[Xinhua is official news agency of PRC]

Geneva, 15th April: (Xinhua) China today defeated an anti-China attempt by a group of Western countries, led by the United States, at the 53rd session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

In a vote on a no-action motion presented by China, a majority of the commission members voted for the pre-emptive measure, aborting a resolution drafted by Denmark and co-sponsored by 14 other Western countries, including the United States and Britain.

China's motion was approved 27-17 with nine abstentions.

The 27 countries which voted for China's motion were Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ukraine, Zaire and Zimbabwe.

Countries which voted against it were: Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, South Africa, the United States.

Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia and Uruguay abstained.

France announced in late March that it would not sponsor a resolution against China. France's stance won support from certain Western nations like Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Japan and Australia. They also vowed to follow France's suit.

With the opposition of France and other European Union (EU) members, the EU was not able to submit an anti-China draft this year.

The new anti-China draft, presented by Denmark, was co-sponsored by Austria, Belgium, Britain, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

In order to push forward an anti-China resolution, Bill Richardson, US ambassador to the United Nations, rushed to Geneva in early April.

During his two-day stay, Richardson wasted no time to persuade delegations to the session to put forth a resolution against China and to block an expected no action motion of China.

Addressing the session, Richardson fired unwarranted accusations against China on human right issues and maliciously damaged China's image.

He said his country had demanded the commission to impose pressure on countries which it considered have problems in human rights record only to embarrass the governments of these countries.

Encouraged by Washington, a small group of Western countries drafted a resolution against China at the last minute. On one hand, the carefully-worded draft resolution had to recognize China's progress in its economic development, improvements in its legal system and protection of human rights. On the other hand, it slammed China for its legal system, religious policy and policy on Tibet.

However, the majority of the commission members were not deceited [as received] by the draft resolution. They supported China's no-action motion, thus defeating the Western draft right before it was brought to a vote.

Diplomatic sources in Geneva said that the victory at today's session not only belonged to China but also to all the countries that pursue the policy of promoting and protecting human rights through international cooperation and dialogue.

Chinese ambassador to UN in Geneva Wu Jianmin said in a speech that what is behind the anti-China draft resolution is that the West don't like China's mode of development and that they try to determine the fate of the Chinese people.

"The Chinese people have followed their own way for 5,000 years. Nothing can turn them away, certainly not a few anti-China resolutions. No force on earth can stop 1.2 billion Chinese people from advancing," Wu said.