Miliband Attacks China's Rights Record and Calls for Tibet Talks

The Foreign Office yesterday criticized China for its "poor" human rights record, warning that international scrutiny would increase as the Olympics approached, in a report that included a scorecard on 21 "major countries of concern".

However, the British government was accused of hypocrisy by campaign groups which said Britain continued to sell arms to most of the countries portrayed by the Foreign Office as the worst offenders in its annual report on human rights around the world. Activists also called on Gordon Brown to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

In the report, China was rebuked for its extensive use of execution, torture, detention without trial, the lack of an independent judiciary, and restrictions on religion. The report, written before the unrest in Tibet, also complains of widespread "violations" in the region.

Launching the report, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said global concern over China was "justified and proper".

He said: "There needs to be mutual respect between all communities and sustained dialog between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities."

He also criticized Beijing over the case of Yang Chunlin, a land rights activist who was jailed for five years on Monday for "inciting subversion of state power".

"It is the passion of the British people for justice, and the determination of the media to reflect that concern in their coverage, that has propelled situations of people far away into every living room in Britain," Miliband said.

The foreign secretary added that protection of human rights was now an integral part of British diplomacy.

But the Foreign Office was taken to task yesterday by campaigning groups who said the government had failed to translate its concerns into hard-edged policy.

"This shows the government has a rhetorical commitment to human rights, but what about the rest of the year," said Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch. For example, Porteous said, despite Britain's stated unease over China's record, Brown has pledged to attend the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

"It's not usual for heads of state [and government leaders] to line up to go to the opening ceremony. Yet people are lining up to kowtow to the Chinese, and actually going out of their way to endorse these games. We should be taking a more conditional approach," Porteous said.

Saferworld, an NGO which campaigns against the arms trade, said the government licensed military and strategic exports to 18 of the 21 states listed as "countries of concern".

Saferworld's head of communications, Claire Hickson, said: "On the one hand, the government promotes the importance of human rights and condemns the poor human rights record of countries like China and Pakistan, and yet it continues to export arms to these and other countries."

The annual report also notes a "shrinking of democratic space" over the past 18 months in Russia, and complains about media restrictions and electoral abuses. This month Brown congratulated Dmitri Medvedev for his victory in the presidential election, which observers have described as neither free nor fair.

Another complaint about the report is that it shows a tolerant attitude towards allies. In a short discussion of the chaotic conditions in Somalia, for example, the report does not mention the presence of Ethiopian troops, and puts exclusive blame for abuses in Ethiopia's Ogaden region on the rebels.