The Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily defended China's human rights situation ahead of the commission's annual session in Geneva which opens Monday.

The United States has pledged to table a motion condemning the deteriorating human rights situation in China, described by human rights groups as the worst crackdown on dissent for more than 10 years.

The United States has pointed to heavy jail terms handed down to members of the nascent China Democracy Party (CDP), the continuing repression of freedom of religion and the crackdown on the Falungong spiritual group.

The PLA Daily accused the West of "double standards" on the issue of human rights by promoting "interventionism and power politics" in places such as Yugoslavia, a reference to NATO's bombing campaign in Kosovo last year.

"Western countries led by the United States always take double standards on human rights issues," said an editorial by the paper.

"Western countries wave the human rights big stick to interfere in the internal affairs of developing countries."

The paper said the United States and the West were using the issue of human rights to impose their values on the world in a bid to ensure US hegemonism over world affairs.

"Many developing countries who suffered from Western invasion treasure more their national sovereignty and dignity," it said.

"It is only natural to oppose these so-called Western values and human rights standards forced upon them by hegemonism."

China's long-held view on human rights, reiterated in a new policy white paper in February, is that it must put the priority of feeding and improving the lot of its 1.3 billion people ahead of Western interpretations of human rights.

The white paper insists human rights have never been so good, saying life expectancy in China has doubled in the past 50 years and that the number of people living in poverty has fallen from 250 million in 1978 to just 4.2 million.

Past attempts by the United States for a resolution condemning China on its human rights record have failed, and in announcing its plans for this year, Washington acknowledged that not all governments held the same view.

Foreign ministers of the European Union, which could tip the balance, will decide their stance on the resolution issue at a meeting Monday and Tuesday in Brussels.

More than 1,000 members of China's the Falungong movement were expected to gather outside the UN building in Geneva for the start of the session.

The People's Daily took issue with the flak it has received since it branded the Falungong group as an "evil cult" in July last year and launched a nationwide crackdown on the movement.

Rights groups say thousands of members of the group have been detained, while Beijing has sentenced group leaders inside China to jail terms of up to 18 years.

"Sects are harmful to human rights," said the People's Daily headline, giving examples of the Aum sect in Japan responsible for a nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway and the Branch Davidian sect in the United States.

"The banning of the Falungong contributes to the worldwide struggle against sects. We have made a big contribution by gathering them and re-educating them," said the paper.

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Last updated: 24-Mar-2000