Human Rights Watch yesterday accused China of putting its own economic and political interests above concern for mistreated people around the world by "showering aid" on countries known for widespread abuse.
While Chinese officials struck deals in resource-rich places like Sudan, Zimbabwe and Myanmar last year, Beijing "studiously avoided" using the influence that comes with a booming economy to promote better human rights, the prominent independent rights group said in its annual report released yesterday.
"Instead, it insists on dealing with other governments, in the words of President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), `without any political strings,'" the report said, describing China's stance on human rights as ranging "from indifference to hostility."
The report also denounced Beijing's internal policies, saying China confronted rising social tension by tightening control over the press, the Internet and aid groups.
Last year, China rejected the report as "highly biased."
The report noted some signs that "China's reluctance to meddle in others' affairs might be easing somewhat" -- citing pressure on Sudan to allow UN peacekeeping forces into Darfur and a strong stance following North Korea's nuclear test in October.
But it was blistering in its view that China should be doing more. Chinese oil investments, the report said, spur Sudan's economy, encouraging "Khartoum to pursue its slaughter in Darfur and leaving it flush with funds to purchase arms [sometimes Chinese] for the fighting."
More pressure from China on Sudan would reverse the impression that China "is more interested in continuing the flow of oil to its growing economy" than it is "in staunching the flow of blood in Darfur."
In Myanmar, where the military regime continues to detain hundreds of political prisoners, and in other parts of Asia, the group said, "China is showering aid on human rights abusing governments."
Other world powers were criticized by the rights group for "being so busy cutting their own trade deals with China that they rarely voiced concern about Beijing's inhumane behavior at home or abroad."
In China last year, the group said several politically motivated prosecutions of reporters and lawyers, ended "any hopes that President Hu Jintao would be a progressive reformer and sent an unambiguous warning to individuals and groups pressing for greater respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Chinese citizens."
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
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