WASHINGTON - The White House last night condemned a UN commission's vote blocking a resolution on China's human rights record and charged that the move runs counter to the very tenets of the world body's panel.
Earlier in Geneva, the UN commission passed a "non-action" motion enabling Beijing to evade a Danish-backed censure motion that was due to be discussed later. Twenty-seven members of the commission voted for the technical procedure which blocks the resolution from being debated or put to a vote, with 17 voting against and nine abstaining.
Beijing, which sponsored the non-action motion, immediately hailed the vote as a "victory" against "anti-China" forces in the West. A resolution criticising China's human rights record has been presented and blocked - every year since Beijing's brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Washington, as always, lobbied hard for the censure this year and won backing from Denmark and 13 other western countries. Among those opposing the "non-action" motion were Japan, Australia, Canada, France and Germany. France and Germany had vetoed a proposal to present a joint European Union motion on China's rights record as in the six previous years.