The US, the UK and the EU protested a decision by a Chinese court to uphold the 11-year prison sentence for Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a political dissident convicted last year on subversion charges after promoting a manifesto calling for China to become a democracy.
“We are disappointed by the Chinese government’s decision to uphold Liu Xiaobo’s sentence of 11 years in prison on the charge of ‘inciting subversion of state power,’” US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said in a statement yesterday. “We believe that he should not have been sentenced in the first place and should be released immediately.”
Liu’s December conviction was upheld by a Beijing court yesterday, AFP reported, citing one of Liu’s lawyers.
The EU delegation in China said in a statement that the verdict against Liu is “entirely incompatible with his right to freedom of expression” and also called for his release.
“We are very disappointed that Liu Xiaobo’s appeal has been unsuccessful,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said.
“The decision once again calls into question freedom of expression in China,” he said, adding that the decision had “rightly been condemned” by the EU.
Liu’s case is one of several issues straining ties between China and the US and EU. China considers the diplomatic protests an affront to its sovereignty.
“China brooks no interference in its internal judicial affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) told reporters yesterday in Beijing. “China has no dissidents.”
The former Columbia University visiting scholar had been in police custody since December 2008 for his role in organizing Charter 08.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
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Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies sought to show a united front in Canada yesterday after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and US President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The G7 ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners would be getting a
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