BEIJING: The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has come under fire for her attitude to China's human rights record after it emerged that a dozen dissidents were placed under house arrest during her trip.
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With official meetings over, Mrs Clinton kicked off the third and final day of her highly anticipated first visit to China with a church service yesterday, followed by audiences with civil society leaders.
Mrs Clinton entered the church in Beijing amid tight security. Surrounding streets were blocked. Plainclothes police escorted some church visitors into unmarked cars but there were no disturbances.
Before travelling to China on Friday, Mrs Clinton said she would not let the issue of human rights "interfere" with efforts to resolve the global economic crisis and to combat climate change, and shortly before leaving China, she issued a plea for it to keep up its purchases of US Treasury bills to help the American economy..
Human rights groups claimed her comments increased the pressure on Beijing to deal with the issue, making it easier for it to justify fresh restrictions on dissidents.
"I am under house arrest because Hillary Clinton came," said Zeng Jinyan, the wife of China's most prominent activist, Hu Jia, via an email message.
Mrs Zeng said she had been told by police that she and her baby daughter would not be allowed outside. Her husband is serving a 3½-year prison sentence.
Mrs Clinton's failure to press China on human rights appears to contradict the desire of the US President, Barack Obama, to restore the country's reputation, after the Bush administration was criticised for flouting international law by torturing terrorism suspects and detaining them indefinitely.
The Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a group comprising some of China's most determined activists, said the authorities had told dissidents that they would not be allowed to move freely during Mrs Clinton's visit.
Many of those who have been targeted signed the Charter 08 petition in December. The petition, which was issued on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, called for political reform, freedom of expression and democracy in China.
Although China always steps up the harassment of dissidents during visits by foreign leaders, this is a particularly sensitive year. The 50th anniversary of the failed uprising in Tibet falls in March, while June 4 marks the 20th anniversary of the crushing of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.
Telegraph, London, Agence France-Presse
