A leading human rights group is urging debt-pressed European governments not to ease up on criticism of China’s human rights record in hope of a financial bail-out.

Sophie Richardson, the China director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said Thursday in Hong Kong that governments should realize they don’t have to silence themselves in order to enjoy deeper economic relations with China.

She added that the same laws that protect human rights often protect economic relationships.

Senior European officials visited Beijing late last month in hopes of getting China to invest some of its foreign currency reserves — the world’s largest — in a new bailout fund to prevent the collapse of the euro.

Human Rights Watch called the news conference to discuss a new report on the secret detention in China of dissidents, many of whom disappear into police custody for months at a time without any charges.

Richardson said the Chinese government has shown no interest in ending the practice, moving instead to amend its criminal law to legitimize the disappearances.

She said foreign governments should bear in mind that a country that changes its laws to legitimize objectionable human rights practices cannot be counted on not to do the same thing in the economic sphere.