British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in China to lobby for further nuclear sanctions on Iran and will seek to smooth rancor with Beijing over climate change talks and the execution of a British drug smuggler thought to be mentally ill.
Miliband’s visit is a further step in the push by Britain, the US and others to persuade China to drop its opposition to a fourth round of sanctions to pressure Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
China and Russia have been skeptical of the need for new sanctions, which UN diplomats say would target Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and toughen existing measures against its shipping, banking and insurance sectors.
However, recent statements from Russian diplomats are seen as indicating that Moscow may be losing patience with Iran and moving closer to supporting sanctions. That would leave China — which depends on Iran for much of its energy needs — as the only one of the five veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council members opposed to new sanctions.
Miliband was to inaugurate the US$38 million British pavilion at the Shanghai Expo and visit a training base for Chinese UN peacekeepers yesterday.
He is scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) today and deliver a talk at the Foreign Affairs University in Beijing before leaving tomorrow.
The trip comes amid continuing friction between London and Beijing, played out through dueling accusations, diplomatic protests and statements in the media.
Ties bottomed out in December after China ignored personal appeals from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to execute 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh for drug smuggling. Shaikh’s family said he was mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams to record a pop song for world peace.
Brown said he was “appalled” by the execution — China’s first of a European citizen in nearly 60 years — prompting a warning from Beijing that such comments threatened to damage ties.
Even before that exchange, the two had clashed over December’s Copenhagen climate talks that ended without a binding agreement on emissions reductions.
In the aftermath, British Climate Change Minister Edward Miliband — David Miliband’s brother — published an editorial singling out China as the culprit behind the talks’ near collapse.
The bilateral friction comes as China’s relations with the US have also been fraught with tension over US arms sales to Taiwan, US President Barack Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, trade issues and China’s handling of the Iran nuclear issue.
While Beijing has lately cooled its rhetoric over such issues, a fence-mending visit to Beijing this month by US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Senior White House Asia adviser Jeffrey Bader apparently produced no breakthroughs.
Beijing insists the US is entirely responsible for the turbulence in ties and must take actions it does not specify to repair the rift.
Emboldened by its rising global clout and economic influence, analysts say the tough line taken by Beijing signals China’s growing willingness to confront those who challenge it.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS