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Tibet Uprising News

2008-04-05T12:08:00.001-07:00

BREAKING NEWS: Chinese police kill 8 more Tibetans

2008-04-04T14:11:00.001-07:00

An exclusive report from The Times (UK). Think about the bravery of the Tibetans, marching down to the police encampment to demand the release of the monks. The Chinese police response is sickening but not surprising:

Chinese paramilitary police have killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers in bloody violence that will fuel human rights protests as London prepares to host its leg of the Olympic torch relay this weekend.

Witnesses said the clash – in which dozens were wounded – erupted late last night after a government inspection team entered a monastery in the Chinese province of Sichuan trying to confiscate pictures of the Dalai Lama.

Officials searched the room of every monk in the Donggu monastery, a sprawling 15th century edifice in Ganzi, southwestern Sichuan, confiscating all mobile phones as well as the pictures.

When the inspectors tore up the photographs and threw them on the floor, a 74-year-old monk, identified as Cicheng Danzeng, tried to stop an act seen as a desecration by Tibetans who revere the Dalai Lama as their god king.

A young man working in the monastery, identified as Cicheng Pingcuo, 25, also made a stand and both were arrested.

The team then demanded that all the monks denounce the Dalai Lama, who fled China after a failed uprising in 1959. One monk, Yixi Lima, stood up and voiced his opposition, prompting the other monks to add their voices.

At about 6.30 p.m., the entire monastic body marched down to a nearby river where paramilitary police were encamped and demanded the release of the two men.

They were joined by several hundred local villagers, many of them enraged at the detention of the 74-year-old monk Cicheng Danzeng, who locals say is well respected in the area for his learning and piety.

Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama,” “Let the Dalai Lama come back” and “We want freedom”, the crowd demonstrated until about nine in the evening.

Witnesses said that at around that time, as many as 1,000 paramilitary police used force to try to end the protest and opened fire on the crowd. It was not known if the demonstrators had been throwing stones at the police.

In the gunfire, eight people died, according to a local resident in direct contact with the monastery. These included a 27-year-old monk identified as Cangdan and two women named as Zhulongcuo and Danluo.

Witnesses said a 30-year-old villager, Pupu Deley, was killed, along with the son of a villager named Cangdan, and the daughter of villager Cuogu. Two other people, whose identities were not available, were also killed and dozens were wounded, the witnesses said.

They said about ten people were still missing today, including another monk, identified as Ciwang Renzhen.

Armed paramilitary police patrolled the streets of the village today and surrounded the monastery. All communications had been cut.

The latest upsurge of violence highlights the difficulties the Chinese authorities are facing in trying to end nearly a month of protests across the Tibetan region and the depth of anti-Chinese sentiment among a deeply Buddhist minority loyal to the exiled Dalai Lama.

*studentsforafreetibet.org

Chinese Dissident's Wife Appeals for Help in Blog Posting

2008-04-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

The wife of jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia is calling on anyone who can meet with China's President Hu Jintao to ask him if he thinks the verdict in her husband's case was fair.

Friday, in her first blog posting since her husband was sentenced to prison on Thursday, Zeng Jinyan, questioned the fairness of the verdict in the controversial case.

She also asked people across the country if they think articles Hu Jia wrote and interviews he gave prove that he subverted the state's power.

A Chinese court sentenced Hu Jia to three-and-a-half years in prison on charges of subversion of state power. The charges stem from five of Hu's articles on human rights in China and two interviews with foreign reporters.

The case has drawn international attention. The United States and European Union both called for his release.

Amnesty International said the upcoming Beijing Olympics have failed to bring human rights improvements to China. The London-based rights group last week argued the Olympics instead have been a catalyst for the current wave of repression against activists in China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has defended the verdict, accusing China's critics of using human rights as an excuse to interfere in the country's internal affairs.

Hu was detained last December after spending more than 200 days under house arrest at his Beijing apartment.

*voanews.com

Muslims attempt uprising in China: gov't

2008-04-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

BEIJING -- China has accused Muslims in the nation's northwest of trying to start a rebellion, following what an exile group said Wednesday were peaceful protests against injustices under Chinese rule.

The unrest occurred in China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang region last month, after Chinese authorities warned that "terrorists" based there were planning attacks on the Beijing Olympics and had tried to bomb a Beijing-bound plane.

In the latest incident, extremist forces tried to incite an uprising in a marketplace in Khotan city on March 23, according to a statement from the local government posted on its Web site this week.

It did not reveal how many people were involved in the protest, but said up to 100,000 people were in the market when the unrest occurred.

An exiled group representing people in Xinjiang said up to 1,000 people were involved in two protests there on March 23 and 24.

"A small number of elements... tried to incite splittism, create disturbances in the market place and even trick the masses into an uprising," the Khotan government statement said.

It said the people involved adhered to the "three evil forces," a Chinese expression that refers to separatism, religious extremism and terrorism.

"Our police immediately intervened to prevent this and are dealing with it in accordance with the law," added the statement.

Most of the population in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan and central Asia, are Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighurs, many of whom say they have been subjected to 60 years of repressive communist Chinese rule.

Rights groups and Uighur exiles have alleged that China is trying to stoke fears about terror attacks in Xinjiang as an excuse to crack down on dissent and justify tight control there ahead of the Olympics in Beijing in August.

In the Khotan unrest, a Uighur exile group said people took to the streets to protest over a local businessman who died in police custody and against a ban on women wearing traditional head scarves.

"The Uighurs began protesting after the killing of Mutallip Hajim, who had died in police custody," Alim Seytoff, head of the US-based World Uighur Congress, told AFP.

"The women were also protesting the ban on head scarves."

The two protests included up to 1,000 demonstrators, he said, adding that as many as 600 had been detained. Hajim, a wealthy jade trader and philanthropist, was taken into custody in Khotan in January, according to the US government-backed Radio Free Asia.

But his body was turned over to his family on March 3, with police instructing them to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death, it said.

Local police and the religious affairs bureau in Khotan, also known as Hetian, refused to comment on the protests or Hajim's case when contacted by AFP.

China initially raised the alarm over the alleged threat from Xinjiang on March 9 when it said a January raid on "terrorists" there had foiled a planned attack directed at the Olympics.

On the same day, it announced a 19-year-old Muslim woman had tried to bomb a Chinese Southern Airlines flight that had taken off from Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, and was on its way to Beijing.

The Khotan protests came as China was trying to contain unrest on a much larger scale in neighboring Tibet, a Buddhist region whose population similarly claim widespread repression under Chinese rule.

China has blamed exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, as being behind the unrest in Tibet, claims he denies.

Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based China expert at Human Rights Watch, said it was worrying the Khotan government had publicly responded to the unrest there by immediately blaming "terrorists and extremist forces."

"The authorities are not making a distinction between protesters, rioters or the peaceful expression of political opinion, they are mixing this all up and painting it with the same brush," Bequelin said.

*chinapost.com

Chinese civil rights activist sentenced to 3-1/2 years in jail on subversion charges

2008-04-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

By TINI TRAN, AP

BEIJING -- An outspoken Chinese civil rights activist was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail on subversion charges Thursday in a decision that drew international criticism ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Hu Jia, 34, was convicted of charges of "inciting subversion of state power" based on Internet articles he had written and interviews he gave to foreign media, said his lawyer Li Fangping.

"We're happy that he was not charged with a more severe crime, but three years and six months we still think is unacceptable," Li said.

Li earlier said he expected a 5-year sentence to be handed down. Hu has 10 days to appeal the sentence, but Li said a decision on an appeal has not been made yet.

Li said Hu appeared calm and poised as the sentence was read out at Beijing No. 1 People's Intermediate Court. Li added that Hu had been "emotionally prepared" for the verdict.

Beijing routinely uses the nebulous charge of subversion to imprison dissidents for years.

Hu has been a vocal critic of China's human rights record for years. An impassioned AIDS and environmental activist, he was confined to his Beijing apartment in a complex called "Freedom City" for more than 200 days before he was taken away by security agents on Dec. 27.

Hu's indictment cited comments he made during two interviews with foreign media and five articles he wrote that were posted on the Internet, including Boxun.com, a Chinese-language Web site that is banned in China.

Boxun.com, based in the U.S. state of North Carolina, carries reports and essays on a wide range of issues rarely seen in the Chinese state media, from corruption cases to calls for greater democracy.

His case has gained international attention, with U.S. and European officials repeatedly raising it in meetings with Chinese officials. No diplomats or journalists were allowed inside the courtroom during the trial, though his wife and mother were present.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson expressed disappointment over the verdict, saying the world was closely watching China's progress on human rights ahead of the Olympic Games.

"We are dismayed by the verdict announced today in the case of prominent human rights activist Hu Jia under the specious charge of inciting subversion of state power," Stevenson said.

Stevenson said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had pressed Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for Hu's immediate release during her February visit to China and U.S. officials "continue to take every opportunity to raise our concerns about Mr. Hu's case with Chinese officials at all levels, both in Beijing and Washington D.C."

"In this Olympic year, we urge China to seize the opportunity to put its best face forward and take steps to improve its record on human rights and religious freedom," she said.

Amnesty International condemned the sentence, saying it "betrays promises made by Chinese officials that human rights would improve in the run-up to the Olympics."

"This verdict is a slap in the face for Hu Jia and a warning to any other activists in China who dare to raise human rights concerns publicly," Amnesty's Mark Allison said.

Premier Wen Jiabao avoided mentioning Hu by name when questioned about the case in a news conference last month and denied that Beijing was rounding up government critics ahead of the Olympics.

"China is a country ruled by law, and all these issues will be dealt with in accordance with law," Wen said. "As far as the critics' view that China is trying to arrest dissidents before the Olympics, there is no such issue at all."

*chinapost.com

China denies pre-Olympic crackdown on dissidents

2008-04-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, April 3, 2008 (AFP) - - China on Thursday denied it was cracking down on dissidents ahead of the Beijing Olympics, after high-profile rights activist Hu Jia was jailed for subversion. "We can't accept the accusation. China is a country with the rule of law. Everyone is equal before the law. We can't stop implementation of the law because of the Olympics," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"The (Hu Jia) case has been dealt with in accordance with the law."

Hu, 34, received a three-and-a-half year prison sentence earlier Thursday for "subversion of power," based on articles he published online.

The United States and the European Union denounced the verdict against Hu, who for several years has been one of China's most active and high-profile human rights campaigners.

Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, 24, who recently gave birth to their first child and is also a prominent rights activist, said the verdict was the culmination of four years of harassment by authorities.

"He's been put under surveillance, been kidnapped. He's been put under house arrest and now they have sentenced him to three and a half years," Zeng told reporters outside the courthouse as she broke down in tears.

"This is irrational and unfair."

Rights campaigners also criticised the verdict, saying it was part of a crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics, in direct violation of Chinese promises prior to winning the right to host the Games.

"This verdict is... a warning to any other activists in China who dare to raise human rights concerns publicly," said Mark Allison, East Asia researcher for Amnesty International.

"It also betrays promises made by Chinese officials that human rights would improve in the run-up to the Olympics."

In 2001, China promised that if it won the right to host the Games, "tremendous" human rights improvements would ensue, a pledge repeated in October by Liu Jingmin, Beijing's vice-mayor and a top Games organiser.

Spokeswoman Jiang told the rights groups not to interfere in China's internal matters.

"We hope the relevant organisations can respect China's law and not interfere with China's internal affairs with the excuse of human rights," she said.

Hu, for many years one of China's highest-profile human rights campaigners, was found guilty at a Beijing court of "incitement to subvert state power" following a one-day trial last month, lawyer Li Fangping said.

Li said the subversion charge had related to the 34-year-old Hu posting articles on the Internet about human rights issues and speaking with foreign reporters.

"The evidence was publishing articles on websites outside of China and accepting interviews with the foreign press," Li said outside the court, adding he believed the verdict was unjust and he would advise his client to appeal.

*afp

China fears protests may spill over to other groups

2008-03-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

BEIJING: Fearing the agitation by Tibetans might spill over to other dissident groups if the Olympic torch rally is disrupted during its five-month journey before the Beijing Games, China has begun to carry out pre-emptory arrests and increased surveillance on a range of dissident groups including agitating farmers, rebel religious sects and separatists in Xingjian province, sources said. "This is the biggest political challenge for the government in two decades of economic reforms. The stakes are very high. Any disruption of the torch rally will be seen as a sign of weakness and encourage dissident groups to create trouble. I don't think the government will allow any of the underground groups to cause problems at this time," Hu Shisheng, director of South Asian studies at China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, the state-run think-tank, said. The agitation by Tibetans has resulted in angry reactions among the majority Han Chinese all over the country. The Olympic Games have touched a patriotic chord in the population. Websites, chat rooms, blogs are full of remarks from thousands of people opposing any move to cause disruption to the Beijing Games. The government is counting on the high level of emotional support to the Games as a counter-weight to any move aimed at disrupting the Olympic flame. "The dissidents know that opposing the Olympic Games will be an act against the nation and not the government. They will get no support if they caused problems at this time. But just in case they manage to disrupt the torch rally, it will pose a major political challenge to the government," Hu said.

*indiatimes.com

Tibet riots orchestrated?

2008-03-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

London, UK -- Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer.

For weeks there has been growing resentment in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, against minor actions taken by the Chinese authorities.

Increasingly, monks have led acts of civil disobedience, demanding the right to perform traditional incense burning rituals. With their demands go cries for the return of the Dalai Lama, the 14th to hold the high spiritual office.

Committed to teaching the tenets of his moral authority - peace and compassion - the Dalai Lama was 14 when the PLA invaded Tibet in 1950 and he was forced to flee to India from where he has run a relentless campaign against the harshness of Chinese rule.

But critics have objected to his attraction to film stars. Newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch has called him: "A very political monk in Gucci shoes."

Discovering that his supporters inside Tibet and China would become even more active in the months approaching the Olympic Games this summer, British intelligence officers in Beijing learned the ruling regime would seek an excuse to move and crush the present unrest.

That fear was publicly expressed by the Dalai Lama. GCHQ's satellites, geo-positioned in space, were tasked to closely monitor the situation.

The doughnut-shaped complex, near Cheltenham racecourse, is set in the pleasant Cotswolds in the west of England. Seven thousand employees include the best electronic experts and analysts in the world. Between them they speak more than 150 languages. At their disposal are 10,000 computers, many of which have been specially built for their work.

The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation the Chinese used agent provocateurs to start riots, which gave the PLA the excuse to move on Lhasa to kill and wound over the past week.

*buddhistchannel.tv

E.U. weighs Olympic boycott over Tibet

2008-03-26T13:57:00.001-07:00

The European Union meets Friday to discuss ties to China after the unrest in Tibet.

Paris - If the government of China hopes the world will go for its line on Tibet and the nefarious Dalai Lama and his purported "clique" – Europe isn't buying it.

The response to the Tibetan crisis in London, Paris, and Berlin, rather, is a call for "dialogue" between China and the exiled Tibetan leader, and"restraint" by Beijing.

A boycott of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games is being discussed as a leverage point in Austria, Belgium, Britain, and France – to be determined by how China handles the frustrations of its Tibetan minority.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has "left open the option" of boycotting the ceremony, Germany has blocked talks with China on economic development, and Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, says that Tibet demonstrations will be authorized as the Olympic torch is carried through London on April 6.

Prince Charles, a friend of the Dalai Lama, had already decided in January not to attend the opening ceremony, he said, in a letter to a human rights group.

Europeans have long had a fascination with and sympathy for the Himalayan region and its Buddhist spiritual traditions – and the Dalai Lama is a frequent visitor to the Continent.

This Friday, Europe's foreign ministers meet in Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, to adopt a common position on relations with Beijing and "the suffering of Tibet," as French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner describes it.

The question in Slovenia is how to balance appreciation for the progress China has made with concern about the heavy handed tactics of an unelected government that has long eschewed any dialogue with those disagreeing with it. Most European states also have significant business interests in China.

While no European Union state is preparing to boycott the 2008 Games – "Let's not be more Tibetan than the Dalai Lama," who did not advocate boycott, says Mr. Kouchner – there is a general revulsion at the scenes out of Tibet, and at what is seen as an overheated Chinese propaganda effort to demonize the Dalai Lama and hold him responsible for violence.

In a clear rebuke to the Chinese position on Dalai Lama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to meet the spiritual leader in May, and the Dalai Lama was invited to speak at a conference in Nantes, France, during the games in August.

As the British Foreign Office issued a human rights report critical of China this week, Mr. Miliband said, "There needs to be mutual respect between all communities and sustained dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities."

On May 22, the Dalai Lama will give a speech at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

On Wednesday Robert Menard, general secretary of Reporters Sans Frontières in Paris, the journalistic watchdog group, stated that Mr. Sarkozy should boycott the opening if China does not release 30 political prisoners who are on the lists of nearly every human rights group, and if foreign correspondents are continued to be banned from working in Tibet.

Mr. Menard's group raced to unfurl a flag with the Olympic rings rendered as handcuffs at the opening ceremony of the games in Athens this week, while a Chinese official was speaking. The act raised eyebrows in the journalistic community, which has depended on RSF to report on press violations. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified the flag the group unfurled and mischaracterized the reaction of the journalistic community.]

Prior to the China-Tibet dissatisfaction in Europe, many protest groups here demanded that China stop its support of the Sudanese government, widely regarded as a main culprit in the starvation and chaos in Darfur. The phrase "Genocide Olympics" has been used in Europe among human rights groups to describe the twinning of the Games with China's policy toward Sudan.

*csmonitor.com

New Tibet clashes erupt in China

2008-03-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

At least two people have been killed in fresh clashes between Tibetan protesters and Chinese police.

The violence followed a demonstration in Garze, a prefecture in Sichuan province, which started as a peaceful march by monks and nuns but turned violent when armed police tried to suppress the crowd.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said the protesters attacked police with knives and stones, killing one policeman.

A Tibetan rights group said an 18-year-old monk died and another was critically wounded after security agents fired live rounds.

Garze borders Tibet, where several days of anti-government protests led by monks spiralled into violence on March 14 in the capital, Lhasa. Demonstrations in support of the Lhasa protests have since burgeoned rapidly throughout provinces surrounding Tibet.

The unrest in Garze indicates that Tibetan defiance is still running strong a week after thousands of Chinese troops fanned out to patrol areas outside of Lhasa and clamp down on fresh protests.

The uprising is the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades, and the Communist leadership has accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters of masterminding the dissent.

The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa while Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

Meng Jianzhu, the minister of public security, ordered Tibet's security forces to remain on alert for further unrest and said "patriotic education" campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries.

Unrest among Tibet's Buddhist clergy has been blamed in part on compulsory "patriotic education" classes, widely reviled by monks for cutting into religious study and forcing them to make ritual denouncements of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after the failed uprising.

*ukpress

China pressed at U.N. rights body to re-open Tibet

2008-03-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - China came under pressure at the United Nations' top human rights forum on Tuesday to permit foreigners to re-enter Tibet and assess the consequences of Beijing's crackdown on recent protests and riots.

The European Union, in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, urged Chinese authorities to refrain from force against a wave of Tibetan demonstrations that began on March 10 -- the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Washington issued a firm statement against China's closure of Tibet to foreign journalists, diplomats and international observers, a move U.S. Ambassador Warren Tichenor said has made objective assessments of conditions there impossible.

"Restrictions on the access of foreign media to Tibetan areas of China run counter to China's Olympic bid commitments. We are concerned about official Chinese rhetoric and the blocking of independent reporting on the events," he said.

Beijing blames the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, for inciting upheaval in the remote Himalayan region to stir trouble before this summer's Olympic Games -- a charge the Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk denies.

China, whose enormous economic clout makes it a strategic ally for both rich and poor countries worldwide, rarely faces direct criticism at the United nations. Beijing currently holds one of the 47 seats on the two-year-old Human Rights Council, along with India, the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama.

The Council was set up to replace the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was criticized for failing to overcome political alliances and take a strong stand on issues, including China's 1989 repression of student protests in Tiananmen Square.

Addressing the Geneva-based body on Tuesday, Amnesty International said that protesters in Tibet were "apparently attacked solely for their ethnic identity, resulting in death, injury and damage to property."
"In restoring order, the Chinese authorities have resorted to measures which violate international human rights law and standards," it said.

Human rights groups led by Forum Asia have appealed for the Council to convene a special session on Tibet, similar to those previously held about the Palestinian territories, Darfur, and Myanmar. They also called for U.N. rights experts to be sent to Tibet to report on conditions there.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, told the Canadian broadcaster CBC last week that Beijing needed to account fully and credibly for what is happening in Tibet.

"China is ready to open its door to 30,000 foreign journalists in August. Why can't it open its door to one or two foreign journalists in Tibet now, when the world is equally interested in what is happening in Tibet as it will be in what will be happening in the Olympics?" she said.

(editing by Sami Aboudi)

Tibet death toll at 130, exiled PM says as Olympic torch lit

2008-03-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (AFP) - - Two weeks of protests against China's rule of Tibet have left about 130 people dead, an exiled Tibetan leader said Monday as the unrest cast a shadow over the lighting of the Olympic torch.

Amid the controversy, China called for the world to unite in opposition to any campaigns linking the Beijing Games to Tibet or any other political issue, as it maintained a lockdown of the areas where protests have taken place.

However, three protesters briefly disrupted the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece, charging forward during a speech by China's top Olympic official and unfurling a banner reading "Boycott the country that tramples on human rights."

It was not immediately clear whether they were protesting China's actions in Tibet.

Tibet's prime minister-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, said from his base in Dharamshala, India that about 130 people had been confirmed killed in a Chinese crackdown on the protests, up from a figure of 99 given last week.

The protests began in Tibet's capital Lhasa on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China's rule of the Himalayan region.

The protests turned violent four days later in Lhasa, with Tibetan rioters killing 19 innocent civilians and one policeman, according to the government in Beijing.

Protests then spread to other areas of China with ethnic Tibetan populations.

The ensuing crackdown has come under criticism because foreign reporters and other independent monitors have been barred from the hotspot areas, amid reports of a massive military build-up.

Beijing has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, of masterminding the protests, saying the unrest was a deliberate campaign to sabotage the Games set for August.

The Tibet issue was also the focus in Greece where the Olympic torch was lit -- an event broadcast live around the world from Olympia, where the ancient Olympics were born in 776 BC.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said at the ceremony that there was no world support for a boycott of the Beijing Games over the deadly Tibetan unrest.

"The major political leaders don't want a boycott. There is no momentum for a boycott," he said.

However, the potential for Chinese embarrassment along the globe-circling torch relay route was underlined by the protesters in Olympia.

One of them tried to grab a microphone from Beijing Games organising committee chairman Liu Qi as he gave a speech, shouting "Freedom! Freedom!", before security hauled him and two others away.

The Olympic flame is scheduled to pass over Mount Everest in Tibet in early May, and through Lhasa the following month.

The torch's journey is expected to spark a wave of global protests against Chinese authorities over Tibet and a range of other issues, such as Beijing's record on human rights and religious freedoms.

China's official Xinhua news agency published a commentary on Monday calling for global opposition to such campaigns.

"In the run-up to the Games, the international community, true sports lovers and opponents of violence...must stand fast against any attempt to undermine the Olympics," it said.

Meanwhile China showed no signs of buckling to calls for independent monitoring of the crackdown.

Foreign reporters remained banned from entering Lhasa. China has also kept a tight lid across a huge swathe of land bordering Tibet and nearby.

An AFP reporter in western Sichuan province who saw a huge military build-up in the area on Sunday was prevented from moving out of the town of Kangding into Tibetan-populated regions on Monday.

The region is just outside the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Region and about 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Ngawa county, where Buddhist monks and other Tibetans clashed with police last week.

In neighbouring Qinghai province, an AFP reporter on Sunday was turned back at a police checkpoint while trying to reach the town of Tongren, site of a significant Tibetan Buddhist monastery where protests had been reported.

Activist groups reported sporadic protests over the weekend in Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

The Free Tibet Campaign, citing an eyewitness, said around 200 monks and 800 others marched 25 kilometres to a monastery on Saturday chanting for the return of the Dalai Lama and for a free Tibet.

It said many people had fled into the mountains fearing arrest.

In China, Rights Activists Use Olympics to Push for Reforms

2008-03-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, March 24 -- Demonstrators denouncing China's record on human rights breached strict security in Ancient Olympia on Monday and disrupted a torch-lighting ceremony that launched the Olympic flame's long journey to Beijing.

Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee and Beijing Communist Party secretary, was speaking at the ceremony in southern Greece when at least two protesters ran behind him, video footage of the event showed. One of the protesters unfurled a black flag that showed handcuffs in place of the five Olympic rings. Later, a Tibetan woman covered in fake blood lay in the center of a nearby road, blocking the path of a torchbearer. Other demonstrators raised posters reading "Free Tibet."

Security officials hurried to smother the protests. Three people from the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders were detained, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, in the Chinese capital, an activist who penned an open letter urging "human rights, not the Olympics," was sentenced Monday to the maximum five years in prison for subverting the power of the state. And a former top official who was jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests added his name to the voices pushing Beijing to sit down with the Dalai Lama over the recent unrest in Tibet.

Chinese officials, in turn, accused domestic and foreign "separatist" forces of trying to destroy the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games. On Monday afternoon, the government announced the arrests of five Tibetans accused of deliberately setting fire to two shops in Lhasa during last week's deadly protests. The blazes killed nine Han Chinese victims, including an 8-month-old baby, and a Tibetan.

"Their evil purpose is to produce turmoil to interrupt and destroy the 2008 Beijing Olympics, whose theme is peace, and to destroy our country's good stability and unity in order to reach their evil goal of splitting the mother country," said Shan Huimin, a spokeswoman for China's Ministry of Public Security. Shan showed reporters graphic video footage from the riots but took no questions.

China is scrambling to avoid a public relations disaster as critics of its crackdown in Tibet and its human rights record step up their efforts to use the Olympics to push for reform. The drive has unnerved Olympic sponsors and put the International Olympic Committee on the defensive.

"The IOC is engaged in what I call a 'silent diplomacy' with Chinese authorities since day one of the preparations of the games," IOC President Jacques Rogge told the Associated Press from southern Greece, where he attended the flame-lighting ceremony that kicked off the torch relay.

Rogge, who has come under increased fire for not pressuring China to do more about atrocities in Darfur, the Chinese crackdown in Tibet and human rights in general, repeated his view that the IOC was not a political organization. "We are discussing on a daily basis with Chinese authorities, including discussing these issues, while strictly respecting the sovereignty of China in its affairs."

Rogge insisted China's human rights situation has improved since Beijing was awarded the games in 2001, a view many activists here dispute.

Yang Chunlin, 53, an activist laborer with a history of writing dissident essays and calling for political reform, was shocked with electric batons Monday as he was escorted from the Jiamusi City Intermediate People's Court in northeast Heilongjiang province after his sentencing, his sister said in a telephone interview.

"When we all left the courthouse, we shouted at him that he must appeal. He said, 'No need,' and then tried to say more but the police who escorted him prodded him with an electric stick," said Yang Chunping, who was in court with their mother and Yang Chunlin's wife. "I saw sparks, and then he was placed into a police car and driven away."

Yang Chunlin's lawyer said his client, who had faced three to five years, probably received the maximum sentence because he refused to confess and instead maintained his innocence.

"The sentence is very serious," Li Fangping said. "He didn't incite anybody at all. If everyone who speaks freely is accused of subverting state power, then it will be very difficult to guarantee free speech because people won't know what they can say and what they can't."

Government officials have ordered detentions and conducted house-to-house visits warning Chinese dissidents not to cause trouble during the Olympics, but Yang's sister said he was no destructive force. "The law can only rule people's behavior, it cannot rule people's thoughts. My brother didn't commit any crime at all," she said. "He only tried to help farmers get their land back, and he only wants a better China."

Yang, who has been in police custody since July, had collected more than 10,000 signatures for his petition, mostly from farmers. His case is one of several that have angered and embarrassed officials hoping to present a smooth and orderly Olympic Games to 4 billion television viewers, 500,000 foreign tourists and more than 22,000 credentialed journalists.

Officials worry that incidents such as the disruption of the flame-lighting ceremony in Olympia will draw attention away from China's message of economic growth and arrival on the international stage. Advisers to the games have warned that it is China's reaction to such protests -- rather than the protests themselves -- that will garner worldwide attention.

"To have this kind of incident is normal during the Olympic Games. Such a big event will naturally have this kind of risk," said Liu Hailong, professor of mass media at People's University in Beijing. "If Olympic officials handle it according to international standards or conventions, then it will be okay."

The pressure on Beijing has only increased since last week's closely watched protests in Tibet. Government critic Bao Tong, who was jailed for seven years after the 1989 protests, has called on China to sit down for frank discussions with the Dalai Lama, who he called "the only Tibetan leader with the hope of presiding over a reconciliation agreement between Tibetans and Han Chinese," Reuters reported.

Bao, once the top aide to the Communist Party chief who was ousted after opposing the military crackdown in 1989, made his remarks in an e-mail to the news service. "So long as the central [government] sits down for dialogue with the Dalai Lama and shows great wisdom, great decisiveness and great boldness of vision, the Lhasa incident can be handled well," he wrote.

But Shan, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Security, showed no sign of outreach from the government. "Actions speak louder than words," she said. "The two cases of arson strongly demonstrate that the events of March 14 were definitely not a peaceful protest or peaceful procession. Instead it's a very serious, violent crime. The Lhasa riots were organized and incited in a dedicated fashion by the Dalai Lama clique and by overseas and domestic Tibetan separatists."

Shan said three Tibetan women deliberately set a fire in a Lhasa clothing shop March 14, fatally burning five women ages 19 to 24. One was a Tibetan from Shigatse, and four were Han Chinese from Sichuan province. A sixth girl, who was Tibetan, escaped, Shan said.

The next day, two Tibetan men broke into a motorcycle shop in Lhasa's Dazi county, deliberately set a fire and then took two natural gas containers from a restaurant next door in order to increase the blaze, Shan said. The shop owner, his wife and 8-month-old son and two repairmen hid on the second floor and died in the fire.

The two men "confessed their crimes, and the cases are still under investigation," Shan said.

*washingtonpost.com

Beijing investigates spam attack

2008-03-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

China is investigating a spam attack after almost half of China's mobile phone users received unwanted text messages from advertisers.
Text messages were sent to more than 200 million mobile phone users through China Mobile and its smaller rival China Unicom.

China's authorities said the spammers must "correct their wrongdoing".

China Mobile earlier apologised for loopholes that allowed the spread of spam text messages.

It has vowed to block text messages originating from seven online advertising firms, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"We urge parties concerned to beef up self-scrutiny to correct their wrongdoing, which is profit driven in defiance of public interests," said deputy head of the State Council Office for Rectifying Malpractice, Liu Yue.

The latest attack on mobile phone spam came to light after an investigation by state-run China Central Television, timed for World Consumer Rights Day on March 15.

Both mobile phone firms have set up hotlines to handle consumer complaints.

*bbc.co.uk

China Riot Leaves 1 Dead, Others Injured

2008-03-24T13:40:00.001-07:00

BEIJING (AP) — China's state media says one policeman has been killed and several others injured in riots Monday in western Sichuan province.

The official Xinhua News Agency gave no other details regarding the riot.

Xinhua also said that 381 people involved in protests in another Sichuan county, Aba, had surrendered to police, according to local authorities.

The Communist leadership has faced the biggest challenge to its rule in the Himalayan area in nearly two decades after protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa exploded into violence on March 14, sparking sympathy protests in the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.

China Blasts Dalai Lama, Pelosi on Tibet

2008-03-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

China accused the Dalai Lama on Sunday of stoking Tibetan unrest to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and also berated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she is ignoring the truth about Tibet.

This month's violence in Tibet and neighboring provinces has turned into a public relations disaster for China ahead of the August Olympics, which it had been hoping to use to bolster its international image.

The Chinese government said through official media that formerly restive areas were under control and accused the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of trying to harm China's image ahead of the summer games.

"The Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence," said the People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

The Tibetan spiritual leader called the accusations against him "baseless," asserting that he supported China's hosting of the summer games.

"I always support (that) the Olympics should ... take place in Beijing ... so that more than 1 billion human beings, that means Chinese, they feel proud of it," he said Sunday in New Delhi, India.

Pelosi's visit to the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, on Friday was the first by a major foreign official since the protests broke out. The Democratic leader said if people don't speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, "we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world."

China's official Xinhua New Agency published commentary Sunday accusing Pelosi of ignoring the violence caused by the Tibetan rioters.

"'Human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and find out the truth of the case," it said.

"Her views are like so many other politicians and western media. Beneath the double standards lies their intention to serve the interest groups behind them, who want to contain or smear China," it said.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Sunday that Pelosi condemns the Chinese government's crackdown in Tibet and calls on it "to begin a substantive dialogue and to allow journalists and independent monitors into Tibet to find out the truth."

China's reported death toll from the protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa earlier this month is 22. Tibet's exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed.

Xinhua said Sunday that 94 people had been injured in four counties and one city in Gansu province in riots on March 15-16. The report also said 19 rioters had surrendered in Gannan, a prefecture in Gansu, but it did not give any details.

Despite the media restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, some information was leaking out. An American backpacker who traveled to Chengdu, the capital of western Sichuan province, said he had seen soldiers or paramilitary troops in Deqen in northwest Yunnan province, which borders Tibet.

"What was an empty parking lot by the library was full of military trucks and people practicing with shields. I saw hundreds of soldiers," said the backpacker, who would give only his first name, Ralpha.

There have been no reported protests in Yunnan.

Monks at the Gedan Song Zan Monastery outside of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan prayed Sunday for peace and an end to the recent unrest among ethnic Tibetan populations in China. The monks, who characterized themselves as both Tibetan and Chinese, said they felt that the upheaval and riots had helped no one.

The government has insisted that stability has returned to the troubled areas. State broadcaster China Central Television said Sunday that electricity and telecommunications had been restored in Lhasa.

The official lighting of the Olympic torch is set for Monday in Greece, and some 1,000 police will surround Ancient Olympia to keep away pro-Tibetan protesters from the ceremony. The torch is scheduled to travel through 20 countries before the Beijing Olympics open on Aug. 8.

One of Thailand's six torchbearers withdrew Sunday in protest. Environmentalist Narisa Chakrabongse said in an open letter that she decided against taking part in the relay to "send a strong message to China that the world community could not accept its actions."

Meanwhile, a group hosting the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany May 14-20 said Sunday that the trip was still scheduled to take place. The trip is to include meetings between the Dalai Lama and various German state leaders.

*abcnews

Chinese Dissidents Call on Beijing to Open Talks with Dalai Lama

2008-03-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

A group of Chinese dissidents called on Beijing Saturday to open direct talks with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in an effort to end the violence in the region.

The nearly 30 dissidents also urged the Chinese government to open Tibet to foreign media and allow United Nations investigators into the region. They say independent views are needed to change what they called the international community's "distrust."

Meanwhile, China's Communist Party newspaper is calling on the government to "resolutely crush" Tibet's independence movement.

A commentary in the People's Daily accuses the Dalai Lama of plotting recent anti-government protests in Tibet in hopes of undermining the upcoming Beijing Olympics and splitting Tibet from China.

The Dalai Lama has denied calling for protests.

Chinese authorities have raised the official death toll from the past week's riots to 19, including 18 civilians and a policeman. Tibetan exile groups say at least 80 people were killed in Lhasa, and that clashes in other Chinese provinces claimed nearly 20 lives.

Reports from China say Beijing has sent elite units of the People's Liberation Army into Tibet to crack down on the protests.

China has expelled all foreign journalists from Tibet and tried to prevent others from reaching neighboring provinces. Before they were forced to leave, journalists were able to report on a buildup of thousands of troops, along with blockades and checkpoints across a wide swath of western China.

*VOA

'Blood and fire' in Tibet as China tightens grip

2008-03-19T15:04:00.001-07:00

PROTESTS spread in Tibetan areas of western China despite thousands of security forces sealing off Tibetan monasteries and communities in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai yesterday as authorities warned of a "life and death" struggle.

China announced the surrender of 105 people involved in last week's violent protests in Tibet's capital, Lhasa.

The riots, during which hundreds of Han Chinese-owned businesses and other properties were torched, and the subsequent spread of protests throughout Tibetan areas of western China are the most serious challenge to Chinese rule in two decades and threaten to cast a shadow over the Beijing Olympics.

"We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai (Lama) clique," Tibet's Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region's Government and party leaders.

"Leaders of the whole country must deeply understand the arduousness, complexity and long-term nature of the struggle," he said in remarks carried online by the China Tibet News.

Mr Zhang also called for greater political control in the region. "We must continue to deepen our nationalist education and practically strengthen the building of political power at the grassroots."

While the Dalai Lama and Premier Wen Jiabao traded accusations of cultural genocide by China and an orchestrated campaign by the exiled Tibetan leader to disrupt the Olympics, there were reports of hundreds of Tibetans marching in the south-west of Sichuan, close to the Tibet border, for the fourth day.

According to Tibetan reports, the village of Riwa, in Daocheng county, has been the centre of repeated protests. A Tibetan academic in touch with those in Riwa said that on Saturday police opened fire, killing at least three people, while a policeman had his arm cut off during the fighting. About 4000 police were in the area, he said.

In north-west Sichuan, a witness said monks from local monasteries in the county of Seda joined other demonstrators on Tuesday morning, with protesters hurling rocks at security forces and shops.

Monks at the Kerti monastery at Langmusi, in northern Sichuan, said they were holding the bodies of at least eight protesters, aged from 17 to 64, shot dead by Chinese security forces during weekend clashes. Pictures of the bodies — some identified — with what appeared to be bullet wounds were released by the London-based A Free Tibet campaign. They included a 17-year-old student called Norbu from Shanglong village.

In neighbouring Gansu province, 400 to 500 Tibetans also marched on Tuesday, setting fire to a police station and a Government office, according to a monk involved in the protest. China has defended the crackdown and accused the Dalai Lama of being a "hypocritical liar" for advocating peaceful protests while masterminding the riots.

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday the Dalai Lama's claim that he wanted only greater autonomy for Tibet, and not full independence, could not be trusted.

*theage.com.au

China's Himalayan Reach

2008-03-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

China's assertion that it doesn't interfere in other countries' internal affairs has always suited the country's leaders for two reasons: it has allowed China to do business in places with dubious human rights records such as Sudan and Zimbabwe; and it serves as a ready "mind your own business" rebuttal to critics of Beijing's own internal policies in places such as Tibet. But as China grows more powerful, its leaders are finding it increasingly difficult to walk this laissez-faire diplomatic line. Beijing has gone along with the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to Sudan's troubled Darfur province, and is even providing some troops of its own. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao recently called for democracy in Burma, another country with close ties to the Chinese government.

Those two examples indicate Beijing is beginning to realize that it needs to be a good global citizen. But China's increasing willingness to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries does not mean the country isn't tending its own interests. Case in point: China's southern neighbor Nepal. Nepal has long looked to India as its natural ally in the region. But in the past few years successive governments in Kathmandu, perhaps sensing that Beijing and not New Delhi will be the real power in coming decades, have grown closer to China. Just how close the two have become can be seen in Nepal's reaction to the flare-up in Tibet. Nepal is home to a sizable Tibetan exile community. Officially, Tibetans are not allowed to organize politically in Nepal or air their anti-China grievances. A series of peaceful protests outside the Chinese embassy and at a United Nations building in Kathmandu over the past week have been broken up, sometimes brutally, by Nepalese police. Activists and journalists claim that, during the embassy protest on March 15, Chinese officials directed the police and also took photos of protestors.

Beijing has also deployed security officials inside Nepal, presumably to help detect fleeing Tibetans and keep a lid on unrest. Chinese security agents even stopped a reporter and photographer from Agence France-Presse from working inside Nepal three days ago, a small but heavy-handed example of China's reach.

There are other examples. Tourism officials and mountain-climbing companies in Nepal said last week that Beijing has asked Nepal to shut down access to southern climbing routes up Mt. Everest. This year's Olympic torch relay includes a visit to the summit of the world's highest mountain; Chinese authorities recently announced that they are closing their side of Everest — the northern slopes — because of overcrowding and environmental concerns. Most climbers believe the real reason is that China wants to prevent any demonstrations that would mar the event. Last year, climbers unfurled a banner at Everest base camp playing on the Beijing Olympic Slogan: "One World, one Dream, Free Tibet 2008," the banner read.

China reportedly has asked Nepal to close the mountain in late April and early May, when the torch would be making its ascent. This time period is the high season for climbing in the Himalayas. After originally indicating Nepal was considering China's request, Nepalese officials have since denied receiving it — although an official told a Nepalese newspaper that climbing on Everest may still be curtailed because of complications due to Nepal's upcoming elections. Ang Tsering from the Nepal Mountaineering Association says "no official word has been given by the government." But he estimated a two-week ban would cost Nepal about $1.5 million in climbing fees—peanuts compared with the tens of millions in aid and loans that Beijing gives Nepal. "It basically shows how much influence the Chinese government has here,� says Tibetan activist Tashi Dhundup, 32, who lives in Nepal. We can't even walk outside the Chinese embassy without getting clubbed about."

China has every right to negotiate and make deals with foreign governments, of course. Mountaineers may protest, but China and Nepal are also within their rights to take such a decision. But it is probably time for Beijing to stop pretending that it doesn't interfere in other countries affairs. With power comes recognizing your own influence, not denying it.

*time.com

Object to the Olympics in China, athletes told

2008-03-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Dutch star athletes with moral objections to China's human rights policy should go to Beijing for the Olympics and make their statement there, says Yves Kummer, chairman of NL Sporter, a lobby group which will represent about half the Dutch Olympic team.

The former rugby international told the Sportworld website on Tuesday that not going would achieve nothing. 'Taking part and making a statement there has far more impact,' he says.

Meanwhile, ChristenUnie MP Joël Voordewind told BNR News Radio on Monday that the International Olympic Committee should make a list of selection criteria, including free and fair elections, before deciding which countries should be considered as possible hosts for the games. This would avoid problems such as those with China, he said.

*DutchNews.nl

Nearly everything in the US is 'Made in China'

2008-03-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

Mr Li is the face of China, the world's fastest-growing superpower: he signs oil deals, builds hospitals and highways, sells merchandise, takes over companies and lays oil pipelines. In the coming months four journalists from Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Dutch domestic broadcaster VPRO will report on the sunny and dark sides of globalisation in the series 'Looking for Mr Li'.

This third report is from the United States.

Chinese applicants tend to turn up in person at the premises of US computer giant Apple. In this instance, there's a Chinese businessman near the reception desk, talking on the phone: "I have good ideas for collaboration in the field of software."

At the same time you can see numerous employees of Asian appearance walking to the car park of this collection of buildings in Cupertino, California, better known as the 'Apple campus'.

In just a short space of time, an Aston Martin, a Ferrari and some of the more expensive BMWs drive by. It would appear that there's still ‘computer gold' to be found down here in Silicon Valley, the high-tech 'zone' which is also home to companies such as Google and Yahoo.

Apple's motto
Chinese-born Robbie Zhang (38) smiles modestly as he comments about his having done reasonably well here. "I'm a product manager for iPod." He points to Apple's motto on the wall of the white reception area, and comments: "We're looking for the madmen, the non-conformists, the rebels, the people who think differently." However, he wouldn't describe himself as crazy.

"I've focussed mainly on studying. I've graduated in three subjects and I've also received a Master's degree."

Ghost town
Hard work appears to be a theme that connects all the Chinese who have come to the United States over the centuries. In another valley, not far from Yosemite National Park, lies Chinese Camp, a ghost town which was - as the name indicates - once inhabited by Chinese people, many of them gold miners.
Dolores Nicoline with a piece of Chinese pottery

Times have changed
Times have changed since then. Mr Zhang does not think American people have any reason to fear for their jobs, and he believes that immigrants have played a major part in Silicon Valley's growth.

Although the iPod was invented in the United States, it is manufactured in China. Mr Zhang says this is unavoidable.
"Companies will always go to the countries where the wages are lowest. This could also mean that, one day, factories in China will close their doors and new ones will open in Vietnam or Indonesia."

'Made in China'
Some people are very hung up about so many goods coming with a ‘Made in China' label. Sara Bongiorni, for example, even went as far as trying to avoid buying Chinese products for a year. She described her experiences in the book 'A Year without Made in China'.

"Oh yeah, we're trying to do that, too," says Beverly, an inhabitant of Chinese Camp, after seeing a copy of the book.
"We do our best to buy only American products."
She points to her driveway: "Look, we have a Chevrolet and a Harley Davidson. But they might contain foreign parts."

The book's author also concluded that it's nearly impossible to live without Chinese products in some shape or form.
Disappearing jobs
Michael Curran, who works for Novaworks, a temporary job agency in Silicon Valley, has seen many jobs disappear to China.
"But that's the way things go. Before there used to be orchards here. They had to make way for factories. Later the factories went to other locations in California. Then they went to Texas. Each time, people raised a hue and cry. But each time, other jobs came in their place. You just have to be on your toes and change with the times."

Mr Curran believes the educational system should prepare people for the possibility of having to change careers six or seven times in their lifetime. "But there's a lot that needs to be done before that happens."

Product manager Robert Zhang may one day return to China.
"Many of my former student colleagues are doing that. There are an increasing number of opportunities there. Perhaps then I'll work for a Chinese branch of Apple. But I can't imagine the entire company transferring to China. There are too many cultural differences. Apple's design is very much oriented towards the Western market."

*radionetherlands.nl

China Faces Olympic Spotlight Pressures

2008-03-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

The formation of a top-level leading group to prepare for the Olympics and the appointment of senior leaders to run it are marks of how serious Beijing is about the August Olympic Games and the issues that surround them. However, short-term considerations need to be disentangled from Beijing's long-term strategic thinking on, for example, Darfur and the environment.

Government policy has been developing this year in two particular areas with significant global attention. They are:

--the civil war in the Sudanese region of Darfur; and

--China's environmental record.

Both have come under the spotlight in the run-up to the Olympic Games, and the government has been making highly visible moves, many of them aimed squarely at the international community. Yet some positions are clearly being taken as part of strategies that extend long beyond this coming August.

Darfur. Beijing stands accused overseas of enabling the Sudanese government to continue a conflict in Darfur that many regard as genocide. In a high-profile move, U.S. film director Steven Spielberg withdrew last month from his role advising the Beijing Olympic Committee, citing China's support for Sudan as his reason.

However, China has engaged in a powerful counter-strategy. Last year, it appointed a formal representative on Darfur: former ambassador Liu Guijin.

The highly experienced diplomat has suggested that China's aims in Sudan converge with those of the West but that his country is more careful about recognizing Sudan's right to act within its boundaries as it sees fit.

China, he notes, has given significant humanitarian aid to the region, and the only non-African peace-keeping troops in Darfur are Chinese. Beijing has this year affirmed support for a joint African Union/U.N. force of up to 26,000 troops tasked with stabilizing Darfur.

Environment. In 2005, China estimated that the impact of pollution on the economy was of the order of $200 billion (then around 10% of gross domestic product).

In the run-up to the Olympics, the environment has been a major concern of the International Olympic Committee, leading to short-term measures, such as closing down polluting factories near the capital, by Beijing. For the period 2006-2010, China has pledged a $212.5 billion budget for environmental protection.

The establishment of a fully fledged environment ministry has been announced at the National People's Congress, currently in annual session. China has so far relied on the lower order State Environmental Protection Administration.

This will give the environment more clout within the political system. As China is now close to being the largest emitter of carbon, making it central to debates about global warming, the government has been at pains to show its willingness to act on international concerns.

Other concerns risk becoming seriously entangled in the Olympics. Tensions are rising in Tibet, with violence reported in Lhasa today, adding to growing activism by overseas Tibetans against Chinese rule this week.

Olympics. China is commonly understood to be showing more urgency on Darfur and the environment in order to appear cooperative, although public relations considerations have also influenced decision-making. China wants to be seen as operating according to international norms. The strategy appears to have been succeeding:

--Spielberg's gesture has created little wider anti-China feeling.

--U.S. President George Bush still plans on attending the Beijing Olympics.

--China benefits from a widespread assessment that it cannot be held directly to blame for Sudanese human rights violations, or at least, that its "double standards" are no worse than those of the West.

Nevertheless, Beijing remains highly sensitive about the pressures building around the Olympics. On March 12, the establishment of a high-level group to oversee the Games was announced.

Headed by Politburo Standing Committee member Xi Jinping, with another PSC member, Zhou Yongkang, a deputy head, along with Beijing party Head and President of the Games Organizing Committee, Liu Qi, the heavyweight group is intended to ensure the smoothest of preparations for the Olympics, on all fronts.

*forbes.com

Tibet govt-in-exile says 30 dead in unrest, Chinese security tight

2008-03-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (AFP) - - Tibet's exiled government said Saturday that about 30 people had been killed during unrest in Lhasa, as Chinese troops locked down the city amid fierce international scrutiny ahead of the Olympics.

Witnesses said tanks and soldiers were out in force in Lhasa following Friday's protests, the biggest against China's controversial rule of Tibet since 1989, as authorities set a Monday deadline for perpetrators to surrender.

"We are confirming approximately 30 deaths, and we are even hearing numbers of over 100 dead, but this number we are unable to confirm," Tenzin Taklha, a senior official of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala in northern India, told AFP.

"Right now we are hearing that there are many Chinese troops in Lhasa. There are pockets of people out in the streets right now, but there is great fear among the population."

The state-run Xinhua news agency earlier said 10 people died in the unrest, citing government officials from Tibet who blamed "mobs" for the violence.

"The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," Xinhua said, adding that no foreigners had been killed.

While authorities appeared in control in Lhasa Saturday, monks led a second day of rallies in Xiahe, Gansu province, the site of one of Tibetan Buddhism's most important monasteries, two activist groups and a local resident said.

China's top official in Tibet, a vast region formally annexed by the country in 1951, said the protests were part of a "separatist" movement led by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

"The plot of the separatists will fail. We will challenge them firmly, according to law," the chairman of the Tibet government, Qiangba Puncog, told reporters in Beijing.

"This is very clear: This is a separatist Dalai Lama clique, inside and outside the country."

Tibetan police and judicial authorities said in a notice that those involved in the riots should turn themselves in by midnight on Monday or "be severely punished under the law."

The Dalai Lama called on China to "stop using force" and rejected allegations that he and his government-in-exile were behind the uprising.

"These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people," he said. "Unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution."

Earlier, Xinhua said many police officers had been badly injured in clashes and that rioters had wielded iron bars, wooden sticks, long knives, backpacks filled with stones and bottles of inflammable liquids.

A Chinese tour operator and others in Lhasa contacted by AFP said tanks and armoured personnel carriers patrolled the city on Saturday and remained in place at nightfall.

"There are tanks and armed soldiers on the streets. We have been told to stay in our rooms... the city is shut down," Wu Yongzhe, the tour organiser, said by phone.

Wu, other tour operators and travellers said Tibet had been closed to foreign tourists.

Tibet, a mountainous region that includes Mount Everest and is more than twice the size of France, has been a flashpoint for China's Communist leadership since it came to power in 1949.

Communist forces were sent into Tibet in 1950 to "liberate" the region, with China's official rule beginning a year later.

Tibet has taken on greater importance in the run-up to the Olympics in August, which the country's leaders hope will be a chance to show off China's rapid transformation into a modern economic power.

Tibetan rights groups have vowed to pile intense pressure on Beijing over its rule of the region ahead of the Games, and any perceived rights abuses now would prove unwelcome news for the Chinese leadership.

The protests are the biggest since 1989, when Chinese President Hu Jintao -- who was on Saturday given a second five-year term -- was the Communist Party chief of Tibet.

Chinese censors blacked out Western media reports about developments in Tibet on Chinese television on Friday, and independent verification of the news from the region has been difficult.

But even official Chinese accounts have indicated the protests began Monday, when Tibetans around the world marked the anniversary of a 1959 uprising that was put down with force and led the Dalai Lama to flee into exile.

Those protests, begun by Buddhist monks, grew in the following days before erupting into anti-Chinese rioting on Friday.

Chinese-owned shops, offices and restaurants were smashed and burned by demonstrators.

The United States and Britain expressed concern over the violence, with the White House calling on Beijing to "respect Tibetan culture."

The US government warned Americans that the "situation in Lhasa continues to be unstable" and travel should be deferred. It also advised caution when heading to the "predominantly Tibetan areas" of neighbouring provinces.

Rights groups allege that Beijing encourages ethnic Chinese to move into Tibet to culturally take over the region, a process made easier with the government opening a new rail line to Tibet in 2006.

*AFP

Hu Jintao re-elected as president amid Tibet turmoil

2008-03-15T14:14:00.001-07:00

BEIJING (AFP) - - China's Communist Party chief Hu Jintao was given five more years as president at an elaborate parliamentary ceremony here on Saturday, but his orchestrated victory was overshadowed by turmoil in Tibet.

Hu, 65, was the only candidate for president and received the support of 99.7 percent of the votes cast at the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament.

Hu was also re-elected head of China's Central Military Commission with the same level of support, while his widely expected successor, Xi Jinping, 54, was elected vice president with 98.5 percent of the votes cast.

In front of the handpicked parliamentary delegates, Hu and Xi, wearing identical dark suits, embraced each other and smiled.

With Premier Wen Jiabao set to be endorsed as premier for five more years on Sunday, the parliamentary events showed the grip of China's communist rulers on national power remained as firm as ever.

However, behind the smiles, the leaders were undoubtedly preoccupied with protests in Tibet that have turned into the biggest challenge against Chinese rule of the remote Himalayan region since 1989.

A week of peaceful protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa erupted on Friday into a day of widespread violence, leading to the deaths of at least 10 people, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

While the leaders were in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, tanks and military vehicles were patrolling the streets of Lhasa amid a heavy security presence to ensure there were no more protests.

"There are tanks and armed soldiers on the streets. We have been told to stay in our rooms... the city is shut down," Wu Yongzhe, a private tour organiser based in Lhasa, told AFP.

In 1989, when Chinese troops imposed martial law to restore order in Tibet, Hu was the Communist Party chief of the region.

Wu and other tour operators told AFP that foreign tourists were being denied entry into Tibet, as the official Xinhua news agency published thousands of words seeking to blame the Tibetan protesters for all of the violence.

For China's communist chiefs, the unrest comes at a sensitive time as the world's spotlight falls on the country ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

But looking further ahead, analysts said Saturday's developments in Beijing showed Xi was firmly in line to take over Hu's post as head of the Communist Party in 2012 and as China's president in 2013.

"Xi is right on track to become Hu's successor," Joseph Cheng, a leading China watcher at City University of Hong Kong, told AFP.

"If things go smoothly and he makes no mistakes, he will be named to head the party in 2012 when Hu steps down."

On Saturday, Wu Bangguo was also endorsed to serve for another five years as head of the parliament, which is officially the second highest post in China's political hierarchy.

It also rubber-stamped a cabinet revamp that will reduce the number of government ministries by one to 27. As part of that revamp, an environment ministry will be created for the first time.

*AFP

Crackdown as 10 burnt to death in Tibet riots

2008-03-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

FOREIGN tourists yesterday told of the fear and chaos that gripped Lhasa, Tibet, as deadly violence erupted, before Chinese authorities seized control in a massive show of force.

"I saw a lot of people with wounded heads and blood and ambulances and tanks and policemen all over," Bente Walle, 58, said at Chengdu airport after flying out from Lhasa following Friday's unrest.

"I was very close to it when [the rioting] began. I heard no gunshots, but I saw a lot of fires and everybody was running and my guide told me, 'We have got to run.' Someone put us in their house and closed the door."

Ms Walle, from Denmark, said it took her and her guide 1½ hours to reach safety from the house, because the fighting in the streets meant taxi drivers would not take them close to their hostel.

"So he dropped us off on the road and we had to run again," she said.

"But I felt safe [when we were back at the hostel] and this woman [the guide] held my hand. But I don't want to do it again. It was very frightening."

Tibetans had begun tying white prayer scarves to their doors and cars so that the rioters would not ransack their property, Ms Walle added.

Chinese businesses - including the Bank of China - appeared to have been targeted by the rioters, as fires broke out across the city.

Chinese state television showed rioters ripping off the grille in front of the Bank of China, while the London-based Free Tibet Campaign reported that a Chinese jewellery shop had been demolished in the heart of the city.

China said yesterday 10 people had been burnt to death during the violence, which followed three days of monk-led protests on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising that was suppressed and during which exiles said that thousands of Tibetans died.

Ms Walle said Lhasa looked "like a ghost town" yesterday after the Chinese military regained control.

But in fresh violence elsewhere Tibetan Buddhist monks protested in China's north-west Gansu province, with security forces using tear gas to disperse the biggest rally.

In the Nepalese capital Kathmandu about 200 Tibetan refugees demonstrated outside the UN office before being dispersed by a police baton charge yesterday.

Australia joined calls from Western states for China to show restraint but Asian states elected not to speak out about the riots.

"We urge the Chinese Government to allow peaceful expression of dissent," Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said.

"We call on Chinese authorities to act with restraint and to deal with protesters peacefully."

Beijing set a "surrender deadline" and showed the first extensive television footage of rioting in Lhasa, signalling a crackdown after the worst unrest in Tibet for two decades.

READ MORE ABOUT THE TIBETAN CRACKDOWN ON TTT
*smh.com.au

Protesters Launch New March to Tibet As Exile Group Says 100 Demonstrators Are Dead

2008-03-15T05:46:00.001-07:00

DEHRA, India — Dozens of protesters in India launched a new march to Tibet on Saturday, days after more than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested by authorities during a similar rally.

The main Tibetan exile group says Chinese police have killed about 100 Tibetan demonstrators and injured many more during protests against Chinese rule.

The Tibetan government in exile, based in the north Indian town of Dharmsala, offers no details in their statement, and quotes only "unconfirmed sources."

The report comes after protests by Buddhist monks in Tibet have turned violent, with shops and vehicles set on fire and gunshots fired in the streets of the region's capital, Lhasa. Earlier reports have said at least 10 people were killed.

The demonstrators in India, many of them Buddhist monks, started marching from near the area where the Tibetan exiles were recently arrested.

"We will keep on marching until we reach Tibet. And even if these marchers are arrested, there will be more," said march organizer Chemi Youngdrung of the National Democratic Party of Tibet. "We are thankful to the people in Tibet who are laying down their lives."

On Friday, more than 100 Tibetan exiles began two weeks of detention in northern India after police arrested them during a march to their homeland to protest China's hosting of the Olympic Games.

The demonstrators had vowed to march from India to Tibet, where they planned to arrive at the start of the Olympics in August. Fearing the march would embarrass China, Indian officials banned the Tibetan exiles from leaving the Kangra district that surrounds Dharmsala.

The marchers ignored the warnings and continued their trek. On Thursday, police confronted them on the road in Dehra, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the district boundary, and arrested about 130 protesters.

On Saturday a police officer asked the marchers for details of their itinerary and reminded them that they were not allowed to leave the district.

"We told him that since our group has not been served any formal, legal notice by the police, we would not be breaking any laws by crossing the boundary," Youngdrung said.

The march began Monday, the day Tibetans commemorate a 1959 uprising against China.

Beijing maintains Tibet is historically a part of China. But many Tibetans argue the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to crush Tibetan culture by swamping it with Han people, the majority Chinese ethnic group.

*foxnews.com

China Detains Tibetan Monks; Violence Flares In Lhasa

2008-03-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

The biggest demonstrations in Tibet in 20 years against Beijing's rule have erupted in violence in Lhasa, with Chinese properties being attacked and at least two people reported dead.

The BBC reports that the rallies began in the Tibetan capital earlier this week when a number of Buddhist monks were reportedly arrested after a march marking the 49th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Hundreds of monks took to the streets to demand their release and the protests then gained momentum as ordinary Tibetans joined the protests.

The deaths occurred as the protestors clashed with Chinese security forces. The US-based Radio Free Asia quoted witnesses who said they had seen at least two bodies on Lhasa's streets.

Rioters had reportedly taken control of Lhasa's centre, attacking shops, restaurants, and properties owned by ethnic Chinese, ripping out the contents and burning them in the streets.

The Dalai Lama, who heads Tibet's government-in-exile in India, released a statement expressing deep concern.

His statement called on the Chinese leadership to "stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people."

"I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."

Chinese authorities have blamed "the recent sabotage in Lhasa" on the "Dalai clique".

News reports say the unrest has spread to other areas of Tibet and neighbouring provinces, with reports of hundreds of monks rallying in Gansu.

*newsroomamerica.com

Two die in troubled Tibet

2008-03-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

The first pictures have emerged of unrest in Tibet in which several people have reportedly died and many more have been injured. One eyewitness is being quoted as saying big groups of people were setting fire to cars and shops. A spokeswoman for the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights says Tibet's isolation isn't helping.

The protestors appear to want to destroy anything of Chinese influence. The US embassy in Beijing said US citizens in Lhasa had reported hearing gunfire.

The events in Tibet follow the recent unrest in India, where more than 100 Tibetan refugees have now been detained. The marchers, protesting against China hosting the Olympics, were detained near Dharamsala town, headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile. The walk began on Monday as part of a global pro-independence protest.

*euronews.net

Tibet protest against China erupts in violence

2008-03-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Reports coming out of the capital Lhasa told of clashes with the security forces which led to shots being fired and numerous injuries.

The reports of shots being fired were confirmed by the American embassy in Beijing, which said it had been informed by tourists in the city.

Tibetans were seeing carrying away the injured. A local hospital said at least 12 people had been injured.

The clashes began when a group of monks from the Ramoche monastery in the centre of the capital Lhasa began to march through the streets.

Lay people took action in sympathy, the first time since the current wave of protests began on Monday that they have actively joined in.

Even the state news agency confirmed that shops were on fire, in an unusually prompt report.

Other sources said the biggest market in the city, the Tromsikhang stalls which back on to the Jokhang monastery in the centre, was burned to the ground.

Residents told intermediaries and Tibet support groups in Nepal and India that shots had been fired.

Some said they had seen tanks on the streets near the Potala Palace, historic home of the Dalai Lama.

This week's protests began on Monday, the 49th anniversary of the uprising against Chinese rule that led to the current Dalai Lama fleeing into exile.

They were led by monks from the Drepung and Sera monasteries just outside Lhasa. The day after, a second demonstration involving monks from Sera was broken up by tear gas.

By Thursday night, Sera, Drepung and a third monastery where protests had been reported, Gamden, were said to be surrounded by security forces.

Some monks had gone on hunger strike, while two in Drepung had slashed their wrists in protest and were said to be close to death.

Tourists have now said they had been told to stay in their hotel rooms. “There is a lot of military and police in the middle of Lhasa,” said one.

The violence may have been an immediate response to a round of searches carried out by police looking for wanted monks in hiding.

But the authorities in Beijing are seeing a realisation of their worst fears, of opponents of their regime using the attention being drawn to China because of the forthcoming Olympics to create unrest.

*telegraph.co.uk

Reports: Tibet Protests Turn Violent

2008-03-14T05:39:00.001-07:00

BEIJING (AP) -- Angry protesters set shops ablaze and gunfire was reported in Tibet's regional capital Friday as the largest demonstrations in two decades against Chinese rule turned violent just months ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

The protests, in their fifth day and led by monks supporting Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, threatened to cast a shadow over China's efforts to portray a unified and prosperous nation in the run-up to the games.

Protesters set shops and police vehicles on fire in Lhasa, state media and witnesses said. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing warned Americans to stay away, saying it had ''received firsthand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence.''

The protests are the largest and most sustained in Lhasa since Beijing crushed a wave of pro-independence demonstrations in 1989. Since then, China has invested in the region, vilified the Dalai Lama and tried to weed out his supporters among the influential Buddhist clergy.

But Tibetans inside and outside the country have sought to use the Olympic Games' high profile to call attention to their cause. Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama -- who many Tibetans consider their rightful ruler -- of trying to sabotage the games.

A Lhasa resident, who asked to be unnamed for fear of government reprisal, said military police had closed all roads leading to the city center.

''The situation is quite serious. There's a curfew in the city and I can see military police block all the roads to the center of the city. Nearly all the stores and shops are closed,'' the resident said.

A Tibetan woman who has family in the city said protesters were setting fires.

''The monks are still protesting. Police and army cars were burned. There are people crying,'' said the witness, who also requested anonymity for fear of government reprisal. ''Hundreds of people, including monks and civilians are in the protest.''

Tensions in the Tibetan capital have increased in recent days. The city's three biggest monasteries were sealed off by thousands of soldiers and armed police in a government crackdown against the protests, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia reported Friday.

Monks at the major Sera Monastery launched a hunger strike Thursday to demand that armed police withdraw from the monastery grounds and detained monks be released, RFA reported.

At the Drepung Monastery, two Buddhist monks are in critical condition after attempting to commit suicide by slashing their wrists, RFA said, citing authoritative sources.

Also believed to be under watch is a third monastery, Ganden. The London-based International Campaign for Tibet said monks from the Ganden monastery mounted protests Thursday, becoming the last of the three historically important monasteries known as the ''Three Pillars of Tibet'' to join in the demonstrations.

Tourists were mainly staying off the streets and were being warned away from all the monasteries, said one tourist staying at a Lhasa hotel.

''The Red Army is downtown. It's not safe to walk around. All the major monasteries are closed,'' said the tourist, who refused to give her name or her nationality. ''Tourists don't feel comfortable walking around because police are all over.''

The Chinese government was trying to keep foreigners from getting in, with travel agents in China and neighboring Nepal refusing to issue the special permits needed to visit the region.

It is extremely difficult to get independent verification of events in Tibet since China maintains rigid control over the area. Journalists are rarely granted access except under highly controlled circumstances.

Officials who answered phones at police and Communist Party offices in Tibet on Friday said they had no information about the violence and refused to comment.

Beijing maintains that Tibet is historically a part of China. But many Tibetans argue the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to crush Tibetan culture by swamping it with Han people, the majority Chinese ethnic group.

The protests by the Buddhist monks began Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule.

In northern India, meanwhile, organizers said more than 100 Tibetan exiles began a two-week detention after police arrested them during a march to their homeland to protest China's hosting of the Olympics.

March coordinator Tenzin Palkyi said Friday the exiles were being kept in detention in a state-run hotel while authorities investigate the charges of threatening the ''peace and tranquility'' of the region.

*nytimes.com

Troops 'seal Tibet monasteries'

2008-03-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

Security forces have sealed off three monasteries in the Tibetan city of Lhasa after protests earlier this week, witnesses and a rights group said.
Witnesses said police were at Drepung and Sera monasteries on Thursday. A third monastery, Ganden, was also surrounded, a US-based group said.

The move follows at least two days of protests by monks against Chinese rule.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that shops had been set on fire in Lhasa, amid continuing unrest.

Confirming reports from Tibet is difficult because both access and the media are tightly controlled.

But rights groups say the demonstrations are the largest in Tibet in almost two decades, and have spread from Lhasa to rural areas and neighbouring provinces.

'Three layers'

The protests began on Monday when Tibetans around the world marked the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule.

Unconfirmed reports then suggested that as many as 600 monks from Drepung and Sera monasteries joined peaceful rallies on Tuesday and that police used tear gas to disperse them.

There are also unconfirmed reports that monks have been detained, and that monks at the Sera monastery are on hunger strike.

According to the US-based International Campaign for Tibet, three major monasteries in Lhasa are now "under lockdown and surrounded by troops".

An unidentified man inside Sera monastery told the Associated Press news agency that it was "surrounded by many people".

Another Lhasa resident told the agency that Drepung monastery was encircled by "three layers" of troops.

Two monks there were in critical condition after attempting suicide, US-based Radio Free Asia reported.

On Thursday, Chinese authorities played down the protests - which coincided with similar demonstrations in India and Nepal.

"In the past couple of days, a few monks in Lhasa have made some disturbances in an effort to cause unrest," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gan said.

"Thanks to the efforts of the local government and the democratic administration of the temples, the situation in Lhasa has been stabilised."

Beijing claims sovereignty over Tibet, but many Tibetans remain loyal to their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 and currently lives in exile in India.

A surge in Tibetan activism could become a major concern for China in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, correspondents say.

*BBC

China admits Tibet monk protests

2008-03-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

Chinese officials have acknowledged that Buddhist monks were protesting in the Tibetan city of Lhasa this week.
Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the authorities had "stabilised" the situation.

Unconfirmed reports earlier this week said as many as 600 monks had taken part in rallies, and that police used tear gas to disperse them.

Rights groups said the demonstrations were the biggest display of opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet since 1989.

US-based Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday that dozens of monks had been detained as the authorities sought to crack down on dissent.

However, little information emerged from Tibet and the authorities remained tight-lipped until Thursday, when Mr Qin confirmed that a series of rallies had taken place.

"In the past couple of days, a few monks in Lhasa have made some disturbances in an effort to cause unrest," news agency AFP quoted him as saying.

"Thanks to the efforts of the local government and the democratic administration of the temples, the situation in Lhasa has been stabilised."

Everest closure

Radio Free Asia reported that a number of monks were arrested on Monday after a march marking the 49th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

The radio station, which is funded by the US government, said hundreds of monks took to the streets the following day to demand the release of their fellow monks - and were dispersed by tear gas.

Campaigners based outside China say protesters in Lhasa are being spurred on by rallies in other Chinese provinces and in India.

Matt Whitticase from the UK-based Free Tibet Campaign said protesters in Lhasa had been "emboldened" by the support they were receiving from across the world.

"Tibetans inside Tibet are aware that Tibetans in India are marching towards the Tibet border," he said.

Tibetan exiles in India began a march to the border with China on Monday - one of several events protesting against the Beijing Olympics and campaigning for an independent Tibet.

But Indian police arrested more than 100 of the exiles, saying their march breached an agreement between Delhi and the Tibet's India-based government-in-exile, headed by the province's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A surge in Tibetan activism could become a security headache for China in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, correspondents say.

This week the Chinese leadership closed the north face of Mount Everest until after the Olympic Flame ascends in May, for fear that activists might use it to stage photogenic Tibet-related protests.

Beijing claims sovereignty over Tibet, but many Tibetans remain loyal to the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 and currently lives in exile in India.

*bbc.co.uk

Indian Police Arrest Activists During Protest March to Tibet

2008-03-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

(Photo:AP)
Indian police have arrested about 100 Tibetan exiles who set out, earlier this week, on a protest march from India to their homeland. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the march is part of a global campaign mounted by Tibetan activists ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, to highlight their struggle to free Tibet from Chinese rule.

The Tibetan activists had traveled some 50 kilometers on their planned trek to Tibet when police took them away in vans, early Thursday, in Dehra town in Himachal Pradesh state.

Tibetan Youth Congress President Tsewang Rigzin says stopping the protest march, just days after it started out, is a setback.

"We are very disappointed that the Indian police came and stopped our marchers this morning at 6.40 a.m.," Rigzin said. "When the police came and stopped us, all the marchers sat down on the streets and they did not move and they were doing prayers and the police came out and they forcibly took all the marchers and loaded them on to the bus."

Indian police had banned the march soon after it began, Monday. The ban was widely expected. New Delhi has given shelter to tens of thousands of Tibetan refugees, but it does not allow them to mount anti-Chinese public protests.

Rigzin, who is one of the organizers of the march, says it is a non-violent protest and should be allowed to go on.

"We have said it, all, along, that our march to Tibet is completely non-violent… We have not caused any problems to anyone along the way, whatsoever. We are just a bunch of peaceful monks and nuns, along with some lay people. We are just marching along the road and we are not committing any crime. So, the march should go on," Rigzin said.

Tibetan activists say the detention of the marchers is the first major obstacle to their protest. They have vowed to find a way to reach Lhasa in Tibet within six months.

The march is one of several protests organized by Tibetan exile groups, ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, to draw attention to their struggle to free their homeland from what they call "illegal Chinese occupation."

China says has controlled Tibet since 1951 and says it is an integral part of its territory. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and Tibetan refugees accuse the Chinese of widespread human rights violations in the region.

*VOA

Tibetan Monks in Critical Condition After Attempted Suicide, as Protests Mount

2008-03-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

KATHMANDU—Two Tibetan Buddhist monks are in critical condition after stabbing their wrists and chests amid mounting anti-Chinese protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to authoritative sources in the region.

Two monks from Drepung monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa attempted suicide Thursday and were in critical condition at the monastery clinic, the sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.

The two monks were identified as Kalsang and Damchoe, both originally from Kirti monastery in Sichuan province and now resident at Drepung monastery. Sources said the men had stabbed themselves in the chest, hands, and wrists. Both refused to be moved to hospital but were taken instead to the monastery clinic, the sources said.

"There are many other monks who hurt themselves in desperation, and protests are going on inside the monastery as of March 12 and 13," one source said. Another source described the two monks' condition as critical and said they were not expected to survive.

Also Thursday, the Chinese authorities squarely blamed the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, for instigating “successive trouble by some monks in Lhasa” and voiced determination to oppose them according to Chinese law.

Monks at another major Lhasa monastery have meanwhile launched a hunger strike aimed at pressuring the Chinese authorities, as protests against China's heavy-handed presence in the region spread to other Tibetan Buddhist convents and monasteries, according to sources who declined to be identified.

“The monks in Sera monastery are observing a hunger strike inside the premises of Sera," one source said. "They vowed not to eat and sleep unless their demands are met." The monks are demanding the withdrawal of paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) forces from the monastery compound and the release of monks detained during an earlier protest on March 10, the source said.

China blames Dalai Lama for spreading protests
Other sources, all of whom declined to be identified, reported additional protests at Reting monastery, north of Lhasa, and at Ganden monastery. Authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region have also warned Tibetans employed as civil servants to stay away from monasteries and convents.

On Tuesday, armed Chinese police fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred protesting monks near Lhasa. The protests began March 10 when hundreds of monks staged a rare demonstration on the 49th anniversary of a 1959 uprising crushed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The Dalai Lama, now 72, subsequently fled into exile in northern India.

“There were probably a couple of thousand armed police, PSB personnel, wearing different uniforms. Police fired tear-gas into the crowd,” one witness told RFA’s Tibetan service. PSB denotes the China’s Public Security Bureau.

Lhasa neighborhood committees have mobilized to inspect every household in predominantly Tibetan areas of the city, searching for unregistered monks or nuns sheltering illicitly in private homes, sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.

Monks in two more monasteries in Qinghai province—Lutsang monastery in Mangra (in Chinese, Guinan) county, and Ditsa monastery in Bayan (in Chinese, Hualong) county—also staged protests Monday, sources said. Armed police surrounded Ditsa monastery during the protest but neither intervened nor detained anyone there, the sources said.

Tensions have been escalating in recent years in traditionally Tibetan areas of what is now western China, with Chinese authorities taking a tougher line against what they regard as ethnic “splittism,” or resistance to Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama is regarded by China as a dangerous figure seeking independence for his homeland, although he says he wants only autonomy and for Chinese repression of Tibetans to end.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang meanwhile called the protests “a deliberate political plot of the Dalai Lama group to cause social unrest, separate Tibet from China, and wreck the stable, harmonious, and normal life of the Tibetan people,” according to China's official news agency, Xinhua.

“The Chinese government is determined to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the vast majority of the Tibetan people are determined to safeguard national unity and solidarity,” Xinhua quoted him as saying. "We are resolutely opposed to any plots attempting to separate Tibet from China. Relevant Chinese departments will handle the issue properly and strictly in accordance with law.”

In its dispatch, Xinhua said: "It is the common wish of all nationalities in Tibet to safeguard national unity, solidarity, and the harmonious society, Qin said, noting that the plots of the Dalai Lama group are doomed to failure.”

Original reporting in Uke, Amdo, and Kham for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

*RFA

Dutch swimmer puts pressure on Rogge over Chinese human rights

2008-03-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

AMSTERDAM (AFP) — Three-time Olympic gold medallist Pieter van den Hoogenband on Wednesday called on International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge to speak out on human rights in China ahead of the Beijing Games.

"I'm calling on him (Rogge) to take responsibility as the highest leader in international sport and to speak out publically before the whole world, in the name of athletes all over the world, in favour of the improvement of the human rights situation in China," the Dutch swimmer told a press conference.

"As the head of the Olympic family Mr Rogge is the right person to give a voice to athletes worldwide."

Van den Hoogenband's coach Jacco Verhaeren last month expressed his concern at the IOC's reluctance to criticise China's record on human rights.

"What bothers me is the IOC's indifferent attitude. Really I don't understand the problem. What is so difficult about condemning executions," Verhaeren told the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. Rogge has defended the IOC's stance.

"We are not a political body. The International Olympic Committee is a sports organization, and it is a private organization not a state one," he said recently.

"Don't blame the IOC for not achieving more than a generation of Statesmen have. We believe the Olympic Games are a force for the good, and we believe the Olympic Games will be a catalyst for change in China."

Van den Hoogenband, the world 100m recordholder, is bidding to win a third consecutive gold in the 100m freestyle in Beijing, and is also competing in the 200m, in which he won gold at the Sydney Games and silver in Athens.

China 'exploiting Olympic workers'

2008-03-12T14:57:00.001-07:00

Armies of workers building Beijing's Olympic venues are being badly paid and placed in danger because laws designed to protect them are not enforced, a human rights watchdog has said.

The report listed the risks facing the estimated two million migrant workers working on construction sites in the run-up to this August's Games, including a lack of safety equipment, crowded and unhygienic dormitories, no medical care, arbitrary fines by bosses, and delayed or unpaid wages.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it interviewed workers at nine different building sites in Beijing.

More than half said employers refused to pay their wages each month as required by Chinese law, and many had to wait until the end of the year for less pay than they had been promised.

"Despite years of government rhetoric, employers still cheat migrant construction workers of hard-earned wages. And when it comes to basic social services, the government still discriminates against migrants," a spokeswoman said.

The findings underscore the unfair conditions rural migrants face as they provide much of the cheap labour underpinning the economic boom. Their continued exploitation presents a challenge to Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, who has promised to change things.

When asked about the report ahead of its publication, China's Foreign Ministry questioned the credibility of Human Rights Watch.

"I believe that everybody is well aware that Human Rights Watch has some problem with its sight. It is biased. It has some problems with its eyes. It has weakness in seeing things properly," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

With Beijing having spent £20 billion on an urban makeover to impress the world during the Olympics, the government is keen to avoid embarrassment.

Workers described 17-hour or longer days, without overtime wages, on Beijing construction sites, Human Rights Watch said. In one case, the report said, about 160 workers hired to build a multi-storey building for three months were eventually paid an average wage of less than half of the daily official minimum wage of 48p an hour.

*AP

China Faces Criticism As Olympics Near

2008-03-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (AP) - China is denying mountaineers permission to climb its side of Mount Everest this spring, a move that reflects concerns by the communist government that Tibet activists may try to disrupt its plans to carry the Olympic torch up the world's tallest peak.

In recent days, everyone from the U.S. government to rights groups and George Clooney have urged China to tackle issues as varied as its restrictions on religion; the poor working conditions of migrant labor; Beijing's oil purchases from Sudan to fuel the Darfur crisis; and Tibet.

The Everest restrictions were contained in a letter the government's mountaineering association sent this week to expedition companies. It comes as China's much criticized rule of Tibet, long a hot-button issue, is heating up, joining a growing list of other topics that pressure groups want Beijing to confront before the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.

Chinese police fired tear gas to clear Buddhist monks protesting for a second day Tuesday in Lhasa, the U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported. In a sign of growing concerns over Olympic security, Beijing said Wednesday that the ruling Communist Party's law enforcement czar was named to a three-man committee overseeing Olympic preparations.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also testily chastised critics trying to leverage the Olympics to draw attention to human rights violations and other issues. Those who "want to tarnish the image of China," Yang said in a rare televised news conference, "they will never get their way."

With less than five months to go to the games _ and three weeks before the Olympic flame arrives in Beijing _ events are taking on a harder political tone, and the criticism has put the government on the defensive at a time it hoped to be basking in praise.

"They see this as somewhat hostile and mainly because it's pressure to change, and that provokes a hostile reaction from them," said Susan Brownell, an American expert on China sports scene who is spending a year at Beijing Sports University.

Annexed by Chinese troops 58 years ago but with a resilient exile community led by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate the Dalai Lama, Tibet has been a concern for Beijing Olympic security planners and crisis managers for months. In the past year, Tibet activists have unfurled banners at Everest base camp and the Great Wall, calling for Tibet's independence.

Bringing the Olympic flame to the summit of Everest is shaping up to be one of the grandest _ and most politicized _ feats of the already politicized Beijing games.

The 29,035-foot peak is battered by harsh weather and wreathed in thin oxygen, presenting a physical and technical challenge to the torch crews. The mountain also straddles the political border between Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal, home to Tibetan exiles and activists.

Activist groups have criticized the Everest run as an attempt by Beijing to lend legitimacy to Chinese rule. "Beijing is using the Olympics torch ceremony, which should stand for human freedoms and dignity, to bolster its territorial claim over Tibet," John Ackerly, president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has said that the Everest relay would be a show of international sportsmanship, as well as a point of national pride.

"The torch relay to Mount Everest is a highlight of the whole relay, and it also represents the idea of green Olympics, high-tech Olympics and people's Olympics," Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Jingming told reporters in Beijing. He promised a successful ascent even if the weather was bad, saying a test-run went well last year.

Beijing has been secretive about the Everest leg of the symbol-freighted, popular Olympic relay. The Everest run is a side spur of the main event, a second torch that will be carried up the mountain while the relay is in Southeast Asia or elsewhere in China.

Beijing Olympic organizers have not released an exact date of the ascent, but preparations point to late April or early May.

The north side of Everest, which is in Chinese territory, contains some of the most difficult routes to the summit. The south side, through Nepal, is the most popular way to the top. China has tried to pressure Nepal to close the south side as well, according to Web site everest.net.

In September 2006, a Tibetan man and Buddhist nun were shot and killed by Chinese border guards at the 19,028-foot Nangpa La Pass, a common escape route for Tibetans fleeing to Nepal. The shootings, which China said were in self-defense, were caught on video by climbers at a base camp for the nearby Cho Oyu mountain.

The letter sent to expedition companies this week by the government's China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which issues permits for Everest, said climbs of that mountain and Cho Oyu should be postponed until after May 10.

The letter, which was posted on a foreign mountaineering Web site MountEverest.net and verified by the association, cites "heavy climbing activities" as among the reasons but does not mention the torch.

Zhang Mingxing, general secretary of the association, said his group would still welcome several hundred climbers but suggested that most would be in the August to October climbing season. Besides, he said, "the climate in Tibet this year is a bit unusual. It is still snowing here and the wind is pretty big, so it is better to postpone the climbing."

Mountaineering groups, incensed by the decision, said they had been told that the relay was the main reason for the postponements.

"No applications for climbing Mount Everest between March and June are being accepted" because of the torch relay, said Li Hua with the Tibet Polar Land Exploration Tourist Co. in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. "No matter whether you're an individual or group, it's impossible to get permission to climb the mountain during the period."

*wtopnews.com

China fires tear gas on monks protesting in Tibet

2008-03-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

By Lindsay Beck and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese security personnel fired tear gas to try to disperse more than 600 monks taking part in a second day of rare street protests in Tibet, a source and Radio Free Asia said on Wednesday.

The Tibet demonstrations follow a string of marches around the world to commemorate the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule in the remote, mountainous region that has become a flashpoint for protesters ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

"The police were armed with electric prods. Other uniformed security forces had firearms," the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

"The monks chanted: 'Release our people'," the source said, quoting a witness. The group, from the Sera Monastery, also shouted "We want human rights and freedom", the source said.

On Monday, 300 monks defied authorities by staging a march in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, which a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman described as "an illegal activity that threatened social stability".

Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950 and nine years later the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled into exile after a failed revolt against Chinese rule.

Tibet has since become a point of contention between Chinese Communist leaders and those who advocate independence or greater autonomy for the region.

Radio Free Asia said the monks from the Sera Monastery were demanding the release of fellow monks detained for protesting a day earlier.

About a dozen monks from Sera were detained earlier this month for waving a Tibetan flag and shouting pro-independence slogans, the source said, adding that government officials said they had been rounded up for "very serious" crimes.

EVEREST

The pro-Tibet protests around the world in the last week and the demonstrations within the heavily policed region itself are precisely what China's Communist rulers are keen to avoid ahead of the Olympics in August.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told unwelcome critics to back off on Wednesday, accusing them of violating the Olympic Games charter keeping politics away from sports.

"More and more countries ... have recognized that this issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is not a religious or ethnic issue," Yang told a news conference.

On Wednesday, reports said China had closed the north face of Mount Everest to expeditions until after the Olympic torch ascends its peak in early May.

The Expedition Web portal www.mounteverest.net carried a notice on its site from the Mountaineering Association of Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China asking climbers to postpone their ascents until after May 10.

"Concern over heavy climbing activities, crowded climbing routes and increasing environmental pressures will cause potential safety problems in Qomalangma areas," said the notice, dated March 10. "We are not able to accept your expedition, so please postpone your climbing project until after May 10."

Everest, where five Americans unfurled "Free Tibet" banners last year, is known in China by its Tibetan name, Qomalangma.

India, whose hill station town of Dharamsala is home to Tibet's government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama, also saw a spurt of activity over the issue of who rules the Buddhist region.

In New Delhi, about 40 Tibetan nuns tried to storm the Chinese embassy, but were turned back and detained by Indian police, who briefly used water cannon on the protesters.

Around 500 Tibetan women also marched peacefully through the streets of Dharamsala, activists said.

And around 100 marchers, including monks, nuns and young people born in exile, set off on the third day of their march from Dharamsala to Tibet, closely watched by Indian police and officials who hope to keep them within the district of Kangra.

(Additional reporting by Desmond Boylan in New Delhi; Editing by Nick Macfie)

("Countdown to Beijing Olympics" blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)

China Detains Tibetan Monks Protesting on Key Anniversary

2008-03-11T13:34:00.001-07:00

KATHMANDU—Chinese authorities in Tibet today detained dozens of Tibetan monks staging a rare protest march into the regional capital, Lhasa, on a key anniversary.

An authoritative source who declined to be identified told RFA’s Tibetan service as many as 300 monks set out from Drepung monastery outside Lhasa on the roughly 10-km (5-mile) walk into the city center.

Sources said the monks were marching to the Potala Palace in the heart of Lhasa to demand the release of monks detained last October shortly after the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, received a Congressional Gold Medal in Washington.

Police, ambulances summoned
Authorities at a checkpoint along the way stopped and detained between 50 and 60 monks, the source said. Witnesses reported seeing about 10 military vehicles, 10 police vehicles, and several ambulances at the checkpoint.

No information was immediately available on where the monks were taken or why ambulances were summoned.

Another witness reported that official vehicles then blocked off access by road to Drepung monastery, and that many monasteries in and around Lhasa were surrounded by members of the paramilitary People's Armed Police.

A source at a nunnery in the area, who asked not to be identified, said authorities had told the nunnery to lock its gates at 9 p.m. to keep all of the nuns inside.

Separately, witnesses reported that nine monks from another major monastery, Sera, and two laypeople staged a loud protest in front of the Tsuklakhang cathedral in central Lhasa, waving banners and shouting slogans.

Onlookers surrounded the 11 protesters, keeping security officers at a distance. People's Armed Police officers later pushed through the crowd and detained them, the witnesses said. The 11 detainees were identified as: Lobsang Ngodrub, Lobsang Sherab, Lodroe, Sonam Lodroe, Lobsang, Tsultrim Palden, Geleg, Pema Karwang, Zoepa, Thubdron, and Phurdan. No further details were available.

Officials decline to comment
Officials contacted by telephone at the Lhasa Public Security Bureau command center declined to comment. Officials at the Lhasa municipal government and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government said they were unaware of any unrest.

March 10, 2008, marks the 49th anniversary of an uprising crushed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The Dalai Lama, now 72, subsequently fled into exile in northern India. Drepung, founded in the 15th century, is one of largest monasteries in Tibet and ranks as one of the most important in the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.

In his own statement marking the anniversary, the Dalai Lama called on the world to press China to allow freedom of expression during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

“The language, customs and traditions of Tibet...are gradually fading away,” the 1989 Nobel laureate said.

Tibetans “have had to live in a state of constant fear, intimidation, and suspicion under Chinese repression…Repression continues to increase with numerous, unimaginable, and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom, and the politicization of religious issues."

The Chinese government defends its presence in Tibet as liberation from “feudalism,” noting that it has spent billions of dollars to modernize the region and raise standards of living.

Tensions have been escalating in recent years in traditionally Tibetan areas of what is now western China, with Chinese authorities taking a tougher line against what they regard as ethnic “splittism,” or resistance to Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama is regarded by China as a dangerous figure seeking independence for his homeland, although he says he wants only autonomy and for Chinese repression of Tibetans to end.

Original reporting by RFA's Tibetan service. Additional reporting by RFA's Mandarin service. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Edited by Richard Finney.

*rfa.org

Tibetan Monks Warned To Return to Monastery

2008-03-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

KATHMANDU—Chinese authorities in China's western Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have given protesting monks until March 8 to return to Jesho Baikar monastery or face “serious consequences,” Tibetan sources say.

The monks left to protest pro-Chinese “patriotic education” campaigns launched after a major clash between Tibetan nomads and police in the area on Nov. 20, the sources said.

“All the monks from Jesho Baikar monastery who left after the incidents of Nov. 19-20 were ordered by the local Chinese authorities to return by March 8, 2008, or face serious consequences,” one source told RFA's Tibetan service.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said many monks left Baikar and joined Sera and Drepung monasteries in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

“Chinese work teams tried to conduct a patriotic campaign in Baikar monastery, but the monks were uncooperative and many refused to comply—they started abandoning the monastery. About 50 armed police were stationed at the monastery, along with a contingent of work-team members, to enforce the campaign."

Breakdown reported
“The monks were ordered to condemn His Holiness the Dalai Lama, abandon his photos, and stop listening to RFA...and to radio [broadcasts] from India. Listening is considered a political activity against the government, and the monks were threatened with life imprisonment,” another source said.

“One young monk...suffered a breakdown under this harassment and threat. These work teams who conduct patriotic campaigns were stationed at the monastery for about a month and armed police are still stationed there.”

Twenty-two Tibetans—10 monks and 12 laypeople—remain in detention following the Nov. 20 clash, the sources said.

The clash began in a disagreement between three monks from Jesho Baikar monastery and a Chinese shopkeeper in Baikar (in Chinese, Baiga Shang), Nagchu (in Chinese, Naqu) prefecture.

Nomads demanded release
Police were said to have fired eight rounds of warning shots. One monk was sentenced to two years in jail, one monk to three years, and a third monk to two years. The 12 laypeople are awaiting sentencing, the sources said.

No comment was available from local authorities.

A 14-year-old monk, Tsering Gyaltsen, was wearing a photo of the Dalai Lama around his neck when he was detained, and police beat him severely after he refused to denounce the exiled Tibetan leader.

He was denied medical attention and left in the courtyard of a government building in Baikar town, along with around 50 other Tibetan nomads who went there demanding the monks’ release, the source said.

Freedom of religion guaranteed by law
Several hundred Tibetan nomads gathered in Baikar to appeal for the monks’ release late on Nov. 20, but police refused to free them, sources said. The crowd became violent, ransacking official buildings and vehicles, and hundreds of armed police were deployed to their area.

Clashes followed, and an unknown number of people were injured. Police detained six Tibetans. The next morning, Nov. 21, the crowd of Tibetan protesters had grown to nearly 1,000, according to witnesses.

A county official contacted by telephone in November confirmed that the clashes had occurred and said “county officials went to the area,” although he said he couldn't provide any details.

The incident follows several months of escalating tensions in Tibetan areas of western China, with Chinese authorities taking a tougher line against what they regard as ethnic “splittism,” or resistance to Chinese rule.

In December, two more monks were detained after refusing to sign criticisms of the Dalai Lama and then refusing to pay a 10,000 yuan fine, a source said at the time.

Sources in the area, including former monastery employees, said most of the estimated 180 monks left the monastery in protest in early December. The monastery has remained mostly deserted since then, they said.

In its 2007 report on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department noted that while the Chinese Constitution provides for freedom of religion, “it limits protection of the exercise of religious belief to activities which the Government defines as ‘normal.’”

In 2007, the government “maintained tight controls on religious practices and places of worship. Although the authorities permitted many traditional religious practices and public manifestations of belief, they promptly and forcibly suppressed activities they viewed as vehicles for political dissent or advocacy of Tibetan independence, such as religious activities venerating the Dalai Lama (which the Government described as ‘splittist’).”

Original reporting in Kham by Tseten Dolkar, Dawa Dolma, and Tsewang Norbu. RFA Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

*RFA

Haile Gebrselassie will not run in the marathon because of air pollution

2008-03-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Haile Gebrselassie says he will not run in the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of the city's air pollution levels.
The marathon world record holder suffers from asthma and missed the 2007 London Marathon because of the problem.

The 34-year-old will now try to qualify for Ethiopia in the 10,000m at Beijing.

"The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42km in my current condition," Gebrselassie told Reuters.

"But I'm not pulling out of the Olympic event in Beijing all together. I plan to participate in the 10,000m event."

But Gebrselassie's agent said the Ethiopian will make a final decision on whether to run the Beijing marathon after the Hengelo meeting on 24 May in Holland, when he will know if he has qualified for the Olympics 10,000m.

"Haile wants to do everything possible for his country," agent Jos Hermens told the Associated Press. "With three Ethiopians, they could get gold, silver and bronze.

"And if you look deep into his heart, he wants another marathon record."

The International Olympic Committee has voiced concerns over the issue of air pollution in Beijing.

If contingency measures do not have the desired affect then endurance events could be delayed for a few hours or rescheduled for another day.

Last year Britain's Paula Radcliffe called in pollution experts to help her plans to run in the Games marathon.

At the time her husband and manager Gary Lough told BBC Sport that Radcliffe, who suffers from exercise-induced asthma, may have to change her medication in China.

"She may have to adapt her doses or medication but as long as we've done enough research and thought about it, it hopefully won't be an issue," he said.

"There's no point in us being especially concerned, because pollution's not really something you can control."

*BBC

India stops Tibet protest march

2008-03-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

More than 100 Tibetan exiles in India have been barred by from marching to Tibet to protest against China holding the Olympics, Indian police say.
The marchers left Dharamsala on the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

But police in Dharamsala say they have been prevented from leaving the area.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has called for greater pressure on China over its human rights record.

In Nepal, some 1,000 Tibetan exiles have clashed with police in Kathmandu while trying to march to the Chinese embassy.

Escape

"We have issued a restraining order to the marchers not to leave the Kangra district and if they violate the order then all necessary actions will be taken," district police chief Atul Phuljile told the AFP news agency.

Mr Phuljile said the order had been issued at the behest of the central government in Delhi.

The planned six-month march from India to Tibet began on Monday to coincide with the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet that forced the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, into exile in 1959.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has called for greater pressure on China over its human rights record.

Tibet activists are hoping to use China's hosting of the Olympics to publicise their cause.

'Great impact'

Before the marchers in India set off, the Dalai Lama said he approved of China hosting the games because it provided the world with a chance to pressurise the Beijing government to uphold the Olympic ideals of freedom of speech and equality.

"China should prove herself a good host by providing these freedoms. Therefore, besides sending their athletes, the international community should remind the Chinese government of these issues," the Dalai Lama said.

The Dalai Lama heads the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, a northern Indian hill town.

In hard-hitting remarks, the Dalai Lama also said that "repression continues to increase with numerous, unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom and the politicisation of religious issues" by China.

Tibetan exile groups say the march was one of several protest events in the run-up to the games in Beijing in August.

Organisers say they represent tens of thousands of Tibetan exiles, and want to draw attention to what they see as Chinese suppression of Tibetan identity.

Organisers had not given details of where or when they were going to try to cross into Tibet.

Tear gas

Meanwhile police in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, say that up to 80 protesters have been arrested.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC between 1,000 to 3,000 Tibetan exiles and their supporters gathered at a large Tibetan Buddhist shrine, including many monks and nuns.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says that police barred the way when some protesters tried to march towards the Chinese embassy, which lies in a different suburb.

Protests by Tibetans have also been held in other parts of the world, including the Greek capital, Athens, where protesters were prevented from getting into the site of Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games.

*BBCnews

Tibetan Activists Begin March From India to Tibet to Protest Chinese Rule

2008-03-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

A hundred Tibetan refugees have begun a march from India to Tibet to protest Chinese rule in their homeland. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the march began as Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said Tibet continues to witness increased repression and brutality under Chinese rule.

Thousands of supporters waved off the 100 marchers as they started their trek from the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, armed with posters and Tibetan flags. Their goal is to reach the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

The march is one of several protests organized by Tibetan exile groups before the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

The marchers are mostly young Tibetan activists, some of whom have never seen their homeland. They include Buddhist monks, nuns and a high-school student.

They are not revealing what route they will take to reach Tibet, because New Delhi does not allow Tibetan refugees to mount anti-Chinese campaigns from India.

But President of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tsewang Rigzin, says they want to send a strong message to China and the international community that Tibetans will continue to fight what they call Beijing's illegal occupation of Tibet.

"We are trying to reinvigorate the freedom movement to fight the Chinese occupation of Tibet and we want to show the Chinese that Tibetans will never keep quiet until Tibet is free," said Rigzin.
The march was launched on the 49th anniversary of Dalai Lama's escape from Lhasa after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama - Tibet's spiritual leader - is not associated with the march, but before it began he strongly denounced Chinese rule in Tibet. He said for nearly six decades, Tibetans have lived in a state of constant fear and intimidation under the Chinese.

He said repression continues to increase in Tibet with numerous, unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, and denial of religious freedom.

The Dalai Lama called for the international community to use the forthcoming Olympic Games to pressure the Chinese to uphold the Olympic ideals of freedom of speech and equality.

China has controlled Tibet since 1951, and considers the region an integral part of its territory.

*VOA

China fabricated terror plots: Uighur leader in US

2008-03-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer Monday accused China of fabricating alleged plots against the Olympics, and even of scheming to carry out its own terror attacks, to blacken her community's name.

"It's completely untrue. All these allegations are falsified," Kadeer, who joined her US-based husband in 2005 after six years in a Chinese jail, told AFP through an interpreter.

"The real goal of the Chinese government is to organize a terrorist attack so that it can increase its crackdown on the Uighur people," the 61-year-old head of the Uyghur American Association said.

Wang Lequan, Communist Party chief in the northwestern Xinjiang region, said Sunday that a January raid on "terrorists," which resulted in the deaths of two militants and 15 arrests, had foiled a planned attack directed at the Games.

The alleged plot was the second foiled attack linked to Muslim separatists in Xinjiang, home of the Uighur community, to be announced over the weekend.

Passengers on a China Southern Airlines flight attempted to crash a Chinese airliner on Friday flying to Beijing from Urumqi, capital of the region, an official from the region said on Sunday.

The plane was subsequently diverted to the city of Lanzhou in Gansu province, where "suspicious liquids" were removed, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

Kadeer is seeking talks at the White House and the US State Department about the apparent plots, which she insisted were fabricated "to create fear to attract support from the Chinese people and the international community."

"The Uighur people are struggling for their freedom, but the Uighur people will never harm innocent people. Our hearts are kind," she said.

"It seems that the Chinese government has one goal, which is to create this scenario of terrorism, and produce a terrorist action itself so that it can blame the Uighur people."

China regularly accuses the independence-minded East Turkestan Islamic Movement, listed by the United Nations and the United States as a terrorist organization, of being the most significant threat in Xinjiang.

Most of the population in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan and central Asia, are Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighurs, many of whom bridle at what they say has been 60 years of repressive communist Chinese rule.

China city says it's safe for tourists after attack

2008-03-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

BEIJING, March 8 (Reuters) - The Chinese city of Xi'an is bolstering steps to protect tourists visiting the Terracotta Warriors and other famed sites, the city mayor said after an attack on 10 Australians and their translator.
A local man claiming to be armed with explosives attacked the group of Australian travel agents visiting the northwest Chinese city on Wednesday before he was shot dead by a police sniper.
Nine of the hostages were quickly released by the man, Xia Tao. But a 48-year-old woman and the group's local translator were held captive for several hours before the gunman was killed while he tried to reach the city airport.
The incident draw embarrassing international attention and a storm of media interest in Australia just as China is polishing itself for an influx of foreign visitors for the Beijing Olympic Games starting on August 8.
But Mayor Chen Baogen said the attack was an isolated case and his city was safe, according to the official China Daily on Saturday.
"Xi'an is safe for tourists from home and abroad," Chen told the paper. "We'll definitely take more measures and improve our emergency plans to ensure the safety of every tourist."
He did not specify what those measures were.
China is generally safe for foreign tourists. Attacks are rare and pick-pockets and petty theft are the main worries. Officials have been quick to say the attack was an isolated exception.
Xi'an, which also boasts an ancient city wall and neighbourhoods and impressive museums and mosques, attracted 31 million visitors in 2007, including a million from overseas, the paper said, citing city tourist bureau numbers.
Chen said he expected visitor numbers to grow by at least 10 percent this year compared to 2007.
"The hijacker's motive remains unclear," the paper said. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fogarty)

*guardian.co.uk

China Not Ready to End Death Penalty

2008-03-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AP) — China will not abolish the death penalty because it suits the country's current level of development and is needed to deter criminals, a senior judge was quoted as saying.

Supreme People's Court Judge Huang Ermei said in comments posted on a government Web site that the death penalty accorded with China's need for social order.

"Abolishing the death penalty is an international trend in punishment, but this trend cannot be divorced from a country's own conditions," Huang said in an interview on the China Peace Web site dated Friday. "Currently our country does not have the conditions to abolish the death penalty and will not have those conditions for a considerable period of time."

Chinese courts execute more people a year than any other nation. Although the exact number is treated as a state secret by the communist government, rights groups estimate that anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 executions are conducted each year. Among the more recent estimates, Amnesty International says at least 1,770 people were put to death in 2005.

Under a review process reinstated last year, the Supreme People's Court rejected 15 percent of the death sentences applied by lower courts, said Huang, the head of the high court's criminal case chamber.

Her published remarks did not give an overall number of cases reviewed, but she was quoted as saying the death sentences were rejected because of unclear facts, insufficient evidence, improper procedures and other reasons.

The death penalty was mostly being applied for murder, other violent crimes, drug trafficking and crimes against social order, Huang said, but it was also retained for serious economic crimes and corruption.

China says Dalai Lama is an Olympic saboteur

2008-03-07T12:28:00.001-08:00

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top official in Tibet on Friday accused the Himalayan region's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of seeking to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.

The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Communist rule, told Britain's ITV network in January that during the Games Tibet supporters should protest peacefully in China against Beijing's rule.

"The Beijing Olympics is the focus of world attention and the people are exalted ... but even a grand gathering like this, he is engaging in sabotage and threatening to cause trouble," Zhang Qingli, Communist Party boss of Tibet, said without elaborating.

"How can this not be called engaging in splittism?" Zhang told a news conference on the sidelines of parliament when asked by Reuters why China will not believe the Dalai Lama does not advocate independence and what he needs to do to convince China.

Five groups claiming to represent tens of thousands of exiled Tibetans are planning a march from India into Tibet ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as part of a series of actions to try and embarrass China into ending its rule in the Buddhist region.

But the groups said they would not seek approval from the Dalai Lama, who has a more moderate line and says he wants autonomy for Tibet, not outright independence. The groups have said it would be difficult and dangerous to cross into China.

Zhang's lieutenant, Qiangba Puncog, the top government official in Tibet, said the activities of the Dalai Lama "clique were the main factors of instability in Tibet."

"They will not succeed. We are fully prepared and have full confidence. We will definitely ensure the Olympics and Olympic-related events in Tibet proceed smoothly," Qiangba Puncog said, apparently referring to the Tibet leg of the Olympic torch relay that is due to scale Mount Everest.

March 10 marks the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile, but he remains the single most important figure in Tibetan life. The atheist Communist Party has competed against him for the loyalty of his people.

On Thursday, President Hu Jintao told Tibetan members of parliament that stability in the occasionally restive Himalayan region has a bearing on the stability of China as a whole.

"Tibet's stability has to do with the entire country's stability, Tibet's safety has to do with the entire country's safety," Hu said.

Critics say China continues to repress Tibetans' religious aspirations, especially their veneration for the Dalai Lama, who won Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Periodic rioting by monks has been brutally crushed.

China has defended itself, saying it has poured billions of dollars to develop Tibet and improved the living standards of the impoverished region.

Asked by Reuters if China would court the Dalai Lama, Zhang said China would welcome him if he matched his words with deeds.

"No matter who it is ... as long as you love your country, as long as you don't engage in splittism and as long as you commit yourselves to building China, we welcome (you)," Zhang said.

Hu, who is also Communist Party and military chief, praised the hard work of cadres in Tibet in a sign Tibetans would not be given more say in their own affairs. The Party should "fully trust" Han Chinese cadres sent to Tibet, he said.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng; Editing by Chris Buckley)

Chinese Activist Lawyer Disappears

2008-03-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AP) - An activist lawyer with close ties to a jailed Chinese dissident is missing, a rights group said Friday.

Teng Biao did not return home from his Beijing office on Thursday, despite telling his wife he would be back around 8:30 p.m., the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said on its Web site.

Teng's wife, Wang Ling, said she heard someone yelling downstairs around the time her husband was supposed to come home, according to the group. People in the street below said they had seen a man being dragged into a black car, which then drove away, it said.

It was not immediately clear if the man taken away was Teng or why he would disappear. But it is common for activists to be taken away without warning by state security agents who drive unmarked cars.

Teng's cell phone was turned off Friday and police at the station which oversees his district said they had not heard about his disappearance. The Beijing public security bureau refused to answer questions over the telephone and did not immediately respond to a faxed request asking for details.

Teng, 34, is a close friend of Hu Jia, a vocal civil rights activist who has been charged with the vague crime of inciting subversion of state power. Hu was taken without explanation from his home by agents on Dec. 27 after being confined there for more than 200 days.

Hu, 34, started out as an activist on environmental issues and for people with AIDS. He later became a one-man clearing house for human rights issues, often chronicling the plight of other dissidents. Hu and his wife clashed repeatedly with police and state security agents, who put him under constant surveillance and confined them to their home.

Authorities have offered no evidence to back up the subversion charge. The nebulous accusation is often used by Beijing to imprison activists, sometimes for years.

Hu had participated via Webcam in a Nov. 26 European Parliament hearing, when he reportedly said it was "ironic that one of the people in charge of organizing the Olympic Games is the head of the Bureau of Public Security, which is responsible for so many human rights violations."

China's communist leaders have invested massive national prestige in the Olympics and are extremely sensitive to any criticism that might tarnish the Games.

Teng, a part-time lawyer and a lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law, has been outspoken in his admiration and support for Hu, who he met about two years ago while working on human rights cases.

"Hu Jia is the bravest among the activists I know because he never avoids any human rights issue," Teng said in an interview with The Associated Press in January.

Teng and Hu wrote an open letter in September asking the international community to look beyond Beijing's preparations to host the Aug. 8-24 Olympics and question whether China had fulfilled its promises to improve its human rights record.

"When you come to the Olympic Games in Beijing, you will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg," the pair wrote. "You may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, torture and blood."

In recent days, Teng was increasingly apprehensive about his safety after police confiscated his passport and threatened to detain him, said an acquaintance of the lawyer who asked not to be further identified out of concern for Teng.

China Stricter After Bjork's Tibet Chant

2008-03-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China will be stricter on foreign performers after Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her concert in Shanghai this week, the government said Friday.

A statement by China's Culture Ministry said Bjork's outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings."

Bjork shouted "Tibet!" after a passionate performance of her song "Declare Independence" on Sunday. The outburst drew rare public attention inside China to Beijing's often harsh rule over the Himalayan region.

The statement, posted on the Culture Ministry's Web site, also said "there is no country that admits that Tibet is an 'independent country.'"

Bjork has performed the song to support other independence movements in the past. She dedicated the song to Kosovo while performing last month in Japan. The lyrics include the phrase "Raise your flag!"

China's 58-year rule over Tibet has drawn frequent condemnation from foreign governments and activists, often inciting a prickly nationalism among the Chinese government and ordinary people. Many Tibetans consider the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as their rightful leader.

*wtopnews.com

China to crack down on pop stars

2008-03-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

China is to impose stricter rules on foreign rock and pop stars after singer Bjork caused controversy by shouting "Tibet, Tibet" at a Shanghai concert.
Her cry followed a powerful performance of her song Declare Independence.

Talk of Tibetan independence is considered taboo in China, which has ruled the territory since 1951.

China's culture ministry said the outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings" and pledged to "further tighten controls".

"We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

"We shall never tolerate any attempt to separate Tibet from China and will no longer welcome any artists who deliberately do this."

The statement said there was "no country that admits that Tibet is an independent country".

Bjork said she "would like to put importance on that I am not a politician, I am first and last a musician and as such I feel my duty to try to express the whole range of human emotions".

On her website, she said: "This song was written more with the personal in mind.

"But the fact that it has translated to its broadest meaning, the struggle of a suppressed nation, gives me much pleasure."

A spokeswoman from the culture ministry told the AFP news agency Bjork could be banned from performing in China if there was a repeat performance.

"If Bjork continued to behave like that in the future, we may consider never allowing her to perform in China," she said.

Global struggles

Human rights activists and many politicians abroad have criticised Chinese policy in Tibet.

Many Tibetans feel loyal to the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom China considers a separatist threat.

The song Declare Independence has previously been used by Bjork to highlight other struggles for self-rule.

She dedicated a performance of it in Japan last month to Kosovo. She has also used the song to campaign for Greenland and the Faroe Islands - territories controlled by Denmark.

Her behaviour at Sunday's Shanghai concert has not been reported in the state-controlled Chinese media.

*BBC

China premier warns against Taiwan referendum on U.N.

2008-03-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told self ruled Taiwan on Wednesday it cannot unilaterally decide its political future as the island prepares to hold a contentious referendum on whether to seek U.N. membership.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own, is to hold the referendum alongside presidential elections on March 22, ignoring warnings from the United States, France, Japan and China.

The referendum, which if passed would be perceived by Beijing to be a formal declaration of independence, is doomed whatever the outcome because China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

"Any issue that concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be decided by all the Chinese people, including our Taiwan compatriots," Wen told the opening of the annual session of parliament in apparent reference to the referendum. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split in 1949 when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. "Reunification of the two sides is inevitable," Wen said. Taiwan's pro-independence activities were "doomed to fail".

He renewed an offer to enter into negotiations with Taiwan.

"We will work for the early resumption of cross-Strait negotiations on the basis of the 'one China' principle to address major issues of concern to compatriots on both sides," Wen said.

The "one China" principle says the island and the mainland are part of a single sovereign country. Taiwan has rejected "one China" as an unfair precondition.

An official with Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) dismissed Wen's remarks.

"Wen's comments are not different from in years past, but they've hardened their position, especially when they say Taiwan can't decide its future for itself," said Lai I-chung, the party's deputy international affairs director.

"Taiwan needs to continue its democratic progress, continue its presidential election and continue its voter referenda."

Liu Bainian, a vice-chairman of the official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, said the Vatican should oppose Taiwan's U.N. bid to prove it is genuine about eventually switching diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing.

Beijing and the Holy See severed ties after the 1949 Communist revolution. A dispute over who has the say in the appointment of bishops and Beijing's demand that the Vatican first sever ties with diplomatic rival Taipei have impeded restoration of formal relations.

The Vatican is an observer of the United Nations.

Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, lost the China seat in the United Nations to Beijing's People's Republic of China in 1971.

A Taiwanese defector, a member of a largely ceremonial body that advises China's parliament, said Beijing should try to understand why some politicians in Taiwan support independence.

"China must be more tolerant of people who support Taiwan independence, and consider Taiwan's experience with colonialism," Lin Shengzhong told a meeting on the sidelines of the parliament, adding the island's history had been very "bitter".

*chinapost.com

10 executed in China as parliament opens

2008-03-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

BEIJING -- Ten criminals were executed in central China on Wednesday, just as the annual session of parliament opened, Chinese press reported. A court in the city of Changsha in Hunan province approved Tuesday the executions of the criminals who had committed "heinous criminal acts", according to Rednet.com, a provincial news website.
The criminals ranging from 21 to 38 years were variously described in the report as murderers, robbers and drug dealers. In one case a dispute over food at an Internet bar in Changsha prompted He Guoping, 21, to hack to death three of the employees with a kitchen knife.

*chinapost.com

China Detains 1,000 Petitioners Ahead of Parliament

2008-03-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG—Authorities in the Chinese capital have detained around 1,000 people with grievances against the government ahead of the country’s annual parliament which opens in Beijing Wednesday, petitioners told RFA’s Mandarin service.

“I’d say there were more than 1,000 petitioners from across the country in Majialou,” Huang Caipiao, a petitioner from the southeastern province of Fujian, said after being sent to the unofficial detention center for petitioners south of the city.

“There was no one listening to our grievances there,” said Huang, who was intercepted by Beijing police Monday as he headed towards the national prosecution service, the Supreme Procuratorate.

Huang, who was being held in a Beijing hotel by police from his hometown when he spoke to reporter Han Qing, said he was waiting to be sent back to his hometown of Lianjiang.

Huang, a shrimp farmer seeking compensation for business losses following his forced eviction, has made 15 petitioning trips to the capital, yielding nothing but a year in jail.

“Now I have lost all hope,” said Huang, whose story is becoming increasingly familiar across China as local officials and big business cash in on soaring land values, pushing rural families from the land with little or no compensation.

Detained in 'study group'
Lin Xiuli, a petitioner from the eastern city of Qingdao, was caught by officials from her hometown Monday in Beijing as she tried to petition the Supreme Court, on the other side of Tiananmen Square from the parliament buildings.

She was immediately sent back to Qingdao and is now being detained at a “study class for petitioners.”

“My misfortunes began in 2003,” Lin said. “I was pushed from the sixth floor of a building. But the perpetrators were acquitted by the courts.”

“China’s law proclaims human rights, freedom, and equality before the law. But why have the perpetrators not been brought to justice? Why has there been no trial for them? Why am I still detained?”

Online civil rights campaigner Huang Qi, who runs the 64Tianwang.com Web site, said authorities had stepped up efforts to sweep petitioners off the streets of the capital ahead of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which begins March 5.

“There has been a drastic increase in the numbers of petitioners going to Beijing this year,” Huang Qi said. “Likewise, there has been an increased response to intercept them by the authorities.”

Letter to leaders
Around 1,200 petitioners wrote an open letter to the NPC, which debates policy but has no history of challenging the ruling Communist Party, calling for greater recognition of the rights violations they say they suffered at the hands of officials.

Several hundred petitioners were broken up by police by the Gongyi East overpass as they tried to hold a roadside meeting with foreign journalists. Some were detained and taken to the unofficial detention center at Majialou to await forcible removal to their hometowns.

“There is nowhere for us to tell our tales of injustice,” one of them comments on a video of the meeting. Another: “There are millions of officials on our back; we are truly wronged.” Then suddenly, “Quick, get out of here. It’s not safe anymore!”

Meanwhile, petitioners who tried to deliver calcium-enriched baby milk formula to Zeng Jinyan, the wife of detained AIDS and civil rights activist Hu Jia, were turned away at the door by national security police.

Zeng, who has been under house arrest at the couple’s Beijing apartment together with her three-month old daughter, is unable to communicate with the outside world by telephone or Internet.

Meanwhile, police in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, arrested Zheng Mingfang, another rights activist who has called frequently for Hu Jia’s release. Zheng’s husband told RFA Monday from their home in Ji county that police didn’t show arrest warrants when they took his wife away.

“I don’t expect to see her before the Olympic Games,” he said.

The first session of the 11th NPC will open March 5, with deputies from all of China’s provinces, autonomous regions, and munipalities, Hong Kong, Macau, and the People’s Liberation Army.

By Tuesday, 1.5 million Internet users had posted messages for China’s leaders on the Web site of the official Xinhua News Agency, the agency said.

Around 300,000 questions and offers of advice were listed, including complaints about pensions for the elderly and comments about the government’s handling of the severe snows that battered much of the country during the Lunar New Year holiday period last month.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Ding Xiao, Han Qing, and Yan Xiu. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and Chen Ping. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

*rfa.org

Dutch swimmer wants IOC chief to address human rights in China

2008-03-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband wants IOC president Jacques Rogge to speak out on human rights in China ahead of the Beijing Games.

Rogge should "on behalf of all athletes publicly call for an improvement of the human rights situation in China," the reigning Olympic 100-meter freestyle champion wrote in a column for Wednesday's edition of best-selling Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. "He can count on my full support and sympathy."

Van den Hoogenband said such a public statement by Rogge would allow athletes to concentrate on their preparations for the games.

"This way, athletes can point to the IOC stance whenever they are asked their opinion on this tricky question," Van den Hoogenband wrote. "We athletes are first and foremost concentrating on delivering the best performance of our lives. That makes it impossible to be involved in politics at the same time."

Rogge has repeatedly said the Olympics will be a "force for good" in China. But he has stressed that the IOC is a sports organization, not a political body, and is not in a position to dictate political changes in China or any other countries.

"The 2008 Olympic Games were awarded to Beijing based on its ability to organize successful competitions and upon the belief that opening the door between China and the world would have positive effects," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said in an e-mail statement Wednesday.

"When Beijing was awarded the games in 2001, both the bid team and the Chinese authorities outlined their hopes and aspirations that hosting the games would also play a positive part in China's social and economic development including human rights. The IOC believes the Olympic Games will provide the Chinese with a positive legacy for them to achieve and manage."

Van den Hoogenband is part of a growing chorus drawing attention to human rights, free speech and other political issues in China in the countdown to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. Last month, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg backed out as an artistic adviser to the games, saying China wasn't doing enough to pressure its ally Sudan into ending the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region.

Activist groups are seeking to leverage China's determination to stage a successful Olympics to shame the host country into changing its policies on human rights, press freedoms and diplomacy. The government has angrily denounced what it calls attempts to "politicize" the games.

Van den Hoogenband said the human rights debate "threatens to drive sport into the background half a year before the Olympic flame is lit."

Some Olympic committees and officials in Europe have been accused of trying to muzzle athletes from speaking out about sensitive issues in Beijing.

The British Olympic Association was criticized for plans to require athletes to sign a new clause in their contracts prohibiting them from making politically sensitive remarks or gestures during the Olympics. The BOA later backed off.

"The IOC respects the opinion expressed by athletes and by any other organizations," Moreau said. "The fact that the Olympic Games can foster dialogue on issues that go beyond the sporting arena is a positive development made possible by the awarding of the Games to China."

Beijing will be Van den Hoogenband's fourth and last Olympics. He was one of the stars of the 2000 Sydney Games when he broke the 200-meter freestyle world record in the semifinals and matched the time in the final to beat local favorite Ian Thorpe for the gold.

The "flying Dutchman" also broke the 100-meter world record in the semifinals before winning gold.

Four years later in Athens, Thorpe gained revenge by beating Van Den Hoogenband in the 200 but "Hoogie" repeated his 100-meter triumph for his third career Olympic gold.

*sportingnews.com

China to raise military spending

2008-03-04T12:27:00.000-08:00

China says it plans to increase military spending by nearly 18% this year, to 417.8bn yuan ($59bn; £30bn).
The figure was revealed ahead of China's annual parliamentary session, which begins on Wednesday.

Just before the announcement, the US released a report criticising China's military spending, and voicing concern over advances in space and cyberspace.

China rejected the Pentagon report as a "serious distortion of facts" that could harm its relations with the US.

"It breaks international norms... We do not pose a threat to any country. The US should drop its Cold War mentality," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the report, Washington claimed that the real Chinese defence budget for 2007 was at least double the stated amount.

Pentagon figures show China's military spending
And other nations have also expressed concern about China's growing military power, and say Beijing is not open enough about what it is spending its money on.

'Solely defence'

Most of this year's military increase will be spent on increasing salaries and accommodating higher oil prices, according to Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for China's National People's Congress, which begins its annual meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Jiang said spending on armaments would rise only moderately.

China pursues a national defence policy that is defensive in nature," he said.

"China's limited military capability is solely for the purpose of safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and does not pose a threat to any other country."

He added that China spent less on defence, as a proportion of GDP, than the US, UK, France and Russia.

But the international community remains concerned.

This year's rise in military spending "will mark the 20th consecutive year that the Chinese military budget has increased by double digits," Japan's defence ministry said in a statement.

It called on China to "address the concerns of the international community".

US officials are particularly worried that China's growing military might could be aimed at Taiwan, a self-governing island which Beijing sees as part of its territory.

Beijing has threatened military attack if Taiwan declares independence, and the island's 22 March presidential election will be watched closely by the authorities on the mainland.

Cyberspace concerns

The US defence department released its annual report on Chinese military power on Monday evening.

The report said China was developing weapons that would disable its enemies' space technology - such as satellites - in the event of a conflict.

It expressed concern about China's decision to shoot down a defunct weather satellite in a test in January 2007.

It also said that "numerous" cyber intrusions into computer networks around the world, including some owned by the US administration, apparently originated in China.

David Sedney, a senior China specialist at the Pentagon, told reporters there was no call for US alarm, but he said that Washington was keen for Beijing to be clearer about the reasons behind its expanding military costs.

"I think the biggest thing for people to be concerned about, really, is the fact that we don't have that kind of strategic understanding of the Chinese intentions," he said. "And that leads to uncertainty."

In its report, the Pentagon estimated that China's total military spending in 2007 was between $97bn and $139bn.

Last month, the Bush administration requested $515bn for the next US fiscal year, not including extra spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There has recently been some progress in US-Chinese military relations, including the installation of a joint telephone hotline.

*BBC

China reports big rise in food-poisoning deaths

2008-03-03T14:43:00.001-08:00

BEIJING (Reuters) - China saw a rise of almost a third in food-poisoning deaths last year even as the total number of incidents dropped, the Health Ministry said on Monday, underscoring the food safety challenge China still faces.

China has been waging battle to improve product quality after a series of scandals at home and abroad involving substandard toys, fake medicines and food, as well as tainted pet feed.

A total of 258 people died from food poisoning last year, up a little under 32 percent on 2006, the ministry-published Health News said.

There were also 11 cases in which more than 100 people fell ill from food poisoning, but a fall of just over a quarter in total incidents, it added.

In all, 13,280 people fell sick, the report said.

While providing no explanation for the figures, it said that most cases happened in the third quarter of the year.

"This is when there is a rather obvious impact from the weather," the newspaper said, adding most people fell sick at home.

The government has gone out of its way to tackle food safety and to convince people, particularly this year when Beijing hosts the Summer Olympics, that the made-in-China label is reliable.

But Beijing has admitted that the problems are most pronounced in China's vast countryside, where lax oversight of the many small factories located there has contributed to a string of food poisoning incidents.

Public fears about food safety grew in 2004 when at least 13 babies died of malnutrition in the eastern province of Anhui after their were fed fake milk powder.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

China Cracks Down on Tibetan Buddhism Ahead of Olympics

2008-03-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Chinese authorities in Tibet have recruited more than 140 Tibetan youths to perform traditional dances at the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, even as they impose new curbs on Buddhist culture in the Himalayan region, sources there say.

“The Chinese authorities believe that monasteries are the chief centers of Tibetan culture responsible for maintaining Tibetan identity. Therefore they are cracking down on the monasteries,” a source in Tibet said in a recent interview.

Novice monks are no longer admitted to replace monks who have died, and monks rarely appear on the streets in many Tibetan cities, sources say, and this trend has become more visible and pronounced over recent months.

“Now the monks are not allowed to conduct prayer sessions in temples, nor allowed to invite monks for special prayers at home,” the Tibetan source told Kham dialect reporter Tsewang Norbu. “Construction of new stupas is banned. Tibetan devotees are not even allowed to circumambulate temples and stupas."

Sources say the restrictions have been stepped up since the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal last year.

“We were told that we could not dress well, burn incense, conduct prayers, or recite mantras,” the first source said. “We were also told that monks should not be allowed to stay in our houses... save [animals] and so on. Even Tibetan government officials are not allowed to wear Tibetan dress, nor to maintain a prayer room and altar in their house.”

High-level meeting
Another Tibetan source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said members of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Political Consultative Committee met Jan. 13-14 to discuss a plan to employ senior lamas to convince the people that the Dalai Lama is a “splittist” bent on dividing China.

“There was a special meeting on Jan. 13-14 attended by the TAR's Political Consultative Committee members—Phakpalha Gelek Namgyal, Passang Dhondup, and Dugkhang Thupten Khedup. The main agenda of the meeting was to use the high lamas in different parts of Tibet to convince Tibetans about the splittist intention of Dalai Lama and his clique,” the second source said.

Chinese authorities are increasingly on guard against any signs of Tibetan solidarity or nationalism, said Robbie Barnett, who teaches contemporary Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York. “There’s an incredible increase in the inclination to read even the slightest incident as an attack by the Dalai Lama, or the ‘Dalai clique,’ on the state. In other words, they see these things as organized,” he said.

Beginning around 1992, Barnett said, authorities in the TAR brought in “policies to control and restrict Tibetan culture and Tibetan religion in an aggressive way.”

“These involve cultural controls, restrictions, lowering the status of Tibetan language studies. They removed a lot of senior cultural figures and teachers, and they moved to control the monasteries through ‘patriotic education.’"

Authorities then encouraged Chinese to immigrate to Tibetan regions and boosted the economy through infrastructure development. "So these are security measures, but they’re done through policy means," Barnett said.

“The sources of the problem are seen as being Tibetan culture and Tibetan religion that produce nationalism,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tibetan dancers are being trained to repeat Beijing’s official line to the international community during the Olympics, the source said.

“They were told that they will perform Tibetan cultural dances in Beijing during the Olympics but in reality they are being trained to condemn His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] and propagate to the international community at the Olympics that they are happy under Chinese rule,” a Tibetan source said.

Promised liberties
“Another contingent is being recruited in Kongpo and being trained to criticize the Dalai Lama.”

While China has promised free access to foreign journalists throughout the country in the run-up to and during the 2008 Olympic Games and Paralympics, overseas groups say foreign reporters are unable to operate freely in Tibet.

According to the Free Tibet Campaign, which recently unfurled a banner calling for a Free Tibet on the Great Wall of China, “Beijing says that Tibetans are free to practice their religion. But on the ground, talking freely to individuals, foreign journalists would see the lie to this as Beijing maintains a sustained attack on Buddhism by imposing control and conditions on religion.”

The U.S. State Department’s most recent report on global human rights noted that Chinese law “[provides] for freedom of religious belief and the freedom not to believe” and that the government recognizes five main religions, including Buddhism.

“However, the government sought to restrict religious practice to government-sanctioned organizations and registered places of worship and to control the growth and scope of the activity of religious groups,” the report said.

“A government-affiliated association monitored and supervised the activities of each of these faiths. Membership in these faiths as well as unregistered religious groups grew rapidly. The government tried to control and regulate religious groups, especially groups that were unregistered... Crackdowns against unregistered Protestants and Catholics, Muslims, and Tibetan Buddhists continued.”

Original reporting in Kham dialect by Tsewang Norbu. RFA Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Translated and edited by Karma Dorjee. Additional reporting by Richard Finney. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

*RFA

New Book Looks Unflinchingly at 1959-79 Tibet

2008-03-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

When Chinese troops suppressed a nationalist uprising in Tibet’s capital city Lhasa in 1959, a curtain came down over Tibet. Thousands were killed in fighting across the country or vanished into labor camps and jails—where many died from illness, overwork, or starvation.

Now, a Tibetan survivor of those events has released an account of them in English translation.

Tubten Khetsun’s Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule, published in 2008 by Columbia University Press, details the author’s experiences in Chinese prisons and as a forced laborer on state-run construction sites and farms from 1959-79.

Written and published originally in Tibetan, the book was translated into English by Matthew Akester, an Australian scholar of Tibetan studies.

“It’s very important to have a written record of what took place,” said Khetsun, speaking at a private gathering in Virginia to mark the book’s release. “My generation suffered a lot, and I wanted to talk about the truth so that future generations will know what happened.”

Khetsun’s recollections form a vast chronicle of suffering—told in dispassionate tones but also in surprising detail. “For someone who has been through this kind of situation,” Khetsun said, “even if you want to forget, you can’t forget.”

Moved from one place of confinement to another in the months following the failed uprising, Khetsun—then 18, and having just finished training for government service—endured interrogation, hunger, beatings, and dangerous work conditions as he and fellow prisoners gathered and burned dead bodies, cleared construction sites, and fought continual exhaustion.

Many, Khetsun writes, gave in to despair and “killed themselves in one way or another, by jumping in the river or throwing themselves off a cliff or under the wheels of a truck.”

Helped by Buddhist faith
Political indoctrination was a constant theme, with Chinese officers and guards relentlessly attacking the culture and social values of “old,” pre-communist Tibet.

In later chapters, the book describes factional fighting in Tibet during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, the destruction of Tibet’s famous Ganden monastery, and a succession of campaigns, little known in the West, by Chinese authorities to root out perceived “class enemies” among Tibetans.

Tubten Khetsun, who left Tibet in 1983 and moved to the United States, said his Buddhist faith helped him through his ordeal.

“The most important thing was that His Holiness the Dalai Lama was able to flee and was able to reside in India,” Khetsun said. “That was a source of hope for me and for everyone in the prison at that time.”

Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule is the first book of its kind to appear in English that was written personally, and in Tibetan, by “an educated person from the middle-level elites,” said Tibet expert Robert Barnett, who had urged the book’s publication by Columbia University Press.

“That was my argument for getting them to publish it,” said Barnett, director of Columbia University’s Modern Tibetan Studies Program.

Anne Routon, the book’s editor at Columbia University Press, said that in first looking over the manuscript, she was impressed by its “even, unembellished, unencumbered, clean narrative tone.”

“The story itself is quite dramatic and moving, and he tells it well,” Routon said.

Political repression
Barnett said that following brutal and well-publicized crackdowns in the late 1980s in the wake of Tibetan protests against Chinese rule, there is now “incredibly little information” being collected on conditions inside Chinese jails, prisons, and labor camps in Tibet.

“I think that they probably have brought some kind of control to most cases in Lhasa, in terms of torture,” said Barnett. “But that control probably disintegrates whenever there’s an ‘event.’ And then the beatings are very bad.”

“But I think outside Lhasa, there could still be a lot of torture quite regularly.”

Even in Lhasa, though, police still beat people in the street, Barnett said.

“I think they feel they’re entitled to be really brutal, and I’m not sure what sense of limit they have to that. Maybe a bit more in a Lhasa prison, a lot less in a Lhasa detention center, and maybe not much at all outside the city.”

The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, in its annual report for 2007, cited 100 “known cases of current Tibetan political detention or imprisonment as of September 2007, a figure that is likely to be lower than the actual number of Tibetan political prisoners.”

“Chinese authorities continue to detain and imprison Tibetans for peaceful expression and non-violent action, charging them with crimes such as ‘splittism,’ and claiming that their behavior ‘endangers state security,’” the Commission said.

Original reporting by Richard Finney in Washington. Edited and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

*RFA

Chinese Resist Urban 'Clean-up' Drive

2008-03-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG—Ordinary Chinese are increasingly angry at government attempts to "clean up" the nation's cities ahead of the Olympic Games, with standoffs between local people and the authorities reported across the country in recent days.

At the forefront of the "clean-up,” which is often an official euphemism for the removal of underprivileged people from public places, is Beijing, which is all too conscious of its international image ahead of the Summer Olympics.

Authorities in the capital announced this week a renewed drive to enforce regulations on temporary residents of the city, which require that anyone over 16 years of age from out of town wishing to stay longer than a month for business or study purposes must get a permit from the police.

The scheme has already sparked controversy among netizens, prompting the authorities to slash the fees charged by police for the permits, fees that two out-of-town lawyers say have netted the police around 100 million yuan (U.S. $14 million) so far.

Permits needed to stay in Beijing
Henan-based civil rights lawyer Li Subin and Anhui-based civil rights lawyer Cheng Hai have filed a complaint with the Beijing Municipal People's Court, saying that the actions of police in Beijing's Changping county contravene the country's Administrative Licensing Law.

"It still costs money to get a temporary residence permit...We are talking about around 100 million yuan that the police have collected here," Li told Cantonese service reporter Lee Kin-kwan.

An officer who answered the phone at the Changping police station said: "I am not authorized to comment."

According to the Beijing News, police will be checking temporary residence permits over the next few weeks to ensure that all out-of-towners are properly registered. People who fail to obtain the necessary permits may face a fine of up to 50 yuan, the paper said.

Blogger Xiao Xifeng, who has written about the temporary residence permit system in the past, said the fees had been slashed amid public discontent, however.

"I think it's just an administrative charge of 10 yuan now. In the recent past there have been a few problems with the temporary residence permit system. I think a lot of people felt that the police were behaving just like the chengguan [who get their income from fining illegal hawkers and beggars]."

Tensions in Nanning
Across the country, citizens have rallied round in support of street vendors targeted by urban management officers, or chengguan, with violent clashes in southern and eastern China.

"I saw the urban management officers beat up a vegetable stall-holder, and it attracted many bystanders who came to see what was going on," a vegetable seller in the southwestern region of Guangxi told RFA's Mandarin service Monday.

Several hundred people in the regional capital, Nanning, surrounded the chengguan vehicle last Friday, preventing the officers from leaving the scene and causing a tense standoff that lasted for about two hours, local residents said.

"They fine us," the street vendor told reporter Qiao Long. "Usually 100 or 200 yuan. Otherwise they will confiscate your vegetables."

Asked about her image of the chengguan, whose uniform is fast becoming a byword for official abuse of power, judicial violence, and rapacious fine-taking, she said: "Of course it's not good. Peddling or keeping a stall counts as business, not robbery or theft."

Nanning information services said the phone number for the chengguan headquarters in the city was unlisted and unavailable to the public.

Forced evictions, demolitions
On the other side of the country, in the eastern city of Wuxi, the chengguan were busy removing families from their homes forcibly, before the bulldozers moved in.

Several officers from the Beitang district chengguan surrounded the house of local resident Xu Zhenxing, climbing onto the roof to force entry.

"I was holding a knife and watching them on the roof as they were trying to get into our house from the neighbor’s roof," Xu Miao, whose father Xu Zhenxing owned the house, told RFA.

"My parents said to them that they would kill themselves if the chengguan entered the house. But they ignored my parents and stormed in. My parents then tried to light the propane cylinder," Xu told reporter Xin Yu.

Xu Miao said he was thrown by seven or eight chengguan from the roof, injuring himself in the fall.

Then the officers detained Xu’s family and any residents who showed support for them, and used a bulldozer to demolish their house.

"The officers detained several neighbors who took pictures, and confiscated their cameras. They forced me into their car, beating me and another neighbor inside. We were detained for longer than 24 hours and this violated the Chinese law," said Xu, adding that he would sue the officers concerned.

Phone calls to the Beitang district chengguan went unanswered during office hours Monday.

Local resident Zhang Panchang said the officers demolished six houses including Xu’s.

"They don’t have permission for demolition and they are acting illegally. We tried to sue them but our suit was turned down by the court."

Zhang said that the compensation the authorities offered was 353 yuan per square meter, but that the current market price for property in that area was 7,000 to 8,000 yuan per square meter.

Zhang Jianping, a spokesman for the civil rights Web site 64 Tianwang, said: "The demolished houses were not illegal structures. Their demolition shows that some officers are in cahoots with developers for illegal profit-making."

Original reporting in Mandarin by Qiao Long and Xin Yu, and in Cantonese by Lee Kin-kwan. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and Chen Ping. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

*RFA

More Chinese dissidents sue Yahoo!

2008-03-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

Last week, in response to an appeal by Jerry Yang, Condoleezza Rice raised the cases of Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao with Chinese authorities on her visit to Beijing. A Chinese version of Jerry Yang's letter to Rice is circulating around the internet. It's unclear whether Rice's intervention will result in an early release for the two men. But in the past, getting one's case raised by the U.S. Secretary of State has tended to boost a person's chances of early release. The Chinese have also agreed to resume a stalled human rights dialogue. This is no doubt tied to concerns about international criticisms in the run-up to the Olympics.

Another development that surfaced in the English-language media on Thursday and Friday this past week is a new lawsuit against Yahoo!. It was filed on February 21st in San Francisco by two men, Guo Quan, a Nanjing-based scholar and acting chairman of the underground New People's Party, and Zheng Cunzhu, head of the Western U.S. branch of the Democratic Party of China.

They are suing Yahoo! for a couple of reasons. Guo Quan says that Yahoo! China has removed his name from their search results without any legally valid reasons, after Guo published an open letter calling for political reform. Zheng Cunzhu claims that he cannot return to China for fear of arrest - because Yahoo!'s handover of e-mail records to the police also implicated him - and as a result has lost property.

According to Zheng who gave a press conference in Los Angeles on the 21st, the previous lawsuit against Yahoo! resulted in a secret settlement with the relatives of Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao. However that lawsuit, Zheng says, claimed to include over 60 people who had been harmed by Yahoo!'s disclosure of personal e-mail information to Chinese authorities. These people included China Democratic Party Li Zhi, who is now serving an 8-year sentence. See Zheng's open letter to Jerry Yang in Chinese for more details about the reasons behind the lawsuit. For more Chinese-language reports on the lawsuit click here, here, and here.

Note that some of the English-language reports about this case have gotten facts wrong. A Computerworld story picked up by the Washington post erroneously reports that Guo Quan's part in the lawsuit relates to the handover of e-mail records. However the more detailed Chinese reports on the case make it clear that he is suing because search results about him were removed, and that this has an adverse impact on his business. Businessweek got the story right - also pointing out that Li Zhi (doing 8 years in prison thanks at least in part to a Yahoo! e-mail handover) is not a plaintiff, while the Computerworld story (amplified by the Washington Post) says Li Zhi is a plaintiff. Ars Technica has a more well-informed and detailed version of the story which are consistent with the Chinese reports I've seen - plus some decent analysis.

A few more useful bits of information not included in English reports about this lawsuit:

First, about Li Zhi: Li Zhi's case is more complicated than Wang Xiaoning's and Shi Tao's. Li Zhi wasn't convicted on evidence supplied by Yahoo! alone. In addition to Yahoo!, the Chinese e-mail service SINA also handed over e-mail records that were used as evidence against Li. This subtlety and a few other details were glossed over in the initial reports and press releases in 2006 about Li Zhi's case, leading Roland Soong to question the extent to which journalists and human rights activists care about facts. (In my response to Roland at the time, I agreed people messed up, but didn't think that meant Yahoo! was off the hook.)

About Guo Quan: One thing that the English reports over the past few days haven't mentioned is that Guo Quan recently announced the founding of the Chinese Netizens' Party. In January he launched the New People's Party, which caused him to lose his teaching job. He is a historian known for his work on the Nanjing Massacre. Jane Macartney interviewed him for a Times of London story in early February. At the time he was threatening to sue Google in addition to Yahoo! for removing his name from search results on Google.cn. However, Google soon resolved the problem and you now get results when you do a search on his name - though any dissident overseas websites mentioning his name don't appear in those results while they do appear in a Google.com search. Meanwhile, as of this writing you still get nothing when you search Guo Quan's name on Yahoo! China. Ironically, even Baidu does actually return results.

Back when Jerry Yang first made his appeal to Rice on behalf of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning, Elinor Mills wrote on CNet:

Yahoo wasn't necessarily any worse than Google or Microsoft; Yahoo was just the first to have been publicly caught in the moral quagmire that U.S. companies face when dealing with repressive governments. It's unfortunate that several men were arrested and thrown behind bars before Yahoo changed its mind.

Actually, that's wrong. Yahoo was much worse. Neither Google nor Microsoft set up local Chinese-language e-mail services with the user data sitting on computer servers inside the People's Republic of China, under PRC legal jurisdiction. Gmail and Hotmail data are not subject to Chinese police order the way Yahoo! Chinese e-mail is. Google and Microsoft have said in public statements that the reason why they're not doing e-mail in China is to avoid being complicit in sending dissidents to jail. Also, as I found out when doing test searches for Human Rights Watch in 2006, Yahoo! Chinese search censors much more heavily than Google and MSN - and as we can see from the Guo Quan case, sometimes they even censor more heavily than Baidu!

*rconversation.blogs

China is extending a ban on television stations broadcasting foreign cartoons

2008-03-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

By Olivia Chung

HONG KONG - China is extending a ban on television stations broadcasting foreign cartoons by an additional hour during prime time in a bid to protect the domestic animation industry. However, observers believe Beijing should do more to boost the development of the domestic industry, instead of solely blocking foreign cartoons.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television's (SARFT) posted a circular on its website on February 19 informing viewers that from May 1 all foreign cartoons will be banned on all domestic TV cartoon and children's channels from 5 pm to 9 pm.

Only domestic cartoons censored by the provincial broadcasting authorities or the SARFT can be aired between that time. Cartoons co-produced by domestic and foreign firms will have to
get approval from the SARFT to air during these prime-time hours, the circular said.

The media regulator also demanded TV stations observe a daily broadcast ratio of 7:3 for domestic and foreign cartoons, which means at least 70% of cartoon programs aired must be domestically made.

The move was said "to create a favorable market environment for the domestic cartoon industry".

Since Japan's Astro Boy, the first foreign cartoon imported to the mainland, was broadcast in 1981, the cartoon industry was dominated by Japanese, American and South Korean products.

A pupil studying in a primary school in Beijing's Fengtai District said he did not like domestic cartoons which were too boring for him.

"My classmates and I talk about Superman, Crayon Shin-chan and Digimon, and the toys we bought are the characters of these cartoons. But domestic cartoons are too boring and childish," the fifth grader said.

Crayon Shin-chan and Digimon are popular Japanese cartoon programs and merchandise. The former follows the antics of a five-year-old boy and his parents and friends while the latter is monsters of various forms living in a "digital world".

Liu Huasen, who lives in Yunfu city in south China's Guangdong province, said that he liked to watch The Monkey King when he was small. This story, also known as the Journey to the West, is a renowned classical Chinese folktale.

"Now I seldom watch cartoons as most of them are domestic, which are childish. The latest cartoon I watched is a movie - Ratatouille, featuring a rat, which teams up with a new kitchen boy to become top Paris chefs," said the 11-year-old boy.

Yu Chu-mei, Liu's mother, cast doubts over the success of the ban imposed by the SARFT, saying children like Liu could have access to foreign cartoons via the Internet, VCDs or DVDs.

Some industry players welcome the administration's move, saying it will help the sales of domestic cartoons.

Xu Ling, marketing director of Hong Kong listed-Global Digital Creations (GDC) Holdings, said as the cartoon and children's channels are forced to find more domestic cartoons to fill airtime, there will eventually be more opportunities to domestic cartoon makers.

She said the country's TV stations prefer foreign cartoons, which are distributed all over the world, as the prices of these guaranteed dramas are usually lower when compared with domestic cartoons.

"China's cartoon industry is still in its infancy since it was viewed as an industry by the administration only three years ago, so it really needs such a policy support. The administration ban will leave the channels with the task of buying more domestic cartoons," she said.

Li Shilei, president of the Shanghai Toonmax TV Channel, said they will abide by the administration's rules to broadcast foreign cartoons outside the prime-time slots.

"Given the administration's tightened controls on foreign cartoons since 2006, only one foreign cartoon, Japan's Prince of Tennis, has been approved. We have been relying on the 'replay' of old foreign cartoons, which has had a bad impact on the channel's advertising revenue, so the new rule will not have an impact on rating with limited prime-time slots," he said, without giving the figures.

In 2000, a SARFT regulation required local TV stations to get approval from the administration and set quotas for imported cartoons aired on TV.
In 2004, the SARFT issued a second regulation that said at least 60% of cartoon programs aired must be domestically made.
In September 2006, the SARFT first slapped the ban on foreign cartoons during prime-time hours between 5 pm and 8 pm.

With the government policy in place, China's cartoon industry produced about 101,900 minutes of animation last year, up 23% on 2006, according to the SARFT.

Meanwhile, some industry players said they will be under pressure to provide more domestic cartoons due to insufficient support for the cartoon industry.

Ye Chao, vice director of Haha TV, a dedicated children's channel in Shanghai, said there were bad as well as good domestic cartoons, which could not satisfy demand from the audience and the market, so there was pressure for them to fill the airtime if no high-quality domestic cartoons were available.

Instead of entertaining the audience, the channel broadcast children's programs rather than cartoons during prime-time hours.

Xu from GDC called for the administration to offer subsidies to domestic cartoon makers in a bid to help them produce quality cartoons.

It became a vicious cycle that the prices offered by the TV channels for domestic cartoons were so low that many domestic cartoons turned out low-quality products.

Citing her company's business as an example, Xu said to survive in the market, they have changed their business strategy to accepting OEM (original equipment manufacturer) orders and co-producing cartoons with overseas partners.

With a total investment of 130 million yuan (US$18.3 million), five years in the making and involvement of more than 400 animation workers, the Institute of Digital media Technology (Shenzhen), a wholly owned subsidiary of GDC, produced the first Chinese full-length three-dimensional (3D) animated feature film Thru the Moebius Strip in 2005. The price offered by TV channels was only 600,000 yuan ($84,000) after earning 3 million yuan at the box office, she said.

The film tells the story of a young lad who traverses through the Moebius Strip to a planet 27 million light years away, where his father is prevented from returning by giant aliens. During their adventure they become entangled in a royal conspiracy and finally help a prince reclaim his throne.

Aside from the weak or old-fashioned plot, the movie was criticized for having many similarities to Hollywood blockbusters despite its breakthrough in 3D animation technology.

Shi Minyong, from the animation school of Communication University of China, said the country's animation industry is lagging far behind overseas competitors in every aspect.

As traditional Chinese animation plots have been based on either legends or classic literary works, it has not only made the stories too fake for even grown-ups, but also put animation technology under strain, he said.

Shi said many animators had been producing cartoons in a rough and slipshod way.

Jin Guoping, China Animation Society chief and former general manager of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, said the biggest problem facing the country's animation industry is a lack of good marketing mechanisms. According to Jin this is why the animation companies have no idea how to promote their works.

Liu Bo from Shenyang Hippo Animation Company, believed another challenge for the country's animation industry is the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

Citing his work 100 Love Magic as an example, he said once the cartoon was put on the market pirated copies immediately came out. This seriously hurt the creators' economic benefits and undermined foreign investment confidence.

"China's inferior products and minimal IPR protection have locked the overseas investment away, so China needs to improve its IPR protection to improve the investment environment," he said.

Olivia Chung is a senior Asia Times Online reporter.

*atimes.com

China denies Tibet railway hurting Tibetans

2008-03-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's railway to Tibet has strengthened government control in the remote region and led to policies that marginalize ethnic Tibetans, a U.S.-based advocacy group said on Thursday.

Nearly two years after the world's highest railroad was completed at a cost of $1.4 billion, the International Campaign for Tibet said it was accelerating an influx of Han Chinese into the region and threatening its fragile high-altitude environment.

"Only a re-orientation of economic strategy towards local integration -- in effect 'Tibetanizing' development -- .... could reverse the trend of marginalization and estrangement," the group said in its report, "Tracking the Steel Dragon".

Such marginalization was undermining the efforts of China's ruling Communist Party to maintain stability in the region its troops invaded in 1950, the report said.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed the key claims of the report and praised the Qinghai-Tibet railway for improving exchanges.

"We believe the Qinghai-Tibet railway has played a positive role in promoting Tibet's economic and social development," spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference, adding it had proved a "huge benefit".

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising and has since lived in exile in India.

But with Beijing hosting the Olympics in August, the status of Tibet has joined the list of issues that activists say China must address, such as human rights and its policies towards Sudan and Myanmar. The Dalai Lama has said Tibet supporters should protest peacefully against Chinese rule during the Games.
"Tracking the Steel Dragon" cited Tibet scholars as saying that despite years of Chinese diatribes against the Dalai Lama, a new generation of young Tibetans was increasingly exchanging views in cyberspace on sensitive issues. Chinese officials have also warned of an increase in activity by his supporters.

The report called for an overhaul of Chinese policies in Tibet, advocating preferential treatment for Tibetans in education and training opportunities, and locally oriented development of services and industries.

"We are urging governments to call for a proactive, affirmative and preferential policy towards Tibetans, while foreign investors in Tibet must implement guidelines that aim to ensure the genuine participation of Tibetans in the development of their economy," Mary Beth Markey, the group's vice president, said in a statement.

The development model China is pursuing based on infrastructure projects and resource extraction was not sustainable and was leaving Tibetans dependent on subsidies from the central government, the report said.

Damage from China's Push for Economic Growth Decried by Environmentalists

2008-02-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

Since economic reforms began in the late 1970's, China's push to become a major industrial power has put a tremendous strain on its environment. Pollution-related problems, from acid rain to contaminated rivers, are now commonplace in China. Authorities in Beijing have taken measures to try to improve environmental protection, but as Naomi Martig reports from Hong Kong, most analysts agree they are not enough.

On a severely polluted day in many Chinese cities, it is difficult to see beyond a few hundred meters. In northern China, drought has left more than two million people without enough drinking water, partly because much of the area's remaining water supply is contaminated by pollutants. And in cities such as Guangzhou in southern China, authorities have been trying to clean up the air for more than a decade.

Air and water pollution in China have reached alarming levels in recent years. Despite having some of the world's largest water reserves, two-thirds of Chinese cities have less water than they need because of overuse and pollution. Many experts say China will soon pass the United States as the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide.

Lo Szeping is the Campaign Director for Greenpeace in Beijing. He says government figures show more than half of China's rivers and lakes are polluted, and air pollution is just as bad.

"According to the World Bank, 17 of 20 of the world's most polluted cities in terms of air quality are in China," he said.

In addition, the country's growing population is contributing to China's pollution problems. Leiwen Jiang is a professor of international and environmental studies at Brown University in the United States. He says China's population is not increasing at an alarming rate, but it is still cause for concern.

"Population growth and the increase in consumption will inevitably generate heavier pressure on the environment and natural resources," he said.

Water reserves, for example, are unevenly distributed with northern China much drier than the south. However, the north still has to cope with a growing population - which means less water per person.

Authorities in Beijing have taken steps to try to improve conditions. The central government has shut down hundreds of polluting factories and put fines in place for companies that do not abide by environmental regulations. But for experts like Paul Harris, an environmental studies professor at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, those efforts have largely failed.

"At the local and regional and provincial level, the level of corruption and the desire for, to benefit from profit and industrialization is still much too powerful," he said. "Beijing has very little influence at the local level in this particular view."

Harris says many factories would rather pay a fine than follow more costly environmental standards. He believes that only when pollution problems begin to hurt regional economic growth, will local officials enforce environmental regulations.

In the meantime, experts are concerned that the health effects of an increasingly polluted community will soon become a political challenge for the central government.

Social unrest is already emerging around China. People living near polluting factories are protesting the contamination of land and water supplies. Professor Harris says he believes such movements will increase as steadily as China's pollution problems.

"The government is going to have trouble dealing with the protests and the like associated with this," he said. "So I'm suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party and the government more broadly may find that their survival, their hold on power, is at stake because of environmental changes."

Environmental activists say if authorities in Beijing want to maintain social stability, and continue economic growth, they are going to have to tighten regulations and employ cleaner technology.

*VOA

China Says Doing Its Best to Bring Peace to Sudan

2008-02-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

The international community is urging Sudan's ally China to pressure the Khartoum government to stop the deadly attacks in Darfur, where 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced in the past five years. China's envoy for Darfur, Liu Guijin, stopped in London recently on his way to Darfur. He said his government is doing its utmost to bring peace to Sudan. Tendai Maphosa files this report for VOA.

Ambassador Liu spoke at Chatham House, the London based research institute. He acknowledged that Darfur is one of the world's biggest problems, but added that tensions in the region have existed for many years. Liu said China's government has quietly used its influence to engage the Sudanese government, which has been accused of backing militias that have committed atrocities against Darfur's ethnic African communities.

Liu said China has also used what he called direct language with the government in Khartoum.

"The Chinese government is trying hard to find a practical solution," he said. "We are not going to try just to reduce the pressure we are faced with. By doing that we have to conduct the so-called quiet diplomacy, because all diplomacy should be quiet. If we make announcements everywhere, that cannot solve the problem. According to our Oriental culture, we do lot of things quietly."

Liu said the government of Sudan has agreed to the deployment of a United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force as a result of what he called China's vigorous intervention and the efforts of other countries. He added that China was the first non-African country to send troops to Darfur. And he said that rebels also have been responsible for the slow deployment of the hybrid force.

"Everyone knows that some of them openly threatened the peacekeepers, particularly peacekeepers from China," he added. "Countries which border Sudan also need to be more cooperative."

Liu said China has and still provides humanitarian aid to internally displaced people in Darfur.

Earlier this week British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said China's recent diplomatic efforts are a major contribution to ending the conflict in Darfur.

But Alex Vines, who heads the Africa program at Chatham House, says despite China's economic links to Sudan, its influence on Khartoum is sometimes overestimated.

"China is interested in Sudan exactly because it's the only country in Africa where [the] Chinese are producing oil," he noted. "They are buying oil from other places in Africa, but they are a producer in Sudan. That makes it quite significant for them. So that's why this special relationship between China and Sudan. Having said that, I think we can overestimate sometimes the amount of influence the Chinese have. They are a player in Sudan, but the Sudanese government has other relationships also."

Vines says Sudan's neighbors and the African Union could do more, but the solution to the problem lies internally between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels.

Ambassador Liu has been urging western powers to do more to persuade rebel groups to attend peace talks with Sudan's government.

But the Aegis Trust, a non-governmental organization that campaigns to prevent genocide worldwide, says China, with its close political and economic relationship with Sudan, could do much more to ease the crisis. Nick Donovan, a spokesman for the group, wants China to apply pressure so Sudan hands over a government minister and a leader of the government-backed Janjaweed militia to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

"We would like to see them support the UN resolution to hand over the ICC suspects to stand trial for their crimes," he said. "We would like China to press Sudan to remove all obstacles to the deployment of the UN peacekeeping force. And, we would like them to suspend their investment in the Sudanese oil industry while the Darfur crisis is going on, given that the Sudanese government has a central role in orchestrating lots of the violence."

Donovan added that the Chinese are not helping the situation by supplying weapons to Sudan's government.

Violence broke out in Darfur in early 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government. Sudan's government has bombarded areas of Darfur and has been blamed for backing the Janjaweed in the fight against the rebels.

Pressure has been building on China in the lead up to this summer's Olympic games in Beijing.

Recently, Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg quit as artistic advisor to the Summer Olympics because of China's policy in Sudan.

*VOA

Hoops and hurdles for Olympic media

2008-02-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

By Josh Adams

BEIJING - Seventy-two years after black American athlete Jesse Owens sprinted to victory in Berlin in the Olympic Games - much to the chagrin of Adolf Hitler and his "Aryan racial superiority" - the incontrovertible connection between sport and politics has never been stronger.

The Beijing Olympics this summer are being heavily promoted as a global feel-good moment, with muscular young athletes performing heroic feats to the applause of millions. Beneath the surface, however, a quagmire of complex and unseemly issues threaten to make a mockery of the hackneyed "one world, one dream" mantra.

Many overseas journalists want to penetrate the shiny, happy Olympic facade to report on the gritty economic and environmental realities of life in China, or put this year's Games in some human-rights context, such as the ongoing genocide in Darfur, brutal oppression in Myanmar, or the perennially sensitive topics of Tibet, Xinjiang or Taiwan. For them, the runup to August may not be so much of a "coming out party" as a frustrating, fruitless and potentially dangerous attempt to get at the truth.

When Beijing was bidding for the Games seven years ago, Chinese Olympic officials vowed to give international media "complete freedom to report when they come to China". In line with this promise, China lifted many of the restrictions placed on overseas journalists and photographers from January last year. However, despite the rhetoric and changes to legal fine print, there still appears to be a sizeable gap between international norms and the situation in the field.

In a recent survey by the Beijing-based Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), 40% of the 163 media professionals who took part reported experiencing some form of interference in their work since January 2007. They told of more than 157 separate incidents, including intimidation of sources, detentions, surveillance, official reprimands, and even injury to themselves and others. An overwhelming 95% of respondents said reporting conditions in China still fall short of what they consider to be international standards.

These findings run contrary to glowing reviews by state-run Chinese newspapers concerning the "greater access of foreign media". Speaking to the official English-language China Daily, Liu Jianchao, director general of the Information Department of the Foreign Ministry, recently commented, "We are encouraged to see that the new regulations have been widely welcomed. China has followed up on its pledge to facilitate the work of foreign journalists." According to Liu, he and his colleagues have been "swamped by constant positive appraisals from foreign correspondents on the far-reaching significance of the regulations".

One common complaint among foreign journalists in Beijing is the insufficient access they are given to government officials, particularly the nation's top leadership. One FCCC interviewee, who wished to remain anonymous, commented, "Government offices should reply to queries quickly and abandon the practice of requesting numerous faxes; they should reply to specific questions. The premier should hold more than one press conference per year. The practice of vetting questions beforehand should be abandoned. This should be a real press conference rather than a staged event."

As overseas journalists to cover the Olympics start to fan out across the country, they are already encountering clumsy local cadres unaccustomed to Chinese or foreign reporting on issues normally considered off-limits - these include land disputes, anti-pollution protests, and HIV/AIDS. Despite the good intentions of Beijing, this is creating ample opportunities for journalists to report on "oppressive" media restrictions enforced at provincial level by "security guards", hired thugs and overzealous minor officials.

Tibet and Xinjiang are two areas where reporting is still particularly problematic. A Beijing-based magazine reporter from the US, who also wished to remain anonymous, comments, "If you have a journalist [J-1] visa and are traveling in Tibet then there is a large chance you will be hassled by the local authorities in some way, irrespective of what you're there to report on. Where feasible it's easier to send somebody who doesn't have a J-1 visa because they can move around more freely."

These sentiments are borne out by the case of Harald Maass, correspondent for the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau, who was in Tibet last year to do an innocuous report on a group of Mount Everest climbers. Maass reported to the FCCC that he had been prevented by police from going to the city of Shigatse to do his story, while his interview subjects in Lhasa, as well as a travel agency he had hired a car from, were heavily fined and warned not to talk to him. On his return to Beijing, Maass was summoned by the Foreign Ministry and strongly criticized for his trip, being told to "correct his mistakes".

Another issue which has recently reinforced concerns that China may not be wholly living up to its Olympic promises is the compilation of a so-called "database" on foreign journalists. Despite a great deal of misinformation, it's now clear that the Chinese government has already created profiles of thousands of foreign journalists coming to report on the Games, and is gathering information on thousands more.

According to Beijing, information from the database will be provided to interviewees to protect them from being tricked or blackmailed by "fake reporters". In China, people sometimes pose as reporters to extort money from corrupt officials or demand payment for false promises of favorable news coverage; the China Daily states that a nationwide campaign launched in August and due to finish next month has already landed 150 fake reporters and 300 illegal publications.

Regardless of Beijing's claims, however, many journalists remain deeply skeptical about the function of this database, and it certainly takes an Olympic-sized leap of the imagination to see how a foreign reporter could really scam a Chinese party official or business leader, even if they wanted to.

Paris-based media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers) have unsurprisingly condemned the database, commenting, "Following the Communist Party of China Congress, we had been hoping for significant measures to improve press freedom before the Olympics. Instead, the government and organizers of the games have decided keep files on foreign journalists, supposedly in order to identify 'fake' ones. Keeping files on journalists opens the way for every kind of abuse."

Despite the widespread feeling in Beijing's foreign press circles that more still needs to be done to ensure proper media freedom in China, there are signs that things are gradually moving in the right direction, at least for overseas reporters. Old regulations forcing foreign correspondents to seek local government permission to travel have been temporarily rescinded, and 43%of those journalists surveyed by the FCCC stated that China's media environment had recently become less tightly controlled.

Commenting on the improvements, one Beijing-based US print correspondent explains, "There has been a big shift in attitude by the authorities. At a national level, there is a clear commitment to correct the old practices. On a local scale, there's still lots of confusion, however. They don't dare push you too much, and whatever they try it's always done with extreme caution and in a polite way."

Whatever the complaints, the conditions for foreign correspondents in Beijing and beyond are far more relaxed than for their local counterparts. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post recently reported that China's Propaganda Department has sent a directive to leading Chinese news media asking them to avoid publishing negative stories on Olympic-related matters, including issues such as air pollution, a dispute over Taiwan's inclusion in the Olympic torch relay, and public health.

One reporter with a Beijing-based magazine, who asked to remain anonymous, feels conditions for Chinese correspondents will actually become more restrictive from now until August. He comments, "All officials or other high-ranking personages involved in the Games are prevented from receiving any interviews unless there is a prior arrangement with BOCOG [Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games]. I don't see any improvement in this issue, and conditions are getting worse with the Games drawing nearer and the whole Spielberg episode. After August it's impossible to imagine we shall be enjoying the same freedoms as foreign reporters either."

With less than half a year until the Games begin, it's still not clear whether the government has the means or desire to keep its promise of complete media freedom, and what will happen once the Olympic flame is extinguished. Despite the significant steps that China has taken over the past 20 years, a "transparency gap" with Western nations is likely to remain over the coming months, and this gap may grow wider in the face of sustained international criticism. Those journalists that show up expecting conditions for carte blanche correspondence are likely to be disappointed.

*atimes.com

China denies Tibet railway hurting Tibetans

2008-02-28T07:46:00.001-08:00

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING, Feb 28 (Reuters) - China's railway to Tibet has strengthened government control in the remote region and led to policies that marginalise ethnic Tibetans, a U.S.-based advocacy group said on Thursday.

Nearly two years after the world's highest railroad was completed at a cost of $1.4 billion, the International Campaign for Tibet said it was accelerating an influx of Han Chinese into the region and threatening its fragile high-altitude environment.

"Only a re-orientation of economic strategy towards local integration -- in effect 'Tibetanizing' development -- .... could reverse the trend of marginalisation and estrangement," the group said in its report, "Tracking the Steel Dragon".

Such marginalisation was undermining the efforts of China's ruling Communist Party to maintain stability in the region its troops invaded in 1950, the report said.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed the key claims of the report and praised the Qinghai-Tibet railway for improving exchanges.

"We believe the Qinghai-Tibet railway has played a positive role in promoting Tibet's economic and social development," spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference, adding it had proved a "huge benefit".

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising and has since lived in exile in India.

But with Beijing hosting the Olympics in August, the status of Tibet has joined the list of issues that activists say China must address, such as human rights and its policies towards Sudan and Myanmar. The Dalai Lama has said Tibet supporters should protest peacefully against Chinese rule during the Games.

"Tracking the Steel Dragon" cited Tibet scholars as saying that despite years of Chinese diatribes against the Dalai Lama, a new generation of young Tibetans was increasingly exchanging views in cyberspace on sensitive issues. Chinese officials have also warned of an increase in activity by his supporters.

The report called for an overhaul of Chinese policies in Tibet, advocating preferential treatment for Tibetans in education and training opportunities, and locally oriented development of services and industries.

"We are urging governments to call for a proactive, affirmative and preferential policy towards Tibetans, while foreign investors in Tibet must implement guidelines that aim to ensure the genuine participation of Tibetans in the development of their economy," Mary Beth Markey, the group's vice president, said in a statement.

The development model China is pursuing based on infrastructure projects and resource extraction was not sustainable and was leaving Tibetans dependent on subsidies from the central government, the report said.

Chinese Mothers Remember Crackdown

2008-02-28T07:45:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AP) - Mothers of those killed in China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests have joined the list of groups invoking this summer's Beijing Olympics to draw attention to their causes.

In an open letter released Thursday, the Tiananmen Mothers warned the Games would be dogged by lingering guilt and mistrust unless China confronts the truth about the crackdown.

"Is it really possible that, as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, the government can be at ease allowing athletes from all over the world to tread on this piece of bloodstained soil and participate in the Olympics?" the letter said.

The group is named after the square in central Beijing where the student-led protests against corruption and closed politics were centered.

China's leaders deemed them a threat to Communist Party rule, sending tanks and troops to crush them on the night of June 3-4. Hundreds _ possibly thousands _ were killed, mostly ordinary citizens seeking to protect the students, although the government has never allowed a full, impartial accounting of the events.

The mothers have released a version of the letter every spring since 1995 ahead of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's rubber stamp legislature, which has steadfastly refused to accept a copy.

In the letter, they call for a dialogue with the legislature, an investigation into the crackdown, an official apology, compensation, and the punishment of those guilty of crimes related to the events.

A long list of rights groups and activists have conjured up the prospect of a tarnished Games to pressure Beijing into changing its policies on issues from Tibet to political prisoners and Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

*wtopnews.com

China Signs Oil Deal with Iranian Company

2008-02-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

China is maintaining its position that it does not support actions against Iran that "undermine normal trade and economic cooperation." Even as the United Nations maneuvers toward a vote on expanded sanctions against Iran - which Beijing has reportedly approved - China's main offshore oil and gas company is reported to have signed a $16 billion deal to develop an Iranian gas field. VOA's Stephanie Ho reports from Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao was asked Thursday about the reported deal, in which state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC, would supposedly help develop Iran's North Pars gas field.

Liu, without going into specifics, confirmed the deal, but said it is strictly a commercial activity between two companies.

Liu says China is very concerned about nuclear proliferation, but believes Iran has the right to the peaceful development of nuclear energy.

The United Nations has already passed two rounds of sanctions against Tehran because of the Iranians' refusal to halt their program of enriching uranium. Tehran says it is building only peacetime nuclear energy, but there is international suspicion that the Iranians are trying to build a nuclear weapon.

At a regular briefing in Beijing Thursday, Liu urged Tehran to "actively respond" to international concerns over its nuclear program.

But the spokesman seemed to draw a distinction between the U.N. sanctions already in place or now being contemplated, and everyday business deals between companies.

He says actions to address the Iranian nuclear issue should not "undermine normal trade and economic cooperation with Iran."

The United Nations Security Council voted in 2006 to ban the sale or transfer to Iran of items linked to its nuclear research. A second vote, in 2007, banned dealings with one of Iran's state-owned banks, and a number of its officials.

The five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, Britain, France and Russia, along with China - have agreed to a draft text outlining a third round of sanctions, and a vote is seen likely this week or next. The latest resolution would call for more travel and financial restrictions on named Iranian individuals and companies.

Beijing apparently feels that arrangements like the reported CNOOC-North Pars deal do not fall under the restrictions in those resolutions.

In early December, Chinese oil refiner Sinopec signed an agreement to develop Iran's oil field in Yadavaran.

The U.S. State Department says Washington is looking into whether the CNOOC deal breaches U.S. law. The Chinese company has its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is therefore subject to American laws.

*VOA

China Dismisses Olympic Boycott Call by Burmese Activists

2008-02-26T15:32:00.001-08:00

irrawaddy/ China urged an activist group in Burma that called for a boycott of this year's Olympic Games to have a "correct understanding" of Beijing's policy toward their country.

China's "good neighborly and friendly policy" toward Burma "serves the interest of the people in Myanmar [Burma] and also in China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday. China is one of Burma's key trading partners.

"The policy is conducive to the democratic process of reconciliation and peace in Myanmar. I hope relevant organizations could have a correct understanding of this policy," Liu said.

Pro-democracy activists in Burma called Monday for the world to boycott the Beijing Olympics over what they said was China's continuing support of Burma's military dictatorship.

The 88 Generation Students group, which was instrumental in last year's pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma, accused China of bankrolling and arming the junta and failing to facilitate a meaningful dialogue between it and detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party.

The 88 Generation Students joined a growing group of critics urging an Olympic boycott over complaints ranging from Beijing's human rights record to its failure to more actively press Sudan—where China is a major oil buyer—to end violence in the Darfur region that has killed at least 200,000 people.

Liu said China opposes any move to link the Olympics with politics.

"Our main concern is that the Olympic Games is a great gathering event of the Chinese people and world people and they shall not be politicized or boycotted under some political excuses," Liu said.

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg quit earlier this month as an artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics, saying China was not doing enough about Darfur.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a constitution since 1988, when the army violently suppressed pro-democracy protests and the current junta took power.

In September the junta crushed peaceful demonstrations that were triggered by rising food prices but expanded to include demands for democratic reforms. The UN estimates the crackdown killed at least 31 people, and thousands more were detained.

Olympics-Dutch coach wants IOC focus on China human rights

2008-02-25T15:38:00.001-08:00

AMSTERDAM, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should do more to raise the issue of human rights in China, a leading Dutch swimming coach said on Saturday. It is "scandalous" that the IOC is "distancing itself more and more from the political discussion", Jacco Verhaeren told Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad in an interview. Verhaeren is the coach of Olympic champions Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn.

"I know that the IOC must balance many interests against each other but I think there is no greater interest than respect for human rights," the newspaper quoted the coach as saying.

Last week, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg quit his role as artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics because China was doing too little to help halt the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Eight Nobel Peace laureates also wrote to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging him to change policy towards Sudan, where China has big oil investments. Beijing has often said it is working for peace in Darfur.

The Christian Union, a conservative Protestant party and the smallest party in the Dutch ruling coalition, is calling for a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August to highlight human rights abuses in China.

Last month, the Netherlands angered Beijing when its foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, attended a discussion of China's human rights record and the Games, despite a warning by the Chinese ambassador that the debate was offensive.

Verhagen said then that a boycott would be counterproductive and dialogue would achieve more. China says the Games should not be politicised. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Robert Woodward)

Tel Aviv 'Human Rights Torch Relay' protests China's Holocausts

2008-02-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

Israelis tend to be sensitive about crimes against humanity (at least outside of the Occupied Territories) and the speeches given at this rally show that many feel China’s regime is guilty of multiple, concurrent atrocities even as it pines for global admiration by throwing billions into the upcoming Olympics.

This time, not only Darfur was mentioned, but also the open secret of organ harvesting, and the almost forgotten, recently smothered non-violent revolution in Burma.

Over twenty religious representatives, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Burmese, Cherkes Muslims, Uzbek Muslims and other religious and community leaders signed a joint statement calling for a stop to ‘crimes against humanity’ in China, such as the persecution of Falun Gong, and forced organ harvesting.

Former Canadian Deputy Speaker of the House (and numerous other titles at the highest level), David Kilgour, was on hand to question how a regime responsible for atrocities in China, Darfur, Zimbabwe, Tibet and Burma could be allowed to host the 2008 Olympics. Kilgour is co-author of Bloody Harvest, a comprehensive that verified the allegations of forced organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners in China. He spent a few days in Israel in which he met members of Parliament, law experts, and other public figures in Israel to tell them about his report and about his knowledge of the human right abuses in China.

Several Israeli politicians also spoke to participants. The Human Rights Torch Relay is an international campaign that seeks an end to all human rights abuses against the people of China, especially the Falun Gong—the most severely persecuted group in China today.

Hundreds participate in human rights march in Israel despite rain
Although weathermen predicted storms and occasional rain, hundreds of people came out to support the Human Rights Torch Relay in Tel Aviv Monday evening, Feb. 18, and called for an immediate end to all crimes against humanity taking place in China before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Darfurian refugees, Falun Gong practitioners, Rabbis, religious leaders, physicians, artists and all kinds of supporters participated in the rally.

Prior to the rally, religious leaders and community leaders from different religions and sects signed a joint statement calling for the stop of the crimes against humanity in China such as the persecution against Falun Gong, and the forced organ harvesting.

*gnn.tv/

China reports rise in rate of sex-transmitted diseases

2008-02-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Reuters

BEIJING -- China unveiled on Friday a large percentage rise in 2007 in diseases transmitted sexually or via blood, including AIDS and syphilis, without reporting exact figures. The number of new AIDS infections soared 45 percent in 2007, compared with 2006, the Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site (www.moh.gov.cn), adding new syphilis cases rose 24 percent. The ministry's statement did not elaborate. China has been battling an acknowledged rise in HIV/AIDS infections, now mainly sexually transmitted, though has said previously that the rate overall is slowing.
*chinapost.com

UK minister urged to speak out on rights on China trip

2008-02-24T13:36:00.001-08:00

By Adrian Croft

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Rights groups urged British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday to publicly raise rights issues on a visit to China, saying Beijing had failed to fulfil pledges to improve the situation before the Olympics.

A British member of the European Parliament, Glenys Kinnock, separately called on Miliband to press the China for action to end the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

Amnesty International said it wanted Miliband to insist during his 6-day visit, starting this weekend, that peaceful protests during the Olympics were not met with state violence.

"David Miliband must speak out publicly about human rights in China, not least because ordinary people in the country cannot do so without fear of persecution," Amnesty's UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock said on the group's Web site.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Miliband would raise human rights and Darfur in his talks with Chinese officials.

"Over the past couple of decades, there has been real progress in economic and social freedoms in China but we do continue to have real concerns about human rights and civil and political freedoms. This is a live debate within Chinese society itself, right up to the top leadership," he said.

Miliband's trip follows a visit to Beijing last month by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Brown raised human rights and democracy with Chinese leaders, British officials said.

Britain is seeking to strengthen its ties with China, eyeing its potential as an economic superpower and a diplomatic heavyweight whose global influence is on the rise.

Human Rights Watch published a letter to Miliband urging him to take "a strong public position in support of human rights".

"The UK government must be candid about China's failure to meet its Olympics-related commitments to improving human rights," it said.

Since the start of 2007, China has allowed foreign reporters to travel and report more freely across most of the country.

But Human Rights Watch said foreign journalists were routinely harassed, detained and intimidated.

Another rights group, Crisis Action, released a letter from Kinnock, wife of a former leader of Britain's ruling Labour Party, urging Miliband to press China for action on Darfur.

"China must be made aware ... that as Sudan's political, economic and military partner, and protector, it must act responsibly and help to achieve the long-term stability the people of Darfur crave," she wrote.

Oscar-winning film director Steven Spielberg withdrew last week as an artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics over China's policy on Darfur. Beijing rejects attempts to use the Games to influence its policies. (Editing by Alison Williams)

China arrested ex-official for alleged spying for Taiwan

2008-02-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A former official from China's communications ministry has been arrested by Chinese authorities over alleged espionage claims for Taiwan, a Taiwan newspaper reported yesterday.
Li Jian, a former deputy director of the ministry's Taiwan Affairs Office, was arrested on Lunar New Year's eve for allegedly collecting intelligence for Taiwan, the United Daily News cited "reliable sources" as disclosing.

While at the office, Li played a vital role in a cross-strait agreement in 1997 to introduce the scheme of an "offshore transport center" that would allow faster shipping between Taiwan and China, the paper said.

According to the paper, Li left the ministry to become a businessman. But Chinese authorities put him under surveillance in 2000 after becoming suspicious of his ties with Taiwan.

After seven years of monitoring, Chinese authorities arrested him earlier this month, but refused to disclose details concerning his charges, the paper said.

Li is the third Taiwan affairs official since 1991 that China has arrested on charges of espionage for the island, the paper said.

The highest level of Chinese official ever charged with spying for Taiwan was General Liu Liankun, who was convicted and executed in 1999.

He was said to have provided Taiwan with information concerning the 1996 cross-strait crisis, in which China test-fired missiles into waters near the island in an attempt to intimidate voters from re-electing then President Lee Teng-hui.

The news of Li's arrest came close on the heels of the release of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, who had been jailed in China after being found guilty of spying for Taiwan.

Ching held a press conference Thursday in Hong Kong, denying he had ever been a spy for Taiwan.

*chinapost.com

China arrests 11 over racy HK photos

2008-02-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities have arrested or detained nearly a dozen people in recent weeks for allegedly circulating explicit photos of Hong Kong actor Edison Chen and several female partners, a state news agency reported Friday.
Police detained one man on Friday in the eastern province of Zhejiang for posting the photos on the Internet, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Identified only by his surname, Yu was apprehended at his home in Zhoushan city, where authorities found more than 260 downloaded photos on his computer.

Last week, 10 people who allegedly produced, sold or bought computer discs of the photos were arrested in the southern city of Shenzhen after police confiscated about 250 discs and six computers used to produce the discs.

Police said it is illegal for people to disseminate or post the photos, even if they do not intend to make a profit, Xinhua said.

On Thursday, the Canadian-born Chen admitted taking the photos showing him and several women -- including singer Gillian Chung and actress Cecilia Cheung -- performing sexual acts. He publicly apologized for the scandal, but said the photos were private and were never intended to be shown to anyone. He said the photos were stolen and distributed without his approval.

Hong Kong police have already arrested several people on suspicion of violating local laws governing obscene material in connection with the photos, including a man accused of downloading the photos from a computer brought to a shop for repairs and publishing them on the Internet.

The scandal has dominated headlines in Hong Kong for weeks.

Earlier this week, China's top Internet search engine, Baidu.com, was censured by a government-sponsored Web watchdog for allegedly helping spread sexually explicit photos.

*chinapost.com

US to take own food to Olympics

2008-02-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

China has expressed regret that the US has decided not to trust its food during this summer's Olympic Games.

The US delegation has said it is planning to bring its own food for American athletes.

At a news conference in Beijing, a senior official, Kang Yi, said it was a pity that the US had apparently decided not to trust China's food.

Ms Kang insisted that the food served to athletes at the Olympics would exceed international health standards.

For China, a good Olympic Games means cheering spectators, record-breaking performances and athletes and fans all sitting down to enjoy some good Chinese-made food.

But the US is not so sure about the food part, and plans to import its own meat and cook its own meals for its athletes when they get to Beijing.

Ms Kang and her colleagues were asked about the allegation that chickens on sale here are so full of hormones that athletes would test positive for steroids if they were to eat them.

There is no scientific evidence for this, insisted Lu Yong, who runs Beijing's municipal food safety monitoring centre.

*BBC

UN Rapporteur on Torture Highlights China, Falun Gong Torture

2008-02-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

The torture of Falun Gong practitioners in China continues unabated, reports the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, who will visit China later this month.
The report was published on March 23, 2004 and submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights at its annual meeting in Geneva. The report is a summary of communications between the rapporteur and various governments concerning suspected torture cases and urgent appeals during 2003.
Of the 115 countries covered, China had by far the greatest number of verified violations in the 420-page report. Of over 130 cases of reported torture and abuse in China, approximately 100 of them were perpetrated against Falun Gong practitioners.
According to the report, Rapporteur Theo van Boven wrote to the Chinese government at least six times to appeal about specific cases of torture in 2003.

In a letter dated June 4 he informed the Chinese government he was aware that a Mr. Xiao “was reportedly subjected to the so-called “water dungeon”… locking a naked person into a small iron cage with spikes on all sides. The cage is then lowered into filthy water up to the victim’s chest or neck in a completely dark room. The victim may be locked in the cage for days or even weeks, and urine and feces are excreted into the water.”
The report is not comprehensive and many cases of torture may not be included in it, said a representative at the rapporteur’s office. The rapporteur compiles it after processing information submitted to his office by various NGOs.
One such NGO is the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group (www.flghrwg.net). According to working group representative Mr. Chen Shizhong, the NGO has received tens of thousands of reports on torture of Falun Gong practitioners in China over the past few years and submitted several thousand to the rapporteur.
These cases include severe beatings, whippings with poisonous hemp, hanging by the wrists, deprivation of food and sleep, dousing with extremely cold or hot water, shocking sensitive body parts with high-voltage electric batons, and sodomizing with sticks.

The Chinese government’s response acknowledges the sudden death of multiple individuals in custody, though repeatedly states that “allegations of torture and ill-treatment are unfounded.”

Examining these allegations is the main purpose of the rapporteur’s trip. If carried out, this will be the Special Rapporteur's first UN mission to China after several attempts that fell through due to the Chinese government’s last minute modification of the visit’s conditions.

Even if the Chinese government makes no last-minute maneuvers this time, Falun Gong practitioner and past torture victim Mr. Zhao Ming is concerned about whether the rapporteur will be allowed to truly inspect detention facilities without interference. He says that the Chinese government has in the past effectively reduced visits to little more than show tours by hiding abused prisoners and other evidence of wrongdoing for the duration of the tours.

Other victims of torture in China referred to in the report include Tibetans, HIV/AIDS activists, and those arrested for openly expressing their views on a variety of issues.

The death penalty in China: executed according to law?

2008-02-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International has many reasons for calling for an immediate moratorium on executions in China. One of them is the complete failure of China’s criminal justice system to guarantee anyone a fair trial. In a recent report, Amnesty International details how the Chinese government routinely abuses national laws and international standards in the course of executing thousands of people each year. The rights of individuals facing the death penalty are violated at every stage of legal proceedings. In the circumstances, innocent people undoubtedly have been and will continue to be executed.

The abuses documented in the report include:

no immediate access to lawyer

seriously inadequate legal representation

torture used to extort confessions

confessions extracted under torture used as evidence in court

obviously fabricated evidence used in court

no guaranteed presumption of innocence

most judges have minimal or no legal training

Party supervision of all courts resulting in verdicts before trial

abuse of state secrets legislation to hide politically sensitive cases

“strike-hard” campaigns that put political pressure on police to “resolve” cases

detentions beyond legal limits

convicts paraded in public before execution
Sadly, capital punishment in China has become routine. Nearly 70 crimes are punishable by execution, including non-violent crimes. The exact number of executions is not known because the government treats death penalty statistics as a state secret, in contravention of internationally accepted instruments requiring all countries still using the death penalty to publish statistics on its use. Based on the cases documented by Amnesty International each year, it is known that China performs by far more executions that the rest of the world combined. The number has long been suspected to be in the thousands, but one Chinese official recently referred to as many as 10,000 executions per year. When that figure was reported in the national and international news, he was quick to clarify that it was not “official”. Another source reporting on internal government documents put the total at 15,000 per year. The world will not know the truth until the Government of China is pressured to tell the world the truth.

The cases summarized briefly below illustrate the catastrophic failures in China’s criminal justice system, which make the use of the death penalty a very deadly affair. For their full stories, see http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa170022004

Chen Guoqing and three co-defendants accused of murder in 1996. They have now been re-tried and re-sentenced to death four times. They have so far successfully appealed three times, because the appeal court recognised the evidence against them was non-existent, scant, or based upon confessions extorted through torture. They remain in prison awaiting a final verdict.

Zhao Fenrong, a woman also accused of murder in 1998 and sentenced to death at her trial and two re-trials, also on the basis of non-existent or scant evidence, and upon a confession extorted through torture. She is currently in prison on a suspended death sentence possibly awaiting a further appeal.

Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist cleric who was given a suspended death sentence following a blatantly unfair trial and a summary appeal procedure which saw his co-defendant Lobsang Dhundup executed on the day the sentence was passed.

Gong Shengliang, a Christian pastor who was also subjected to a blatantly unfair trial and sentenced to death, only to have his sentence reduced to life on appeal. He remains in prison, and there are serious concerns for his health following allegations of repeated and sustained beatings in prison.

Amnesty International's Recommendations to the Chinese government:

A: General recommendations on international standards and law

Impose an immediate moratorium on executions in China with a view
to total abolition of the death penalty;

As a further step towards abolition of the death penalty,
reduce the range of crimes for which the death penalty is applicable,
in line with international standards;

Immediately ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights at the earliest opportunity;

Immediately ratify the Convention against Torture’s optional protocol,
allowing for regular visits of inspection to places of detention by
national and international bodies;

Fully observe the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners, in particular ban the use of physical restraints and the
public parading of convicts, and guarantee immediate access to
medical attention upon detention;

Fully observe the General Principles on the Role of Lawyers,
in particular allowing for immediate, full and uninterrupted
contact between a detainee and a lawyer of their choice.
B: Specific recommendations on legal reform

Institute for all suspects all necessary guarantees on the presumption
of innocence, including the right to avoid self-incrimination, the
right to silence, and equality of arms;

Bring an immediate halt to the practice of awarding police officers
bonuses, citations and promotions when a suspect is detained, to
wait instead until all legal proceeding against a suspect are complete;

Include a specific provision in the Criminal Procedure Law explicitly
banning the use in court of testimony extorted through torture, in line
with China’s obligations under the Convention against Torture;

Abolish adjudication committees in courts as a practical step towards
eliminating the practice of “verdict before trial” and other political
interference in trials;

Intensify efforts to abolish prolonged or arbitrary detention for
all categories of prisoner;

Convene an investigative committee responsible to the Standing
Committee of the NPC, to investigate all miscarriages of justice,
including but not limited to the cases raised here, with a view to
rectifying relevant faults in China’s criminal justice system.

China Tries Land Activist Who Opposed Olympics

2008-02-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG—Authorities in the northeastern Chinese city of Jiamusi have begun the trial of a land rights activist for “incitement to subvert state power” after he used a slogan calling for human rights instead of the Olympics.

Yang Chunlin appeared in court Tuesday in manacles looking pale and skinny, as his lawyer’s arguments were heard in his defense. Yang was also given time to speak for himself, his sister Yang Chunping said.

“We were waiting outside of the courtroom when the police car came in with my brother. He looked like a death row prisoner, in handcuffs and leg irons with a hood over his head,” Yang Chunping told RFA’s Mandarin service.

“Police led him out of the car and then my brother yelled ‘Down with Fascism’ twice. Inside the courtroom his hood was taken off. As soon as my brother saw us he cried out. He said to the court that he was not yet sentenced, asking why they had put leg irons on him. His lawyer raised the same question. Then the police took them off,” she said.

The Jiamusi Intermediate People’s court trial lasted just under five hours, during which prosecutors read out a list of Yang’s offenses. They included advocating the slogan “Human Rights Over the Olympics,” which prosecutors said amounted to inciting subversion of state power.

They also listed articles published on overseas Web sites they said were critical of the Chinese government and of the ruling Communist Party.

Yang defended himself in a forceful speech lasting more than an hour, with no interruption from prosecutors.

“My brother insisted that he was innocent and was just expressing his thoughts, arguing that thoughts could not constitute a crime,” Yang Chunping said. “His thoughts and deeds were for defending the rights of local farmers. He said again that ‘We do want human rights but not the Olympic Games.’”

Yang also told the court that in nearby Fujin city, where he had campaigned for farmers’ rights, farmers had lost their land, had nothing to eat, and couldn’t afford to send their children to school.

“Why should we spend billions of yuan on the Olympics?” Yang asked the court. “‘Human rights over the Olympics’ is indeed an expression of my thoughts. Why am I not allowed to say that?”

No verdict was delivered during the hearing, which was originally planned as a closed-doors trial but was opened to the public in a surprise announcement by court officials a day earlier. They said the case could be tried openly because it contained no state secrets.

Yang’s lawyer Li Fangping said Yang Chunlin’s articles were focused on expressing his political views, and that most of them were academic discussions. He argued that the slogan “Human Rights Over the Olympics” was not aimed at state power, and that Yang had never written an article on the subject. He said the list of charges didn’t add up to incitement to subvert state power.

“The judges at the trial didn’t say very much. This is the first such case in Jiamusi,” Li told reporter Fang Yuan.

“The reason for Yang Chunlin’s case was because of his call for redress in the case of the farmers in Fujin whose land had been taken. The local authorities know that Fujin farmers have been petitioning in a land dispute for a while,” he added.

Yang Chunlin also told the prosecution that if charges against him were confirmed, he would hold no hope for justice in the Chinese legal system and thus wouldn’t appeal.

The trial is the first openly to link opposition to China’s hosting of the Summer Olympics in 2008 to subversion charges, although the detention of Beijing-based AIDS and civil rights activist Hu Jia on Dec. 27 for incitement to subversion has been linked in some commentaries to his references to the Olympics in online writings.

Beijing has lashed out at any linkage of its performance as Olympics host with criticism of its human rights record, although the issue made world headlines when movie director Steven Spielberg resigned as an artistic adviser for the opening ceremony.

While geographical reporting restrictions on foreign journalists have been lifted in theory, national security police and hired heavies have prevented foreign media from carrying out politically sensitive interviews with relatives of jailed dissidents and rights activists.

Authorities are also cracking down hard on evictees, especially those evicted from Olympics-related sites, petitioners against official wrongdoing, and campaigners in rural land disputes, hauling petitioners off to unofficial detention centers and sentencing local rights activists for causing a disturbance.

In a trial lasting less than 20 minutes in the eastern city of Wenzhou on Monday, the Dongtou County People’s Court handed down sentences of one year and 18 months to two land activists respectively for “assembly to cause a disturbance” and “obstruction of traffic.”

Zhuang Pengyou was sentenced to one year, while fellow villager Zhuang Gongxiu got 18 months. Around 70 villagers were present in the courtroom and protested noisily as the sentences were handed down, with shouts of “Heroes! Heroes!”

Villager Zhuang Zhiqiang said feelings were running high in the county over the sentences.

“Pretty much everyone in the court got to their feet when the sentences were read out. There was a lot of opposition. Because they said we were the ones causing trouble, when it’s the fault of the authorities.”

“They have in fact annexed our land, and no mention of this was made in this case. The officials just talk about social disturbance,” Zhuang told reporter Yan Xiu.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Fang Yuan and Yan Xiu. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and Chen Ping. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

China's Human rights violations :Organ Harvesting from Still Alive People

2008-02-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

China violates human rights in a variety of ways. These violations are chronic and serious. Besides Falun Gong, other prime targets of human rights violations are Tibetans, Christians, Uighurs, democracy activists and human rights defenders. Rule of Law mechanisms in place to prevent human rights violations, such as an independent judiciary, access to counsel on detention, habeas corpus, the right to public trial, are absent in China. China, according to its constitution, is ruled by the Communist Party. It is not ruled by law.

Communist China has had a history of massive, jaw dropping cruelty towards its own citizens. The Communist regime has killed more innocents than Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia combined[1]. Girl children are killed, abandoned and neglected in massive numbers. Torture is widespread. The death penalty is both extensive and arbitrary. China executes more people than all other countries combined. Religious belief is suppressed[2].

This pattern of human rights violations, like many other factors, does not in itself prove the allegations. But it removes an element of disproof. It is impossible to say of these allegations that it is out of step with an overall pattern of respect for human rights in China. While the allegations, in themselves, are surprising, they are less surprising with a country that has the human rights record China does than they would be for many other countries.

When there are so many violations of human rights in China, it is invidious to point to only one victim. We nonetheless draw the attention to the victimization of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng as an example or a case study. It was Gao who wrote to us last summer, inviting us to come to China to investigate the stealing of vital organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. No visa was subsequently issued by its embassy in Ottawa to do so; he was detained not long afterwards.

Gao wrote three open letters to President Hu and other leaders, protesting a range of abuses against the Falun Gong, including specific cases of torture and murder. Gao also wrote about and condemned the extraction and sale of organs from Falun Gong practitioners. He expressed his willingness to join the Coalition to Investigate Organ Harvesting from Still Alive People[3].

He was convicted of inciting subversion and on December 2, 2006 given a three-year prison sentence. His removal to custody, however, was suspended for five years; his political rights were removed for a year by the Beijing court. This repression of someone whose only concern is respect for human rights in general and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in particular in itself reinforces his concerns and ours.

The International Olympic Committee, in 2001, awarded Beijing the 2008 Olympics. Liu Jingmin, Vice President of the Beijing Olympic Bid, in April 2001, said: "By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help the development of human rights."

Yet, the result has been just the opposite. Amnesty International, in a statement released September 21, 2006 said:

"In its latest assessment of the Chinese government's performance in four benchmark areas of human rights ahead of the Olympics, Amnesty International found that its overall record remained poor. There has been some progress in reforming the death penalty system, but in other crucial areas the government's human rights record has deteriorated."

The international community, by carrying on with the Olympics in Beijing despite the deterioration of human rights in China in crucial areas, sends to China a message of impunity. The impression China must get is that it does not matter how much it violates human rights; the international community seems not to care.

>>>FULL REPORT

China Media, Public Angered by Spielberg

2008-02-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AP) - Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's decision to quit the Beijing Olympics over the Darfur crisis is drawing condemnation by China's state-controlled media and a groundswell of criticism from the Chinese public.

Last week, the American director withdrew from his role as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games, accusing China of not doing enough to press for peace in the troubled Sudanese region.

Officially, the Chinese government has not directly criticized Spielberg by name, expressing only "regret" over his decision. But the state-run media and the public have been far less restrained.

In newspaper commentaries and lively Internet forums, they have expressed outrage, scorn and bewilderment that China's Olympics have come under international criticism from Spielberg and others.

A biting front-page editorial Wednesday in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, blasted Spielberg for his decision.

"A certain Western director was very naive and made an unreasonable move toward the issue of the Beijing Olympics. This is perhaps because of his unique Hollywood characteristics," it said.

Over the weekend, the Guangming Daily, also published by the Communist Party, ran an editorial saying Spielberg "broke his promise to make his contribution to the Beijing Olympics and betrayed the Olympic spirit."

He "is not qualified to blame China because he knows nothing about the great efforts the Chinese government has made on Darfur," it said.

An editorial in the China Youth Daily was equally scathing.

"This renowned film director is famous for his science fiction. But now it seems he lives in a world of science fiction and he can't distinguish a dream from reality," it said.

China is believed to have influence over Sudanese leaders because it buys two-thirds of the African country's oil exports. China also sells weapons to the Islamic government and defends it in the United Nations.

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur in a conflict between rebels and militias backed by government forces.

China often uses its newspapers to make statements it does not want to officially comment on. But the issue also has exploded on the Internet, where scores of Chinese have been quick to add their criticism of Spielberg.

"We should have never invited him in the first place," was one retort on Sina.com, the country's largest Internet portal.

Others asked why China's Olympic Games were being linked to Darfur.

"Spielberg used the sacred Olympics as a tool. There are so many simpler or more complicated issues than the Darfur issue in the world," one said. "I rarely heard him say anything. Why was he so keen this time?"

But the recent storm of international criticism has prodded China to take some steps.

Earlier this week, the Foreign Ministry announced that China's special envoy to Darfur will be making his fourth visit to the region later this month.

In a telephone call Tuesday to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Premier Wen Jiabao detailed China's efforts to establish peace in Darfur, a move that underscored the sensitivity of the issue.

On Wednesday, the head of marketing for the Beijing Olympics defended China's stance on Darfur and appealed to activists not to pressure sponsors to pull out of the games.

"China has been doing a lot toward the resolution of the Darfur issue," said Yuan Bin, director of the Beijing Olympics marketing department. "I want to say the Olympics should be kept nonpolitical."

In an interview published Wednesday, China's special envoy to Darfur said that Western countries can help move forward the peace process by pushing rebel leaders to take part in negotiations.

"Western powers can exert more positive influence on those rebel leaders because many of them live in Western capitals," envoy Liu Guijin told the China Daily newspaper.

Abdel Wahid Nur, one of the most influential rebel leaders, lives in France.

Liu will be making his fourth visit to Darfur later this month. In a telephone call Tuesday to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Premier Wen Jiabao detailed China's efforts to establish peace in Darfur, a move that underscored the sensitivity of the issue.

*wtopnews.com

'Thousands' moved for China Games

2008-02-20T10:33:00.001-08:00

Just under 15,000 people have been moved from their homes to make way for Olympic venues, the organisers of the Beijing Olympics say.

Beijing's Municipal Construction Committee said 14,901 people from 6,307 households had been moved.

The figures differ dramatically from those provided last year by an international campaign group.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said 1.25m people had been displaced ahead of the Games.

Zhang Jiaming, of the Municipal Construction Committee, said everyone who was relocated did so voluntarily.

Mr Zhang's figures are strikingly precise, but the discrepancies can be explained.

Beijing's numbers refer exclusively to people who have had to move to make way for Olympic venues - and nothing more.

The figures from the COHRE include everyone who has had to make way for new building work designed to make Beijing a more modern city for the Olympic Games.

So, for example, the centre would count people who have been made to leave their homes to make way for a new skyscraper - but Beijing would not.

*BBC

Dutch lawmaker calls for boycott of Olympic opening ceremony

2008-02-20T09:53:00.001-08:00

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A Dutch lawmaker wants an international boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics to protest China's human rights record.

Joel Voordewind, a member of the Christian Union party, would like governments around the world to support the boycott and lean on sponsors to use their financial clout with Beijing.

"It is possible to take part in the games but skip the party beforehand," he said Tuesday. "Such a ceremony is only intended to glorify the host, China."

Voordewind also suggested setting up a venue in Beijing during the games where visitors can discuss human rights. He expected opposition from organizers, but said, "If the Chinese are against the plan, that means they are against human rights."

Voordewind has just begun enlisting world support. Neither the Dutch government nor the Olympic Committee has backed him.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said the government regularly brings up human rights issues at meetings with Chinese officials and has no plans to support a boycott of the games or the opening ceremony.

Despite the negative reactions at home, Voordewind still hopes for a mass movement before the Olympics open next August.

"The Americans waited a long time until they boycotted the (Moscow) games," he said, referring the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics to protest Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee has said it believes "excellent ceremonies will be presented to the world." Linking sports and politics, it added, was "not in line with the Olympic spirit."

Critics say China has for years mistreated Tibetans, jailed dissidents and journalists on questionable charges and should be doing more to push the government in Sudan — where China is a major buyer of oil — into bringing an end to violence in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died in the Sudanese province in a conflict between rebels and militias backed by government forces.

Nobel laureates and former Olympic gold medalists added their voices on China's role in the humanitarian crisis by issuing an open letter.

Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, has said he will skip the Olympics. He supports Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile since an uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Last week, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg quit as an artistic adviser to Beijing, saying China was not doing enough to press Khartoum to end the conflict in Darfur.

"I hold much respect for Spielberg's decision and if an athlete doesn't want to go, I'll respect that, too. But the games will be a success, without a doubt," International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said in an interview published Tuesday in the Spanish sports daily Marca. "The games are stronger than any one person."

Rogge expects many heads of state — including President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — to attend the opening ceremony.

"All of the heads of state have said 'We will be present' and are not in favor of a boycott. Neither are the athletes," Rogge said. "I think boycotts are a thing of the past, not of the present nor the future."

Rogge reasserted that IOC the would not tolerate athletes mixing politics with sport, especially on the podium.

"We don't want this to turn into a political demonstration," he said. "This is sport."

*iht.com

China inflation hits 11-year high

2008-02-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Chinese inflation hit an 11-year high in January after rising price pressures were exaggerated by fierce snow storms, official figures show.
Soaring food prices were largely blamed for pushing consumer inflation up to 7.1% last month, from 6.5% in December.

Inflation in China continues to rise despite higher interest rates and other measures by Beijing to keep the economy from overheating.

The worst winter for decades hit food supplies, sending food costs up 18%.

Massive snowfalls wrecked crops and killed millions of livestock.

But analysts cautioned that the severe weather was not the only factor behind rising food costs, and warned that prices could still increase further.

Unrest

January's inflation rate of 7.1% was the highest figure since September 1996, when consumer price inflation hit 7.4%.

Non-food inflation rose only slowly, hitting an annual rate of 1.5%, the figures showed.

Chinese leaders have been under pressure to control spiralling food costs, the biggest factor behind historical periods of social unrest in a country where according to the World Bank 300 million people live in poverty.

Measures taken by the government include giving farmers incentives to rear more pigs.

Last year, the government also raised interest rates six times in an attempt to keep inflation under control.

Analysts said in light of the latest figures they expected further interest rate rises.

*BBC

China warns U.S. against plan to destroy spy satellite

2008-02-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

BEIJING: In response to a U.S. plan to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite, China has warned against threats to security in outer space, without mentioning its own successful anti-satellite missile test last year.

The Chinese government also stopped short of linking the planned U.S. strike with Beijing's repeated calls for a complete ban on space weapons.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the Chinese government was highly concerned about the U.S. plan, Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported late Sunday, noting that the target satellite was loaded with toxic fuel.

Liu also urged Washington to fulfill its international obligations and avoid threatening security in space and that of other countries, Xinhua quoted him as saying, without elaborating.

"Relevant departments of China are closely watching the situation and working out preventative measures," Liu said.

Just days after China and Russia renewed their call for a global ban on space weapons at a disarmament conference, the United States announced late last week that it was preparing to fire a missile at the crippled reconnaissance satellite during one of its passes over the Pacific by the middle of next week.

The United States opposes treaties or other measures to restrict space weapons.

In what will be a challenging test of the antiballistic missile technology the United States and some of its allies are developing, the interceptor will be fired from an U.S. warship just before the satellite is expected to plunge uncontrollably back to earth.

The Pentagon said President George W. Bush had ordered the mission to prevent possible contamination from the satellite's fuel. It said the interception was not a weapons test or a demonstration for potential adversaries.

Russia denounced the planned downing of the satellite on Saturday, saying it could be a subterfuge to test a space weapon.

Security analysts have suggested that Beijing would use the planned U.S. interception to justify the Chinese military's unannounced destruction of a defunct weather satellite in January 2007. That interception drew criticism from senior U.S. military officials, who complained that it had left a dangerous cloud of debris.

Chinese experts in turn have questioned the Pentagon's reasons for wanting to down the spy satellite.

"In my opinion, this decision is imprudent and ill advised," said Li Bin, an arms control specialist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "If this satellite is shot down, the toxic fuel will still be there. Therefore, the pollution still exists."

But, Li said, destroying the satellite would be an effective way to prevent sensitive technology from falling into the wrong hands.

China's warning about the threat to security in space comes after a period of friction in the sometimes troubled military relationship it has with the United States.

In November, Beijing unexpectedly denied permission for the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and other U.S. warships to visit Hong Kong, setting off a diplomatic dispute.

Ship visits have resumed, but underlying tensions, particularly over Taiwan, mean the relationship is prone to further disagreements. China, which claims sovereignty over the self-governing island, has not ruled out the use of force if Taiwan moves toward formal independence. Washington has become concerned in recent years about Beijing's rapid military buildup in the area, which appears to be aimed at gaining superiority over the island's defenses and deterring U.S. intervention in any conflict.

There are now fears that the U.S.-Chinese rivalry could spill over into an arms race in space, with both sides capable of destroying satellites.

The United States shot down a satellite with a missile fired from a fighter aircraft in a 1985 test.

For the Chinese military, the capacity to destroy U.S. navigation and communications satellites could undermine the overwhelming technological dominance that American forces have enjoyed in recent conflicts, according to U.S. and Chinese security experts. They say that space weapons including antimissile satellites could contribute to Beijing's "area denial" strategies, which are intended to keep U.S. forces at bay in a war over Taiwan.

In academic papers, books and magazine articles, Chinese strategic thinkers have identified U.S. dependence on satellites for battlefield communications, guiding smart weapons, reconnaissance and weather forecasting as a potential weakness that could be exploited.

Senior U.S. military commanders have acknowledged that without the advantage of satellites, U.S. forces could be forced to fight as they did decades ago, without detailed information about the battlefield and enemy movements.

The successful destruction of the ailing U.S. spy satellite would send a reminder to Beijing that China's space assets would also be at risk in a conflict, experts said.

But China is also increasingly vulnerable to this kind of warfare as it deploys high-technology weaponry. China has been devoting considerable resources to building and deploying its own communication, navigation and weather satellites in recent years.

Some analysts have suggested that Beijing ultimately wants to deploy an independent navigation satellite constellation with similar capabilities as the Global Positioning System network.

Yuan Xi contributed reporting to this article

*iht.com

China Says 22-Year Old Died of Bird Flu

2008-02-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

China's Health Ministry says a 22-year old man from the central Chinese province of Hunan has died of bird flu.

In a statement Monday posted on its Web site, the Health Ministry says the man first showed symptoms of the disease in mid-January and died more than a week later on January 24.

Health officials say samples taken from the man confirm that he had the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. The ministry says that individuals who came into contact with him were under close supervision and reported no signs that the disease was spreading.

The statement did not say how the man contracted the disease or why it has taken nearly four weeks for news of his death to reach the public.

Not including today's reported death, the World Health Organization says 27 people in China have already died from the deadly H5N1 strain of disease since 2003.

Since then, the disease has claimed 227 lives worldwide, most of them in Asia. Most bird flu cases involve close contact with infected poultry.

China was heavily criticized for its cover-up of the outbreak of SARS, (severe acute respiratory syndrome) pandemic which started in southern China in late 2002 and killed more than 700 people worldwide.

*VOA

Chinese Breast Cancer Rates Rising at Home and Abroad

2008-02-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

Ten years after moving to the United States, Chinese women face breast cancer rates 80 percent higher than those of more recent immigrants, prompting concerns that Western eating habits may be driving rates in Beijing and Shanghai as well, according to a report from Sing Tao Daily. Rong Xiaoqing with New America Media translates:

Many studies have been done to examine the association between the disparities in breast cancer rates and the change on the dietary habits. A new study released in this summer by the Philadelphia-based Fox Chase Cancer Center shows western style diet largely increases breast cancer risk for post-menopausal Chinese women.

The study examined the dietary habits of 1,602 women who were diagnosed for breast cancer between August 1996 to March 1998 and 1500 healthy women. All women live in Shanghai, China and their ages range from 25 to 64. After adjusting other possible factors such as the women’s child bearing status, the study found post-menopausal women following a “meat and sweet” based western style diet are 60% more likely to get breast cancer than same age women who follow a “soy and vegetable” based traditional Chinese diet.

The study, although conducted in China, may have broader effects. “It is definitely applicable to Chinese women in the U.S. because it’s even harder for them to avoid western style diet,” said Marilyn Tseng, one of the researchers of the study.

*chinadigitaltimes.net

Chinese Internet Firm Wants Voice in Microsoft/Yahoo Talks

2008-02-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

Alibaba Group, in which Yahoo holds a 39 percent stake, wants a stronger voice in the talks between Microsoft and Yahoo to influence how shares would be transferred to any new owner.

By Kirby Chien

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet firm, will seek a stronger voice for its management team in Microsoft's talks to acquire Yahoo, Alibaba's largest shareholder, a source said on Monday.

Based on the original agreement with Yahoo, which owns 39 percent of Alibaba, the Chinese company is in a very strong position to influence how shares would be transferred to any new owner, said the source, who is close to Alibaba.

The problem is a perception by Beijing authorities that an important Chinese firm could come under the control of Microsoft Corp, which has a reputation of using monopolistic tactics, said the source, who is familiar with a team of bankers and lawyers assembled by Alibaba to review its options.

Officials at Alibaba declined to comment.

Yahoo is the Chinese company's largest single shareholder, but Alibaba's management -- led by founder Jack Ma -- has retained effective control over its operations.

Microsoft on January 31 made an unsolicited offer for Yahoo -- then valued at $44.6 billion -- which Yahoo's board has rejected.

Alibaba has not been involved, however, in any talks between Microsoft and Yahoo, but would get involved as negotiations get more serious, the source said.

Alibaba's management is assuming the deal will eventually go through, he said.

Alibaba -- which runs Yahoo's China operation as well as other Web businesses, including Alibaba.com Ltd, the country's largest listed Internet firm -- would need assurances of management control if Microsoft's bid were to succeed, he said.

Foreign control of large companies in key or strategic industries is a politically sensitive issue for Beijing, which has forced many prospective buyers to cut their intended stakes or simply delayed the application process indefinitely.

Arcelor Mittal, which had already agreed to buy 38.4 percent of Laiwu Steel Co., last year accepted a smaller stake and higher price to improve its chances of winning government approval.

Alibaba's four-member board currently includes one Yahoo representative, Chief Executive Jerry Yang.

Another major shareholder in Alibaba is Japan's Softbank Corp, which owns about 30 percent of the Chinese company. Softbank also partners with Yahoo in Yahoo Japan Corp.

*eweek.com

Ex-China basketball star says Olympics are platform for change

2008-02-17T03:01:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Olympians who speak freely about politics and human rights while in China for the Beijing Games may be doing their Chinese counterparts a favour, says a former national basketball team member.

"People should remind the Chinese athletes that they are being brainwashed," said Chen Kai, a member of China's men's basketball team in the 1970s. "The Chinese athletes are nothing but tools and lackeys of the state."

Chen has made trips to Taiwan and Germany in recent months to get his message across, speaking to sports associations about the ritualized conformity of China's secretive national sports programme.

Chen, who took part in anti-government protests in Tiananmen Square, competed for China at the 1978 World Basketball Championships in Manila but missed out on the 1980 Olympics when China boycotted the Moscow Games.

He is the first Chinese athlete to give a rare glimpse into the secretive world of China's elite athletic establishment.

"Inside China nobody knows about Tiananmen Square unless they lived through it," Chen said. "These athletes are all too young to remember it and nobody talks about it."

Chen has tried to use his platform as a former athlete to open dialogue on matters such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The former officer in the People's Liberation Army recently published a book 'One in a Billion: Journey Toward Freedom - Story of a Pro Basketball Player in China'.

He said the latest controversy involving the British Olympic Association's plan to prevent all British competitors from commenting on "politically sensitive issues" during the August 8-24 Beijing Games plays into the hands of China's authoritarian regime.

"There will be huge political and financial earthquakes during the Olympics," Chen predicted.

Chen launched the Olympic Freedom T-shirt Global Movement last summer and boasts that some of his anti-Chinese Government T-shirts have already been smuggled into mainland China.

The shirts feature the words 'Beijing 1989 Tiananmen, Beijing 2008 Olympics' with blood dripping from the letters. They are exactly the kind of attire that might get any athlete caught wearing one during the games, a flight on the next plane home.

United States Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said American athletes aren't going to be censored but they should follow the Olympic Charter's rule 51 which deals with protests on official Olympic sites and venues.

"We are not imposing any restrictions or prohibitions on free speech," Seibel told AFP.

"For every Olympic Games we provide our athletes with a basic understanding of history and culture of the host country. In this case it is China.

"We don't go as far as to tell them how they should answer questions."

Chris Rudge, chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said Canadian athletes won't be asked to sign any documents restricting speech but they are expected to use common sense in Beijing.

"We are certainly not going to give them a check list with don't say this or don't say that," Rudge told AFP on Friday.

"We think they will conduct themselves appropriately."

Canadian Olympians are informed before every Summer and Winter Games on the host country's history and traditions, Rudge said.

"Every country has its local challenges," Rudge said. "We will brief our athletes before and the during the Games on culture and safety."

*afp

Beijing petrol stations to close

2008-02-17T03:00:00.001-08:00

China is closing 10% of Beijing's petrol stations to improve air quality ahead of the Olympics in August.
By the end of May, 144 will shut because they are not expected to meet higher environmental standards, according to state media.

The remainder are to be fitted with devices to reduce the level of fumes which escape when vehicles fill up.

It is part of a big drive to clean up the city - one of the world's most polluted - as August approaches.

Olympic concerns

More than 1,000 filling stations in the city will have new nozzles installed at the pumps to collect the fumes. The vapours will then be stored in tanks for re-use.

The cost of the upgrade is expected to run to more than $70,000 (£35,000) for each petrol station. Several oil depots are also being closed.

Air quality in Beijing is a major worry for organisers of the Olympics.

The President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, has warned that some events could be postponed if pollution levels rise too far.

Many cars are expected to be ordered off the road during the games and the authorities have started closing down factories.

*BBC

China 'toxic for Africa freedom'

2008-02-17T02:54:00.000-08:00

The increase in the arrest and imprisonment of journalists in Africa in the last year has been partly blamed on China by Reporters Without Borders.
"The influence of China in African affairs has been very toxic for democracy," the media watchdog's Leonard Vincent told the BBC.

He said China gave aid without asking for political reforms in return.

While increasing national pride within Africa had made it difficult for Western countries to assert pressure.

The Paris-based group said many governments now took action against the media irrespective of international opinion.

In its annual survey of press freedom, it mentions serial offenders like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zimbabwe and The Gambia.

But it is also critical of places like Rwanda, Mali and Benin - where it says media freedom used to be respected.

"African governments all over the continent have dared to do this year what they didn't dare to do the previous year," Mr Vincent told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"Jailing journalists is routine now... for doing something that governments don't like or irritates ministers or heads of state.

"Even in democratic countries which we had placed a lot of hopes like Benin or Mali."

Eritrea came bottom of the media watchdog's world press freedom list for the first time as it says the situation in the country "has gone from bad to worse".

"The country has been cut off from the rest of the world since major police round-ups in September 2001 and at least four journalists have died in prison," the report says.

*bbc

China 'will make secret checks on backgrounds of Olympic visitors'

2008-02-17T02:40:00.000-08:00

The Chinese government has been accused of carrying out secret inquiries on the backgrounds of athletes, officials and journalists going to this summer's Olympics – so it can ban anyone who opposes the regime.

Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott claims China's Ministry of Public Security has drawn up a document detailing how people are to be assessed – and listing 43 categories to be kept out.

Any athlete, member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), journalist, sponsor or guest who has been on a peaceful demonstration in support of the independence of Tibet should be excluded, according to the alleged document.

Also allegedly due for checks are representatives of the "host city for the next Olympics", suggesting figures like London 2012 Games chairman Lord Coe and London Mayor Ken Livingstone will be screened for their political views on China.

The Beijing-based Public Security Ministry – responsible for policing 1.3 billion people – allegedly lists what type of people should be barred.

They include members of religious groups and terrorist organisations and sections of the media "who endanger the Olympic Games".

A category entitled "China's enemies" includes the families of people killed in anti-government protests, such as Tiananmen Square, "overseas hostile forces" and "individuals who disturb social stability".

And listed under "separatists" is the Dalai Lama's Government of Tibet in Exile and members of its affiliated organisations as well as "individuals who partake in parades, demonstrations and protest activities with the goal of breaking up nations".

Prince Charles, a long-time supporter of the Dalai Lama, has already said he will not attend the Olympics. But under the alleged criteria he would be on the blacklist.

Journalists attract particular scrutiny, with bans to be extended to "staff of any foreign media hostile to the People's Republic of China" and "staff of media who publish anti-communist articles and those who viciously slander the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government".

The secret checks will also look out for "individuals who form unlawful religious groups".

Mr McMillan-Scott, a long-standing critic of the Chinese regime, said last night that he had been assured the details were accurate and he believed them to be so.

They were passed to him by exiled members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a philosophical and exercise regime that has been persecuted in China since 1999.

Mr McMillan-Scott said: "There is absolutely no question in my mind that it is a genuine document. The Falun Gong have an incredible network of communications and they penetrate every area of Chinese life.

"This document epitomises the way the Chinese state operates against any form of dissidence, any form of nonconformist religion and any form of opposition to the established order."

Erping Zhang, spokesman for Falun Gong in the USA, added: "The document came from inside the Chinese security bureau.

"Some people who are secret Falun Gong practitioners are in the security bureau. They passed us this information last year and we know it is genuine.

"We feel the Chinese authorities are politicising the Olympic Games. It should be a movement open to all individuals regardless of gender, race, religion or politics."

IOC Director of Communications Giselle Davies said: "We can't comment on this because we do not know the source.

"However, we have every reason to believe that the accreditation procedure will work as it has done in the past.

"We have had assurances from the organisers that the usual procedures will be followed, which would involve only the normal security checks and balances."

Last week, The Mail on Sunday told how British Olympic chiefs were forcing athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record or face being banned from Beijing.

The controversial clause had been inserted into athletes' contracts for the first time and forbade them making any political comment about countries staging the games.

Just a day later, following an international outcry, the offending clause was dropped from the contract.

A British Olympic Association spokeswoman said last night she was unable to comment about the contents of the list but said: "At the Olympic Games it is standard procedure to carry out security checks on everyone attending, like competitors, IOC members and Association staff."

A London representative of the Chinese government refused to comment.

*dailymail.co.uk

The only winner in Beijing will be tyranny

2008-02-17T02:35:00.000-08:00

Pick any dictatorship at random and chances are you'll find China lurking in the background

Nick Cohen

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, spectators will watch as athletes from the worst regimes on the planet parade by. Whether they are from dictatorships of the left or right, secular or theocratic, they will have one thing in common: the hosts of the games that, according to the mission statement, are striving 'for a bright future for mankind' will support their oppressors.

The flag of Sudan will flutter. China supplied the weapons that massacred so many in Darfur. As further sweeteners, it added interest-free loans for a new presidential palace and vetoes of mild condemnations of genocide from the United Nations. In return, China got most of Sudan's oil.

The Burmese athletes will wave to the crowd and look as if they are representing an independent country. In truth, Burma is little more than a Chinese satellite. In return for the weapons to suppress democrats and vetoes at the UN Security Council, the junta sells it gas at discounted rates far below what its wretched citizens have to pay.

There will be no Tibetan contingent, of course. Chinese immigrants are obliterating the identity of the occupied country, which will soon be nothing more than a memory. Athletes from half-starved Zimbabwe, whose senile despot props himself up with the Zimmer frame of Chinese aid, will be there, however. As will teams from the Iranian mullahocracy, grateful recipients of Chinese missiles and the prison state of North Korea, for whom China is the sole reliable ally.

With Steven Spielberg citing China's complicity in the Sudan atrocities as his reason for withdrawing as the Olympics' artistic adviser, comparisons with the 20th century will soon be flowing. Will Beijing be like the 1936 Berlin Olympics Hitler used to celebrate Nazism? Or the 1980 Moscow games the Americans boycotted in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? I suspect the past won't be a guide because the ideological struggles of the 20th century are over. China's communists are communists in name only. They are not helping dictators because they are comrades who share their ideology. They have no ideology beyond national self-interest and a well-warranted desire to stop the outsiders insisting on standards in Africa or Asia they do not intend to abide by.

Human Rights Watch points out that if, say, Sudan were to turn into a peaceful state with a constitutional government, the Chinese would not care as long as the oil still flowed. China's post-communists are like mafiosi. It is not personal, just business. They are happy to do deals with anyone, as Henry Kissinger recognised when he set himself up to be PR man for so many of the corporations that went on to benefit from the Communist party's repression of free trade unions.

Campaign groups and governments that want to promote the spread of democracy have been far slower to understand that the emerging power of the 21st century will be every tyrant's first customer and banker of last resort and adjust their tactics accordingly.

Their failure may be because it is far from clear what fresh tactics are on offer. Take the supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi campaigning for a democratic Burma. Their demonstrations outside Chinese embassies have had no effect. They persuaded Gordon Brown to raise Burma in meetings with the Chinese leadership, but again the Prime Minister was unlikely to have made an impression. Their other successes look equally fragile. The European Union has imposed sanctions, but Western energy companies ask with justice why they should be told not to compete for gas contracts the Chinese will snap up.

More seriously, they are running into a problem familiar to anyone who campaigned against 20th-century dictatorships: where to find allies. If you are protesting about an aspect of American policy - Guantánamo Bay or attitudes to global warming - this isn't an issue. You can ally with and be informed by American activists, journalists, lawyers and opposition politicians. The resources of the civic society of a free country are at your disposal and you can use them to shift American opinion. A subject of the Chinese Communist party who helps foreign critics put pressure on Beijing risks imprisonment, and none but the bravest do.

David Miliband showed he understood the dilemmas of the new century when he gave a lecture in honour of Suu Kyi in Oxford last week. He described how the great wave of democratisation, which began with the fall of Franco's dictatorship in the Seventies, moved through South America, the Soviet empire, South Africa and the tyrannies of East Asia, was petering out.

The Foreign Secretary was undiplomatic enough to continue that the economic success of China had proved that history was not over and he was right. Its combination of communist suppression with market economics is being seen as a viable alternative to liberal freedoms, notably by Putin and his cronies, but also by anti-democratic forces across Asia.

The only justification for the Beijing games is that they will allow connoisseurs of the grotesque to inspect this ghoulish hybrid of the worst of capitalism and the worst of socialism close up. The march of China's bloodstained allies round the stadium will merely be the beginning. The International Olympic Committee and all the national sports bureaucracies will follow up by instructing athletes not to say a word out of place.

The free-market CEOs of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, General Electric and all the other sponsors who have made money out of China will join the communists in insisting that outsiders have no right to criticise. Any Chinese dissident who hasn't been picked up before the world's journalists arrive will face terrifying punishments if he speaks to them.

I know sportsmen and women are exasperated by demands to boycott events they have dreamed of winning for years. Why should they suffer when no business or government is prepared to turn its back on the vast Chinese market? For all that, they still should not go. The hypocrisy of the 2008 Olympics will make all but the most hard-hearted athletes retch. They will not look back on it not as a high point of their careers, but a nadir.

*guardian.co.uk

Olympics chief: I respect Spielberg's boycott decision

2008-02-17T02:34:00.000-08:00

Olympics chief: I respect Spielberg's boycott decision

The leader of the International Olympic Committee has said he respects Steven Spielberg's decision to abort his involvement in this year's Games because of China's reluctance to urge Sudan to act over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Three days after Spielberg drew the eyes of the world to China's apparent indifference to the conflict by withdrawing as artistic adviser to the Olympics in Beijing, Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, said he had "a lot of respect" for the film director.

Asked yesterday about his response to Spielberg's move, Mr Rogge said: "I reacted by respecting his decision ... I have a lot of respect for Spielberg. I like his films. Here is a man who has had a remarkable career."

The comments came as the international row grew over whether China should face a boycott for its refusal to force its ally Sudan to act over the crisis in Darfur, a conflict described by the US as genocide and by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, as "one of the great tragedies of our time".

China has close links with Sudan, selling weapons to its government and buying more than 60 per cent of its oil exports, while, critics say, providing cover for Khartoum at the UN Security Council.

About 200,000 people are believed to have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict since it began in 2003. The Khartoum government and its Arab militia allies are widely blamed for massacres of Darfur's black African population.

On Thursday, The Independent published a letter sent by the world's Nobel laureates – led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu – to President Hu of China, and copied to Mr Rogge, urging action.

"We will continue to watch for concerted and consistent Chinese action to ensure rapid deployment of UN-AU [African Union] peacekeepers, progress in the peace talks, and an end to the use of rape as a weapon of war," the letter said.

But there is frustration at the lack of response from those in positions of influence, despite an international coalition of human rights activists urging corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics to call the Chinese government to account over the issue.

British ministers have failed to back a boycott and the US President, George Bush, has made it clear he will be attending the Games. In stark contrast to the comments made by Mr Rogge, Mr Bush said of Spielberg: "It's up to him. I am going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event."

Mr Bush added: "There are a lot of issues that I suspect people are going to opine about during the Olympics – the Dalai Lama crowd, you've got the global warming folks, you've got Darfur. I am not going to go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way, because I do it all the time with the President."

Spielberg spoke out after being urged for more than a year by the actress Mia Farrow and in the face of silence from President Hu, who failed to respond to letters expressing concerns over Sudan. The Chinese continue to insist that any boycott of the Olympics would be "wrong" and an attack on sport as opposed to Sudan.

In his statement, Spielberg said: "I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur."

Yesterday, Mr Rogge said that the director's move was "his decision". He added: "He certainly would have brought a lot to the opening ceremony in terms of creativity. [But] his absence will not harm the quality of the Games.

"The role of the IOC is to organise the Olympic Games. We are not a sports association nor a political organisation and neither an association with humanitarian goals. That does not mean that everyone of us within the Olympic movement does not have his own conscience, his own very strong beliefs."

*independent

China mounts dissident assault before Games

2008-02-17T02:33:00.000-08:00

China has been accused of committing new human rights abuses ahead of this August's Beijing Olympics, while spending vast amounts on hi-tech surveillance and security systems.

The crackdown is making a mockery of China's promise to the International Olympic Committee in 2001 that it would improve its dismal human rights record and allow greater media freedom if it were allowed to host the Games.

"The human rights situation in China has worsened over the past six months," said Sharon Hom, the executive director of the US-based organisation Human Rights in China. "We're seeing increased restrictions on freedom of expression and the detention and harassment of human rights activists."

Despite the shiny new stadiums that now dot Beijing's smoggy skyline, the most lasting legacy of this year's Olympics may well be the state-of the-art surveillance systems the authorities have installed, supposedly to counter any terrorist threat. Many, though, believe the monitoring equipment will be used to track people suspected of opposing the Communist regime.

Criticism of China's failure to act on its promise to cease human rights abuses was stepped up this week, following the decision of Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood film director, to resign from his role as an artistic adviser for the Games' opening and closing ceremonies. Mr Spielberg pulled out accusing the Chinese of doing too little to stop the slaughter of civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan, where Beijing enjoys diplomatic influence thanks to its trade ties. Other celebrities, such as the musician Quincy Jones, are now said to be re-considering their involvement in the Games.

Bizarrely, among the activists now under house arrest is a two-month-old baby girl, who is believed to be China's youngest political prisoner.

Her father, Hu Jia, a campaigner for the rights of Aids patients, and a blogger on land and environmental abuses, was charged at the end of January with "inciting subversion of state power", a catch-all charge frequently used against dissidents. His wife Zeng Jinyan, together with her mother and daughter, are all under house arrest in Beijing.

Mr Hu was a high-profile supporter of Yang Chunlin, a factory worker arrested last July after circulating an online petition calling for "human rights, not the Olympics".

Mr Hu also helped publicise the cases of Chen Guangcheng, a blind civil rights activist who has been under house arrest in eastern Shandong Province for the past four months for exposing a policy of forced abortions for people who break China's rigid one-child policy, and fellow blogger Lu Gengsong, who is currently on trial, also for "inciting subversion of state power".

The round-up of activists and tighter censorship of the domestic press and the internet, especially video-sharing websites, are part of a huge campaign by the authorities to ensure protesters do not disrupt the Olympics. With banned groups such as the Falun Gong, a spiritual organisation regarded as a cult by the Chinese leadership, and Free Tibet campaigners expected to mount protests both in the run-up to and during the Games, the authorities are also planning to flood Beijing with police in an effort to quell dissent.

Scores of plain clothes police officers already mingle with tourists in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. But the authorities now see sophisticated surveillance systems as the most effective way of combating public protests. With 265,000 cameras across the city, Beijing is already the CCTV capital of China. Now, thousands more are being installed, with the city spending a reported 300 million yuan (£21.2?million) on boosting its security technology ahead of the Games.

"After the Olympic Games, there's going to be a massively improved infrastructure of surveillance and security systems," Miss Hom told The Sunday Telegraph.

"All the subways, roads and airports are being equipped with cameras. The ability of the authorities to control and crack down on dissident action and large crowds will be vastly enhanced."

In a sign of how seriously Beijing is taking the threat to the Olympics from protesters, it was announced last week that Xi Jinping, the rising star of the Chinese government, will take charge of preparations. Widely tipped as the successor to President Hu Jintao when he retires in 2012, Mr Xi, 54, will be in charge of the massive security operation, while trying to dispel concerns over human rights abuses and air pollution.

*telegraph.co.uk

My Heart Aches For The Vulnerable Ones

2008-02-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

Guangzhou-based writer and blogger Hengjun Yang wrote the following post on his blog, translated by CDT’s Linjun Fan.

I had to exit the highway because of a traffic jam on my way back to Guangzhou after a trip to Shenzhen recently. Suddenly I saw a number of police vehicles in front of me, several of which had warning lights flashing.

Before I could figure out what was going on, my driver Wei Ge said, “there must be an incident there, ” And he immediately added, “how fucking rich this place is!”

I asked him what was going on and why he said that. He pointed to the front and told me that there must be some people staging a protest. I looked out of my car window and indeed saw a lot of people who seemed to be gathering at a construction site. But my view was partly blocked by a row of police vehicles. We pulled our car closer to the site so I could look over the vehicles. But my view was blocked again by a line of dozens of policemen.

What happened? Why were people gathering to protest? Why were so many policemen here? My driver Wei Ge should be right in his judgment since he drives around this area a lot. I gestured to him to pull over, but he didn’t stop the engine until he drove forward for about a hundred meters and passed a traffic light. Cars were not allowed to park here because of the police, he said. After we got out of the car, we pretended to be random passers-by, walking cautiously towards the site. I could finally look through the dozen police vehicles and several dozen policemen.

However, what I saw was security guards in grey uniforms. There were at least 50 of them standing together forming a big circle. Those encircled must be the “trouble-makers”. They were definitely not as many as the guards, since they were besieged inside. They must have been shorter because I could only see their unkempt hair while looking over the robust shoulders of the tall guards. Otherwise I could only see some of their clothes and shoes, the kind of ragged clothes that migrant workers usually wear. They all seemed to be fairly young.

My driver Wei Ge continued to comment, “Wow, this place is so rich. They sent out so many police vehicles, policemen, and security guards to deal with a few migrant workers. How wealthy it is! Gosh!”

He was innocuous in making his remarks but it struck a chord in me. I wanted to walk closer to take a few pictures since I had my camera with me. But I started to hesitate when I got closer the the line formed by the police. I was suddenly struck by fear. Wei Ge reminded me to be cautious too – it had only been a few days earlier when the Tianmen City Administration Officers beat to death a passer-by who took photos of them.

That day was perhaps the first time in my life that I was frightened by the black uniform of the police. I stopped there and didn’t pull out of my camera in the end. Wei Ge told me that they wouldn’t allow me to take pictures even if I took out my camera, because there were a few policemen staring at me, for I didn’t look like a local.

But what could I catch with the camera? I could look through the police vehicles and police, but I couldn’t look through the thick circle of well-dressed security guards. I hadn’t managed to see a single face of the “trouble-makers” by the time I left the site that day.

Many migrant workers wanted to get paid so they could go back home with the money as the Spring Festival was approaching this time of year. But unscrupulous employers purposely delay paying the workers. They withhold a few months’ salary trying to make the workers come back in the following year after the festival. Therefore there had been a number of incidents recently of workers seeking payment from their employers, according to what Wei Ge told me inside the car.

I am aware of what Wei Ge was talking about. More than 200,000 mass incidents, small or big, take place in China each year, according to statistics announced by the Chinese government. Most of them are caused by conflicts between employers and employees, in other words, between the rich and the poor. However, I haven’t personally experienced many such incidents. Today is the first time that I did “experience” one – I put a quotation mark here because I actually didn’t see the faces of the “trouble-making” migrant workers, nor did I figure out why they gathered at a construction site and refused to leave.

My heart is heavy, however. It’s heavier than the number – 200,000 mass incidents in the country each year. The heaviness in my heart didn’t subside, but instead turned into sadness and sorrow, long after my car had gone back to the highway.

To be honest, I didn’t see any improper behavior on the part of the police who were maintaining order at the site with a dozen vehicles. ( I dared not take pictures out of fear of them, but they didn’t seem to be ready to beat me to death.) I didn’t see the able-bodied guards treating the migrant workers badly. But those “trouble-makers”, who were besieged in the middle and whom I didn’t manage to see, came to stay in my seemingly strong but vulnerable heart. I have been thinking about them although the episode happened a few days ago. That’s why I write it down today.

Mr. Mao Yushi [a well-known economist in China] said recently that “We should speak for the rich and work for the poor,” arousing a lot of debate. I can’t figure out how Mr. Mao is going to work for the poor. Perhaps he has worked silently for the poor so he didn’t talk much about it. His words seem to make sense theoretically. But I feel it’s hard for me to accept them into my heart if I put them into the context of the reality of contemporary Chinese society.

It’s undeniable that a majority of China’s business elites come from the families of power, and thus have close relations with those in power. It’s known to all Chinese that the rich always get their way in contemporary Chinese society. They can make officials and intellectuals work for them through the power of their money. The law protects the rich. And the rich can get more than what the law grants them with their money. Therefore, it’s unnecessary for Mr. Mao Yushi to speak for the rich, since their opinions can be heard through the power of their money, and they can also buy those in power to speak for them. The intellectual elites should just shut up, if they don’t speak for the poor or work for the poor, for it’s a shame for them to speak loudly for the rich or for those in power.

The reality we are faced with right now is that the poor are so vulnerable and weak. Their situation is pathetic. The reason why there are so many protests staged by the disadvantaged people recently is not because our law doesn’t protect the poor, but because the rich collude with officials to manipulate the law, together with the cheering and help of intellectuals. They’ve made their own law – an invisible law that imposes itself above the Constitution and our legal system. The poor don’t rise up unless they are pushed too hard – and their struggle is so lamentable, because all they are trying to do is to have their grievances heard by officials.

I can’t figure out why the rich people, who are leading a life of debauchery, breaking the law, and having one or even several concubines, become a cherished group in our “harmonious society.” Why isn’t their behavior regarded as harming social harmony when they blackmail and oppress the poor? Only when a few of the oppressed people gather and seek the protection of the constitution and the law, do we say that our “harmonious society” is threatened, and a large number of police are dispatched to watch them. Why is that?

We might reflect on all the protests by the disadvantaged people in the past five years, or even in the past ten years. Which one of them was not caused by oppression by the rich people and those in power? The poor wouldn’t have stood up if they were not pushed to the edge. But has anyone ever said that the rich or those in power are elements of social instability? Tons of police and security guards are dispatched as soon as the disadvantaged people stand up, as if the so-called social harmony is being damaged. Why are we only targeting the poor? Why don’t we look at the problems of the rich? Why don’t we take preventive measures when the rich are exploiting the poor? Where are our police when the poor are calling for justice?

I made friends with a few migrant workers during my social research in the year 2007. Many of them came to me for help since then, sometimes for their own problems, sometimes for their friends. Most of their problems are caused by employers not paying their salary. But how could I help them? All I could tell them was to go to the labor arbitration offices, go to the police, or local government departments. The workers are more experienced in this than me – they know very well that it’s futile to go to the arbitration office, or to the police, not to mention local government officials. Yes, indeed, they all know that it’s useless. That’s why they come to me, hoping that I could expose the injustice and help them out. But how I wish they knew that I could do nothing, either. The Internet is the only place where the disadvantaged people can utter their grievances right now. But the Internet isn’t a place the disadvantaged can control. Those in power pay no heed to the outcries of the disadvantaged. The officials only dismiss them or even arrest them when their own interests are threatened.

I disappointed a number of migrant workers who looked up to me to help them. There were more than a dozen of them that asked me to help to get them paid in 2007. I succeeded in helping just one person. Her employer didn’t budge until I threatened to expose his wrongdoing to the public by pretending to be a journalist of some newspaper. I am ashamed that I broke the law while trying to help a female migrant worker to get her lawful payment of 2, 000 yuan (US$280).

Why isn’t there a law enforcement team that is designated to protect the most vulnerable in our society, when there is a powerful team of city administration officers who are harsh to street vendors and beat to death a passer-by who just took a few pictures?

I would be going back and forth on the highways if the section between Guangzhou and Shenzhen were not under repair. I might be indignant when I read about the big number of mass incidents in China each year. I might write a few articles and win some applause from my readers.

I drove down the highway by chance a few days ago, and witnessed a small incident that might not ever be counted into national statistics.

What did I see? I saw several migrant workers, many of whom were young– not much older than my own children. They finally gathered their courage and decided to stand up against their unscrupulous employers after they could no longer bear their suffering.

Soon a large number of well-organized security guards showed up and encircled them, and then a dozen police vehicles came with their sirens wailing. The several migrant workers, who are not fed well, not tall enough, and unkempt, were besieged inside several tight circles.

I didn’t see their faces. But I could imagine their expressions – full of anger, fear and despair. My poor brother migrant workers, you poor kids. How could you not be frightened when encircled by so many police, police vehicles, and security guards?

You are so miserable and vulnerable. My heart aches for you…

Nude photo suspect freed after Hong Kong outcry

2008-02-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG – A jobless Hong Kong man, detained for weeks and denied bail in the city's nude celebrity photo scandal was released on Friday following a public outcry that he was unfairly victimised by police.
Chung Yik-tin, 29, was arrested and detained in late January after police raided his home and accused him of publishing an obscene photograph, one of hundreds, of top city celebrity Edison Chen nude in bed with a string of prominent starlets.

But a Hong Kong court on Friday decided to drop the obscene publication charge against Chung and release him, following the reclassification of the photograph by the Obscene Articles Tribunal as 'indecent' – a lesser offence.
Chung's detention without bail, over the Lunar New Year break, provoked protests from Internet activists who said he was unfairly singled out by police and was a victim of excessive police enforcement.

But the police denied any wrongdoing.

'I am very clear that we had sufficient evidence and in a legal sense, our actions were correct,' assistant police commissioner Vincent Wong Fook-chuen told reporters afterwards.

'We followed regular procedures so I don't think we did anything wrong, it was just that there were different views on whether the photograph was indecent or obscene,' Wong added.

Chung, dodged a media scrum outside the courthouse and left without making a comment.

To date, a territory-wide police investigation has led to nine arrests including Chung and several staff of a computer shop where over 1,300 obscene images were stolen from Edison Chen's laptop computer while it was being serviced, police said.

Tabloid newspaper in star-obsessed Hong Kong have devoted blanket coverage to the scandal, which has seemingly snared at least six stars including actress Cecilia Chung, singer Gillian Chung, Hollywood actress Maggie Q and Taiwan's Jolin Tsai.

Besides igniting debate about sexual morality, with schoolchildren among those spreading the images – the police crackdown has sparked fears of Web censorship and a curtailing of Internet privacy rights.

'The police were a bit panicked two weeks ago, and they felt the pressure or the concern of the public,' said James To, a legislator and deputy Chairman of the legislative council's Security panel.

'They wanted to silence the whole internet community, so therefore they just picked out one person (Chung) to be the scapegoat to prosecute ... to deter other people from further distributing the articles,' To added.

Chen, the Canadian-born rap singer and actor, will give a press conference on Sunday in Hong Kong, the Apple Daily newspaper reported.

(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by David Fox)

*signonsandiego.com