US says rights situation deteriorating in China
WASHINGTON—The United States said Wednesday the human rights situation in China is deteriorating and it is time for its authoritarian government to allow dissent.
Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner was speaking after an annual US–China human rights dialogue that ended in Washington on Tuesday.
The closed-door dialogue is a chance to broach Beijing’s treatment of democracy activists and religious and ethnic minorities, a perennial sore point in relations with Washington.
But the US has limited leverage with China, which it relies on as its main foreign creditor, and seeks to work with on a gamut of international issues. Also Wednesday, President Barack Obama’s top national security adviser completed talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing on North Korea, Iran, the civil strife in Syria and rebalancing the global economy.
Posner, whose portfolio covers democracy, human rights and labor issues, said there is growing frustration among many Chinese people that they don’t have the ability to express their differences with the government.
“Our message to the Chinese government is you’ve made progress on the economic front, this is the moment to open up the space to allow people to dissent, to question government actions and to do so without fear of retribution,” he told reporters.
Posner said the US raised with the Chinese dozens of individual cases of those persecuted that included lawyers, bloggers, nongovernment group activists, journalists and religious leaders.
He declined to characterize China’s responses. He said the visiting delegation had questioned America’s own human rights record, asking about discrimination and prison conditions.
The Chinese delegation was led by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for International Organizations and Conferences Chen Xu. China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the dialogue.
Skeptics, including in the US Congress, have questioned whether the formal talks that China holds with Western powers on human rights have any use, and may help it fend off critics without taking action.
“A human rights dialogue with the communist regime in Beijing matters for little until the rule of law is genuinely rooted in Chinese soil,” said Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, hawkish chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Posner said that activists in China, including family members of detainees, want the US to speak
High-definition (HD) television viewing used to be a luxury, an option viewers can choose to enhance the viewing experience. But with the worldwide trend of switching from analog broadcast technology to digital transmission, HD is also slowly but surely becoming the standard for TV technology and viewing.
Unlike in the older analog method where the picture is grainy and transmission is not as clear, digital TV images are sharper and crisper for more intense action whether it’s sports, movies or wildlife documentaries; audio is sharper, delivering a CD-quality experience. All in all, digital transmission is superior because it converts images and sounds into a richer format.
“Our digital broadcast technology allows us to deliver everything that HD promises to be—clearer, crisper and sharper image and audio quality for a more lifelike viewing experience,” says Annie Naval, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director for Cignal Digital TV. “We understand that the future is digital and we are at the forefront of this evolution in the Philippine television industry.”
To date, satellite television service provider Cignal Digital TV gives the Filipino viewing public a diverse range of 15 HD channels which includes: Discovery World HD, ESPN HD, Food Network HD, Fox Movies Premium HD, HBO HD, NBA Premium HD, National Geographic Channel HD, Star World HD, Fox Crime HD, Fashion TV HD, MTV Live HD, Universal HD, Cartoon Network HD, Syfy HD and Outdoor Channel HD.
Food Network HD Asia, one of the more popular culinary channels on US television today, is one HD channel exclusively seen on Cignal. It features the top-rating cooking show Down Home with the Neelys, whose new season launch will be announced during the Manila visit next week of the ‘king and queen of barbecue,’ Pat and Gina Neely.
Cignal subscribers automatically enjoy HD beginning with postpaid Plan 590, as HD channels are already built in together with the standard definition (SD) lineup. All 15 HD channels are available on Plan 1590, along with free-to-air, premium and audio channels.
For more information on Cignal, visit http://www.cignal.tv/. in public and private with Beijing, and pointed to growing attention rights issues draw among Chinese on the Internet and in blogs. He said the discussions are now “firmly embedded” in US–China relations and was confident this would “have an effect over time.”