Tue, Jan. 14, 2003

BEIJING - China has implemented "highly repressive policies" in 2002, using the global war on terror and a pivotal Communist Party Congress as excuses to violate human rights, a U.S.-based rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

But China had become a better player of the public relations game, appearing "to calculate carefully as to when to tread lightly and when to crack down hard," Human Rights Watch said in a 558-page report on rights abuses around the world.

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The report said China obstructed the free flow of information and punished people who spoke out.

The government appeared to install a new Web -monitoring system to scan Internet communication, including e-mail, and block text with sensitive word combinations, it said.

The report also said restrictions on domestic print media escalated and a number of newspapers came under fire for their reporting of sensitive topics, such as corruption.

China continued its crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, outlawed in 1999 and [maintained] a repressive campaign that has seen scores of adherents jailed, the report said.

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