Manfred Nowak, head of the UN organization, arrived in Beijing Monday, hours after U.S. President Bush left the Chinese capital to complete his four Asian nation journey with a brief stop in Mongolia before heading back to Washington.

During his trip, Bush urged improvements in China's human rights record with regard to religious and political freedom, including prisoners of conscience and harassment of non-governmental organizations.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a well-placed source close to the meetings between Bush and his counterpart, Hu Jintao, told United Press International Wednesday that Bush's comments in Kyoto, Japan, had "obliged the Chinese to respond."

Part of the PRC's response, independent of Bush administration's admonitions, has been to allow the U.N. representative dealing with detention and treatment of inmates to make a groundbreaking investigation on the conditions in the country. It took the organization more than a decade of behind-the-scenes negotiation before China was willing to give the High Commission office permission to survey the situation.

China is looking to remedy the black eye it suffers from a long and well-documented abysmal record when it comes to abuses by the state security apparatus. "Stability first" continues to characterize Chinese governance, but analysts believe the new collective leadership, headed by Hu, is trying to put a velvet glove over its iron-fisted rule.

At the National People's Congress in March 2004 China added a constitutional clause promising "the state respects and safeguards human rights."

Jia Chunwang, procurator-general of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate (roughly equivalent to prosecutor functions of the attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department) reported investigations into more than 700 cases of illegal detention and interrogation by torture between January and August 2004.

The Xinhua news agency said, "Although strictly forbidden by law, forced confession is common in many places in China because the police are often under great pressure from above to solve criminal cases."

In a report to a session of standing committee of the NPC in October 2005, Jia told legislators his office is drafting measures to strengthen examination of evidence legitimacy to avoid extorting confession by torture.

The NPC is deliberating legislation tentatively entitled "Offenses Against Public Order," which state-run media said "aims to not only increase punishment for the violation of public order, but to confine police power." Jia claims the law will "better ensure the rights of suspects."

The amendment calls for police "to collect evidence through comprehensive, objective and timely means. Forced confession is strictly forbidden and legally invalid. Police who extort confession through torture will be ascertained legal and administrative responsibility according to the severity of the case," according to Xinhua.

China watchers will be on the lookout for progress on the measure when the NPC meets in full session next March.

Liu Jianchao, spokesman with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tuesday said Nowak's mission was a "human rights mechanism to which the Chinese government attaches great importance."

The spokesman noted "through joint efforts we can reach the expected goal." He would not elaborate on what China's objectives were for Nowak's trip. Liu also deflected a question on why it took so long for China to agree to a visit by the UN special rapporteur and declined comment when asked to compare the Chinese and American records on torture.

Analysts note torture is one of the rare areas where China has an opportunity to occupy a small patch of moral high ground on a human rights issue compared with the U.S. in courting world opinion.

In March 2005 the Chinese State Council issued a white paper entitled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004." The final section of the report made note of the scandals at the Pentagon-run detention facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The United States has been hindering the work of the United Nation's human rights mechanism. And it either took no notice of or used delaying tactics on the requests of relevant U.N. agencies to visit its Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba," the report said.

Nowak told the BBC that Beijing had offered him freer access to detainees than America was prepared to provide when he scrapped a Dec. 6 trip to Guantanamo Bay. "I'm very grateful to the Chinese government that they did invite me, and also that they accepted my terms of reference," he said.

Sino-U.S. competition for the title of virtuous government offers Nowak a win-win situation to forward his agenda. It also presents several "China challenges."

The first China challenge is whether or not the criteria of Nowak's "terms of reference" can be met by the Chinese. Those terms were unfettered access to every known detention facility, unscheduled premise visits and the promise of no retaliation against anyone interviewed.

The Chinese press quoted Nowak saying "I see this as an opening up of governmental policy in relation to U.N. special procedures and I had very good first meetings (Monday) with the officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and justice."

The second China challenge will be for Nowak's Dec. 2 departure, in the form of the briefing he gives at the end of his trip. Here the issue to watch is how forthright the special rapporteur is in assessing a big, well-known big problem. Trenchant criticism of China might scupper development of a long-term relationship with his U.N. institution.

Nowak faces a delicate balancing act which the Chinese masterfully exploit with all U.N. agencies operating in the PRC. One former Beijing-based U.N. employee described the dilemma to UPI: "telling it like it is risks getting shut out versus what you might be able to accomplish if your group is there."

The final China challenge is to America. The Chinese white paper stated: "No country in the world can claim itself as perfect without room for improvement in human rights. And no country should exclude itself from the international human rights development process, or view itself as the incarnation of human rights which can reign over or dictate to other countries." How will the Bush administration respond?

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