The Associated Press
Feb 10 2000 8:23PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - An international coalition urged the European Union on Thursday to support U.S. efforts to criticize China's human rights record at an upcoming U.N. meeting.

Behind-the-scenes efforts by the EU to improve the human rights situation in China have failed to stop violations, much less improve the overall situation in the country, the coalition said in a statement.

With Beijing's current crackdown on dissidents and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, the EU should change strategy and cosponsor a resolution censuring China at the annual U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva, which begins March 20, the coalition said.

"Dialogue without pressure in the face of persistent gross violations of human rights is simply appeasement and degrades the authority of international human rights standards," the statement said.

The coalition includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights in China, the International Federation of Human Rights and the International Campaign for Tibet.

The United States announced in January it would again seek to pass a resolution criticizing China's record at the commission's annual meeting and launched an international campaign to get support for the measure.

Eight attempts to censure China at the U.N. commission have failed since 1990, as Beijing mobilized support from the developing countries that dominate the 53-member group.

Last year, American officials couldn't muster enough support to even include the question on the commission's agenda.

Many European nations didn't back the U.S. initiative then. The European Union said last week it didn't yet have a position on the new proposed U.S. resolution.