British Foreign Secretary David Miliband backed China in its skirmish with groups seeking to link the Beijing Olympics to progress on human rights, saying yesterday that "engagement, not isolation" is the correct approach.
Miliband, who is on an official visit to China, said "no opportunity has been wasted" to raise rights concerns with Chinese officials, but he mentioned no specific cases and said such discussions should not be explicitly tied to the Games.
"We believe that the Olympics are an opportunity to celebrate the progress that has been achieved in China," Miliband said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (
"From our point of view, engagement, not isolation, is the right way forward," he said.
Appearing alongside Miliband, Yang sarcastically dismissed questions about links between rights issues and the Olympics, denying that a laid-off factory worker who went on trial last week on subversion charges had been arrested for protesting against the Olympic Games.
The worker, Yang Chunlin (楊春林), had sought to rally support for landless farmers by posting a letter on the Internet with the title: "We want human rights, not the Olympics."
"People in China enjoy extensive freedom of speech," Yang said. "No one will get arrested because he has said human rights were more important than the Olympic Games."
Yang said Chinese citizens were welcome to lecture police officers on the need to protect human rights.
"If they've been talking for too long and get tired, the officer will offer him a cup of tea," Yang said.
Yang also defended China's involvement on the Darfur issue, pointing to Beijing's dispatch of peacekeepers and development assistance to Sudan. But he said outsiders had limited influence with the government there.
TIANANMEN MOTHERS
Elsewhere, mothers of people killed during the Tiananmen Square Massacre have joined the list of groups using the Olympics to draw attention to their cause.
In an open letter released yesterday, the Tiananmen Mothers warned the Games would be dogged by lingering guilt and mistrust unless China confronts the truth about the crackdown.
"Is it really possible that, as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, the government can be at ease allowing athletes from all over the world to tread on this piece of bloodstained soil and participate in the Olympics?" the letter said.
DISSIDENT DETAINED
Meanwhile, police detained an ethnic Mongolian dissident at Beijing airport as he arrived from Mongolia, a country of which he is now a citizen, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center said.
Jiranbayariin Soyolt, originally from Inner Mongolia, was placed in handcuffs when he landed on Jan. 7 from Ulan Bator for a business trip, the center said.
His detention has only just come to light because the government had told his family not to talk to the press, the center said.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan has signed six arms procurement offers from the US totaling more than NT$208 billion (US$6.59 billion) covering long-range precision strike systems, missile stockpile replenishment and joint production of large-caliber ammunition, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan as opposition lawmakers question the amount and procurement items, while the Presidential Office and defense ministry say that the full amount is necessary to safeguard Taiwan. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Monday briefed the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on the defense budget for
RSS