Low expectations for the 17th round of the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue, conducted on July 23 and 24 in Washington, were borne out by Assistant Secretary Michael Posner’s briefing yesterday. Posner’s main points were that the dialogue is not a negotiation, but rather “just a piece” of “365 days a year” effort to advance human rights. “I am not,” he told the press, “going to characterize every response we got from the Chinese government” in response to the issues and cases raised. That’s too bad. China’s claims that peaceful democracy advocates are “criminals” and the Dalai Lama a “wolf in monk’s robes” are more effective self-indictment of their policies than any U.S. rhetoric.
But for reasons just like the ones Posner asserted – that the dialogue is not special, not public and not results-oriented – human rights groups no longer take it seriously. In advance of the dialogue, Human Rights Watch called it a “rhetorical shell.” HRW also pressed China on its lack of democratic institutions. This is obvious in one way, but refreshing considering that actively supporting democracy in China has disappeared from U.S. policy.
