US Lawmakers and Former Speaker Urge President Hu to Guarantee Rights in China[Friday, 21 January 2011, 12:16 p.m.]

US House Speaker John Boehner/File Photo

DHARAMSHALA:
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives and a bipartisan group
of lawmakers expressed strong concerns over reports of human rights
violations in China during their meeting with the visiting Chinese
president Hu Jintao on 20 January.”… We raised our strong,
ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China,
including the denial of religious freedom, and the use of coercive
abortion as a consequence of the ‘one child’ policy. When it comes to
guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of all her citizens, including and
especially the unborn, Chinese leaders have a responsibility to do
better, and the United States has a responsibility to hold them to
account,” Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said in a statement.The former House Speaker and Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, raised the issue of Tibet in a separate statement on 19 January.”There has been bipartisan concern in the Congress about the human rights situation in China and Tibet,” Pelosi said.Pelosi said “climate change and clean energy has also been a key focus of US’ relationship with China”.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with US Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R) in Dharamsala on 22 March 2008

“It
is my hope that Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United
States is marked by candor and progress on these issues,” she added. The
former US House Speaker led a Congressional delegation to Dharamsala to
express their support and empathy with Tibetans few days after the
Chinese government cracked down on peaceful protests across Tibet in
March 2008. Given the prevailing deteriorating situation in Tibet in 2008, Pelosi underlined that the “situation in Tibet is a
challenge to the conscience of the world and the world should know
what is happening inside Tibet”. “If the freedom loving people throughout the world do
not speak out against China’s oppression in China and Tibet, we have
lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in
the world,” she added.
Pelosi has been
consistently calling on the Chinese government to negotiate with His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to resolve the issue of Tibet.