China Acknowledges Human Rights Shortcomings

For years, Western governments, human rights groups and Chinese dissidents have been accusing Beijing of grave violations of human rights and freedoms. The 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square remains the most egregious blot on China's human rights record. But since then, the communist government has been dogged by numerous allegations of arbitrary jailing, torture and harassment of dissenters and their families.