BEIJING — Last July, the man who is widely expected to succeed Hu Jintao as China’s president stood in front of the palace in Lhasa, Tibet, that is the traditional seat of the Dalai Lama and delivered a warning to the world.
“We will completely smash any plot to destroy stability in Tibet and jeopardize national unity,” said Xi Jinping, serving notice that China would fight what he called Tibetan separatists.
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper begins his five-day trip to China, those Tibetan “separatists” are very much in the news again.
Demonstrations in the past few weeks in support of Tibet in cities a few hundred miles from one of the cities Harper will visit here are being met with sharp government crackdowns.
It’s difficult to know how serious the situation is in those places.
Chinese soldiers have been stopping western journalists from visiting the region, condescendingly turning them away by saying icy roads are not safe for “foreign guests.”
Xi’s summer speech was a sign to all that this year’s change of leadership here will not change China’s penchant for ugly repression of those who fight for freedom of speech and democracy.
China is the only country to lock up a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Liu Xiaobo remains in prison today and, here in the Beijing hotel room set aside for Canadian media travelling with Harper this week, Chinese government censors block his name in any Google search.
Liu’s crime was to call for speedier democratic reforms.
In China’s northwest, the Uighur Muslim minority continues to be persecuted by government authorities.
Chinese Christians must practise their faith in secret.
Meanwhile, Harper, five cabinet ministers, several MPs and a corporate Canada dream team of 40 executives, including the CEOs of Enbridge and Canadian Oil Sands, have arrived in Beijing.
They’re here because the Harper government considers it “a national priority” — the PM’s phrase — to use a pipeline Enbridge wants to build to take bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands over the Rockies to a west coast port, and from there to thirsty Chinese refineries.
There is no doubt that, should they succeed, this will create Canadian jobs and wealth.
But at what price?
What about Liu, the Uighurs, the Tibetans and the Christians who are persecuted at the hands our erstwhile business partners?
The line given by Harper’s aides is that, in private meetings with senior officials, away from the TV cameras, Harper will use “frank but respectful” language to press for reforms in these areas.
The scuttlebutt is Harper does this better than his predecessors Paul Martin or Jean Chretien.
And yet, we see little change from China.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was here last week. She was very public in pushing the envelope with her Chinese hosts.
She mentioned Tibet in a speech she gave in Beijing.
She invited a Chinese human rights lawyer to listen to that speech but the Chinese prevented him from attending.
Merkel tried to visit a “progressive” newspaper in the south of the country.
Again, the Chinese government intervened and prevented her from doing that.
The Chinese are sensitive about this. They do not like to be called out on their lousy human rights record. The Chinese need not worry.
The Canadians this week are here for pipelines and pandas.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: David Akin
“We will completely smash any plot to destroy stability in Tibet and jeopardize national unity,” said Xi Jinping, serving notice that China would fight what he called Tibetan separatists.
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper begins his five-day trip to China, those Tibetan “separatists” are very much in the news again.
Demonstrations in the past few weeks in support of Tibet in cities a few hundred miles from one of the cities Harper will visit here are being met with sharp government crackdowns.
It’s difficult to know how serious the situation is in those places.
Chinese soldiers have been stopping western journalists from visiting the region, condescendingly turning them away by saying icy roads are not safe for “foreign guests.”
Xi’s summer speech was a sign to all that this year’s change of leadership here will not change China’s penchant for ugly repression of those who fight for freedom of speech and democracy.
China is the only country to lock up a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Liu Xiaobo remains in prison today and, here in the Beijing hotel room set aside for Canadian media travelling with Harper this week, Chinese government censors block his name in any Google search.
Liu’s crime was to call for speedier democratic reforms.
In China’s northwest, the Uighur Muslim minority continues to be persecuted by government authorities.
Chinese Christians must practise their faith in secret.
Meanwhile, Harper, five cabinet ministers, several MPs and a corporate Canada dream team of 40 executives, including the CEOs of Enbridge and Canadian Oil Sands, have arrived in Beijing.
They’re here because the Harper government considers it “a national priority” — the PM’s phrase — to use a pipeline Enbridge wants to build to take bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands over the Rockies to a west coast port, and from there to thirsty Chinese refineries.
There is no doubt that, should they succeed, this will create Canadian jobs and wealth.
But at what price?
What about Liu, the Uighurs, the Tibetans and the Christians who are persecuted at the hands our erstwhile business partners?
The line given by Harper’s aides is that, in private meetings with senior officials, away from the TV cameras, Harper will use “frank but respectful” language to press for reforms in these areas.
The scuttlebutt is Harper does this better than his predecessors Paul Martin or Jean Chretien.
And yet, we see little change from China.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was here last week. She was very public in pushing the envelope with her Chinese hosts.
She mentioned Tibet in a speech she gave in Beijing.
She invited a Chinese human rights lawyer to listen to that speech but the Chinese prevented him from attending.
Merkel tried to visit a “progressive” newspaper in the south of the country.
Again, the Chinese government intervened and prevented her from doing that.
The Chinese are sensitive about this. They do not like to be called out on their lousy human rights record. The Chinese need not worry.
The Canadians this week are here for pipelines and pandas.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: David Akin
No comments:
Post a Comment