BEIJING (Reuters) – China hit back on Friday at the U.S. State Department’s annual survey of human rights, saying that only the Chinese people could pass judgment on what the Foreign Ministry said were the country’s obvious achievements in the area.

Asked about criticism of China in the report, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei condemned it for being prejudiced.

“The United States State Department’s annual report on human rights maligns other countries, and the content concerning China ignores the facts and is filled will prejudice, confusing black and white,” he told a daily news briefing.

Since the launch of landmark economic reforms more than three decades ago, Hong said: “China’s human rights endeavors have made achievements that are plain for all the world to see. The Chinese people themselves have the most right to speak about China’s human rights situation”.

“In human rights, there is no such thing as the best; there is only doing even better,” he added.

Human rights have long been a source of friction between China and the United States, especially since 1989 when the United States and other Western countries imposed sanctions on China after a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

China rejects criticism of its rights’ record, saying providing food, clothing, housing and economic growth are far more relevant for developing countries like it, pointing to its success at lifting millions out of poverty.

BEIJING, May 23 (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit China in June for a security summit and discuss his country’s disputed nuclear programme with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a senior diplomat said on Wednesday, criticising new sanctions aimed at Iran.

Ahmadinejad will be attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting hosted by Beijing in June, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told reporters at a briefing. The SCO is a regional security forum that groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and which Iran is attending as an observer.

The summit will likely be overshadowed by the presence of Ahmadinejad, whose country is at the centre of a standoff with the West over its nuclear programme.

“Certainly, during his meeting with President Hu, the Iran nuclear issue will be an important talking point,” Cheng said.

Ahmadinejad’s visit to China takes on particular significance as China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and has resisted U.S. demands for sanctions on Iran.

Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, exports most of its 2.2 million barrels of oil per day to Asia, home to its four main customers: China, Japan, India and South Korea.

All four nations have cut back on their purchases, dissuaded by a previous package of U.S. financial sanctions due to take effect at the end of June as well as an EU oil embargo and a ban on shipping insurance, which take effect on July 1.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will head to China in June for a regional security meeting, where he will discuss his country’s nuclear programme with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad will be attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting hosted by Beijing in June, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told reporters at a briefing. The SCO is a regional security forum that groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and which Iran is attending as an observer.

The summit will likely be overshadowed by the presence of Ahmadinejad, whose country is at the centre of a standoff with the West over its nuclear programme.

“Certainly, during his meeting with President Hu, the Iran nuclear issue will be an important talking point,” Cheng said.

Ahmadinejad’s visit to China takes on particular significance as China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and has resisted U.S. demands for sanctions on Iran. China is a major buyer of Iranian crude oil.

Iran is under increasing pressure to curb its nuclear programme in a transparent way and its security council chief is due to hold talks in Iraq on Wednesday with six world powers – the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

Asked about the new U.S. sanctions and proposed EU sanctions against Iran, Cheng said: “We strictly follow the relevant U.N. resolutions on the Iran nuclear issue. But at the same time, China opposes using bilateral sanctions to force other countries or to harm other countries from normal trading with Iran.”

BEIJING (Reuters) – When Chinese athletes swept to the top of the gold medal table during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the feat was accompanied by a wave of national pride, the culmination of China’s “100 year dream” to host the world’s most prestigious sports event.

Whether China can repeat that feat at this year’s London Games will surely be watched closely by all. But cooler heads may prevail at home if that success is not repeated as China has been buoyed by the country’s other achievements since hosting the Games, such as its bounding economy.

“I’m not sure it is now as politically important as it was, since they did it once,” said Susan Brownell, professor of anthropology and expert on Chinese sports at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The simmering debate over the importance of the pursuit of medals began to heat up after the Beijing Games ended in success. There appeared to be acknowledgement the country lacks a broad-based sports culture and Olympic medals are generally won by a minority of government-supported athletes, raising questions over whether it can become a sports power, she said.

“So I do have the feeling that with the great success of the Beijing Olympics, at least domestically it was hugely successful, that it’s not so important to prove themselves any more,” she added.

“But why was it so important all along? It had to do with the idea of China standing up against domination by the West … hosting the Olympics was called China’s 100-year dream.”

This is, of course, not to say that China will not be trying to win as many golds as it can in London.

BEIJING, May 14 (Reuters) – When Chinese athletes swept to the top of the gold medal table during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the feat was accompanied by a wave of national pride, the culmination of China’s “100 year dream” to host the world’s most prestigious sports event.

Whether China can repeat that feat at this year’s London Games will surely be watched closely by all. But cooler heads may prevail at home if that success is not repeated as China has been buoyed by the country’s other achievements since hosting the Games, such as its bounding economy.

“I’m not sure it is now as politically important as it was, since they did it once,” said Susan Brownell, professor of anthropology and expert on Chinese sports at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The simmering debate over the importance of the pursuit of medals began to heat up after the Beijing Games ended in success. There appeared to be acknowledgement the country lacks a broad-based sports culture and Olympic medals are generally won by a minority of government-supported athletes, raising questions over whether it can become a sports power, she said.

“So I do have the feeling that with the great success of the Beijing Olympics, at least domestically it was hugely successful, that it’s not so important to prove themselves any more,” she added.

“But why was it so important all along? It had to do with the idea of China standing up against domination by the West … hosting the Olympics was called China’s 100-year dream.”

This is, of course, not to say that China will not be trying to win as many golds as it can in London.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China on Thursday to help defuse tension over Iran, North Korea and other global flashpoints, seeking to salvage talks that have been overwhelmed by negotiations over a dissident.

In her opening remarks to the two-day U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Clinton pressed China on human rights but avoided mention of Chen Guangcheng, a blind rights activist who sought protection in the U.S. embassy until he left under a deal to stay in China – a deal he later said he regretted.

Despite the uproar, Clinton said the United States hoped China would help rein in the nuclear activities of North Korea and Iran, and pressure the Syrian government to halt violence.

“On Iran, the United States and China share the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Clinton told U.S. and Chinese officials gathered in the Chinese capital.

“It is critical that we keep the pressure on Iran to meet its international obligations, negotiate seriously, and prove that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes,” she said.

China is a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, and has resisted U.S. demands for sanctions threatening energy flows.

China has also resisted calls from Washington and its Asian allies for stronger pressure on North Korea, its neighbor and long-time ally that recently launched a rocket that the U.N. Security Council said violated sanctions.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Blind Chinese rights defender Chen Guangcheng has never been one to give up without a fight.

Robbed of his sight as a child, the rural-born Chen taught himself law and used his knowledge with gusto, drawing international attention in 2005 after accusing officials of enforcing late-term abortions and sterilizations.

His campaign appeared to pay off initially, after the government sacked and detained officials in his home province of Shandong for forcing pregnant women to undergo abortions or sterilizing couples with more than two children.

Typically combative, Chen said the move really did not amount to much.

“It falls far short of the number of officials who should be punished,” Chen told Reuters at the time, dismissing the government crackdown.

Chen’s latest move was his boldest. Last week, he escaped his home, scaling a wall, eluding surveillance cameras and the cordon of security in a village near Linyi city in eastern Shandong province where he had been held for 19 months under house arrest.

For the past six days, he has been holed up in the U.S. Embassy at the centre of a diplomatic spat between China and the United States, adding to tensions between the two countries already at loggerheads over everything from trade to the South China Sea.

BEIJING, May 2 (Reuters) – Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday in Beijing “of his own volition” after being there for six days, state media said on Wednesday, as China denounced the United States for interfering in its internal affairs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China earlier in the day for top-level talks that risk being upstaged by the drama over Chen whose flight to the U.S. Embassy had not been confirmed by either China or the United States until now.

A brief report by the Xinhua news agency broke China’s media silence. A senior U.S. official confirmed that Chen was out of the embassy.

“Chen Guangcheng has arrived at a medical facility in Beijing where he will receive medical treatment and be reunited with his family,” said the official who requested anonymity.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it was extremely unhappy the embassy had taken Chen in.

“It must be pointed out that the United States Embassy took the Chinese citizen Chen Guangcheng into the embassy in an irregular manner, and China expresses its strong dissatisfaction over this,” ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement carried by Xinhua.

“The U.S. method was interference in Chinese domestic affairs, and this is totally unacceptable to China. China demands that the United States apologise over this, thoroughly investigate this incident, punish those who are responsible, and give assurances that such incidents will not recur.”

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday in Beijing “of his own volition” after being there for six days, state media said on Wednesday, as China denounced the United States for interfering in its internal affairs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China earlier in the day for top-level talks that risk being upstaged by the drama over Chen whose flight to the U.S. Embassy had not been confirmed by either China or the United States until now.

A brief report by the Xinhua news agency broke China’s media silence. A senior U.S. official confirmed that Chen was out of the embassy.

“Chen Guangcheng has arrived at a medical facility in Beijing where he will receive medical treatment and be reunited with his family,” said the official who requested anonymity.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it was extremely unhappy the embassy had taken Chen in.

“It must be pointed out that the United States Embassy took the Chinese citizen Chen Guangcheng into the embassy in an irregular manner, and China expresses its strong dissatisfaction over this,” ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement carried by Xinhua.

“The U.S. method was interference in Chinese domestic affairs, and this is totally unacceptable to China. China demands that the United States apologise over this, thoroughly investigate this incident, punish those who are responsible, and give assurances that such incidents will not recur.”

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese played cat and mouse with the censors on the popular Twitter-like microblog service Weibo on Sunday to express support for escaped blind dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng, while China maintained its silence on what has happened to him.

Neither China nor the United States has commented on whether Chen has sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy, as activists and one diplomat contend, in a drama that threatens to overshadow a two-day Sino-U.S. meeting in Beijing from Thursday, though both sides say the meeting will proceed as scheduled.

China’s po-faced guardians of what can and cannot be said online were having their work cut out, moving quickly to block Weibo searches for the words “blind man”, which had previously been commonly employed to discuss matters related to Chen. They later blocked the words for embassy.

Unbowed, and reflecting Chen’s status as something of a cult hero for many in China for his brash taking on of abuse of power, many Chinese are using word play and innuendo to skirt the restrictions, as they often do for sensitive news.

“Just amazing! It’s true, the blind lawyer has been saved,” wrote “Sikeyadi”, whose profile picture is of a man wearing dark glasses behind bars. “The light of freedom burns strong, and those dog officials must be run out of the country.”

“The achievements of this blind lawyer lead me to say in a bold and assured manner that in China we have truly dauntless men,” added “sporadicspor”.

“I’m really hoping that the blind lawyer will now finally get some justice,” wrote “HF big wind”.