China said yesterday it was “determined” to maintain its controls on the Internet, amid criticism over its decision to censor the Web for foreign reporters covering the Olympics.
“We are determined to implement the regulations and to try to implement the regulations effectively,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) told reporters.
Reporters trying to surf the Internet at the main press center for the Games have found a wide array of sites deemed sensitive by China’s rulers to be out-of-bounds.
PHOTO: AFP
Liu would not be drawn further on the issue yesterday.
“I’ve already expanded on China’s position. I will not add more on that,” he said when asked to identify all the Web sites censored for Olympics reporters and to provide a list.
Liu also described as “unfair” claims by US Senator Sam Brownback this week that China was planning to spy on guests who stayed at foreign-owned hotels during the Games.
“In China, privacy is respected and guaranteed. In hotels and other public places, there is no special arrangement that is beyond internationally, generally used security measures,” he said.
Brownback on Tuesday gave out English translations of two documents he said were received by hotels, outlining the Chinese government’s instructions on how to implement Internet spying software and hardware by yesterday.
Lu also criticized a US House of Representatives’ resolution on Wednesday that criticizes Beijing’s human rights record and calls on it to end its support for the regimes in Myanmar and Sudan.
“We urge the American side to stop the disgusting actions of this small group of anti-Chinese lawmakers,” Liu was quoted as saying on the ministry’s Web site. “This action itself is blasphemous to the spirit of the Olympics and is against the will of the people all over the world, including the American people.”
Meanwhile, dissent erupted in the senior ranks of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with the head of its press commission suggesting that IOC president Jacques Rogge acquiesced to Chinese plans to censor Internet access during the Games.
Kevan Gosper, the press commission head, said he was startled to find out earlier this week that some Web sites would be blocked in the work rooms for reporters covering the games.
For months Gosper, Rogge and others have publicly said Beijing agreed to unblock the Web during the Games. The reversal, Gosper said, left him feeling like the “fall guy.”
“But I really do not know the detail. I only know the ground rules on censorship have changed, but have only been announced here. It must have related to a former understanding to which I was not a party,” he said.
“This certainly isn’t what we guaranteed the international media and it’s certainly contrary to normal circumstances of reporting on Olympic Games,” he said.
Rogge arrived in Beijing yesterday, but declined to speak as he left the airport.
In other news, Olympic organizers slammed a South Korean TV station yesterday for broadcasting of a dress rehearsal for the Games opening ceremony.
The network, one of three South Korean TV rights holders allowed to distribute Olympic footage, aired just over a minute of video of the closed-door rehearsal. It included scenes depicting the past and future of Chinese culture and the unrolling of a huge scroll.
“We went and nobody stopped us. So we just shot,” a reporter at the SBS sports desk said in Seoul.
A spokesman for the Beijing organizers said the matter was being investigated.
Also see: Wary China readies for the patriot Games
Also see: Let the games begin
AND COVERAGE IN SPORTS
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique