United Nations China

A middle-aged woman, possibly a low-level official, erupted when she saw an American photographing chili peppers drying on a mat. "Coming from a foreign country, you can't take pictures of something like that!" she scolded, apparently upset because the mat with the peppers--used in this region's Korean cuisine--lay on an unpaved sidewalk.

A Chinese government official denied Friday that Chinese diplomats at the United Nations had links to a 65-year-old Taiwanese janitor arrested this week on charges of attempting to buy advanced TOW 2 missiles and plans for F-14 Navy fighter aircraft for illegal export to China. "This matter has nothing to do with the mission," said Shibing Yuan, counselor at the Chinese Mission to the United Nations. "What this man said was total fiction . . . . Nobody from the mission was involved."

Undeterred by political threats and economic muscle, the United States and a group of European countries submitted a resolution Thursday criticizing China's human rights record. Underlining the disarray in the European Union over the issue, Germany, France, Spain and Italy were notably missing from the European co-sponsors. Instead, Denmark--encouraged by Washington--agreed to lead the way, presenting the resolution to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which is meeting in Geneva.

In a move clearly meant to defuse an annual U.N. debate over its human rights record, China has announced it will sign one of two key human rights treaties by year's end, state-run media here said Tuesday.

Ten Mission Viejo High School students will leave for China on Monday for the International Model United Nations Conference. The Orange County delegates will spend 11 days with students from 15 high schools from around the world at a conference at the International School of Beijing. Other American schools represented at the Chinese conference are Cerritos High and International High School of Atlanta.

The United Nations' top human rights official told Chinese leaders Friday that efforts to combat terrorism must not infringe on the human rights of China's Muslim minorities. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson told officials that, since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, her office had seen an increase in allegations of summary execution, imprisonment and torture of ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang region in northwestern China.

On the same day it blocked U.N. consideration of a resolution condemning its human rights record, the Chinese government took diplomatic retaliation Tuesday against Denmark for sponsoring the measure. Accusing the Danish government of "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people," China announced that it will suspend bilateral state visits with Copenhagen.

A billboard at the Dragon Mountain Hotel urges crews building a new VIP center to "Work hard for 100 days to welcome the Women's Forum." Other banners and signs across this sleepy, broad-laned city 40 miles north of Beijing in the shadow of the Great Wall attempt to create a hospitable mood. "Welcome to scenic Huairou and expect everything to turn out as you wish," one said.

China's highest legislative body ratified an international human rights treaty Wednesday but left open the possibility of striking out a key provision of the accord. The standing committee of the National People's Congress approved the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the official New China News Agency reported in a brief statement. The ratification comes four years after China signed the treaty, one of two U.N. accords guaranteeing a host of civil rights.

Re "Clinton 1st to OK China, Taiwan '3 No's,' " International Outlook, July 8: Clinton doesn't mislead the American public. Instead, he set the China policy of our country straight with no ambiguity for a century to come, so that Taipei can no longer manipulate the Republican-controlled Congress to play the U.S. China policy like a yo-yo. Taiwan is a part of China with the same people and culture; that is recognized by the United Nations. China is changing to a more democratic society, and it will assume a leadership responsibility role in the next century.