US committee co-chaired by Rubio urges Obama to press China on ‘marked deterioration’ in human rights, citing Hong Kong bookseller case
Meanwhile, Lee Po tells New York-based news outlet he went to mainland China because his employees were in trouble
Ahead of a United States-led nuclear security summit, a bipartisan US congressional committee on China has urged President Barack Obama to press his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on “the marked deterioration” in human rights and the rule of law since Xi became president.
The committee, including co-chair Marco Rubio, who recently suspended his US presidential campaign, expressed concern about the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers and the arrest of foreign citizens, including US citizen Sandy Phan-Gillis.
“A troubling pattern is beginning to emerge in these cases involving disappearances and arbitrary detention, sudden returns to Hong Kong and the eschewing of assistance by Hong Kong authorities, followed by sudden returns to the mainland. Beijing’s reach is growing and threatens the ‘high degree of autonomy’ which it pledged to the people of Hong Kong,” the letter said.
Rampant hypocrisy from China and US on human rights
The committee said it was concerned by “a troubling increase in televised, presumably coerced, ‘confessions’ on state television”, which it said was a direct violation of Chinese law and international human rights norms, citing the “public humiliation” of bookseller Gui Minhai.
Gui is a writer and co-owner of publishing house Mighty Current, and one of the five booksellers who vanished mysteriously last year. He was later paraded on Chinese state television.
“Such ‘confessions’, on the rise since President Xi took power, defy any notion of rule of law in China,” the US congressional committee added.
It also urged Obama to present the Chinese president with a “priority prisoner list”.