October 10, 2014 4:58 AM
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and China’s President Xi Jinping during talks in Beijing earlier this year.Getty Images
A new U.S. human rights report on China recommends that policy makers in Washington more aggressively engage China over democratic aspirations in Hong Kong, an indication of how protests in the city’s streets are impacting the debate over the direction of U.S.-China relations.
Fresh attention to Hong Kong is among 13 key policy recommendations from the2014 annual report from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which is made up of U.S. lawmakers and members of the Obama administration involved in human rights policy. The new language was a significant change from the commission’s report last year.
The commission said recent decisions by China’s central government over electoral reform in the city “raise concerns about the future of the fragile freedoms and rule of law that distinguish Hong Kong from mainland China and underpin Hong Kong’s financial reputation and prosperity.”
It said that Congress should demand stronger accounting of events in Hong Kong through legislation that requires the Secretary of State to report “on conditions in Hong Kong of interest to the United States.”
“Members of Congress and the Administration should increase support for Hong Kong’s democracy through statements and meetings at the highest levels and visits to Hong Kong,” said the report.
Outside of the Hong Kong issue, the report released on Thursday is broadly critical of China’s human rights record and calls on U.S. policy makers to speak out more boldly in support of civil liberties.
The report drew a strong rebuke from a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has repeatedly said Hong Kong is a Chinese domestic issue. “The committee should watch its words and actions and avoid sending the wrong signals on illegal activities such as the Occupy Central movement,” said the spokesman, Hong Lei, who called the report a distortion of facts that could damage China-U.S. relations.
The commission gave poor marks to Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying that after almost two years in power he has supported policies that “adhere to the authoritarian model of his predecessors.”
The thrust of the 316 page report is to encourage U.S. authorities to coordinate and toughen their stand with China. For instance, it says the U.S. government should more strongly support divergent voices in China. U.S. officials should commend human rights advocates in the country and support its press freedom, including by arming Chinese citizens with technology to end-around the country’s internet monitors.
The report says the U.S. should press Beijing to grant visas to non-governmental organization workers and foreign reporters. It suggested the U.S. could use its own visa policies to encourage action by Chinese officials.
Many similar recommendations appeared in the 2013 version of the report, including calls for the U.S. to improve its support for the rights of China’s ethnic minorities and more actively deliver lists to Chinese officials of political prisoners the U.S. would like released. China has grown increasingly resistant to accepting prisoner lists and very rarely responds to the lists they do accept, diplomats told the Journal earlier this year.
– James T. Areddy. Follow him on Twitter@jamestareddy
http://m.wsj.com/articles/BL-CJB-24423
