It is baffling to me that we have anything to discuss with China in the human rights arena, considering the barbaric way they treat their people. China has a few issues with the way we treat our people. I think I would have told them when they stop forcing women to have abortions, they can lecture us on human rights.
The Obama administration told them essentially, “You have a point. As a matter of fact, you forgot to mention Arizona.”
Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.
He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person’s immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.
Incredible.
Jay Nordlinger at The Corner writes:
Did we, the United States, talking to a government that maintains a gulag, that denies people their basic rights, that in all probability harvests organs, apologize for the new immigration law in Arizona? Really, really?
Yep. That’s pretty much right.
Now consider this – China’s human rights conditions are worsening:
In China a year of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th since the Tiananmen Square massacre, has seen rising religious repression, tightening internet controls, the arrest of high-profile dissidents and persecution of lawyers representing individuals against the state.
The report was compiled using comparative studies of research produced by leading international monitors Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the US State Department to track nations’ progress in civil and political rights.
Saskia Garner, co-author of the 2010 Atlas, said that China’s ranking had slipped partly because of its continuing lack of an independent judiciary which led to a rise in arbitrary detentions and extra-judicial killings.
So, now we can add, “Apologizes to China for our human rights issues” to our “Obama’s Bizzaro Foreign Policy” list.
Maybe I need to make that a recurring post…
UPDATE:
Powerline shows how it’s even worse than the AP reported:
QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.
So Posner’s comments about Arizona were even worse than was reported by the AP. I would suggest to Ambassador Huntsman that if he wants to disassociate himself from the ignorance and the anti-Americanism of the Obama State Department, he should resign.
