China's crackdown on the Falun Gong has "retarded" its record on human rights, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, said yesterday.
Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to China during which she met the President, Mr Jiang Zemin, Mrs Robinson said some "positive developments" had been made over rights issues.
But some rights had actually been eroded further during Beijing's campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Mrs Robinson said she also had raised the cases of individual prisoners.