Beijing 2008: April 2007 Archives

By Maureen Fan | The Washington Post
April 30, 2007

Olympics an Excuse for Arrests, Amnesty Says

The 2008 Olympic Games have become a catalyst for more repression in China, not less, according to an Amnesty International report released today and aimed at pressuring the Beijing government a year before the start of the world's premier sporting event.

The 22-page report says China's illegal detention and imprisonment of activists and other measures have overshadowed some modest reforms, including how the Chinese legal system reviews death penalty cases and the loosening of some restrictions on the foreign press. The report marks the latest effort by human rights organizations and individuals to try to use the Olympics, and the international spotlight they place on China, to push for broader reforms.

To win its first-ever Olympics bid, China promised in 2001 to improve human rights, increase environmental protections and address the city's traffic problems. The Games are expected to attract 500,000 visitors, including thousands of journalists, giving China a chance to showcase itself before a huge international audience.

In recent weeks, however, various groups have begun arguing that China has not done enough.

Last Wednesday, four American tourists were detained after unfurling a banner at a base camp on Mount Everest that read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008," a play on the Beijing Olympics motto.

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By Radio Free Asia
April 27, 2007

Chinese authorities repeatedly and separately questioned five Americans detained for two days after they staged an Olympic-related protest on Mount Everest before expelling them on Friday, one of the protesters has told Radio Free Asia.

“There were about five questions,” Tibetan-American Tenzin Dorje told RFA’s Tibetan service. “Their main question was whether anyone helped from inside Tibet—who helped us to write in Tibetan and Chinese, and so on. Where did we eat? Where did we go by vehicle?”

On arriving at the base camp, the five—all activists from the U.S.-based Students for a Free Tibet group—unfurled a banner saying, “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008.” They were identified as Tenzin Dorje, the first known exiled Tibetan to return to the region to protest, Kirsten Westby, Mac Sutherlin, Jeff Friesen, and videographer Shannon Service.

Their protest came on the eve of an announcement of the route to be taken by the Olympic torch to Beijing, which will host the 2008 Games. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the five were detained for “carrying out illegal activities aimed at splitting China” for which they must be expelled from China.

“Finally we were released this morning and transported to the [Nepal] border post at Drum,” Tenzin Dorje said. “When we were first detained, we were taken to an office right at the base camp of Mount Everest…They started interrogating us there. They didn’t ask us questions in a group but took each individual to a separate room and conducted their interrogation there. One police officer asks questions, another takes notes, and two or three stand by with rifles ready. We were detained in the same office from 9.30 a.m. to about 10 p.m.”

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By REUTERS | The New York Times
27 April 2007

China deported five American tourists after they demonstrated for a free Tibet and protested against the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the base of Mount Everest, and said it had urged Washington to prevent a recurrence.

China made ``solemn representation'' with the United States, demanding it ensure American tourists abide by Chinese laws and not engage in any illegal activities, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

``The U.S. side ... should prevent similar incidents from happening again,'' the ministry said in a faxed statement.

``Tibet is an inseparable part of China. The Chinese government and people will never tolerate any activities aimed at splitting China,'' the ministry said.

It did not identify the five or give details of what they did.

China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since People's Liberation Army troops occupied the region in 1950 and has vowed to bring economic prosperity to the poor Himalayan region.

Students for a Free Tibet said four protesters, including a Tibetan-American, unfurled a banner reading ``One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008'' in English, and one in Tibetan and Chinese saying ``Free Tibet.''

The four were at a base camp on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, which is being used by a Chinese team doing trial runs to take the Olympic torch up the mountain, the group said, adding the information had come via text message.

``One World, one Dream'' is the motto for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Beijing officials have said the Olympic torch will enter Tibet after ascending the southern slope of Mount Everest -- known in China by its Tibetan name, Qomalangma -- in Nepal.

The ministry did not give a reason for the discrepancy in the number of protesters.

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By Radio Free Asia | www.rfa.org
April 25, 2007

KATHMANDU, April 25, 2007—Chinese authorities have detained four U.S. citizens who staged a protest at the Chinese Everest base camp against Beijing's plans to bring the Olympic torch through the region.

On arriving at the base camp, the activists from the U.S.-based Students for a Free Tibet group unfurled a banner which read "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008," Kirsten Westby from Boulder, Colorado told RFA's Tibetan service by telephone from a holding cell.

"We had everything on video and we wore shirts with a message to the International Olympic Committee that said, 'No torch through Tibet,'" Westby said. The video was later made available on YouTube.

Four detained on Everest

The protesters were identified by a statement on the group's Web site as Tenzin Dorje, the first known exiled Tibetan to return to the region to protest, Kirsten Westby, Mac Sutherlin, and videographer Shannon Service.

They were detained by base camp authorities shortly after staging a brief ceremony in which they lit an Olympic torch and sang the Tibetan National Anthem, members of the group said.

"It's five of us involved in the action and four of us at this point in time have been detained," Westby said by mobile phone from inside what appeared to be a police cell.

"We are sitting at Everest base camp in a small building with bars on the windows. We were detained by the authorities here at the base camp. One of the members of our team who has been detained is a journalist videographer."

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By Agence France Press | The Nation (Thailand)
April 12, 2007

Beijing - China should loosen its grip on the media beyond the Olympic Games and not just for foreign reporters, the European Union's media commissioner said here Thursday.

"We appreciate that there is some kind of opening with the Olympic Games," European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding told reporters on the second day of her visit to Beijing.

"I hope that this opening will continue also after the Olympic Games."

Reding said China's communist rulers should loosen the shackles on the domestic press both in the traditional as well as new forms of media.

"My opinion is very simple. I am against any government intervention in the media, whatever the media are, if it is a print or it is a new media," she said.

"It is not the business of the government whatsoever to intervene in whatever way on the Internet. Leave the Internet free without government intervention."

Reding brought the issue up in her discussions with ministers in charge of information and scientific research, saying a free society is a prerequisite for the development of a successful economy.

"I don't believe that you can separate one from the other," she said.

On January 1 China lifted some restrictions for foreign reporters, giving them more freedom to work and travel in a bid to improve its image before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But domestic media, including the Internet, continue to be tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party which fears instability and challenges to its power.

The country is ranked by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders as the 163rd out of 167 countries on its global press freedom index.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com

By Daniel Schearf | Voice of America | voanews.com
March 31, 2007

The Chinese government is facing increasing calls for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, in part because of Beijing's refusal to condemn the Sudanese government's actions in the war-torn Darfur region. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.

Celebrities and politicians are adding their voices to calls for a boycott of the Beijing 2008 Olympics to push China to use its leverage on Khartoum.

Advocates of a boycott say China, as the largest buyer of Sudan's oil and a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, is in a unique position to pressure Sudan. But they say Beijing ignores violence by government-backed militias in Darfur to maintain access to Sudanese oil.

American actress and U.N. Children's Fund goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow recently co-wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal calling for a boycott of the games and accusing Beijing of "bankrolling Darfur's genocide."

French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou has said French athletes should boycott the Beijing Olympics to force China to act on Darfur.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says such efforts are misguided and self-serving.

"We do not think it is proper to connect the Darfur problem with the Olympics and we do not think it will be popularly accepted or echoed by people around the world," he said. "People are wrong if they think they can win votes or increase their reputation [this way]."

Khartoum is accused of supporting militias that have raped and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Darfur and left millions homeless in a four-year fight against rebels in the region.

Qin says China is just as concerned about peace in Darfur as the rest of the world.

But while China says it supports the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers, it continues to sell weapons to Khartoum, and last year, along with Russia, abstained from voting on sanctions against Sudan.

The U.S. has accused the Sudanese government of supporting genocide and has led an effort to get U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur.

These are not the first calls for a boycott of the 2008 games.

The media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders started calling for a boycott in 2001, just after the International Olympic Committee chose China to be the 2008 host.

Vincent Brossel, the head of the Asia Pacific Desk for Reporters Without Borders, says Beijing does not deserve to host the Olympics, because it continues to restrict freedom of speech and persecutes people for their political and religious beliefs.

"The human rights problem is still there and there is a concern, even at the IOC, that the human rights situation can jeopardize the success of the games and can put in danger all these universal values that are supposedly supported by the games," he said.

Brossel says tens of thousands have signed an online petition to support a boycott, but he says no government supports it. He also acknowledges arguments that having Beijing host the Olympic Games may also help to improve human rights by putting the international spotlight on China.