NEWS UPDATE DECEMBER 2003
Lawyer blasts China over attempt to silence media (SMH)
22 October 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
A human rights lawyer representing an Australian Falun Gong practitioner who
was detained in China yesterday criticised the Chinese embassy for writing to
media organisations to request they suppress "anti-China forces".
On Tuesday the Chinese embassy in Canberra wrote to newspapers to ask that they not publish letters or advertisements from "organisations for independence of Tibet or Falun Gong" during President Hu Jintao's visit.
A Queensland lawyer, Chris Nyst, who plans to take the case of a Sydney woman, Zhang Cui Ying, to the United Nations with the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, said
that if dissident or human rights groups wanted to express their views, they should be permitted to do so without undue pressure being applied to the media.
"Australia is an open, democratic and free society and China has no right to meddle in this fashion. If anything, this just demonstrates China's sensitivities to its own very poor human rights record."
Chinese embassy tries to gag critics (TA)
22 October 2003 The Age
The Chinese Embassy has asked Australian newspapers not to print letters or political ads from "anti-China forces", such as the free Tibet movement, claiming they would disrupt President Hu Jintao's visit. In what the Australian Tibet Council described as "a very extreme reaction", the embassy wrote an email to news organisations yesterday warning against printing "propaganda".
The Tibet council has paid $40,000 for a full-page advertisement in The Australian newspaper on Friday to coincide with President Hu's speech to Parliament. Mr Hu arrives in Sydney this morning and will leave on Saturday.
The embassy's email reads: "To make sure that the visit will be free from such disruption, we hope that your paper will not publish... any of their propaganda. It is our wish that with the success of the visit... the friendly relations and co-operation between the two countries will grow further."
Embassy spokesman Feng Tie defended the email, saying some "anti-China elements" wanted to sabotage the relationship between Australia and China. "Absolutely it's reasonable to do. It's a very important visit and we hope this visit will go smoothly and achieve great results," he said. "They want to sabotage this relationship. They do not want to see the success of the visit, they want to see it fail."
The Tibet council's ad is signed by about 100 prominent Australians, including Labor MPs, actors and writers. It wishes Mr Hu a pleasant visit and urges him to soften to Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Victorian MPs complained last week that they had been pressured by the Chinese embassy not to sign the ad. Tibet council chairwoman Gaby Naher said the Chinese Government had made progress in building a relationship with the Dalai Lama.
"This (the email) seems to be at odds with the latest strategy of the party hierarchy in Beijing," she said. Religious group Falun Gong, banned by former president Jiang Zemin in 1999, is also targeted by the email. Spokesman John Andress said the group had no quarrel with the Chinese Government and had no plans to embarrass Mr Hu.
"This is typical rhetoric from China," he said. "They have gone to great lengths to silence us before, and this just seems another attempt at that." Greens leader Bob Brown, who has signed the Tibet council's ad, said the email represented a clash between China's police state and Australia's democracy. "When John Howard meets President Hu, he should tell him to haul off," he said.
Chinese embassy tries to gag critics (TA)
The Australian 17 October 2003]
Just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao arrives, the Chinese embassy is embroiled in a political row amid claims it is trying to gag MPs wishing to speak out over the sensitive issue of Tibet.
A senior Chinese diplomat has been accused of "intimidatory behaviour" after he expressed concerns about a pro-Tibet advertisement that is due to be published next week to coincide with Mr Hu's historic visit.
The Melbourne-based Chinese consul-general, Junting Tian, wrote to Elaine Carbines, a Victorian upper house MP, early this week admonishing her for "mobilising" state MPs to support the advertisement. But the strongly worded letter, which calls on MPs to respect Australia's recognition that Tibet is part of China, has offended MPs.
"I see it as quite intimidating. It's an over-the-top reaction to our attempt to raise the matter," Ms Carbines, who is parliamentary secretary for the environment in the Bracks Government, told The Australian.
In his letter to Ms Carbines, the Chinese diplomat says he is "writing to remind you that (the) Tibet issue is an internal matter of the People's Republic of China which is very sensitive". "Tibet has been a part of China since Yuan Dynasty (mid 12th to mid 13th century). And it is recognised by the whole international community, including the Australian Government, that Tibet is part of China."
Federal Labor MP Tanya Plibersek, who will sign the advertisement, said it was vital supporters of an independent Tibet were able to express their views.
"It's a free country and a lot of people have criticisms of China's policies in Tibet and we are free to express them," Ms Plibersek said.
Greens leader Bob Brown hit out at the Chinese. "It's unwanted behaviour in Australia that an embassy should be sending out material to members of parliament with the aim of changing their plans or behaviour."
Contacted yesterday, Mr Tian said he did not wish to silence MPs. But he felt the advertisement, which supports the Dalai Lama's call for an independent Tibet, would be "disrespectful" to the President, who will address parliament next Friday.
Bob Brown's wish list for the Chinese (TA)
The Age - Melbourne 16 October, 2003]
Looks like preparations for the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao are well under way over at the Senate.
Greens leader Bob Brown has helpfully outlined the circumstances under which he would be prepared to give President Hu a standing ovation - all he has to do is consent to free association for all Chinese citizens, free Tibet, agree to autonomy for the Uighurs in Xinjiang, release thousands of Christian and Falun Gong prisoners, erect a memorial to the hundreds murdered in jails since 1995, stop forcing the return of North Korean refugees, release the Tiananmen Square activists from prison and end capital punishment.
Meanwhile, this message was sent out by the staff of Labor's Senate whip Joe Ludwig late yesterday: "To Senators, SenStaff: A book on elementary Chinese has been found. Could the owner please come to SG31 to collect or call on 3460."
Black armbands for Hu speech
October 22, 2003 News.com au
THE Greens MPs will wear black armbands to remember Chinese political prisoners when Chinese President Hu Jintao addresses federal Parliament on Friday.
Greens Senator Bob Brown said he also has invited the chairman of the Federation for a Democratic China, Chin Jin, to attend Mr Hu's address.
Mr Brown said the three Greens MPs; himself, Kerry Nettle and Michael Organ would be wearing black armbands for political prisoners during the address.
Mr Chin said at the NSW parliament today that the Chinese leader's visit to Parliament would be a great chance for him to see first hand the benefits of democracy.
"We sincerely hope that President Hu Jintao can see and experience in person the political system of this country," he said.
Mr Brown today urged Prime Minister John Howard to raise issues of human rights and political persecution with Mr Hu.
"We must speak up for democracy and human rights," he said.
"And we must expect that our Prime Minister will have the gumption to do the same - to fail to do that is to fail this country."
Mr Brown said tens of thousands of people were imprisoned in China for their political or religious beliefs, and more than two dozen people arrested at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were still behind bars.
"We welcome President Hu to our country but we do so on terms where these issues are on the agenda - not off the agenda," he said.
And while trade with China was important it should not be the only topic of discussion, he said.
"We know dollars are important but they're not the only value in the world," he said.
"Both President Bush and Prime Minister (John) Howard talk a lot about democracy - well it's their job to keep it at the top of the agenda."
Mr Brown also urged NSW Premier Bob Carr not to shy away from discussing human rights with the Chinese leader.
"To be silent about it at the table with President Hu is to be complicit
- Bob Carr needs to know that." WTN