The State Department says China is no longer among the worst human rights violators.   Facts escape these guys.  Like when the federal government annually finds no evidence that China manipulates its currency.  Human Rights Watch says this:

"We and others have documented a sharp uptick in human rights violations directly related to preparations for the Olympics," said Phelim Kine, Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch.

And here are some nice examples of China's improving human rights record.

In the past week, Chinese police clashed with monks demonstrating for independence in Lhasa, capital of the remote mountainous region Tibet. Human rights activist Hu Jia, jailed after organizing a petition saying that Chinese wanted "human rights, not the Olympics," was informed that his trial on charges of subverting state power could begin as early as this month. A prominent human rights lawyer, Teng Biao, was abducted by the Beijing Public Security Bureau and then released two days later. ...

[A government report] It documents tightening controls on religious freedom in Tibet, where many monks view the exiled Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader, and in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, with its mostly Muslim population. It noted that the Chinese government continues to harass and arrest activists, writers and defense lawyers seeking to exercise their rights under Chinese law. It cited reports that 29 journalists and 51 cyber-dissidents and Internet users were in jail at the end of 2007.

Back to currency manipulation.  The best bill out there was drafted by Representatives Duncan Hunter and Tim Ryan, which declares currency manipulation can be countervailed.  Dark horse bills are ready to combat the Ryan-Hunter bills by allowing the Treasury Department to declare whether currency manipulation exists.  We see now why the administration (and probably any administration) cannot be trusted with this authority.

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