BEIJING, Mar. 18 -- The US government will not introduce a United Nations resolution critical of China's human rights policy, officials said yesterday.

    US spokeswoman Brooks Robinson said in Geneva, Switzerland, that Washington, which tried and failed to get the Commission on Human Rights to criticize the Chinese government in 2004, had decided that the situation in China had improved over the past year.

Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with his US counterpart George W. Bush on the sidelines of the 12th APEC leadership meeting Nov. 20, 2004. (Xinhua/file)

    Officials said US representatives advised other delegations to the 53-nation UN Human Rights Commission of the decision.

    The officials said the decision followed months of discussion with China. Further details were expected to be disclosed in Washington, they said, adding that they knew of no other country planning to offer a resolution on China.

    Last October, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States and China had agreed to hold talks aimed at resuming their dialogue over human rights.

    China broke off the dialogue last March after Washington sought a commission resolution criticizing China's human rights record.

    China won a vote 28-6, with nine abstentions, that derailed the US proposal.

    The United States decided not to bring a UN resolution on China in 2003 because it said it saw improvements in the world's most populous country.

    There also was no resolution the previous year when the United States was not a member of the commission.

    China has agreed in recent years to open human rights talks with the United States, European governments and others.

    The annual meeting of the UN commission opened on Monday in Geneva. Other issues expected this year include criticism of US military treatment of Iraqi, Afghan and other prisoners.

    Meanwhile, China voiced strong opposition yesterday to US congressional criticism of its anti-secession law.

    The US House of Representatives voted 424-4 on Wednesday to approve a resolution expressing its "grave concern" about the law, passed on Monday by China's legislature.

    China "firmly opposes the act adopted by the US House of Representatives on China's anti-secession law, and has lodged solemn representations to the US side," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao at a news conference in Beijing.

    "It violates principles of three Sino-US joint communiques and basic rules of international affairs," said the spokesman, describing the act as "barbarian interference" in China's internal affairs.

    "The US government should clearly oppose the act and take immediate measures to block it and remove its bad impact."

(Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies)