BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - China clashed publicly with visiting U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson on Tuesday over the Falun Gong, dismissed her call to scrap labour camps and called Washington hypocritical for saying Beijing's human rights record worsened last year.
Besieged by criticism on all fronts -- from Washington, the United Nations as well as many human rights groups as it bids to hold the 2008 Olympic Games -- China launched a multi-front counterattack.
It was scornful of Robinson's call for the abolition of labour camps to which drug users, prostitutes, dissidents and members of Falun Gong group can be sent without trial for up to three years.
It was scathing on the U.S. State Department annual human rights report and shot back with a long report on social ills in the United States.
"This is a typical action showing U.S. double standards on human rights," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement which accused Washington of "going so far as to defend openly the anti-humanity evil cult Falun Gong."
A cabinet official said China's "re-education through labour" camps were a compassionate means of dealing with social problems and likened its campaign against the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement to a war on drugs.
"The authorities treat those people receiving re-education like teachers treat students, like doctors treat patients and like parents treat children," said Liu Jing, head of the State Council Office for Prevention and Handling of Cults.
"I think her problem is that she has too little understanding of the Falun Gong cult," Liu said of Robinson's call to abolish the labour camps, said to hold some 5,000 Falun Gong members.
"The Falun Gong cult is the same as a spiritual drug," he told a news conference. "It does as much harm to its practitioners, especially the devout ones, as drugs."
ROBINSON HOLDS HER GROUND
But Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, held her ground.
"It's very clear that the human rights of Falun Gong members are being transgressed at the moment here in China," she told a news conference on Tuesday.
"My message is that it is important for the Chinese authorities to bear in mind at all times that individual Falun Gong members have human rights that must be respected regardless of how China approaches Falun Gong itself," she said.
Robinson began her visit on Monday by urging eventual abolition of the labour camp system that has been a key weapon in China's crackdown on Falun Gong.
She told Chinese officials and legal experts the system violated "accepted international human rights principles."
Robinson told reporters Justice Minister Zhang Fusen listened to her views but defended the 45-year-old forced labour system.
"He did say that the system could be improved and needed to be looked at," she said. "But I definitely got the sense he was defending the system."
The Falun Gong movement says 5,000 members of the spiritual group banned in China since 1999 are in re-education through labour camps.
They are among 260,000 held in 300 labour camps, according to Chinese data compiled by Human Rights in China, which argues that the system should be scrapped, not reformed.
The New York-based rights group said in a report that camp conditions were "generally abusive, with overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions, inadequate food and excessive working hours."
"BOTH SIDES HAVE A POINT"
The U.S. report, an annual source of friction, summed up a year of tough curbs on religious freedom and political dissent by saying China's "poor human rights record worsened and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses."
It condemned China's crackdowns on underground Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong, as well as harsh treatment of political dissent.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry replied: "Anyone can see that China's human rights situation is the best of any time in history."
A Western diplomat said each side had a point.
"If you look at the broad trends over 20 years, things are clearly positive, but if you take a snapshot of 2000, many areas clearly went downhill," said the diplomat.
The human rights issue has gained unprecedented prominence this month with an Olympic inspection of Beijing's bid for the 2008 Games, rights groups' new allegations of China abuses and Robinson's visit.
U.S. ILLS HIGHLIGHTED
In what has become an annual event, China's cabinet issued a lengthy denunciation of U.S. rights problems.
"Well-informed people know that the so-called democracy has been nothing more than a fairy tale since the United States was founded more than 200 years ago," it said.
The State Department, whose report also noted expanded economic opportunities and personal choice in China, also said on Monday Washington would again sponsor a motion at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva next month faulting Beijing's record.
China, by diplomatic manoeuvres, has avoided even a vote on the resolution in recent years but human rights groups and members of Congress have urged the George W. Bush administration to avoid letting China undermine the Geneva process.
Robinson said China was likely to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on Wednesday.
But she said it would be "extremely disappointing" if China placed reservations on the article enshrining the right to independent trade unions, which Beijing bans.
07:17 02-27-01
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