US senators urge President Obama to press China’s President Xi on rights during visit

Leading American senators have urged United States President Barack Obama to use the visit to Washington next month of President Xi Jinping to take him to task for an “extraordinary assault” on human rights.

Ten senators, led by Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday that Obama should make human rights “a key and public component” of his talks with Xi.

“Under President Xi, there has been an extraordinary assault on rule of law and civil society in China”, including the detention or harassment of more than 250 lawyers and activists since July 9, the senators said in a letter to Obama.

“We ask that you call publicly and privately for China’s immediate release of these detained lawyers and activists, or at the very least, that China grant them due process,” it said.

The Senators also criticised Xi’s draft law for foreign non-governmental organisations, saying it could force many US NGOs, educational and cultural institutions to pull out of China.

“The rise of civil society in China has been one of the only human rights success stories of the past two decades, and it is imperative the US speak up to protect it,” the letter said.