The document primarily promises a stronger commitment to existing laws already on the books – laws that many human rights groups claim are often overlooked or suppressed.

Further, no reforms are made to the country’s one-party system, the plan does not end or even phase out the practice of sending individuals to “re-education” prison camps without trial, and the unregistered prisons set up for political dissidents are not even mentioned.

The paper promises a “right of urban and rural residents to a basic standard of living,” and that unemployment will remain below 5%.  The Chinese government appears far more interested in keeping up appearances than in putting people first.

China has made some real progress on human rights since that bloody day in Tiananmen Square, but many local and provincial government agencies are slow to change their ways.  The plan does call for solid action to reduce the occurrence of torture, such as requiring interrogation rooms to have some physical separation to  distance interrogators from a suspect, but even such simple and effective steps will take years to implement nationwide.

About a week ago, Sun Wenguang, a 75-year-old retired professor who has been imprisoned multiple times in his life for expressing his political opinions and who was placed under 24-hour surveillance in the days prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was brutally beaten by 5 unidentified men “in broad daylight and clear view of the police,” according to Human Rights in China.

On December 10, 2008 -  over 300 Chinese intellectuals and human rights advocates signed Charter 08, echoing many of the demands of the Tiananmen Square protesters.  20 years after the “June Fourth Incident,” the world is still waiting…

According to the Department of Defense, five vessels including a Chinese naval ship, trawlers and an “intelligence ship” approached within 50 feet of the boat, waving Chinese flags and telling the U.S. ship to leave the area.  When one of the ships came within as close as 25 feet, the Impeccable used a water cannon to spray the boat in defense.  In response, the Chinese sailors stripped down to their underwear.  The Pentagon has stated that the Impeccable was unarmed (except for that clothes-ruining water cannon) and was manned entirely by civilian mariners conducting ocean surveys.

A U.S. Navy spokesman, Captain Jeffrey Breslau, called the Chinese actions “dangerous.”  He also admitted that the Impeccable had been towing an underwater listening and mapping device used for underwater surveillance, and said one of the Chinese ships tried to snare the device with a long grappling hook.  A Chinese nuclear sub had recently been spotted in satellite photographs at a covert naval base on nearby Hainan, and the implication from both Washington and Beijing is that the U.S. is monitoring Chinese nuclear submarines.

While the incident occurred within what is generally considered “international waters”, China claims an “economic exclusion zone,” extending 200 nautical miles from its coast.  Within this area, China asserts exclusive rights to oil and gas exploration, drilling and fishing.  So the U.S. says it was legal, China says it was illegal.

Showing rapid maturation, the Chinese navy recently deployed two destroyers and a supply ship to the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden, and is working on constructing its first aircraft carrier.  The Washington Post is reporting today that the USS Chung-Hoon, armed with torpedoes and missiles, has been assigned to protect the USNS Impeccable for the immediate future.

Amidst of flurry of  recent and upcoming U.S. attempts to improve relations with China, this incident certainly increases the level of tension but these kinds of naval confrontations are no novelty in American history.  Hans Kristensen, with the Federation of American Scientists, is suggesting that the U.S. and China use the Cold War-era Incidents at Sea Agreement as a template for U.S.-China maritime interactions.

The United States and China are so codependent financially at this point that even a cold war is highly unlikely, but this is a story we will keep our eyes on in the weeks to come.

The International Herald Tribune has more.