House Thursday with a tough inauguration speech, pledging to overthrow tyranny and spread freedom and democracy to the "darkest corners" of the world. Analysts said it would be difficult for Bush to act tough with China on human rights and democracy at a time when he was banking heavily on Beijing to help end North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and back his "war on terror." |
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