U.S. Giving China A Pass On Human Rights?

(CBS)  A Chinese human rights group said today that police are closely watching dissidents and forcing some to stay in their homes during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit.

China is the last stop in Clinton's four-nation Asian tour, and her message on human rights was much different this time than the one she delivered on a previous trip, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.

As Clinton met the Chinese leadership today, she spoke repeatedly of "working together," "positive cooperation," and "collaboration."

She made it clear that the Obama administration sees China as an ally rather than a competitor or adversary.

She specifically asked China for help with Iran, North Korea, global warming and the worldwide fiscal meltdown. Message to China: the Obama team wishes you well.

"We want China to grow. We want the Chinese people to have a very good standard of living," Clinton said.

There was absolutely no hint of the old Hillary Clinton, who as First Lady in 1995, skewered Beijing for its human rights violations starting with its treatment of women.

Today when she was asked what happened to human rights, she said little more than that it still comes up: "Human rights is an essential part of U.S. foreign policy.

Clinton told Andrews off camera that the U.S. will still push on women's rights and Tibetan freedom, but suggested that compared to the global agenda with China, human rights have a lower priority.

"But our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises," she told reporters.

Human rights activists said Clinton just made it easy for China to suppress Tibet and internal protests at will.

"She really gave them a completely undeserved and totally unexpected Christmas present," said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.

But what Clinton is attempting is diplomacy by inclusion. The idea: maybe in areas of the world where making demands on Beijing don't work, including them as partner will.

(Read more on Clinton's Asian tour and her focus on position on human rights in China.)

[yamuttya]

What can the US say about human rights ???

After Guantanamo and Abu Graib????

Nothing !!!

[krescera]

Human Rights industry has been extraordinarily useful in attacking George W.Bush over Iraq,GITMO,and other partisan issues.Now,the industry is being given a quiet burial.

[mjvw2]

of course we're giving them a pass; we need them to fund the government expansion (stimulus) bill

[jgeheran]

I am profoundly disappointed with Secretary Clinton not because she chose pragmatism over idealism. This is not the choice she made. She chose what makes us animal over what makes us human. What good can come of filling our bellies at the expense of starving our spirit? This is short term thinking. History tells us that our lifeblood as human beings is not in what we consume but in what we believe.

We are in a struggle with China not over land, or resources, or trade. Our struggle is with a Communist government over the nature of humanity itself. Are humans just serfs at the service of the state? Can we count on a state that routinely throws human beings into jail to rot as vegetables because they whisper the word "democracy" once too often? Or practice the language or religion of their parents? Can we negotiate with a state that wipes out cultures and stamps out individual conscience in the name of a %u201Charmonious society%u201D? I fear our silence will return some day to silence us. Here in DC is a noble monument on Mass Avenue dedicated to the victims of Communism. This is a living monument not an historical one. It would be wise for Secretary Clinton to visit this monument and reflect that more people have been killed in the name of the Chinese Peoples Communist Party than the victims of Stalin and Hitler combined.

[jgeheran]

I am profoundly disappointed with Secretary Clinton not because she chose pragmatism over idealism. This is not the choice she made. She chose what makes us animal over what makes us human. What good can come of filling our bellies at the expense of starving our spirit? This is short term thinking. History tells us that our lifeblood as human beings is not in what we consume but in what we believe.

We are in a struggle with China not over land, or resources, or trade. Our struggle is with a Communist government over the nature of humanity itself. Are humans just serfs at the service of the state? Can we count on a state that routinely throws human beings into jail to rot as vegetables because they whisper the word "democracy" once too often? Or practice the language or religion of their parents? Can we negotiate with a state that wipes out cultures and stamps out individual conscience in the name of a %u201Charmonious society%u201D? I fear our silence will return some day to silence us. Here in DC is a noble monument on Mass Avenue dedicated to the victims of Communism. This is a living monument not an historical one. It would be wise for Secretary Clinton to visit this monument and reflect that more people have been killed in the name of the Chinese Peoples Communist Party than the victims of Stalin and Hitler combined.

[wvu74621]

Where is all the maniacal praise for Obama on this subject?

[nwseattle]

Democrats doesn't dear to speak out against Communist Party of China dictatorship regime about the Chinese HUMAN RIGHTS violation will not help democracy in China, nor in the US.

I sincerely hope President Obama do not use short sight to look at the Chinese people and the Chinese government.

HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL!

Stop help to against Chinese people!!!


Seattle Chinese Human Rights Coalition

[dibs977]

I think we need to look at our own civil rights abuses---like all the prisoners at Guantanamo, water boarding and deaths of military prisoners, the horrible way *** are treated in our military----Let's worry about the "mote" in our own eye.

[niceface19]

May be the Chinese give the US a pass instead,

the US has more political prisoners than any one else in the world.

[niceface19]

May be the Chinese give the US a pass instead,

the US has more political prisoners than any one else in the world.