GENEVA — A special envoy for China's foreign ministry has acknowledged his nation still faces "many difficulties and challenges" in promoting and protecting human rights.

Special envoy Wu Hailong said in a speech Tuesday to the U.N.'s top human rights body that too many people in China live under the poverty line or lack basic medical and health services, and that social programs are lagging for ethnic minorities.

Wu tells the 47-nation Human Rights Council as it begins reviewing China's record that nearly 100 million rural dwellers still live in poverty.

He says "it is simply beyond one's imagination, how daunting the task is and how many challenges China faces to promote and protect human rights."