RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: Bush attacks China - from a safe distance  Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:28 pm | |
| KEVIN RUDD yesterday raised the Olympic and then the Australian flag in the athletes village in Beijing, as expectations grew about how the Prime Minister would address the human rights issue after the US President, George Bush, delivered a reprimand to China on the issue.
In a speech delivered from the safer distance of Bangkok, Mr Bush voiced the US's "deep concerns" about religious freedom and human rights in the world's most populous country. But he also praised China for the enormous strides it had made in the past 30 years.
Mr Bush said: "America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists.
"We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labour rights - not to antagonise China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential.
"And we press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs."
Police detained US religious activists for attempting to protest in Tiananmen Square, and police in Qianmen held at least three Chinese residents who were protesting about being evicted from their homes.
Analysts and human rights groups were sceptical that Mr Bush's remarks, made hours before he left for Beijing to attend tonight's Games opening ceremony, would offset the symbolism of being the first US president to attend an Olympics abroad.
Democrats and Republicans in US Congress and human rights groups have criticised Mr Bush's attendance, which they say legitimises the ruling Communist Party's pre-Games crackdown on dissidents and freedom-of-speech advocates.
Before leaving Australia for Beijing, Mr Rudd said: "The responsibility of the international community is still to speak with a strong united voice on these questions, while recognising that over time some progress has been made in China.
"Remember it was not all that long ago they were in the middle of the Cultural Revolution where people were being put up against a wall and basically knocked off."
Nicholas Becquelin, of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, said it was unconscionable for world leaders attending the Olympics to remain silent about human rights abuses in China.
He said Mr Bush's decision to do so from Bangkok rather than Beijing showed he was not serious. "Beijing understands very well it is political gesturing," he said.
Mr Becquelin said Mr Rudd, who spoke frankly about Tibet and other human rights issues during a visit to Beijing in April, including a speech to Peking University students, disproved the theory that governments jeopardised their relationships with China by speaking up.
China's top leaders are unexpectedly giving Mr Rudd bilateral meetings during his four-day Olympic trip. Mr Rudd meets the Premier, Wen Jiabao, today and Mr Hu for private talks tomorrow.
"Your Prime Minister did it very well last time with his speech [at Peking University]," Mr Becquelin said. "What [Rudd] did gives the lie to the idea that you cannot give constructive criticism to China. There is this middle way between staying silent and offending your host.
"We have never asked governments to put their diplomatic relations with China in jeopardy. What we are asking them is not to airbrush very serious issues about fundamental rights and freedoms in a country that is now a global power."
The Hollywood activist Mia Farrow, an outspoken critic of Chinese foreign policy, especially its support of the Sudan Government's complicity in atrocities in its Darfur region, yesterday applauded the decision of US athletes to choose a Sudanese refugee to be flagbearer at tonight's opening ceremony.
In 1991, when he was six - at the height of a civil war in Sudan - Lopez Lomong, now a middle-distance runner, fled with other children from marauding government-backed militia.
But Farrow denounced the US Olympic committee for failing to fight for Joey Cheek, a former Olympian speed-skater and Darfur activist, whose visa to China was cancelled at the last minute.
Mr Rudd autographed a T-shirt for a local Olympics fan who managed to break through a security cordon after the flag-raising ceremony at the athletes' village.
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RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| | Subject: Immoral China rebukes Bush for 'interference' Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:42 pm | |
| Immoral China rebukes Bush for 'interference'
CHINA has issued a stern warning to US President George Bush not to interfere in its human rights affairs on the eve of the Games opening ceremony.
In a speech delivered in Thailand's capital before his controversial attendance at the Beijing Olympics, Mr Bush voiced America's "deep concerns" over religious freedom and human rights in China while praising the country for the enormous strides it had made in the past 30 years.
"We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labour rights, not to antagonise China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential," Mr Bush told Thai officials and business leaders.
"And we press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs. America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents, human-rights advocates and religious activists."
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang last night slammed Mr Bush's criticisms as "interference".
He said the Chinese Government was "dedicated to maintaining and promoting its citizens' basic rights and freedoms".
"Chinese citizens have freedom of religion. These are indisputable facts," he said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who last night attended a reception for Australian Olympians in Beijing, said before leaving Australia it was the responsibility of the international community "to speak with a strong united voice" to China on human rights questions.
It also had to recognise that "over time some progress has been made in China".
"Remember it was not all that long ago they were in the middle of the Cultural Revolution where people were being put up against a wall and basically knocked off," he said.
Mr Rudd, who meets Premier Wen Jiabao today and President Hu Jintao tomorrow, pointed out that under pressure China eased restrictions on internet access. "Let's not overstate it. You're not going to turn the events of centuries around in the matter of a few days."
Analysts and human rights groups were sceptical that Mr Bush's remarks would offset the symbolism of being the first US president to attend an Olympics abroad. Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as human rights groups, have criticised Mr Bush's attendance, which they say legitimises the ruling Communist Party's pre-Games crackdown on dissidents and freedom of speech advocates.
Nicolas Becquelin, of Human Rights Watch, said it was "unconscionable" for world leaders attending the Olympics to remain silent about human rights abuses in China.
Meanwhile, more than 40 Olympic athlete have signed an open letter addressed to China's government, urging them respect human rights and freedom of religion.
The letter called on Mr Hu "to ensure that human rights defenders are no longer intimidated or imprisoned".
"Your decision on these issues will determine the success the Olympic games and the image the world will have of China in the future," the letter says.
Actress activist Mia Farrow, a critic of Chinese foreign policy, especially its support for the Sudan Government's complicity in atrocities in its Darfur region, yesterday applauded the decision of US athletes to choose a Sudanese refugee to be flag-bearer at tonight's opening ceremony.
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