China’s state press gushed over Beijing’s hosting of the Olympic Games yesterday, calling it a watershed event that should make the world look on China with newfound respect.
“Through the Beijing Games’ flawless organization, brilliant sporting performances and friendly atmosphere, an image of an entirely new great country appeared before the world,” the popular Beijing Youth Daily said.
“Even though the Beijing Games have ended, China’s opening up and exchanges with the world will not cease and the Chinese people’s participation in the development and improvement of mankind will not change,” it said.
The English-language China Daily said the Games marked the pinnacle of China’s gradual re-engagement with the world that began 30 years ago under former leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平).
“The Games was a historic climax of three decades of China opening to the world. It was also a moment for the world to take a new look at China,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said yesterday China had failed to win any medals in the human rights department during the Beijing Olympics, adding that the Chinese government had “blatantly and successfully” used the Games to realize its political goals.
“Yet the carefully orchestrated facade could not conceal a police state that tramples on human rights,” HRIC executive director Sharon Hom said.
UIGHURS
Uighur activists said yesterday that Chinese security forces had detained 500 members of the ethnic Uighur minority in the Xinjiang region over the past two weeks.
More than 100 people were arrested in the desert town of Kashgar alone, the exiled Uyghur World Congress said.
Families of arrested individuals were not informed about their relatives’ whereabouts, the congress said. “Vanishing” people were nothing unusual in Uighur territories, however, as arbitrary arrests by the Chinese army, police and intelligence services are common.
DEPORTED
A British woman and a German man who took part in a protest during the Olympic Games were deported yesterday, officials said, hours after eight American activists were sent home during the closing ceremony.
Mandie McKeown and Florien Norbu Gyanatshang were put on flights to Frankfurt in the morning, said officials from the British embassy in Beijing and the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
Also See: London’s Olympic challenge remains huge
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
RSS