China issues first 'action plan' on human rights
BEIJING 鈥� The Chinese government published its first-ever National Human Rights Action Plan on Monday. But that won't necessarily transform this country into a paragon of freedom.
The plan is not so much a call to action as it is a bureaucratic chore, responding to the need to show the United Nations that the government is doing something to improve its widely criticized human rights record. It emphasizes protecting 鈥減eople鈥檚 rights to subsistence and development鈥� and pledges to improve the treatment of minorities and discourage the torture of detainees.
But nowhere is there any sign that critics of the system, for example, will be allowed any more leeway.
鈥淥ne significant human rights problem is that people are imprisoned for crossing the line鈥� into 鈥渟peech that is considered subversive鈥� points out Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based analyst with the Dui Hua human rights group. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see any reason to think that they are going to change that line.鈥�
That is bad news for the likes of activist Tan Zuoren. The Action Plan promises to 鈥済uarantee human rights in the reconstruction of areas hit by the devastating earthquake鈥� in Sichuan last May, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
But who defines 鈥渉uman rights鈥�? Mr. Tan was taken away two weeks ago, charged with 鈥渟ubversion of state power,鈥� and has not been seen since. His crime? Trying to compile a list of the children who died at their school desks during the earthquake.
That list, apparently, is a state secret. And no Human Rights Action Plan is going to change that.
