Press China to end its support for regimes in Sudan, Burma, Iran and Zimbabwe

Obama broaches human rights, sanctions with Chinese government

Updated: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | By Catharine Richert

On a recent trip to China, President Barack Obama had the opportunity to pressure the country's officials to end their support for totalitarian regimes, as he promised he would on the campaign trail.
 
Obama started the process, but hasn't accomplished his goals yet.
 
He and Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed Iran's nuclear proliferation efforts.
 
"We both stressed that to uphold the international nuclear nonproliferation regime and to appropriately resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations is very important to stability in the Middle East and in the gulf region," Hu said. 
 
But Hu gave no signals that he would support sanctions to pressure Iran to curtail its nuclear ambitions. Iran is China's third largest foreign supplier of oil, and China has recently invested in natural gas projects there.
 
The economic ties between Iran and China have made the Chinese "less enthusiastic, historically, about sanctions," said Jeff Bader, senior director for the National Security Council for Asian Affairs. "The Chinese clearly are hoping that there will be some sort of a resolution on this Tehran research reactor that will not require going to the U.N. Security Council. But the president did talk to President Hu about the possibility ... that we will not reach resolution of this issue and we may have to go to track two and greater pressure. I would not say that we got an answer today from the Chinese, nor did we expect one on the subject."
 
Beyond that, the duo spoke obliquely about human rights, touching on China's relationship with Tibet. There's no indication from press briefings or statements from the trip that Obama and Hu broached the subjects of Sudan, Zimbabwe or Burma (also called Myanmar) where China also has significant economic interests.
 
So, Obama used his trip to China to open discussions about human rights and specifically about China's relationship with Iran. But he got no commitments from officials there, so for now, we're just moving this one to In the Works.

Sources:

Time Magazine, Why China Isn't Willing to Get Too Tough on Iran , by Bill Powell, Nov. 18, 2009

The Huffington Post, To Obama in China: Don't Shy Away From Sudan, Congo , by John Pendergast, Nov. 16, 2009

The White House, statements from Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao , Nov. 17, 2009

The White House, briefing with White House officials , Nov. 17, 2009