Published by: World Tibet Network News Monday, January 19, 1998

BEIJING, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen told his British counterpart on Monday that the top United Nations human rights official was welcome to visit China at any time, a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

Qian's open-ended invitation to Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was made to Robin Cook during a lengthy meeting in the Chinese capital.

``The Chinese government was ready to welcome a Mary Robinson visit at any time,'' the spokesman said, reporting on the outcome of the meeting.

Robinson took up the U.N. post last September after a seven-year term as Irish president, a largely ceremonial job, during which she became a vocal champion for the poor and marginalised.

There was no word on any arrangements for Robinson, a lawyer, to visit Beijing.

China last year signed the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights but has still not signed a twin covenant governing civil and political rights.

The spokesman said Qian indicated China was seriously looking at the political charter and how it would fit in with existing Chinese legislation.

He said a dialogue meeting between the European Union and China on human rights would be held next month, the second since an agreement to resume such sessions was reached in October last year.

Britain holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU. The British Labour government has vowed to put human rights at the heart of its foreign policy, and the spokesman said Cook would present Chinese authorities with a list of human rights cases on Tuesday.

Cook said he was too busy last week to meet prominent exiled Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng in London.

China protested to Britain after Wei, who was freed last November after spending most of the last two decades in Chinese jails, met a junior foreign office minister.

Wei then went to France, but not before accusing French President Jacques Chirac of putting trade ahead of human rights concerns.

Britain says relations are improving with China, which it judges has largely respected the rights of Hong Kong since resuming control of the former colony in 1997.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to visit Beijing later this year.

But the European Union is concerned about the number of political prisoners in China's jails.

Western human rights activists accuse China of holding thousands of political dissidents in penal reform camps and of brutally crushing opposition to its rule in the Himalayan region of Tibet.

China maintains that by adequately feeding and clothing its 1.2 billion people it is looking after the most fundamental human rights of its citizens. REUTERS