ASEM
SUNDAY 10.9. Wen meets Vanhanen, defends China's use of death penalty
"No country can claim to have eliminated human rights problems"
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Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen was not able to bring his Chinese colleague Wen Jiabao to the European point of view in the issue of the implementation of the death penalty.
"China is a vast country. We cannot eliminate the death penalty now", Wen said at a press conference after a Chinese-EU summit on Saturday.
Amnesty International noted before the summit that serious human rights violations are continuing in China in spite of commitments made by China during the previous summit, when Austria held the EU Presidency.
China executes several thousand of its citizens every year. The exact number is not known because officials do not release the figure.
Other human rights issues include arbitrary arrests of lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists. In addition, thousands of people are kept imprisoned without charges or trials. Censorship extends to the Internet, and the media is often suppressed. China also exports weapons to Sudan and other countries with notoriously bad human rights records.
Wen Jiabao said that reforms enacted in China have improved the human rights situation in his country. He mentioned the development of the country's electoral system, and the increasing prosperity of the Chinese. He also said that China sees human rights as an important matter for its citizens.
"These efforts should be recognised. Of course we admit that there is room for improvement. What country can claim to have eliminated all problems linked with human rights?" Wen commented.
In addition to the death penalty, Vanhanen discussed other human rights questions with Wen as well. At the press conference he would not give a direct answer to a reporter who asked if he was convinced by China's promises to improve human rights.
"Most Asian countries still have the death penalty", Vanhanen noted.
China was upset that the EU had not dismantled the arms embargo which was imposed after the Tienanmen Square massacre in 1989. The United States especially opposes lifting the embargo, because it is concerned with its own security in the area.
In spite of the disagreements, the EU and China agreed on Saturday to discuss closer cooperation in the future.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso felt that the meeting was a significant one, and that the EU and China will soon discuss a fresh framework agreement that would bring relations between the EU and China to a new stage.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 8.9.2006 - TODAY |
 SUNDAY 10.9. Wen meets Vanhanen, defends China's use of death penalty |
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