News: July 2008 Archives

By Charles Whelan | Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
July 31, 2008

A defiant China stood firm on controversies swirling around the Olympics on Thursday, hitting back at the United States over human rights criticism and insisting Internet censorship would remain.

China's communist rulers responded sternly to critics following a storm of bad publicity this week surrounding their decision to renege on a pledge of allowing unfettered Internet access to foreign reporters covering the Games.

The decision highlighted long-standing concerns over the Chinese government's attitude towards human rights, and led the White House to intervene by saying China had "nothing to fear" from the Internet.

The Chinese foreign ministry reacted by criticising a meeting US President George W. Bush had with leading Chinese dissidents and describing some US lawmakers who spoke out on China's human rights record as "odious".

"We express strong discontent and firm opposition to this," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said about Bush's meeting on Tuesday with the dissidents.

"The US side has rudely interfered in China's internal affairs and sent a seriously wrong message to hostile anti-China forces," he said in a statement on the ministry's website.

Liu also hit out at a resolution by the US Congress that urged Beijing to improve on human rights and stop repression of ethnic minorities.

Liu said the resolution passed Wednesday was an attempt to politicise the Olympics and urged Washington to curb the "odious conduct" of anti-Chinese legislators.

Meanwhile, Olympic organisers said they would not back down on Internet censorship, saying banned sites were in breach of Chinese laws.

>> Read complete report

By Karl Malakunas | Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
July 30, 2008

China plunged into another Olympic controversy on Wednesday as it announced that the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games would have to endure Internet censorship.

The backflip on allowing unfettered web access was met with apparent surprise and disappointment from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had previously hailed the supposed media freedoms the Games had brought to China.

"During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said.

However "sufficient access" falls short of the complete Internet freedoms for foreign reporters that China's communist authorities had promised in the run-up to the Games, which begin on August 8.

Sun specified sites linked to the Falungong spiritual movement, which is outlawed in China, as ones that would remain censored for the foreign press at Olympic venues.

He did not identify any others but reporters trying to surf the Internet at the main press centre for the Games on Wednesday found a wide array of sites deemed sensitive by China's rulers to be out-of-bounds.

These included sites belonging to Tibet 's government-in-exile and Amnesty International, as well as those that had information on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in which the military used deadly force to crush democracy protests.

The head of the IOC's press commission, Kevan Gosper, told AFP he would take the matter up with Chinese officials.

"I will speak with the Chinese authorities to advise them of the restraints and to see what their reaction is," he said.

Australian Olympic team chief John Coates, who is also an IOC member, expressed frustration with China's Internet about-face, pointing out that the Chinese authorities had gone back on one of their "key" Olympic promises.

"It certainly is disappointing... I think it's a matter that the IOC will take seriously," Coates told reporters.

In an exclusive interview with AFP two weeks ago, IOC president Jacques Rogge insisted there would be no censorship of the Internet.

"For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China," he said.

"There will be no censorship on the Internet."

>> Read complete news

By JERÉ LONGMAN and JULIET MACUR | The New York Times
July 27, 2008

China named its Olympic women's gymnastics team on Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using under-age competitors.

Chinese officials responded immediately, providing The New York Times with copies of passports indicating that both athletes in question -- He Kexin, a gold-medal favorite in the uneven parallel bars, and Jiang Yuyuan -- are 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility since 1997.

Officials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about He's age had been raised by Chinese news media reports, USA Gymnastics and fans of the sport, but that Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that He is 16.

Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He and Jiang may be as young as 14 -- two years below the Olympic limit.

Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic all-around gymnastics champion at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, recently watched a competition video of He and other Chinese gymnasts on the uneven bars.

"The girls are so little, so young," Retton said. Speaking of He, Retton rolled her eyes and laughed, saying, "They said she was 16, but I don't know."

An advantage for younger gymnasts is that they are lighter and, often, more fearless when they perform difficult maneuvers, said Nellie Kim, a five-time Olympic gold medalist for the former Soviet Union who is now the president of the women's technical committee for the Swiss-based International Gymnastics Federation.

"It's easier to do tricks," Kim said. "And psychologically, I think they worry less."

The women's gymnastics competition at the Beijing Games, which begin Aug. 8, is expected to be a dramatic battle for the team gold medal between the United States and China. At the 2007 world championships, the Americans prevailed by 95-hundredths of a point.

On the uneven bars, He and Nastia Liukin of the United States are expected to challenge for the individual gold medal.

In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games.

The Times found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts -- now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache -- shows He's age as "1994.1.1."

Another registration list that is unblocked, dated Jan. 27, 2006, and regarding an "intercity" competition in Chengdu, China, also lists He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994. That date differs by two years from the birth date of Jan. 1, 1992, listed on He's passport, which was issued Feb. 14, 2008.

>> Read complete report

By Anita Chang | Associated Press - via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
July 25, 2008

An aggressive tabloid newspaper has had its Web site censored and could face further punishment by China's media authorities for running a photograph from the still-taboo 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement.

Editors at the Beijing News declined comment Friday about the photo published Thursday: a black-and-white image showing wounded young men in bloodstained shirts on the back of a three-wheeled cart. Captioned "The Wounded," the photo was one of four that accompanied a profile of Liu Heung Shing, a former photographer for The Associated Press and Time.

Within hours of Thursday's publication, the photos and article were removed from the newspaper's Web site. Authorities also ordered issues of Thursday's newspaper recalled from newsstands, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported Friday.

Phones at the information office of the Beijing city government rang unanswered, while the General Administration of Press and Publication did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Beijing News was available as usual at newsstands on Friday.

The incident shows the enduring sensitivity of the protests and their bloody suppression, even nearly two decades later. The protests and crackdown are only obliquely referred to, if ever, by state-run media. The ruling Communist Party has refused to disclose the number of people killed or allow a public investigation into events from the night of June 3-4, 1989.

Neither the photo, which ran on page C15 and which Liu took while working for the AP, nor the article mentioned the protests. The three other photos showed a man roller-skating by a Mao Zedong statue, young men wearing sunglasses and a couple chatting along a brick wall. They were part of a regular feature on China's changes since it began economic reforms 30 years ago.

The image of the wounded, however, is instantly recognizable to Chinese who remember the events of 1989.

Li Datong, a veteran state newspaper journalist who was forced from a top editing job for reporting on sensitive subjects, said the photograph was likely put in the paper by a young editor who was unaware of its background.

>> Continue reading

By Michael Bristow | BBC World News
July 16, 2008

A Beijing family are refusing to move from their city centre home, despite a court order threatening to throw them out.

Family members say they are not being offered enough compensation for the home they bought 60 years ago.

Their campaign is attracting large crowds, who gather at the tumble-down shack in the heart of historic Beijing. It could pose a problem for officials, who want to avoid embarrassing incidents ahead of the Olympic Games.

Yu Pingju, one of 14 family members who live in the house, said it was bought before the Communists took power in China in 1949.

Until recently, it was also the family's workplace; they sold roast chestnuts, peanuts and other snacks from the roadside home.

But then they were told to move as part of a plan to tidy up the neighbourhood, which is near many of the city's main tourist attractions.

All other residents appear to have moved on, allowing the area to be spruced up. But the Yus refused to accept the 340,000 yuan ($49,900, £24,800) compensation.

"In Beijing you can't even buy something the size of a toilet for that," said 40-year-old Ms Yu, as she stood with her arms folded outside her home.

Officials who administer the district have obtained a court order, which says the family had to move out by 13 July. But they are still there.

"I'm not going - I've got nowhere to go to. We are going to defend our house with our lives," said Ms Yu.

'No say'

The Yus' Beijing home is one of many "nail houses" that have sprung up over China, particularly since the introduction of a property law last year.

These are homes whose owners have refused to leave to make way for redevelopment.

As part of their campaign, the family have plastered their shack with flags and slogans. One says simply: "This is my home."

They have also put up posters of Chinese leaders because they believe they could help them resolve the issue.

"If they knew about this problem, they would look after us. They would care and sympathise with us," said Ms Yu.

The colourful home has now become something of an attraction, grabbing the attention of passers-by and those who live in the district.

One local said: "In Beijing, house demolition often ends up with forced eviction. Ordinary people don't have a say."

This poses a problem for Beijing officials, who will want to resolve the issue without being too heavy-handed.

By Sylvia Westall - REUTERS | International Herald Tribune
July 14, 2008

GIENGEN AN DER BRENZ, Germany: Wafts of golden fluff whirl in the air as Irene Basan wedges a bundle of material onto a spike and gently turns it inside out, right ear, left ear, then a snout, to reveal a Steiff teddy bear head.

She has been making Steiff toys by hand for 18 years in Giengen, the tiny south German town where the maker of collectible teddy bears - some worth hundreds of thousands of euros - was founded over 125 years ago.

Chasing lower costs, Steiff outsourced around a fifth of its production to China in 2003 but has now decided to come back because of concerns about quality and staff turnover.

Steiff is one of a small number of German companies that are swimming against the tide and leaving China, despite its lower labor costs and a burgeoning consumer population. With fuel prices at record highs, some cite mounting transport costs.

Production of Steiff toys, which include a distinctive long-limbed bear with a melancholy growl, will come back to Germany and other countries in Europe by the end of 2009.

"A Steiff animal has to look cute, it has to look at you and say, 'Take me in your arms and hug me, I'm here for you, I'm your friend,"' the managing director of Steiff, Martin Frechen, said. "If the symmetry is off and if it looks like it's been run over by a car, it's not what we want. People don't pay for that."

Consisting of around 35 parts and with an average price of Euro 40 to Euro 70, or about $60 to $110, the toys take up to a year to learn to make, and around 80 percent of the work is done by hand.

But with twisted legs, bald patches and open seams, a "cumbersome" number of the Steiff toys made in China had to be rejected, Frechen said, because high staff turnover in a fast-growing economy meant workers did not have long enough to train.

"We don't really fit in over there," he said, pointing out that Steiff's typical orders of around 500 lots were also too small to reap good cost savings in factories more accustomed to mass production.

>> Read complete report

By AsiaNews.it
July 14, 2008

An investigation by the BBC provides, for the first time, proof of Chinese jets and heavy weaponry used against civilians, sold in spite of the embargo. Beijing is not responding, while the UN is asking to examine the evidence.

China is selling arms to Sudan and training its pilots to fly the Chinese Fantan A5 jet, in violation of the United Nations embargo. The accusation is made by the authoritative British Broadcasting Corporation, at the conclusion of an investigation.

The government of Sudan has for some time been accused of using airplanes to strike civilians, but it was never possible to prove what kind of jet was being used. Now satellite photos show Chinese Fantan jets leaving the airport of Nyala in February and June, in southern Darfur, and the BBC says that these are the only jets on the base. It reports testimonies of air raids against civilian targets, with many victims.

The news agency says that two tanks with anti-aircraft weapons have also been filmed in the area, believed to be part of a group of 212 military vehicles that in 2005 the UN "suspected" China of sending to Khartoum, without being able to find proof. Eyewitnesses have reported that these vehicles were used in December in the attack on the city of Sirba, in western Darfur, to strike residences. They launch missiles that explode on impact, scattering deadly shrapnel.

There is no comment from the Chinese government, while the UN intends to examine the evidence from the BBC. The embargo is intended to prevent genocide in Darfur, where it is estimated that 300,000 have already been killed and two million displaced. Beijing has been repeatedly accused of violating the embargo, and has defended itself by first denying any arms sales, and then saying that in any case its weapons are not used in Darfur.

Experts observe that the worldwide boycott against Sudan over Darfur has allowed China to become a privileged commercial partner, obtaining oil and raw materials in exchange. For some time, international public opinion has accused China of fostering government genocide, and in recent years it has even been proposed that the Olympics should be boycotted if Beijing does not make a serious effort to exact peace from Khartoum. Beijing responds that it is promoting economic development in the country, which helps the population.

卫星照片和证人表示北京不顾禁运向苏丹出售武器

英国广播公司BBC首次发表证据显示，尽管联合国对苏丹政府施行禁运，但达尔富尔地区针对平民屠杀中使用中国产重武器。北京不作回应，联合国要求对证据进行调查

--尽管联合国对苏丹实行禁运，但中国向苏丹出售武器、帮助喀土穆训练驾驶中国制造A5攻击机的飞行员。日前，权威的英国广播公司BBC在一项调查后发表报告，提出上述指控。

       长期以来，苏丹政府被控利用飞机空袭平民。但是，却从未查证出采用什么型号的攻击机。现在，卫星照片显示，中国制造A5攻击机于今年二月和六月从达尔富尔南部的恩亚拉机场起飞。BBC表示，准备作证表明向平民发动空袭造成多人死亡。

英国通讯社还指出，在当地拍摄到了两辆军用卡车。据悉，是二OO五年联合国"怀疑"中国送给喀土穆的212辆军事车辆之一，但苦于没有证据。证人还表示，上述军备物资于去年十二月用在了打击达尔富尔地区西部西尔巴市军事行动中。

中国政府未对此作出任何评论。联合国表示会检验BBC提供的证据。禁运旨在防止达尔富尔的种族屠杀。据统计，当地已造成三十多万人死亡、两百万人流离失所。北京多次被指控违法禁运。对此，中国政府历来言词驳斥，否认出售武器。然后，又表示，总之上述武器并没有用在达尔富尔地区。

专家指出，世界性抵制苏丹，使中国得以成为喀土穆最主要的贸易伙伴，并首先赢得了石油和原材料。长期以来，国际舆论指责中国支持苏丹政府的种族屠杀。甚至在近几个月以来发出威胁，声称如北京不采取行动推动达尔富尔和平，将通过种种手段阻挠北京奥运会。北京的回应是，支持苏丹造福于民的经济发展。

>> Original source

thisislondon.co.uk from the Evening Standard
July 13, 2008

Military equipment and weapons made in China are being used against civilians in Darfur in violation of a United Nations arms embargo in the troubled region of Sudan.

One Chinese-built army truck is understood to have taken part in an attack on a village. And Chinese-built and maintained fighter jets are also being used to bomb and strafe civilians, it is claimed.

The findings, in a Panorama documentary to be shown tomorrow, come just four weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics and amid intense international pressure over China's close economic, diplomatic and military ties with oil-rich Sudan, as well as its human rights record in Tibet.

Film director Steven Spielberg resigned as an artistic adviser to the Games in February over Beijing's support of the Sudanese government. And actress Mia Farrow, a UN goodwill ambassador, has also sought to draw attention to the two countries' relationship, calling the Games the 'Genocide Olympics'.

>> Continue reading

By Hilary Andersson reporting from Darfur | BBC News
July 13, 2008

The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan's government militarily in Darfur.

The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005.

The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.

China's government has declined to comment on the BBC's findings, which contravene a UN arms embargo on Darfur.

The embargo requires foreign nations to take measures to ensure they do not militarily assist anyone in the conflict in Darfur, in which the UN estimates that about 300,000 people have died.

More than two million people are also believed to have fled their villages in Darfur, destroyed by pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia.

Panorama traced the first lorry by travelling deep into the remote deserts of West Darfur.

They found a Chinese Dong Feng army lorry in the hands of one of Darfur's rebel groups.

The BBC established through independent eyewitness testimony that the rebels had captured it from Sudanese government forces in December.

The rebels filmed a second lorry with the BBC's camera. Both vehicles had been carrying anti-aircraft guns, one a Chinese gun.

Markings showed that they were from a batch of 212 Dong Feng army lorries that the UN had traced as having arrived in Sudan after the arms embargo was put in place.

The lorries came straight from the factory in China to Sudan and were consigned to Sudan's defence ministry. The guns were mounted after the lorries were imported from China.

The UN started looking for these lorries in Darfur three years ago, suspecting they had been sent there, but never found them.

"We had no specific access to Sudanese government army stores, we were not allowed to take down factory codes or model numbers or registrations etc to verify these kinds of things," said EJ Hogendoorn, a member of the UN panel of experts that was involved in trying to locate the lorries.

Culpability

China has chosen not to respond to the BBC's findings. Its public position is that it abides by all UN arms embargoes.

China has said in the past that it told Sudan's government not to use Chinese military equipment in Darfur.

Sudan's government, however, has told the UN that it will send military equipment wherever it likes within its sovereign territory.

An international lawyer, Clare da Silva, says China's point that it has taken measures in line with the arms embargo's requirements to stop its weapons from going to Darfur is meaningless.

"It is an empty measure to take the assurances from a partner who clearly has no intention of abiding by the resolution," she said.

Ms da Silva said the BBC's evidence put China in violation of the arms embargo.

The UN panel of experts on Darfur has said it wants to examine the BBC's evidence.

Homes scorched

The BBC found witnesses who said they saw the first Dong Feng which the BBC tracked down being used with its anti-aircraft gun in an attack in a town called Sirba, in West Darfur, in December.

"When it is shooting or firing there is nowhere for you to move and the sound is just like the sound of the rain. Then 'Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!'" said Hamaad Abakar Adballa, a witness in the Chadian refugee town of Birak.

The lorry's powerful anti-aircraft gun fired straight into civilian houses. The gun carries high calibre shells that explode on impact, spreading hot shards of metal and causing terrible wounds

Witnesses saw one hut take a direct hit from the gun:

"An intense wave of heat instantly sent all the huts around up in flames," one witness, Risique Bahar, said. "There was a lot of screaming."

In the attack on Sirba one woman was burnt to death, another horribly injured.

Genocide accusation

Sudan's government has been accused by the United States of genocide against Darfur's black Africans.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) say war crimes by Sudan's Arab-dominated government have included summary executions, rape and torture.

Recently the conflict has deteriorated into more confused fighting, with rebel and militia groups also fighting each other. Two hundred thousand people have been displaced already this year.

Malnutrition rates are set to soar in South Darfur later this year due to insecurity and drought.

Darfur's landscape is spotted with blackened circles representing the hundreds of the villages that were burnt down by government forces and their Janjaweed allies.

Air attacks

In these attacks Darfur's civilians have been hunted not just from the ground, but from the sky.

Most civilians who tell stories of aerial attacks talk about Russian made Antanovs and helicopter gunships.

Many also talk about fighter jets being used, but no-one has ever answered the question of which type of fighter jets these are.

Kaltam Abakar Mohammed, a mother of seven, watched three of her children being blown to pieces as they were attacked by a fighter jet on 19 February in the town of Beybey in Darfur.

The BBC has established that Chinese Fantan fighter jets were flying on missions out of Nyala airport in south Darfur in February.

Panorama acquired satellite photographs of the two fighters at the airport on 18 June 2008, and its investigations indicate these are the only fighter jets that have been based in Darfur this year.

When Kaltam heard the sound of fighting early that morning, she took her children and ran.

"We start running near the well," she said. "We hid behind a big rock. Something that looks like an eagle started coming from over there. It looked like an eagle but it made a funny noise."

When the plane unleashed two bombs Kaltam's five-year-old daughter, Nura, was dismembered from the chest up.

Her eight-year-old son, Adam, was killed instantly, as was her 20-year-old daughter, Amna.

Kaltam's 19-month-old grandson still has shrapnel in his head from the fighter jet bombing. He cries a lot and often calls out for his mother, but she was killed in the attack.

Kaltam's 13-year-old girl, Hawa, cannot grasp what she saw happen that day to her brother and two sisters. She rarely speaks now.

Pilot training

The Chinese Fantan jets are believed to have been delivered to Sudan in 2003 before the current UN arms embargo was imposed on Darfur.

But the BBC has been told by two confidential sources that China is training Fantan fighter pilots.

Sudan imported a number of fighter trainers called K8s two years ago - they are designed to train pilots of fighters like Fantans.

"Clearly this is what they used to train for operations with the Fantans," said Chris Dietrich, a former member of the UN panel on Darfur.

International lawyer Ms da Silva says if China is training Fantan pilots, this represents another Chinese violation of the UN arms embargo.

"The terms of the embargo cover not only just the supply of weapons, military vehicles, paramilitary equipment. It also covers training any technical assistance, so the training of pilots obviously falls within the scope of the embargo."

There are strong economic ties between the China and Sudan.

China buys most of Sudan's oil and believes that what Sudan needs is good business partners, help with development and a solid peace process in Darfur, instead of confrontation and sanctions from the West.

So when China's President Hu Jintao visited Sudan in 2007 he wrote off millions of dollars worth of debt and donated a multi-million pound interest free loan for a new presidential palace to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

In April last year, China's military leaders pledged to strengthen co-operation with Sudan.

Panorama: China's Secret War will be on BBC One at 2030 BST on Monday 14 July 2008.

>> See images and full article

By Peter Enav - Associated Press Write | The Charleston Gazette
July 12, 2008

TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- A senior Taiwan official has rejected China's attempts to change the name under which the island will compete in next month's Olympics, striking a discordant note to the two sides' recently improved relations.

Vice Chairman Liu Te-shun of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei on Thursday said "Zhongguo Taipei'' -- a name in the Chinese language that strongly suggests that Taiwan is part of China -- "is not acceptable to us.''

A month from the Aug. 8 Olympic opening ceremonies, spokesman Yang Yi of China's Taiwan Affairs Office said that "Zhongguo Taipei'' is just as valid as an Olympic designator as the previously used "Zhonghua Taipei.''

"Zhongguo Taipei'' means "Taipei China'' and uses "Zhongguo,'' the name China calls itself, implying Taipei is a part of China. "Zhonghua Taipei'' uses "Zhonghua'' -- a more ambiguous word that applies to a deliberately undefined Chinese nation.

The dispute -- arcane to many outsiders -- goes right to the heart of the battle over Taiwan's identity, which has been fought over by the sides since they split amid civil war in 1949. It also casts a shadow over recently improved economic ties, in the form of the first direct flights between the old foes in nearly six decades.

China continues to claim Taiwan as part of its territory and says it will attack if the island moves to permanently break from the mainland.

>> Continue reading

By Jill Drew | The Washington Post
July 10, 2008

A British citizen of Tibetan descent was expelled from China this week as police clear the capital of anyone they believe might draw attention to political tensions during the Olympic Games next month.

Dechen Pemba, 30, who had lived in Beijing since September 2006 studying Mandarin and teaching English, held a work visa valid until November 2008. But on Tuesday morning, seven or eight police officers confronted her as she left her apartment. They forced her back inside, told her to pack a bag and, after searching its contents, escorted her to the airport.

Police also seized her bank account book and demanded her PIN number. They confiscated her cellphone, returning it once she had boarded the flight to London.

"Everyone living in Beijing has noticed the security crackdown, but it sends a worrying signal that they would do this to someone," Pemba said in a phone interview from London. "I think about my Tibetan friends, who don't have the protection of a British passport."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Pemba was not deported because of the Olympics, but because she was involved in "separatist activities" and had admitted breaking Chinese law. He did not specify which law.

Pemba denied the charges. "I am completely shocked at these baseless, fabricated allegations," she said.

>> Continue reading

By Chua Chin Hon | The Straits Times - via MySinchew.com
July 10, 2008

French President Nicolas Sarkozy touched off a storm of online disapproval in China Wednesday (9 July) with his decision to attend the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony - adding to a long list of political sensitivities that Beijing must manage next month.

Sarkozy had earlier threatened to boycott the event to protest against China's handling of the Tibet issue, and more recently tied his attendance to potential progress in talks between Tibetan and Chinese envoys.

This raised the ire of China's vocal online community, with tens of thousands of netizens posting messages yesterday saying that the French leader was not welcome in Beijing.

"Who gives a damn (about his visit)?" said one of the 59,000 postings logged by Sina.com. "Even if he visits Beijing, the Chinese people will not welcome him."

Sarkozy's decision found no favour back home either, with the Paris-based rights group Reporters Without Borders slamming him for "betraying himself and Chinese dissidents".

Adding fuel to the fire yesterday, European Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering announced that he would boycott the opening ceremony due to the lack of progress in the Tibet talks, while Parliament also criticised Mr Sarkozy's decision.

The latest development could reignite the anti-French and anti-Western sentiment that swept the mainland earlier this year after the Olympic torch relay was badly disrupted in cities like London and Paris.

But it is by no means the only political juggling act Beijing has to manage next month.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, for instance, is planning to fly into Beijing on a Japanese military plane, a move which could raise a nationalistic backlash on the mainland.

Meanwhile, widely rumoured but unconfirmed reports that secretive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may make an appearance have also raised questions about how he might be managed before the glare of international media.

China's rights record is another source of unease between Beijing and some Western countries.

But no one appears to have raised the hackles of the Chinese public as much as Sarkozy, if the 70,000-plus postings on popular news portals like Sina.com and Sohu.com yesterday were anything to go by.

While a minority said China should be magnanimous and "forgive" Sarkozy for his boycott threat, the overwhelming majority left scathing messages saying he should stay away.

Even Chinese President Hu Jintao appeared to have reacted coolly to Sarkozy's decision, which was announced when they met on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Japan.

An account of the meeting by China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as telling his French counterpart that his decision to attend the ceremony was a "correct one" and that he hoped French athletes would do well in the competition.

But tellingly, the Xinhua report made no mention of Hu welcoming Mr Sarkozy to Beijing, as is customary in such exchanges.

Beijing's frostiness was further hinted at in a subsequent Xinhua report which quoted Hu as welcoming US President George W. Bush to the opening ceremony, and thanking him for not politicising the Games.

In the short term, the signs indicate that the frayed Sino- French ties will remain tense. Sarkozy left open the possibility of meeting the Dalai Lama when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visits France next month.

China has warned, via its ambassador to France, that there will be "serious consequences" for bilateral relations if the meeting goes ahead.

In an apparent tit-for-tat, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called in Chinese envoy Kong Quan over those comments.

He was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying he wanted Kong "to explain his position, which appears to be difficult for France to accept".

By Robin Shulman | The Washington Post
08 July 2008

Marking the one-month countdown to the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, activists gathered here and in cities around the world Tuesday to call on China to ease crackdowns on dissenters and release political prisoners.

A coalition of advocates met at City Hall in Lower Manhattan to announce the launch of a 24-hour appeal for China to release prisoners -- including journalists, bloggers and artists -- before the Olympics opening ceremony on Aug. 8. "It would show goodwill toward keeping promises they made in 2001 to the International Olympic Committee that they have not yet kept," said Lucie Morillon, Washington director of Reporters Without Borders, which helped organize the appeal.

Campaigns also were launched in Melbourne, Australia; Toronto and Vancouver, Canada; Hong Kong; Berlin; and other cities.

The protesters included Chinese democracy activists who are working with Tibetan independence advocates as well as campaigners pressing China to influence its ally Sudan to stop the killings in Darfur. They were joined by advocates for journalists and artists.

The Chinese government had been counting on the Olympics to provide an international showcase for the country's economic growth and development. But the Games have also focused attention on China's poor human rights record.

Activists report that in recent months, the Chinese government has expanded its controls: Foreign reporters have had difficulty getting visas, police have briefly detained dissidents during pre-Olympic sweeps, and police have warned activists who live outside the capital against traveling to Beijing.

"There are two Chinas in China," said Yang Jianli, who spent five years in prison after he attempted to address a workers' rally. "One, the Chinese government wants to showcase to outsiders. Another, the government does not want other people to see. Since my release last year, I cannot forget the political prisoners I left behind."

Global concern has grown since Chinese security forces cracked down harshly on protesters in Tibet in March.

Some world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, have said they will not attend the Games' opening ceremony. President Bush reiterated Sunday at the Group of Eight summit in Japan that he plans to attend.

"I feel so sad that most of the political leaders -- they are going to go to the opening ceremony of the Games with Chinese Communist Party leaders," said Baiqiao Tang, speaking Tuesday at City Hall in Manhattan. He said he had protested in 1989 at Beijing's Tiananmen Square and was imprisoned afterward.

Activists have called for demonstrations outside Chinese embassies during the Olympics opening, and Reporters Without Borders is staging a cyber-demonstration on its Web site.

By Aileen McCabe | canada.com - where perspectives connect
July 06, 2008

With just one month to go before the opening ceremony, it is increasingly obvious worldwide efforts to use the Beijing Olympics to hold China's feet to the fire on human rights have floundered.

A 71-page report outlining violations of press freedom in China released Monday by Human Rights Watch is the latest indication that hosting the Games was not enough of a lever to convince the Beijing government to improve its sad rights record.

Proponents and critics of the Beijing Games agreed on one thing - that fewer restrictions for international media and scrutiny of China at this time would constitute progress, Sophie Richardson, HRW's Asia advocacy director said.

Yet the Chinese government, with the help of the International Olympic Committee, has done its best to impede progress. Talk of an Olympic boycott to pressure Beijing on rights never gathered wide support, but it fizzled totally last week when U.S. President George W. Bush said he would attend the opening ceremony on Aug. 8.

Following his announcement, French media reported President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has hemmed-and-hawed about boycotting, would also attend. Sarkozy's office did not deny the story and a disappointed Robert Menard, head of Reporters Without Borders, said in a television interview on the weekend: "This is a stab in the back of Chinese dissidents. This is truly cowardly and is the opposite of what one expects from France."

Hordes of world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are not going to the opening ceremony. But like Harper, most have taken some pains to make it clear their absence is not a boycott.

Over the past year, Beijing has made a few concessions to human rights concerns, almost certainly because it is hosting the Olympics.

When Hollywood director Steven Spielberg withdrew as a consultant to the opening ceremony to protest China's involvement in Darfur, China made some effort to bolster international attempts to rein in the rogue government.

And, this spring, after protests over the crackdown in Tibet reached a crescendo worldwide that threatened to affect the Games, China re-opened talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

But, as in the case of media freedom, which was the sole "rights" guarantee China actually gave the International Olympics Committee (IOC) when it was awarded the Games, progress on those files is spotty, at best.

The HRW report documents dozens of cases where the Chinese have harassed, intimidated and impeded foreign journalists in direct violation of its promise to allow free access nationwide to foreign reporters in the run-up to the Games.

The most egregious example is the closure of Tibet to foreign journalists following the violent protests in March, but HRW cites case after case where reporters working on environmental, health or industrial stories were also hassled, roughed-up or detained by security officials. It lists incidents where they were simply talking to disgruntled citizens and their notes or pictures were confiscated and their sources intimidated. In many, if not all of these cases, the reporters appealed to Beijing to live up to the guarantees it gave the IOC, but they were ignored.

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By James Pomfret | REUTERS | via yahoo!news UK&Ireland
July 07, 2008

A month before the Olympics, China continues to severely breach its pledge to allow full media freedoms, harassing and restricting foreign journalists in Tibet and elsewhere, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on Monday.

"Correspondents face severe difficulties in accessing forbidden zones, geographical areas and topics which the Chinese government considers sensitive and thus off-limits to foreign media," said the HRW report, entitled "China's Forbidden Zones: Shutting out of Tibet and other sensitive stories".

As part of Beijing's bid to host the Games it promised temporary regulations to allow complete media freedoms.

Around 25,000 foreign journalists are expected to cover the Beijing Games. The main press centre for the August 8-24 Games will be opened on Tuesday.

In addition to citing extensive examples of Chinese media abuses and restrictions including a media ban during the Tibet riots in March, the global rights group also criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for not doing more to ensure China lived up to its media and human rights pledges.

"The Chinese government, with the help of the International Olympic Committee, has done its best to impede progress," Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director at HRW, said in a statement.

"(The IOC) has said it prefers quiet diplomacy and in general we don't have a problem with quiet diplomacy ... the problem is when it's so quiet as to be utterly inaudible," Richardson added at a media briefing in Hong Kong.

HRW urged the IOC to establish a 24-hour hotline in Beijing for reporters during the Games to report media violations and to "publicly press the Chinese government to uphold" its temporary media freedom pledge until it expires in October.

The group urged Western leaders to speak out against abuses now, while they still had some leverage before the Games.

"I think if there isn't more pressure now, it's going to be very difficult to make any significant changes from the outside directed inward after the Games," Richardson said.

DOMESTIC CURBS

While the reporting encironment has improved for foreign journalists, the country has not relaxed its grip over domestic reporters.

PEN, an association founded to defend freedom of expression, said Sun Lin, a reporter in Nanjing in eastern China for U.S.-based news portal Boxun, was sentenced to four years in prison on June 27 for disturbing social order and illegal possession of firearms.

Authorities also detained or harassed several Chinese dissidents and rights activists to prevent them from meeting U.S. lawmakers visiting China in late June, PEN said in a statement.

The HRW report also documented intimidation of foreign reporters including death threats, the silencing of their Chinese sources as well as beatings of those pursuing sensitive stories.

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By April Rabkin | The New York Times
July 02, 2008

Last week, amid continuing calls from activists in Europe and the United States to boycott the Olympics to protest China's record on human rights, came a rare rebuke from the International Olympic Committee. The committee expressed disappointment with a speech in which Tibet's Communist Party leader used the occasion of an Olympic torch ceremony to denounce the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

What the committee and the rest of the world don't realize is how little China cares what they think. Here in Beijing, the Olympic Games are primarily for domestic consumption, justifying the government's new global power to its own people.

My neighbor's 12-year-old son has seen half a dozen movies starring the five balloon-headed Olympic mascots: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. He has been reminded of the Olympics every day at school and on the street by billboards depicting the masses as a gray ocean converging like a wave to lift up a red-uniformed basketball player making a layup. He listens to Olympic tunes -- one of which sounds like a drill sergeant singing along to carousel music.

For millenniums, Chinese dynasties have claimed the "mandate of heaven" to justify their existence. On this score, there hasn't really been any great leap forward. Inept dynasties augur instability and are overthrown. China still has no democracy and no real sense of political stability. Rulers fear revolution, and just as strongly, so do the people. And nationalism is the dominant strategy for preventing it. With a well-run Olympics, the Chinese Communist Party can prove its legitimacy and its continued mandate.

By September, it is conceivable that China's global standing could plummet while China's citizens see the Olympics as an astounding success. Despite the Internet and the lifting of some restrictions on journalism, there's still an ocean-wide gap between the international and domestic news media. During the torch relay in Paris this spring, for instance, Chinese TV viewers saw mainly the heroic efforts of the wheelchair-bound amputee who used her upper body to shield the flame from a lunging protester and not the mass of pro-Tibet demonstrators.

In junior high and high school here, two semesters of history instruction focus on the humiliation of China by Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States during the last centuries. International criticism is described as a continuation of this legacy, and for other countries to condemn the regime is to disparage the Chinese people. Foreign criticism strengthens domestic loyalty to the regime, so the threat of a boycott of the Olympics in August only bolsters nationalism.

In March, an exhibition baseball game in Beijing between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres provided a sneak preview of what to expect at the Olympics. A 16-foot sign at the stadium listed 100 banned items, including, oddly, brooms. The singing of the United States national anthem was forbidden. The police seized and interrogated a Korean fan of the Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park for holding a sign reading "Park is No. 1." While foreign spectators were taken aback by the security measures, the Chinese were impressed that the teams were there at all.

For the Olympic athletes, victories remain to be won. But for Chinese leaders, the competition is pretty much over. They triumphed in 2001 when the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing as the site for this year's games and hundreds of thousands of Beijingers streamed into Tiananmen Square to celebrate. It was one of the biggest gatherings there since the 1989 massacre.

This August a few world leaders may boycott the opening ceremony. But the Games will go forward and be televised to what China will most likely declare is the largest worldwide audience ever. The Chinese government will have pulled off a modern Olympics -- as close to a mandate from heaven as could be imagined by any dynasty of any era.

By Jim Yardley | The New York Times
July 02, 2008

Two United States representatives who were in Beijing to lobby for the release of more than 700 political prisoners had hoped to have dinner on Sunday with a group of Chinese human rights lawyers. But security agents had a different idea: they detained some of the lawyers and warned the others to stay away.

The detention is the latest example of how Chinese security agents are increasing pressure on dissidents in advance of the Beijing Olympics in August. The governing Communist Party has issued broader orders for local governments to defuse public protests, as a violent demonstration involving an estimated 30,000 people erupted last weekend in southwestern China.

In Beijing, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said the representatives, Frank R. Wolf of Virginia and Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, both Republicans, had overstepped their visas in arranging to meet the lawyers. The legislators, both sharp critics of China, expressed outrage over the interference by security agents.

"The people we were supposed to have dinner with all got stopped," Mr. Smith said in a telephone interview on Tuesday afternoon. "All of the world is watching, and this kind of behavior doesn't bring anything but more scrutiny to their human rights abuses."

Mr. Wolf called on President Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies if the detained lawyers were not released and if there were "no progress" on releasing 734 political prisoners on a list that the two representatives presented to the Chinese.

Mr. Bush has been invited to the opening ceremonies by President Hu Jintao and has rejected calls that he not attend.

On Tuesday afternoon, Liu Jianchao, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the two legislators should not have tried to meet with the lawyers. "They should not intervene in China's internal affairs or conduct something that is harmful to China-U.S. relations," he said during a regular news briefing.

Asked if visiting representatives must get approval from the Chinese government to meet with private citizens, Mr. Liu said: "The two congressmen applied to come to China to get in touch with the United States Consulate. We hope the two U.S. congressmen can respect the country they visit and obey Chinese laws. Regarding the issues on religion and human rights, the exchange between the two countries is more meaningful than meeting private citizens."

The representatives said they came to Beijing to discuss human rights, religious freedom, the Olympics and Darfur. Mr. Smith said they met Monday with the former foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, and gave him their list of political prisoners. "He took it and said they would look at it," Mr. Smith said. "Our argument is that these people have done nothing wrong."

The guest list at the Sunday night dinner was supposed to include three activist lawyers, Li Baiguang, Teng Biao and Li Heping. They were among this year's winners of the Democracy Award by the National Endowment of Democracy in Washington. Li Baiguang and Li Heping have met with Mr. Bush.

On Sunday afternoon, authorities took Li Baiguang to a Beijing suburb, where he was placed under house arrest, said Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group. Mr. Teng, who was also detained this year, was taken to the same Beijing suburb but later returned to his apartment under house arrest.

Another well-known lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, was blocked from leaving his apartment by two Beijing police officers, the advocacy group said. Still another lawyer, Li Fangping, said three police officers were stationed outside his apartment and threatened to follow him wherever he went.

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U.S. News & World Report
July 01, 2008

Police blocked Chinese dissident lawyers from attending a meeting with two visiting U.S. lawmakers, the lawmakers and a human rights groups said Tuesday. Police either took the lawyers away or placed them under house arrest before they were due to have dinner with visiting Republican Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia and Chris Smith of New Jersey. The congressmen told reporters that such moves underscore what many activists and monitoring groups say is a deterioration of human rights ahead of next month's Olympic Games.

>> Original source

By Jim Yardley | The New York Times
30 June 200

Thousands of people have rioted in a county in southwest China, setting fire to government buildings and overturning cars in angry protests over the official handling of the death of a local teenage girl, according to a human rights group, state news media and videotapes of the events.

The protests in the county of Weng'an in Guizhou Province are another reminder of how quickly public anger can ignite in China over cases of perceived official corruption and malfeasance. For the past few years, public discontent has erupted into small demonstrations and violence across the country.

The protests in Weng'an on Saturday appear to have been larger, reportedly involving thousands of residents, including children. News agencies reported that protesters clashed with paramilitary police officers sent to the county.

In March, thousands of paramilitary police were sent to quell violent anti-Chinese demonstrations in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. Videos from Weng'an posted on YouTube showed groups of protesters standing and watching as fires engulfed a local government building.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a Hong Kong-based human rights group, reported that the riot was incited by the case of a teenage girl who was reportedly raped and murdered.

Relatives of the 16-year-old girl blamed the local police for a shoddy investigation and also claimed possible corruption, the group reported. The family said the teenager disappeared after being seen with two young men with family ties to the local public security bureau, the report said.

By Saturday, the human rights group reported, about 500 middle school students had gone to protest at the public security bureau. But the students were turned away and beaten, a move that immediately roused an angry mob of thousands of people who began setting fire to buildings and overturning cars.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported that one person died, 150 were injured and 200 were detained. Officials in the province could not be reached to confirm these figures.

By Sunday morning, a local resident told The Associated Press that the police were using megaphones to urge the crowds to leave while local television channels were calling on people involved in the protests to surrender to the authorities.

"Thick black smoke billowed everywhere," one resident told The Associated Press. "The incident shows that the social order around here is not stable."

The state-run news agency Xinhua confirmed the violence in a brief article and said the situation had stabilized. Referring to the investigation into the girl's death, the news agency reported, "Some people who did not know about the exact context of what had happened were instigated to mob the police station and the office buildings of the county government and Communist Party committee."

The demonstrations were less than six weeks before Beijing hosts the Olympic Games, and security officials are deeply worried about potential outbreaks of unrest across China.