China Rebuts U.S. Criticism on Rights By Edward Cody

Accused by the United States of backsliding on human rights, the Chinese government issued a 40-page white paper on Tuesday describing 2003 as "a year of great, landmark significance for progress in human rights in the country."

The document amounted to a detailed response to the Bush administration's March 22 proposal for a resolution by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights condemning China's human rights record.

...even as the white paper was being distributed here, the New York-based organization Human Rights in China reported that three women active in a group called Tiananmen Mothers were arrested Sunday, citing unspecified sources in China...

The white paper on human rights, the seventh since 1991, underlined the Chinese government's irritation at the Bush administration's decision to seek a condemnation of China in Geneva this year after abstaining from doing so last year.

"The Chinese government remains extremely sensitive to international pressure and this white paper is an attempt to rebut that criticism in a comprehensive fashion," Liu Qing, president of Human Rights in China, said in an e-mail from New York.

Why are they so sensitive? It sounds to me like a good reason to censure them. Meanwhile, China Retaliates Over U.S. Fingerprint Visa Policy. I guess they hope they can influence this American policy, but like the sensitivity over US criticism, it looks like the Chinese gov't is playing to its home audience. However, retaliation seems counter-productive to me; it means less Americans are going to visit China.