New Report Lists SIgnificant Human Rights Abuses in China
The Chinese government was hoping that the Beijing Summer Olympics in August would be a PR coup for the country. Instead, China’s controversial human rights record is increasingly overshadowing the high-profile sporting event.
Now SPIEGEL has learned that a confidential German Foreign Ministry status report on China lists “significant” abuses of human rights and serious breaches of democratic principles.
Although the report, which is dated March 18, says that improvements can be seen in the human rights situation in China, the document still contains a damning list of criticisms. The death penalty is “excessively imposed and carried out,” the report reads. Laws are “introduced or ignored” for political ends, the report continues, while dissidents are held in custody for as long as is necessary “from the point of view of political expediency.” Authorities censor the media and the government reacts to criticism with draconic punishments, the report claims.