Tag: Tibet

Angry China cancels talks with interfering Britain

British human rights in Iraq
British human rights in Iraq

China on Tuesday condemned Britain for interfering in its domestic affairs, in response to a human rights report, a day after the British government said Beijing had called off human rights talks. Britain listed China as “a country of concern” in its annual human rights report last week, saying it had observed increased curbs on freedom of expression, association and assembly in 2013.

It also cited reports of “the forcible suppression of ethnic unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang.”

China reacted by calling off talks with Britain on Beijing’s human rights record. Chinese and British officials had been due to hold a round of the two-way Human Rights Dialogue in London on Wednesday.

The two countries had agreed to resume the regular meetings during a trip to China by British Prime Minister David Cameron in December.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused Britain of issuing the report with “irresponsible remarks made about the Chinese political system, rudely slandering and criticizing China’s human rights situation”.

Britain must immediately stop using human rights as a pretext for interfering in China’s internal politics and judicial sovereignty, Hua told a daily news briefing. “Britain’s path on this issue is not helpful to dialogue and discussion on the subject of human rights, and not good for the stable development of the health of China-UK relations,” Hua added.

Cameron’s visit was aimed at spurring closer trade and business links between Britain and the world’s second biggest economy and at drawing a line under a dispute involving Tibet’s spiritual leader that had led to a diplomatic freeze.

But Britain’s Foreign Office said Beijing had pulled out of the first round of the talks, the resumption of which Cameron had hailed at the time as a significant achievement. “We are disappointed that the Chinese government last week unilaterally postponed the dialogue, which was due to take place on 16 April,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a statement. “It is not for us to say why it was postponed. We are now in discussion to agree new dates,” she said.

A spokeswoman at the Chinese embassy in London said she was unaware the talks had been cancelled.

Source: Voice of Russia

China police fire on Tibetans honouring Dalai Lama: Groups

Chinese police blocking exiled Tibetans from ascending a hill in homage to the Dalai Lama
Chinese police blocking exiled Tibetans from ascending a hill in homage to the Dalai Lama

Chinese police opened fire on Tibetans marking the Dalai Lama’s 78th birthday, shooting at least one monk in the head and seriously wounding several other people, two overseas groups said Tuesday.

Security forces disrupted Tibetans in Sichuan province’s Daofu county as they carried out rituals to honour their exiled leader, whom Beijing denounces as a separatist, said the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and India-based phayul.com.

Regional authorities denied the allegations.

“Two Tibetan monks were shot in the head and several others seriously injured after Chinese police opened fire at a crowd,” ICT said, citing unnamed local and exile sources.

It named the monks as Tashi Sonam and Ugyen Tashi, and said both were in hospital.

Armed police and soldiers who arrived to block the group began shooting and using tear gas “without warning”, it said, citing two Tibetans in exile.

At least 20 people were detained after the incident on Saturday, ICT added.

Phayul, a news site on Tibet, said police opened fire after a monk tried to “drive past the security blockade”, citing an overseas Tibetan. One monk was shot in the head, the site said.

Police and religious affairs authorities in Daofu both told AFP: “There was no incident of this kind”.

The county is part of Ganzi prefecture, one of southwestern China’s Tibetan-majority areas.

Members of the ethnic minority have long complained of religious and cultural repression by Beijing, and more than 100 have set themselves on fire in recent years in apparent protest at Chinese rule.

Beijing insists it respects ethnic minorities and has invested heavily to develop Tibetan areas. It blames self-immolations on overseas groups seeking to push a separatist agenda.

Friction in Tibetan areas has sharpened as ethnic majority Han Chinese have increasingly settled in Tibetan areas. Reports of authorities opening fire are rare, however.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and later founded the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.

China has denounced foreign leaders for meeting with the Nobel peace laureate.

Last month Beijing denied reports that it had relaxed its policies of publicly denouncing the Dalai Lama and banning worship of his image.

At a regular press briefing Tuesday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called him “a political exile engaged in separating his country and undermining the social stability of the country”.

“The Dalai clique is using his birthday to promote the separatist agenda of the Dalai Lama,” she said, adding she was not aware of the reported shooting incident. – AFP