Published by: World Tibet Network News Saturday, November 8, 1997

by Jervina Lao

BEIJING, Nov 6 (AFP) - China defended its much-criticized human rights record Thursday but admitted conditions still needed to be improved, a day after leading Chinese dissident Bao Ge left the country for a US exile.

"As a developing country restricted by historical, economic and other objective conditions, China still needs to make more efforts to improve its human rights conditions," the official China Daily said Thursday. Bao, 34, who had been the most prominent dissident still free in China, left for the United States Wednesday after suffering persistent police harrassment since his release from a labor camp in June.

He left behind a letter to the Chinese parliament calling on representatives to discuss a "party law" and a "new law" at the next People's Congress in March and urged them to hold a public meeting on the June 4, 1989 military suppression of the pro-democracy protests. Bao said he was "very upset" at having to leave for the United States, where President Jiang Zemin went for an high-profile eight day tour last week.

Human rights, religious, and environmental activists dogged Jiang on the trip, staging noisy protests against China's hard-line policies on Tibet and its treatment of Chinese dissidents. "The Chinese government respects and safeguards human rights," the China Daily said, listing the various achievements of the Chinese government in improving the living standards of the people and the economic development of the country.

"China's democratic and legal systems have been enhanced, laying a solid legal foundation for the protection of human rights," it said, adding that "grassroots democracy" in the country was progressing. The article also said that China "always respects the principles of promotion of human rights and basic freedoms contained in the UN charter" but opposes confrontation and pressure on the issue.

"It actively proposes the resolution of differences between various countries on the human rights issue through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect," it said. The comments also came as the US House of Representatives mulled measures punishing China for human rights violations.

US lawmakers began 10 hours of debate on nine bills, taking turns to denounce China's communist government as dictatorial, repressive and bent on military expansionism. Shortly before his US visit, Jiang received numerous letters from human rights organizations and Chinese dissidents demanding that the government release political prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the United States, the most vocal critic of China's rights record.

Jiang ruled out freeing political prisoners, saying they were criminals who broke Chinese laws. Bao was one of the dissidents who wrote several letters to Jiang. He demanded that China sign a UN convention on civil and political rights and that it launch democratic reforms.

In late September Bao said police hinted it would be best if he left the country. He complained of being unable to find work, saying nearly everyone connected to him suffered police harrassment in the past five months. Bao was sentenced to three years in a labor camp in September 1994. He was arrested three months earlier for conducting a sit-in protest demanding the release of fellow Shanghai dissident Zhang Xinaliang.