Police detained dozens of activists and petitioners in Beijing and elsewhere in China as US President Barack Obama arrived on his first state visit to the country, friends, family members and a human rights group said yesterday.
International rights groups have urged Obama to raise human rights concerns during a four-day trip to China that began on Sunday night and will include a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). China frequently conducts crackdowns on dissent ahead of major events, such as last year’s Olympics and this year’s National Day celebrations.
Activist Zhao Lianhai (趙連海), who organized an online support group for parents whose children were sickened by tainted milk last year, was taken away by police from his home late on Friday night, his wife Li Xuemei (李雪梅) said.
Officers also confiscated his computers and other equipment during the raid. Li said they returned the following day with documents for her to sign that said Zhao had been “criminally detained” for “provoking an incident.”
Chen Jianfang, a petitioner from Shanghai who traveled to Beijing with 200 others, said the group wanted to welcome Obama and draw his attention to China’s human rights violations. But several dozen of her companions were rounded up by Beijing police when they arrived at the government’s petition office yesterday, she said.
“They are detaining people everywhere, even if they are only petitioning normally at the state petition office and are not holding any banners or shouting any slogans,” she said.
Chen said that most of the petitioners have had their homes destroyed and their land taken away without getting fair compensation.
A Hong Kong-based rights group said that more than a dozen activists in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere in the country had been detained or placed under house arrest in a bid to muffle their criticism during Obama’s visit.
The activists were openly warned against “making trouble” during Obama’s visit, China Human Rights Defenders said.
In a statement, the group urged Obama to raise concerns about the practice during his upcoming meetings with Chinese leaders, and to demand the immediate release of those detained in connection with his visit.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS