Hillary Clinton alarmed over increasing self-immolations in Tibet

Alarmed by a series of self-immolations by desperate Tibetans, including monks and nuns, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked China to respect the human rights of its people.

Clinton raised the issue of Tibetan self-immolation when she met Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

"I think it would be fair to say that the Chinese interlocutors, Foreign Minister Yang, took onboard what she had to say. I expect we'll have continuing conversations on these issues," the official said.

"But we've been very clear at what our expectations are in terms of improving a dialogue with Tibet and the appropriate Tibetan authorities and to try to address some of the issues that lead to the desperation underscoring these tragic immolations. We raise individual cases regularly.

That is one that we've raised most recently," the State Department official said.

Ethnically Tibetan areas of China like Sichuan have witnessed a wave of self-immolations by Buddhist monks and nuns in protest at what they see as Beijing's iron-fist rule.

Human rights groups say that at least five monks and two nuns have died.

Earlier, speaking at the East-West Center think-tank in Honolulu, Clinton had appealed to Beijing to respect human rights of its citizens.

"We are alarmed by recent incidents in Tibet of young people lighting themselves on fire in desperate acts of protest, as well as the continued house arrest of the Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng," she said.

"We continue to call on China to embrace a different path," Clinton said.

"We have made very clear our serious concerns about China's record on human rights. When we see reports of lawyers, artists, and others who are detained or disappeared, the US speaks up both publicly and privately," Clinton said.

Chen, who is blind, spent four years in prison after documenting late-term abortions and forced sterilisations under China's strict one-child family planning policy.

Clinton also said the US remains committed to the One-China policy and the preservation of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

"We have a strong relationship with Taiwan, an important security and economic partner, and we applaud the progress that we have seen in cross-Strait relations between China and Taiwan during the past three years and we look forward to continued improvement so there can be peaceful resolution of their differences," she said.