The United States sent a signal to China

Assistant Secretary of State Michael Pozner, summing up the two-day seminar "American-Chinese human rights dialogue" in Washington, noted that China, according to the United States, is moving in the field of human rights in the wrong direction. Posner, in particular, said: "Our signal to the Chinese government is as follows: you have achieved a lot on the economic front; now the time has come to expand the space for the manifestation of dissent."

The situation with human rights in China for Radio Freedom is commented by Ted Carpenter from the Cato Washington Institute:

- I think that China is a very pronounced example of a deep gap between economic successes and the inhibition of progress in ensuring human rights. Among the American and Western officials, the assumption was widely existed that with the economic success of China in the country, political changes would take place that contribute to the greater openness of Chinese society, that the degree of authoritarian rule would decrease. But this does not happen. On the contrary, in the last 4-5 years we have been observing the tightening of domestic policy in China, the space around political dissent is compressed. But China is not unique in this regard. For example, a very open and prosperous economic system of Singapore is also accompanied by rigid authoritarianism.

- Is it comparable, in your opinion, the situation with human rights in China and in Russia neighboring with him?

- I would take Russia to the category of beginner liberal democracy. She still has basic democratic institutions. Although the situation with human rights in Russia is far from ideal, it is definitely better than in countries like China. I do not think that in this sense it is fair to compare Russia with China. Of course, Russian democracy is far from perfection, but Russia, at least in general terms, belongs to a democratic camp, which can not be said about China, even in a broad sense, ”Ted Carpenter believes.

This year, the US State Department, criticizing the policy of the Chinese government in the field of human rights, especially distinguishes by Beijing by Beijing the freedom of expression and using the Internet, restricting the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as non -compliance with the labor rights of Chinese citizens.