This was declared by John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation. He warned: "China's image in the eyes of the world has deteriorated badly: it hasn't been so bad since Tiananmen".
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) China "may not be able to reach its determined foreign policy objectives, and much less host the 2008 Olympics", because of the situation of human rights in its national territory, said John Kamm. The executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation in the United States yesterday said several international level surveys revealed that China's image in the eyes of the world deteriorated in 2005.
"What went wrong?" asked the human rights activist. The answer, for him, was "simple and obvious". He said: "Over the past 12 months, there has been a steady drumbeat of negative stories about human rights in China. China's deteriorating international image is impacting the country's ability to achieve its foreign policy goals, and could well affect its ability to stage a successful Olympics in 2008."
Among other "goals at risk" are the lifting of a European Union arms embargo and chances of reaching an agreement about US trade sanctions.
The US State Department is set to release a report on human rights in China in about two weeks, and according to Kamm, "it's the worst in years".
The activist's recommendation to President Hu Jintao to restore China's international image was to demand the resignation of state and party leaders responsible for propaganda. He claimed "they presided over the biggest drop in China's international image since the Tiananmen Square crackdown". Beijing should also "resume granting sentence reductions" and "early releases of political prisoners", a government custom which has "been frozen for the past year".
Kamm was the first international observer allowed to sit in on trials in China: last week, he observed one in Beijing, and last Monday, he attended a court hearing in Guanzhou.
Kamm and a lobby of American businessmen linked to the Dui Hua can claim credit for the release of many dissidents.