Slovak leader tells Chinese minister of human rights worries

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – Slovakia’s president has told China’s foreign minister that she is worried about human rights in his country.

President Zuzana Caputova met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the Slovak capital of Bratislava on Wednesday.

The president’s office released a statement afterward saying Caputova “expressed concerns and worries about the worsening state of human rights in China.”

The statement cited the detentions of lawyers and human rights activists, and the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities.

China’s ruling Communist Party has carried out a widespread crackdown on religious institutions in recent years and incarcerated more than a million members of Islamic ethnic minorities.

Caputova’s office says she also told the visiting Chinese minister that the protection of human rights became the foundation of a free Slovakia after a totalitarian communist regime collapsed 30 years ago.