Obama Presses Hu on Human Rights
Boston.com reports:
WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday gently but pointedly prodded China to make progress on human rights, but he sought to focus most of the attention during a closely watched state visit with President Hu Jintao on the expanding economic relationship between the United States and its biggest economic rival.
Obama said differences on human rights were an “occasional source of tension between our two governments.’’ As the two leaders stood side-by-side at a nationally televised news conference, he called on China to live up to human rights values that he said were enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, adding that Americans “have some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.’’
Hu, for his part, seemed to hearten White House officials by acknowledging that China had a ways to go. “China still faces many challenges in economic and social development,’’ Hu said. “And a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights.’’
But he noted that China was willing to talk to the United States only within the confines of the “principle of noninterference in each other’s internal affairs.’’
Administration officials said the human rights discussion continued in private as well, illustrating how a visit marked by public displays of pomp and harmony belied a more fractious relationship over matters that include North Korea and the Chinese currency. They said Obama pressed Hu specifically on China’s imprisonment of its Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo, during a private dinner at the White House on Tuesday night and a larger session between the leaders and their delegations yesterday.
