U.S.-China Rights Talks Held Amid Ongoing Crackdown

The United States and the Chinese regime started a two-day human rights talk on Wednesday in Beijing. It comes amid the regime’s escalating campaign against dissent. Dozens of Chinese rights lawyers and activists have been interrogated, detained or simply vanished since anonymous calls for Middle-East styled revolutions began in February.

The United States hopes to press the Chinese regime about the crackdown.

Whether Chinese leaders are willing to listen is another matter. They claim Chinese citizens enjoy human rights and the rule of law and they continue objecting to foreign countries’ calls for human rights in China saying it’s interfering in their “internal affairs.”

Still, a Beijing economist who advocates democratic reform, Mao Yushi believes the two-day dialogue will have some effect.

[Mao Yushi, Political Commentator]:
"Forces from inside the country calling for human rights meet with various forms of suppression, so foreign criticism is extremely important for the progress of human rights in China. So these two forces must combine to push forward China's human rights situation.”

So far, the most high profile target of the Chinese regime’s crackdown is the artist Ai Weiwei. He’s been missing since police detained him in Beijing on April 3. Authorities later said Ai’s being investigated for “economic crimes,” but his family believes these are only excuses to keep him locked up.

Mao says Ai's disappearance represents a much larger problem.

[Mao Yushi, Political Commentator]:
"Ai Weiwei's is a very particular case, but of course he has a representative significance. Apart from him, many common people disappear suddenly, are detained, and there is no information about them at all. There are many examples of this.”

During the two-day talk, the United States will also raise freedom of religion and expression, and labor and minority rights with the communist regime.