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Verna Yu

Ma Yalian was released from detention only a week before the China-United States human rights dialogue took place in Washington this month. 
Like many petitioners who have tried to draw attention to their grievances during the World Expo in Shanghai, Ma was detained by the authorities for a week. Other activists  have been placed under surveillance or warned  not to go near the site.
'I can't see any impact [of the dialogue] at all,' said Ma, who  was twice subjected to  detention for 're-education through labour' and once locked up in a mental hospital for protesting against the forced demolition of her home. 
'Many Western countries now refrain from criticising China, out of their own interests,' she says. 
'We are disappointed, because it has not brought any real improvement to our lives.'
Many rights activists agree that the bilateral dialogue has apparently done little to improve human rights on the mainland. As China's economic might continues to grow,  the country appears to have little to fear from international criticism.
'It didn't enter the talks with the sincere desire to improve the situation,' Teng Biao, a law professor at the China University of Politics and Law, said.  
'The Chinese government now feels powerful, so it's hard to rely just on the human rights dialogue to resolve problems.' 
However, Nicholas Bequelin of  New York-based Human Rights Watch said China did care deeply about its reputation but realised that many Western governments  were simply afraid to mention rights abuse for fear of jeopardising economic and trade relations. 
'The Chinese government actually pays enormous attention to this issue, and it makes very detailed calculations about how far it can go,' he  said. 'It has seen through the hypocrisy of the foreign governments ... so the Chinese government has no problem pushing back, saying they don't fear this pressure any more.'
The muted international reaction to the mainland's human rights abuses means  Chinese authorities know they are at liberty to jail more dissidents and to suppress the more outspoken civic groups. 
'They're not paying the price for it. They got a free pass for arresting and jailing China's most famous dissident,' Bequelin said, referring to activist Liu Xiaobo .  'After that, everything  has been easier.'
Some human rights advocates who had called for both China and the US to set clear goals for this month's human rights dialogue in Washington are disappointed with the outcome.  
The mainland-based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders had urged the two governments to allow non-governmental organisations to participate in  the dialogue and recommended that they include human rights issues in other bilateral talks.  
'Without these improvements we believe that the dialogue will remain merely a public relations exercise,' the group's research co-ordinator, Wang Songlian , said.
Rights groups say the international community must continue exerting more pressure on China over rights issues.
'We know that just by mentioning [dissidents'] names at high-level dialogues, the treatment of these prisoners usually improves,' Wang said.
Meanwhile, many Chinese activists have been rudely awakened to the fact that they can no longer rely on the international community to speak on their behalf.
'Human rights is something that Chinese people should fight for ourselves,' Ma  said. 'We can't just rely on outside voices; we need to work hard ourselves.'



Activists say they no longer expect much help from abroad