China criticizes Bush meeting with exiled dissidents

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has condemned U.S. President George W. Bush's meeting with a group of exiled Chinese dissidents, saying it "sent a seriously wrong message to anti-Chinese forces".

Under pressure from U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups to take a stronger stand on China's human rights record, Bush -- who has repeatedly said he is going to the Olympics for sports and not for politics -- held separate meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Chinese democracy activists on Tuesday.

"By arranging such a meeting between its leader and these people and making irresponsible remarks on China's human rights and religious situation, the U.S. side has rudely interfered in China's internal affairs and sent a seriously wrong message to anti-China hostile forces," Xinhua news agency on Thursday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao as saying.

Bush used his talks with five activists to discuss his concerns about human rights in China and assured them that he will carry the message of freedom as he travels to Beijing for the Games, just as he has regularly made this a priority in all of his meetings with Chinese officials.

The activists included Wei Jingsheng, who was jailed twice for a total of nearly 20 years before being forced into exile in the United States in 1997, and Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer, who left for the United States in 2005 after spending more than five years in prison on charges of providing state secrets to foreigners.

"These people have since long been engaged in anti-China splittism activities and hostile sabotage activities under the banner of so-called 'human rights and religion', which have harmed China's national security and social stability," Liu said.

"We express strong discontent with and firm opposition to this", he said, referring to the meeting. He urged the United States to strictly abide by the basic norms of international relations and avoid damaging China-U.S. relations.

Bush has rejected calls from rights groups to boycott the start of the summer Games, insisting that would have been an "affront" to the Chinese people, making it harder for him to talk candidly to their leaders about human rights concerns.

With the Games due to open on August 8, Amnesty International issued a scathing assessment of China's rights record on Tuesday, saying many of its citizens' protections and freedoms have shrunk since Beijing won the right to hold the Olympics.

Ye Guozhu, jailed in 2004 for organizing protests against forcibly evicted residents, was due for release on July 26. But his family was informed by police on that day that he was under criminal detention for suspicion of gathering a crowd to disturb the social order, the New York-based Human Rights in China said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said the trial of another housing rights activist, Ni Yulan, is due to be held in Beijing on August 4.

(Reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Ken Wills)