Beijing 2008: November 2007 Archives
By Anita Chang | Associated Press | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
November 29, 2007
China's last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong was not the result of a misunderstanding, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday, adding that ties had been "disturbed and harmed" by Congress' honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
Spokesman Liu Jianchao denounced an earlier report from Washington that said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President Bush the incident was a misunderstanding.
But Liu offered no concrete explanation as to why China barred the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its escort vessels from entering Hong Kong harbor for a planned Thanksgiving visit.
"The report is not in line with the facts," Liu said at a regular news briefing.
He refused to elaborate, but his negative characterization of U.S.-China relations appeared to indicate that Beijing had canceled the visit deliberately in order to register its displeasure over U.S. actions, as it has occasionally with previous Hong Kong port calls.
Liu said "erroneous" actions on the part of the U.S. had "disturbed and harmed" relations.
He pointed to the U.S. Congress' awarding its highest civilian honor to the Dalai Lama last month. Though the Tibetan spiritual leader is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, Beijing demonizes the monk and claims he seeks to destroy China's sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.
Also hurting relations were arms sales to Taiwan, an island which China regards as a renegade province, he said.
By Radio Singapore International
November 29, 2007
China has informed Washington that its refusal last week to allow a US Navy aircraft carrier into Hong Kong was a 'misunderstanding'.
This follows a formal complaint lodged by the US Defense Department over the incident.
By USA TODAY
November 28, 2007
The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China on Wednesday over its refusal to permit a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to make a planned Thanksgiving port visit to Hong Kong.
"We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. He said a Chinese military officer who is Beijing's defense attache in Washington was called to the Pentagon to accept the protest from a Pentagon Asia policy official. Morrell called it an "a formal protest, an official protest, complaint," for refusing port entry for the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying battle group.
By Thom Shanker | The New York Times
28 November 2007
Two senior American admirals expressed concern on Tuesday over decisions this month by China to refuse access to the port of Hong Kong for three American warships, including two seeking fuel and sheltered waters ahead of a major storm.
The officers, Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, and Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of American forces in the Pacific, said neither the Chinese government nor its military had offered explanations.
Two minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were sailing in international waters this month when a serious Pacific Ocean storm threatened. The two vessels, relatively small, asked for permission to enter Hong Kong's harbor for fuel and safety. The request was denied.
The admirals said China's refusal to lend assistance to the minesweepers was a worrisome repudiation of historical principles calling on all nations to assist ships in danger at sea.
"As someone who has been going to sea all my life, if there is one tenet that we observe, it's when somebody is in need, you provide -- and you sort it out later," Admiral Roughead said during a morning round table with Pentagon correspondents.
The two minesweepers were refueled by an American tanker and suffered no damage from the storm, Admiral Roughead said.
In a second incident just days later, the Kitty Hawk, an American aircraft carrier based in Japan, was already en route to Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday visit scheduled for last Wednesday through Saturday when the Chinese withdrew their previous permission for the port call. China later approved the visit, but it was too late for the Kitty Hawk to turn around and return.
Hundreds of family members of the crew aboard the Kitty Hawk and vessels in its strike group had already flown to Hong Kong for the visit when the Chinese canceled entry "at the last minute," according to the Navy.
During a video news conference from his headquarters in Hawaii, Admiral Keating said he found the Chinese decisions "perplexing, troublesome."
"It is not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country that understands its obligations of a responsible nation," Admiral Keating said. "There is little strategic benefit to it."
But Admiral Keating also stressed the importance of maintaining a military-to-military dialogue to avoid any calamity in relations, and he said he planned to visit China early next year.
The State Department was asking China about its refusal to let the three Navy ships into the Hong Kong harbor.
Cmdr. Pamela S. Kunze, chief spokeswoman for Admiral Roughead, said about 50 Navy ships visited Hong Kong each year. Before the recent refusals, the last American warship to be denied access to the harbor was the Curtis Wilbur, a guided-missile destroyer, in 2002. The Chinese did not provide a reason at the time, she said.
By REUTERS | The New York Times
23 November 2007
Chinese sport officials have warned that world champion hurdler Liu Xiang's achievements will be rendered "meaningless" if he fails to win Olympic gold in Beijing next year, according to the athlete's coach.
"Officials from the State General Administration of Sports once told us if Liu could not win a gold in Beijing, all of his previous achievements would become meaningless," Friday's China Daily quoted Sun Haiping as saying.
"So we have to take everything possible into consideration to keep him in top form."
World record-holder Liu won gold in the 110m hurdles in Athens in 2004 and this year became China's first male track world champion in Osaka, Japan.
Liu, who remains China's best hope of track gold on home soil next year, said he felt the pressure of expectations.
"Much of the time, people don't just want me to win a medal, but to get gold. This kind of pressure is indeed very heavy," the 24-year-old told the Beijing News in a separate report.
"After all, there are currently many outstanding athletes in the 110m hurdles. Any of them could be number one."
Since clocking 12.88 to set the world record in June 2006, Liu has gone from strength to strength, winning nine titles in his last 12 meetings.
GENUINE THREAT
He has been nominated as one of three finalists in the running for the International Association of Athletics Federation's (IAAF) male athlete of the year, alongside America's Tyson Gay and Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.
But Dayron Robles of Cuba has emerged as a genuine threat to the Chinese hurdler's Olympic title defense, equaling his best time of 12.92 in 2007 and beating a rusty Liu comfortably on home soil at the Shanghai Grand Prix in September.
China's sports ministry has recently ratcheted up the pressure on the country's athletes.
By Stephen Wade, AP Sports Writer | Star Tribune Minneapolis-St. Paul
November 16, 2007
Chinese police will deal harshly with social or political demonstrations at the Beijing Olympics, a top security official said Friday.
Chinese police will deal harshly with social or political demonstrations at the Beijing Olympics, a top security official said Friday.
With 28,000 journalists expected to attend, the Aug. 8-24 Olympics offer a rare chance for protesters to express grievances against China's communist government on issues including religious freedom, Tibetan independence and global warming.
Liu Shaowu, deputy director of the Olympic Security Command Center, said security forces would stop any form of demonstration at or around venues. He also suggested that protests deemed threatening would be snuffed out far from Olympic sites.
"As for violating China's sovereignty and encouraging separatists and terrorists, definitely we will not allow that,'' Liu told reporters. "We will deal with that according to Chinese law.''
Liu's comments, made at a rare media briefing on Olympic security, are likely to compound concerns that Beijing will use heavy-handed policing at the games.
Defending the measures, Liu said the protest clampdown at Olympic sites is in line with the Olympic charter, which he said forbids "any form of political, religious or racial demonstration.''
By Associated Press | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
November 14, 2007
China is stamping return to sender on mail from Taiwan postmarked with a slogan supporting the island's bid to join the United Nations.
Taiwan's post office began putting a "U.N. for Taiwan" postmark on selected items of outgoing mail six weeks ago.
Letters and parcels bearing that slogan and one saying "Taiwan joining the United Nations" were being returned as a protest against alleged independence activities by the government of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, according to Fan Liqing of China's Taiwan Affairs Council.
Liu Te-shun of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council -- the Cabinet-level body in charge of implementing China policy -- said China's action contravened international mail practice.
"It is common for countries to stamp commemorative slogans on mail," he said.
Since their split amid civil war nearly 60 years ago, Taiwan and China have confronted each other angrily across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait.
China regards the democratic island as part of its territory and has threatened to attack if it formalizes its de facto independence
By Anita Chang | The Washington Times
November 13, 2007
The Chinese government has created profiles on thousands of foreign journalists coming to report on next summer's Beijing Olympics and is gathering information on thousands more to put into a database, a top official said in comments published yesterday.
The profiles appeared to undermine promises made by Chinese leaders in 2001, when they were bidding for the games, that the event would lead to greater press freedoms.
The database with information on the 28,000 foreign journalists expected for the Olympics would be a reference for interview subjects, designed to protect them from being tricked or blackmailed by "fake reporters," Liu Binjie, minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), was quoted as saying in the state-run China Daily newspaper.
By Anita Chang | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | via CNEWS
November 10, 2007
Outraged Beijing Olympic organizers sought to refute allegations of religious intolerance Thursday, saying Bibles and other religious items for personal use are welcome at next year's Beijing Olympics.
That latitude, however, does not extend to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned eight years ago as an "evil cult" and persecuted mercilessly ever since.
Recent reports by a religious news agency and European media that Bibles would be banned at the Olympics touched off an outcry that prompted a U.S. senator to call the Chinese ambassador for an explanation and a Christian athletes group to protest the "deep violation."
Angry Beijing organizers flatly denied the reports, while the Foreign Ministry said they were likely the work of people who wanted to sabotage Beijing's hosting of the Games.
"There is no such thing. This kind of report is an intentional distortion of truth," said Li Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympics media centre. Li said texts and items from major religious groups that are brought for personal use by athletes and visitors are permitted.
A notice on the official Beijing Olympics website explaining entry procedures into the country said "each traveller is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China."
Religious services - Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist - will be available to athletes in the Olympic Village next summer, Li said.
However, those policies do not apply to Falun Gong, reasserting China's determination to marginalize, persecute and eradicate the spiritual movement.
Falun Gong was banned after members staged a massive peaceful protest in 1998 outside government headquarters to demand official recognition. The U.S. State Department says practitioners in China face arrest, detention and possible torture, while members overseas maintain a vigorous campaign of protest against China's government.
By Human Rights in China | 中国人权
October 29, 2007
Human Rights in China has learned that Shanghai petitioner and rights defender Mao Hengfeng was subject to another round of abuse at the Shanghai Women's Prison and at a hospital she was taken to earlier this month. Authorities prevented her husband, Wu Xuwei, from visiting her in prison until October 26. He now reports that Mao was beaten and force-fed in retaliation for publicizing mistreatment in July and August this year.
Mao Hengfeng told her husband that on September 13, at the instigation of prison authorities, a fellow inmate beat Mao in retaliation for revealing that she had been held in solitary confinement for 70 days. Mao was covered with bruises from the beating. She also reports being force-fed.
On September 24, prison authorities sent Mao to the Nanhui Prison Hospital. Mao had earlier refused to undergo a check-up because she feared being forcibly injected with drugs; this had been done during her incarceration at a psychiatric institution in the 1980s. At the hospital, Mao was stripped bare and tied to a bed such that she could only move her fingers. She was held this way until October 15, monitored by closed-circuit television, and force-fed by other inmates.
Her husband, Wu Xuwei, was finally able to visit Mao in prison on October 26. He alleges that his visit was delayed for 20 days because the authorities did not want him to see Mao's bruises evident from the September 13 beating. During his latest visit, Mao and her husband were supervised by prison guards, who stopped her from speaking several times when she attempted to go into details about being force-fed.
Dismissed from her soap factory job in 1988 when she refused to abort a second pregnancy, Mao Hengfeng has been petitioning this dismissal and subsequent abuses since 1989. As a result of these activities, she has been forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital three times, detained multiple times, and served a one-and-a-half year sentence of reeducation-through-labor (RTL). In early June 2006, officers from Shanghai's Yangpu District Daqiao public security station detained Mao in a guesthouse for violating residential surveillance rules. During her detention there, she broke two table lamps, and on January 12, 2007, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on the charge of "intentional damage of property." Mao has been subject to a range of abuses in prison, including an excessive 70-day period of solitary confinement in July and August this year which contravened article 15 of the Chinese Prison Law, stipulating a maximum of 15 days.
Human Rights in China condemns the abusive and humiliating treatment which Mao Hengfeng is being subjected to in prison. Human Rights in China is further concerned about reports that prison authorities instigated another inmate to beat, monitor, and force-feed Mao, violating international standards on the rights of prisoners. "Retaliation against inmates who expose abusive conditions is outrageous," said Human Rights in China Executive Director Sharon Hom. "These kinds of abuses in prison violate both domestic law and relevant international standards. Instead of retaliating against the whistle-blower, prison authorities should conduct a full investigation."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
November 01, 2007
China will not tolerate unauthorized parades, demonstrations or other gatherings during next year's Olympic Games, a police spokesman said Thursday in a warning to groups hoping to use the Games' visibility to publicize their causes.
''Any group or individual who stages a gathering, parade, or demonstration during the Beijing Olympic Games period must respect Chinese law,'' Public Security Ministry press officer Wu Heping said. ''As to those legal activities, police will protect them according to the law. As for those activities that are illegal, we police will handle them according to the law.''
Chinese law technically permits protests and other similar actions, but they require applications that are almost never approved. Those who dare even make such requests can be subject to surveillance, harassment or arrest, especially if the cause involved is seen to challenge Communist Party authority.
By Oliver August | WIRED Magazine
October 2007
I didn't know I was a surveillance target until the day I walked into a hotel in China's Fujian province. I was pushing past half a dozen workmen changing lightbulbs in the glum but busy lobby when a uniformed man stepped in front of me. Blue jacket, creased trousers, braided epaulets, peaked cap: government security officer. Politely, he asked whether I would mind answering a few questions. He stood erect, with the manicured swagger of a corporate CEO. Next to him, a gangly plainclothes colleague gave me a so-you-thought-we-wouldn't-catch-you look.
How had they known I would be here? The only people who had my itinerary were my editors in London. A few days earlier, I had sent them an email outlining my trip, and I'd been updating them daily by phone. I could only assume that the authorities had been monitoring my email and calls. I had been chasing down leads on the whereabouts of Lai Changxing, China's most-wanted man. Lai had cheated the government out of $3.6 billion by smuggling oil, cars, and cigarettes. Embarrassed, Beijing wanted to hinder any reporting of his case.
The two officers in the hotel demanded to see my passport and asked what I knew about Lai. Then they withdrew to a corner of the lobby to confer. Eventually, they took me to a police car, drove me to the airport, and put me on a plane to Beijing.
It was, in short, impressive evidence of the government's ability to monitor and control electronic communication. And my experience only hinted at the Chinese government's appetite for control. Beijing has recently added a new weapon to its arsenal of surveillance technologies, a system it believes to be a modern marvel: the Golden Shield. It took eight years and $700 million to build, and its mission is to "purify" the Internet -- an apparently urgent task. "Whether we can cope with the Internet is a matter that affects the development of socialist culture, the security of information, and the stability of the state," President Hu Jintao said in January.
The Golden Shield -- the latest addition to what is widely referred to as the Great Firewall of China -- was supposed to monitor, filter, and block sensitive online content. But only a year after completion, it already looks doomed to fail. True, surveillance remains widespread, and outspoken dissidents are punished harshly. But my experience as a correspondent in China for seven years suggests that the country's stranglehold on the communications of its citizens is slipping: Bloggers and other Web sources are rapidly supplanting Communist-controlled news outlets. Cyberprotests have managed to bring about an important constitutional change. And ordinary Chinese citizens can circumvent the Great Firewall and evade other forms of police observation with surprising ease. If they know how.
Like its namesake, the Great Firewall consists of hundreds of individual fortifications spread out along a vulnerable frontier. At its core is a giant bank of computers and servers. Traffic generated by China's 162 million Internet users is routed through the shield, which checks all requested URLs against a blacklist of tens of thousands of Internet addresses. The list includes pages offering political information deemed dangerous by the government, like BBC News and Voice of America. Access to these sites is blocked (at least in theory), and when users attempt to view one of them, they are punished with an involuntary time-out lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Search engines are similarly restricted. If you enter the characters for "democracy" or "Tiananmen Square massacre" into Google.cn you will generally get zero results. This is a technological breakthrough for the Chinese government. Until recently, it could not interfere with the inner workings of search engines and instead blocked entire sites, not just individual pages of a site.
The Golden Shield hardware -- supplied by Cisco and other US companies -- is supplemented by human censors who are paid about $170 a month. They sit at screens in warehouse-like buildings run by the Public Security Bureau. These foot soldiers in China's information war monitor domestic news sites, erasing and editing politically sensitive stories. Some sites provide the censors with access so the authorities can alter content directly. Others get an email or a call when changes are required. Similar methods are applied to blogs. Sensitive entries are erased, and in the most egregious cases blogs are shut down altogether.
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