Time is running out for the People’s Republic of China to improve its record on human rights, Amnesty International claims.

A March 31 AI report accuses China of a variety of human rights-abuses and warns that a crackdown on activists is threatening Beijing’s Olympic legacy.

The report states that positive changes are occurring in China’s death-penalty system and that journalists are being allowed a greater degree of reporting freedom. But it warns that those developments are being overshadowed by detentions without trial, repression of human-rights defenders, and Internet censorship.

The Chinese authorities’ recent crackdown on demonstrations in Tibet is also highlighted in the AI report. It argues that the media blackout in China around the Tibet demonstrations was a significant exception to other signs of improvement of freedom of the media.

AI’s report calls on China’s government to, among other things: give the United Nations and independent observers immediate access to Tibet; cease arbitrary detentions, intimidation, and harassment of activists; and free all prisoners of conscience.

As if driving home AI’s point, prominent Chinese activist Hu Jia was convicted on April 3 of “inciting subversion of state power and the social system,” the BBC reported. He has been sentenced to jail for three-and-half years.

According to the BBC News report, Hu has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom, and rights in China for people with HIV and Aids.

AI’s report lists other notable Chinese activists who have been caught up in what it calls China’s Olympic crackdown as land-rights activist Yang Chunlin and housing-rights activists Ye Guozhu and Wang Ling.

Although no government has called for an outright ban of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Financial Times reported that European Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering said on March 23 that European countries should consider a boycott of the Beijing Olympics if China continues to take a hard-line attitude toward Tibet.

On March 26, the Guardian reported that French president Nicholas Sarkozy “hinted” that France was considering boycotting the 2008 Olympics’ opening ceremonies in reaction to the Chinese government’s handling of the Tibet demonstrations.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has publicly stated that Canada will not boycott the Beijing Olympics. And in a March 20 interview with the Vancouver Sun, Vanoc CEO John Furlong stated that a boycott of the 2008 Games would be “unfair”.

In related news, the Anti-Poverty Committee–a group of Vancouver activists–claimed in a April 2 media release that police brutality in Vancouver has increased as a result of the 2010 Olympic Games drawing nearer.

That release stated: “Under increased pressure from the mayor, Olympic organizations, and downtown business improvement associations, the Vancouver police department have expanded their efforts to target the most vulnerable citizens of Vancouver.”

The APC will be hosting a presentation on the issue on April 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the SFU Harbour Centre.