China Signs Human Rights Pact Amid Skepticism

China signed an important international agreement on civil and political rights Monday that guarantees protection against arbitrary arrest while securing freedom of thought, religion and expression.

The treaty provides for fair trials; prohibits torture and cruel or degrading punishment; and recognizes that citizens have the right to life, liberty and a prompt appearance before a judge if detained by authorities.

A number of experts hailed China’s action as an important first step but stressed that the degree to which the treaty will be honored is still uncertain. The immediate impact in China is likely to be negligible.

“To realize human rights is the aspiration of all humanity,” Beijing’s U.N. ambassador, Qin Huasun, said at a low-key ceremony. “It is also a goal that the Chinese government has been striving for.

“We believe that the universality of human rights should be respected, and it can be even better reflected once it is combined with the specific conditions of various countries.

”. . . As a member of the international community, China stands for dialogue on the question of human rights and on the basis on mutual respect,” the ambassador added. “It is opposed to confrontation.”

Since it took effect in 1976, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been signed by 140 nations.

Human rights activists urged China to follow the signing with a quick parliamentary vote on ratification. But they injected a caveat.

“Since China is currently in violation of almost every article of the covenant, we hope its decision to sign indicates a change in human rights practices,” said Sidney Jones, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “The test will be in the implementation.’

Jones warned that China could attach reservations to some of the treaty’s most important provisions, diluting its force.

It is an open question when China’s National People’s Congress will formally ratify the document. The congress has yet to approve the U.N. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, signed by China last October during President Jiang Zemin’s visit to the United States.

And over the weekend, the government signaled through the official media that it will most likely register significant reservations with the covenant on civil and political rights, effectively blocking application of some parts of the treaty, including the rights to organize and join trade unions and to change residence freely.

“China has the largest population in the world, most of which resides in rural areas. It would create huge problems in housing, consumption of resources and traffic if the residence-control policy was abolished,” the China Daily quoted a scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as saying.

Equally, no one expects China to submit to the covenant’s article on the right to self-determination, a long-sought goal of Tibetans and ethnic Uighurs in China’s northwest Xinjiang region.

China’s “different economic development level and cultural and historical traditions” make reservations to the covenant necessary, the China Daily said.

Still, veteran China watchers greeted the signing with cautious optimism, aware of the caveats but encouraged by Beijing’s willingness to accept some sort of general, outside standard for civil rights after years of insisting that such matters were strictly off limits to foreign interference.

“It’s a significant step,” said Andrew Nathan, a China scholar at Columbia University in New York. “The olden days of ‘it’s none of anybody’s business’ are long behind us.

“On the other hand, the direct impact on Chinese domestic politics will be very limited,” Nathan added. “The international instruments have no enforcement mechanisms. Moreover, their application to specific domestic situations is often a matter of interpretation and debate.”

One of those situations will very likely be the Communist regime’s resistance to opposition to its one-party rule.

Last month, a group of dissidents in three provinces filed an application to form an opposition party, called the China Democracy Party, a Hong Kong human rights organization reported.

When local officials told the group that its application would be considered, a flurry of stories appeared in the Western media that China might at last be opening up its political system. But within days, authorities detained or arrested several of the dissidents.

“China can legally refrain from enforcing any provisions of the covenant that conflict with domestic law,” said Richard Baum, a Sinologist at UCLA. “Having said this, however, the signing [of the covenant] must be reckoned a significant event--another marker . . . in China’s gradual, indeed glacial, shift toward general acceptance of prevailing international norms and standards.”

Goldman reported from the United Nations and Chu from Beijing.