U.S., China To Resume Rights Talks

Washington and Beijing plan to resume discussions about human rights, one of the biggest sticking points in relations between the two powerful nations.

The plan was announced Wednesday by China's foreign minister and confirmed by U.S. officials.

China and the United States also plan to collaborate on ways to cut off terrorists' financing and reduce the drug trade in their nations, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said.

Tang made the announcement after a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

"We have decided to resume dialogue on human rights issues within this year," Tang said shortly after meeting with Powell. He said the talks "produced very concrete achievements."

Talks were suspended after U.S. jets on a NATO mission bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, but China and the United States re-opened dialogue in October last year after President George W. Bush met Jiang at an Asia Pacific summit in Shanghai.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said before the meeting Wednesday that the two diplomats planned to discuss overall ties, anti-terrorism cooperation, environmental issues and regional concerns, among other things.

Human rights were not mentioned in the Xinhua report.

China's human rights policy, and American criticism of it, have formed a centerpiece of U.S.-China difficulties ever since 1989, when pro-democracy protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square ended in bloodshed. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died.

In the years afterward, many in the U.S. Congress demanded that renewal of China's "most-favored nation" trade status be contingent on human-rights progress by the communist government. Most-favored nation status by the United States for China is now permanent.

China insists it is making great progress in its own way and must be given leeway to balance the difficulties of governing 1.3 billion people through a period of great change with what it has acknowledged is the necessity of human rights.

Human rights groups say China's harsh treatment of Tibetans, ethnic Uighurs and members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement demonstrates its lack of progress on the issue.

China and the United States are attending the ASEAN Regional Forum as two of several nations who are not members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations but have security interests in the region.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is scheduled to visit the United States later this year in what many perceive as a farewell trip before his expected retirement. Western diplomats say China is eager to keep relations on the upswing before the visit by Jiang, who is keen to be remembered for consolidating Sino-U.S. ties.

A U.S. official told reporters separately that the United States was talking about holding the summit at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas -- an important gesture of friendship to Beijing.

The official also said Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom John Hanford would visit China next week.