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
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS