WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday praised the “Arab Spring” popular revolutions in the Middle East but said instability and violence often precede greater respect for human rights.

In its annual survey of human rights around the world, the State Department also recognized Myanmar for freeing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and for starting to open up its political system after decades of repression.

“Many of the events that have dominated recent headlines from the revolutions in the Middle East to reforms in Burma began with human rights, with the clear call of men and women demanding their universal rights,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters as she presented the report.

The report, covering 2011, described as “extremely poor” human rights in Belarus, China, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all perennial targets of U.S. criticism for denying their people basic freedoms and democratic governance.

The report highlighted the treatment of religious minorities and what it described as “marginalized people,” including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender as well as people with disabilities.

“Men and women who want to speak, worship, associate, love the way they choose – we will defend their rights; not just on the day we issue these reports, but every day,” said Clinton.

On the Arab Spring, the report sounded notes of optimism and caution, saying an open political culture would not appear overnight after decades of repression.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Friday it believes China spent up to $180 billion on its military buildup last year, a far higher figure than acknowledged by Beijing, and it accused “Chinese actors” of being the world’s biggest perpetrators of economic espionage.

The Pentagon, in its annual report to Congress on China’s military, flagged sustained investment last year in advanced missile technologies and cyber warfare capabilities and warned that Chinese spying threatened America’s economic security.

“Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” the report said.

“Chinese attempts to collect U.S. technological and economic information will continue at a high level and will represent a growing and persistent threat to U.S. economic security.”

David Helvey, acting assistant secretary for defense, stopped short of saying the Chinese government was behind cyber intrusions, and instead repeated that they were “from China.”

“As we learn more about them, we have a better understanding of the nature of the operations and that helps us to say with greater confidence that some of these are in fact coming from China,” he told reporters in a briefing on the annual report.

Analysts said espionage and aggressive acquisition of dual-use technology could accelerate China’s military modernization.

By Andrew Quinn and Paul Eckert

(Reuters) – The suspension of U.S. sanctions barring investment in Myanmar in response to political reforms in the poor southeast Asian state gives a green light to U.S. firms queuing to scout for business in one of the last frontier markets.

“Today we say to American business: invest in Burma and do it responsibly,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news briefing on Thursday with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, on his long-isolated nation’s first official visit to Washington in decades as ties between the two countries warm.

U.S. firms are expected to join those from Asia and Europe that have already moved into a market of up to 60 million people in the former British colony. Analysts and experts have said there will be opportunities for foreign companies across the industrial landscape – from energy, mining and construction to agriculture, finance and tourism.

General Electric Co, the biggest U.S. conglomerate, said on Friday it was working with the Myanmar government on possible infrastructure projects and opportunities in the healthcare and energy sectors.

“We are looking at healthcare. We are working with the government on energy. Eventually we will look into all of the infrastructure businesses,” GE Vice-Chairman John Rice told Reuters in Hong Kong. “We are looking at Yangon’s power needs, working with the ministry and the government to figure out how we can help reduce some of the shortages,” said Rice, who runs GE’s global operations and visited Myanmar about a month ago.

Nabil Barakat, CEO of Wamar International, a U.S.-based energy services firm, met senior Myanmar government officials this week to discuss projects including repairing gas-fired power plants in Yangon, local media reported. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has huge gas resources, but a dysfunctional power grid, with nationwide rolling blackouts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday suspended sanctions barring U.S. investment in Myanmar in response to political reforms in the poor southeast Asian state, drawing praise from some U.S. lawmakers but criticism from human rights advocates.

“Today we say to American business: invest in Burma and do it responsibly,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

She appeared with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, on his long-isolated nation’s first official visit to Washington in decades as ties between the two countries warm rapidly.

Clinton said Washington would issue a general license to permit U.S. investments across Myanmar’s economy, and U.S. energy, mining and financial service companies were all now free to look for opportunities in the nation formerly known as Burma.

But Clinton stressed that the laws underpinning U.S. sanctions on Myanmar would remain as Washington seeks to maintain its leverage while pushing the reclusive country’s government further on democratic reforms.

“We are suspending sanctions. We believe that is the appropriate step for us to take today,” Clinton said.

“We will be keeping the relevant laws on the books as an insurance policy, but our goal and our commitment is to move as rapidly as we can to expand business and investment opportunities.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More and more North Koreans are defying strict government controls on access to outside information that starkly contrasts with official propaganda, said a U.S. study released Wednesday.

Avid consumption of South Korean movies and pop music as well as foreign radio and television broadcasts is changing North Korean views of its southern neighbor and even of the United States, a report by the InterMedia consultancy showed.

“In 2012, North Koreans can get more outside information, through more types of media, from more sources, than ever before − and they are less fearful of sharing that information than ever before,” said InterMedia.

The U.S. State Department-commissioned study, “A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment,” captures 10 years of research on refugees, travelers and defectors from North Korea, including face-to-face interviews with more than 650 adults in 2010 and 2011.

New leader Kim Jong-un has shown no sign of relaxing controls that keep nearly all 23 million North Koreans unconnected to the Internet and mandate that radios and televisions are preset to receive only government channels.

But North Koreans have been taking matters into their own hands since a 1990s famine prompted an opening of their country’s long border with China and official tolerance of markets where food and goods are traded.

“Advanced media technologies such as mobile phones, computers, MP3 players and USB drives, have begun to make their way into North Korea in substantial numbers, particularly among the elites,” said the study.

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) – More and more North Koreans are defying strict government controls on access to outside information that starkly contrasts with official propaganda, said a U.S. study released Wednesday.

Avid consumption of South Korean movies and pop music as well as foreign radio and television broadcasts is changing North Korean views of its southern neighbor and even of the United States, a report by the InterMedia consultancy showed.

“In 2012, North Koreans can get more outside information, through more types of media, from more sources, than ever before  and they are less fearful of sharing that information than ever before,” said InterMedia.

The U.S. State Department-commissioned study, “A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment,” captures 10 years of research on refugees, travelers and defectors from North Korea, including face-to-face interviews with more than 650 adults in 2010 and 2011.

New leader Kim Jong-un has shown no sign of relaxing controls that keep nearly all 23 million North Koreans unconnected to the Internet and mandate that radios and televisions are preset to receive only government channels.

But North Koreans have been taking matters into their own hands since a 1990s famine prompted an opening of their country’s long border with China and official tolerance of markets where food and goods are traded.

“Advanced media technologies such as mobile phones, computers, MP3 players and USB drives, have begun to make their way into North Korea in substantial numbers, particularly among the elites,” said the study.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China on Friday said blind dissident Chen Guangcheng could apply to study abroad, suggesting an end may be near to a diplomatic crisis that has soured relations between Beijing and Washington.

The announcement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry follows a dramatic and very public appeal by Chen, who spoke by phone to a U.S. congressional hearing on his case, asking to be allowed to spend some time in the United States.

“Chen Guangcheng is currently being treated in hospital,” ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a brief statement.

“If he wants to study abroad, he can apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen.”

The crisis erupted last week when Chen sought refuge in the U.S. embassy. He stayed there for six days until Wednesday when U.S. officials took him to a Beijing hospital after assurances from the Chinese government that he and his family would receive better treatment.

But within hours, Chen, 40, had changed his mind, scuppering what had seemed to be a delicately constructed deal between Chinese and U.S. diplomats to allow him to receive treatment for a broken foot in a Beijing hospital and be reunited with his wife and two small children.

Shortly before the Foreign Ministry announcement, Chen had told Reuters: “My situation here is not very good. I’ve just found out that when friends have come to visit me, they’ve been beaten up.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) – Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made a dramatic plea for U.S. protection in a cellphone call to a congressional hearing from his hospital bed in Beijing, raising pressure on President Barack Obama over his administration’s handling of the case.

Chen, a self-taught legal activist, sheltered in the U.S. embassy for six days until Wednesday when he left after U.S.-brokered assurances from the Chinese government that he and his family would receive better treatment inside China.

But within hours, Chen changed his mind and is now under Chinese control in a Beijing hospital where he says he was taken by U.S. officials for treatment for a broken foot and to be reunited with his wife and two young children.

“I want to come to the U.S. to rest. I have not had a rest in 10 years,” Chen said by phone to Thursday’s U.S. congressional hearing on his case. His comments were translated by a witness, Bob Fu, head of Texas-based religious and human rights group ChinaAid, who had called Chen on his cellphone.

At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Beijing for talks aimed at improving ties between the two superpowers – a big challenge given increasingly strident Chinese criticism of how Washington has handled the Chen case.

She told Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday that ties were the strongest they had ever been, adding: “We have developed a very open and honest relationship where we can discuss our differences, and we remain committed to bridging those differences whenever and wherever possible.”

Despite Clinton’s brave face, one of China’s main official newspapers accused Chen of being a pawn of American subversion of Communist Party power and called the U.S. ambassador, Gary Locke, a backpack-wearing, Starbucks-sipping troublemaker.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) – Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made a dramatic plea for help in a cellphone call to a U.S. congressional hearing from his hospital bed in Beijing, raising the pressure on President Barack Obama over his administration’s handling of the case.

Chen, a self-taught legal activist, sheltered in the U.S. Embassy for six days until Wednesday. He left the embassy on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing for talks aimed at improving economic and strategic relations between the two superpowers.

But within hours, Chen changed his mind about a deal that U.S. officials had said would allow him to relocate with his family and pursue his studies at a university.

Thursday’s U.S. congressional hearing on Chen’s case took a dramatic turn when a witness called the dissident on his cellphone and relayed his appeal for help to members of Congress and the media.

“I want to come to the U.S. to rest. I have not had a rest in 10 years,” Chen said, according to a translation by Bob Fu, the president of Texas-based religious and human rights group ChinaAid. Fu held his cellphone to the microphone so that Chen could be heard, and translated his words.

Speaking from a Beijing hospital where he was reunited with his wife on Wednesday and where he was being treated for a foot injury, Chen said he wanted to meet Clinton to ask her for help and to thank her.

He said villagers who had helped him were “receiving retribution” and he was most concerned about the safety of his mother and brothers, according to Fu’s translation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made a dramatic telephone appeal to come to the United States in a call broadcast live on Thursday to a U.S. congressional hearing.

“I want to come to the U.S. to rest. I have not had a rest in 10 years,” Chen said, his comments in Chinese made on a mobile telephone that was held up to a microphone at the hearing. “I’m concerned most right now with the safety of my mother and brothers. I really want to know what’s going on with them.”

Chen’s appeal, apparently made from the Beijing hospital room where he is sequestered, was the latest twist in a saga that threatens to upset U.S.-China relations and has put rising pressure on President Barack Obama to assure the dissident’s safety.

Chen escaped house arrest in China’s Shandong province and found shelter in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He left the embassy Wednesday, but almost immediately changed his mind about a deal that U.S. officials had said would allow him to relocate with his family and pursue his studies at a university.

Speaking in Mandarin Chinese and sounding lucid and in good spirits, Chen repeated his request to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is in Beijing for high-level U.S.-China talks.

“I hope I can get more help from her,” he said. “Also, I want to thank her face-to-face.”

Chen also expressed fear for his family and the villagers who had helped him escape.