Interesting article today in the paper noted that Hu Jintao the President of China, admitted that his country has a human rights problem and that it needs to work on it.
The article notes that human rights advocates have criticized this confession during the Chinese leader's trip to the White House as being merely words with no confession backing them.
While the criticism rings true inasmuch as China really hasn't done very well at all on this issue, the statement still says an incredible amount about the state of China's policy development.
1. It notes that Chinese leadership, on some level, acknowledges that human rights are a good thing. Regardless whether they have any actual intent to improve their track record, it means that as a public position, they are moving towards an ideal.
2. It also means, again on some level if not to a great extent, Chinese policy decisions are being influenced by international pressure. Be it pressure to maintain relations with the US (for economic reasons) or to develop a better image for more general trade and power purposes.
All this should be qualified by saying that, yes, words are cheap. But there is still some substance to be gleaned from this statement.
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