Agence France Presse
BEIJING, May 11 (AFP) - China said Thursday it opposed any plans by the United States to set up a group to monitor human rights as a condition to granting permanent normal trade relations.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said such a watchdog body constituted interference in China's internal affairs.
"This is something we can by no means accept," she told a routine news briefing.
"If the US side wants to establish any special commissions or any other mechanisms to do a balancing act, I don't think that will be of any help."
Politicians in the United States are debating whether setting up a commission to review China's human rights record would be sufficient to gaining enough votes in Congress to grant China PNTR.
In the past 20 years, the annual vote on whether to grant the trade privileges, including low tariffs on Chinese imports, has given the US government leverage to pressure China to improve its human rights record.
Critics of China's human rights abuses fear granting China permanent trade privileges would free China from such pressure.
Zhang refused to say how China would react if the US government created a rights monitoring commission to replace the former role the annual vote played.
"We have repeated on many occasions here that the granting of PNTR to China is not a favour granted by the US side to China," Zhang said.
"The US side should take effective measures to honour the commitment it has made to the Chinese side, that is PNTR should be done thoroughly and cleanly and timely without any conditions attached. Otherwise the business interest of the US will be hurt."
China has warned that if the United States does not grant China PNTR, American companies would not be able to enjoy market-opening measures Beijing agreed to in a trade deal signed with US trade officials in November.
Granting PNTR was a condition to putting in effect the trade pact which would also smooth the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organization.
The US House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on granting China trade privileges in week beginning May 22.
A recent unofficial count indicated the White House still lacks more than 55 votes to assure passage of the measure, which will give China the same benefits as the vast majority of the Washington's trading partners.
China's current trade status is reviewed on a yearly basis and is normally only approved after a vigorous criticism of the country's human rights record -- to the chagrin of the Chinese government.:
