French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stepped up his country's criticism of China over its handling of violence in Tibet yesterday, calling for an end to "repression" there.
France has called for an end to the violence, in which the Tibetan government-in-exile says 140 people have been killed. Kouchner has called on China to let foreign media into Tibet but previously avoided using strong language like "repression."
"The violence must end on both sides but above all the repression must end since now one cannot go to Tibet," Kouchner, a former human rights activist, told Europe 1 radio.
China's ban on foreign media in Tibet and surrounding areas has made independent verification of reports difficult.
"One of the demands, which I have formulated several times, is that the journalists who are blocked around Tibet can go there. Information must circulate," Kouchner said, adding that he had made the request to his Chinese counterpart.
"Obviously the answer was that there are security issues. I do not think they are valid because journalists must know to take risks and they very often do," he said.
Kouchner said he hoped EU foreign ministers would reach a common position on Tibet when they meet in Slovenia on Friday.
Also yesterday, France Televisions' director of sports said French public TV could boycott coverage of the Beijing Olympics if China bans the broadcast of footage from demonstrations.
"For the time being, we have no intention of boycotting the games," Daniel Bilalian told RTL radio.
"But if they are censored or sanitized in any way by the Chinese authorities and the IOC [International Olympic Committee] accepts this -- which I would very much doubt -- this would obviously call into question our stance," he said.
"At that time, the president of France Televisions, would, without a doubt I believe, decide not to cover the Olympic Games."
Chinese TV on Monday briefly suspended broadcast of the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece, showing file footage when human-rights protestors disrupted the ceremony.
SENTENCE
Meanwhile, a Chinese dissident who dared to claim that human rights were more important than the Olympic games was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday after being found guilty of subversion.
Yang Chunlin (楊春林), an unemployed former factory worker from Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, was accused of accepting money from hostile foreign organizations, writing critical articles and organizing a petition on behalf of farmers who lost their land to developers.
The petition, which was circulated last year, declared: "We don't want the Olympics, we want human rights." Yang's family said it was signed by 7,000 to 8,000 people.
His sister Yang Chunping said the sentence was excessive because of the timing.
"My brother helped farmers asking for land. He might have criticized the party as well as some officials, but all he did was to improve the development of democracy in China. What he said is based on freedom of speech. It is not against the law," she said. "If it were not Olympic year, my brother wouldn't get such a heavy sentence."
Also See: China accuses foreign media of bias
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS