BEIJING - China's top lawmaker was quoted on Sunday as saying Beijing opposed meddling in its human rights policies, just two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bush is due to visit China for talks which will touch on the issue.
But Li Peng, head of the National People's Congress, said China was open to dialogue and exchanges on human rights, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
"We are firmly opposed to interfering in other countries' internal affairs by using the human rights issue," Li said.
China was "firmly opposed to applying double standards on the human rights issue and firmly opposed to pursuing hegemony and power politics under the guise of human rights," he said.
Bush is scheduled to visit Beijing from February 21-22 to hold talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other senior leaders on a broad range of issues, including Beijing's human rights record, which Washington has long criticised.
Li made the comments in a January 30 letter, published by Xinhua on Sunday, to congratulate the China Society for Human Rights Studies on its publication of the country's first professional magazine on the topic.
"Owing to differences in historical background, social systems, cultural traditions and the level of economic development, different countries and people have different understandings of human rights," Li said.
"It is neither realistic nor possible to require all countries to endorse one view and accept one mode," he said.
Human rights has been a major sticking point in Sino-U.S. relations. Beijing rejects U.S. criticism of its rights record as hypocrisy.
Washington and Beijing re-opened dialogue on human rights last October, days before Bush's first visit to China for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The dialogue was cut off in 1999 after U.S. jets on a NATO mission bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. China says the bombing was deliberate.
Li said human rights in China were the best they had ever been and Beijing was happy to continue discussing the issue.
"We are willing to actively participate in meaningful dialogue and exchanges on various topics on the basis of mutual respect and complete equality and continue to study and explore the human rights issue," he said.