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US China Visit, Tibet, etc



Free Burma activists will be among those protesting Jiang's visit, with
Suu Kyi' ally Tibet's spiritual Godhead His Holiness the Dalai Lama
among many of the key protest causes of united activists at
demonstrations. Worth noting: "Among the guest speakers is Bette Bao
Lord, whose husband, Winston Lord, is a former U.S. ambassador to
Beijing. Hours after addressing the(protest sic) rally, the Lords will
attend a state dinner at the White House in Jiang's honor."...

dawn star, euroburmanet, paris
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/
> ------------------- World Tibet Network News 
>   Published by:     The Canada-Tibet Committee
>   Archived at:      http://www.tibet.ca
> 2. Broad Coalition in U.S. Closes Ranks for Human Rights Protests(WP)
> 3. China Signs UN Human Rights Accord (AP)
> 4. China's president plays Pearl Harbor card on outset of summit visit (AFP)
> 5. China puts documentary against Dalai Lama on the Internet
> 6. Ziang should have Tibet on his agenda in US talks: Tibetans (AFP)

> 2. Broad Coalition in U.S. Closes Ranks for Human Rights Protests(WP)
                          By Lena H. Sun
>                          Washington Post Staff Writer
>                          Tuesday, October 28, 1997; Page A09
>                          The Washington Post
> 
>        When Chinese President Jiang Zemin is welcomed on the White House
> South Lawn with a 21-gun salute Wednesday, thousands of demonstrators
> plan to greet him outside the executive mansion with a towering replica
> of the Goddess of Democracy, the symbol of the Tiananmen Square
> pro-democracy movement.
> 
>        Under any other circumstances, the demonstrators might be
> protesting against each other. But the Chinese leader's visit has pulled
> together an unusually broad coalition of groups and individuals.
> Religious conservative organizations such as the
> Family Research Council are mobilizing alongside organized labor,
> liberal Democrats, human rights organizations and such unlikely allies
> as talk-show host Oliver L. North and actor Richard Gere to focus
> attention on human rights abuses in China and Tibet.
> 
>        The protests scheduled in Washington and other cities during
> Jiang's eight-day U.S. tour are among the largest and loudest to meet a
> foreign head of state in recent years, according to organizers. And
> while many of the groups disagree bitterly on
> issues such as abortion, opposition to China has proven a powerful
> incentive to overlook disputes in other areas.
> 
>      "We're a big coalition, and everyone has agreed that the message .
> . . is to focus on China's restrictions on freedom of expression,
> association and religion," said Abigail Abrash, of the Robert F. Kennedy
> Memorial Center for Human Rights, one of five human rights groups
> organizing the Wednesday rally at Lafayette Square, which leaders expect
> to draw at least 2,000 participants.
> 
>         "This is not any sort of fragmented platform for groups who have
> grudges from various perspectives to speak," she said. Gary Bauer,
> president of the Family Research Council, one of nearly 30 supporting
> groups taking part in the rally, said,
> "Every once in a while, there is a great issue that causes coalitions to
> fall apart and re-form, and I think this is one of those issues.
> 
>         "We will work together on this issue and agree to disagree on
> others, and everybody is pretty comfortable with that at this point," he
> said.
> 
>          Bauer said the participation of the religious right is an
> outgrowth of a diverse and broad group that came together earlier this
> year in an unsuccessful effort to block renewal of China's normal
> trading status with the United States.
> 
>         Other groups participating in the Lafayette Square rally here
> are the AFL-CIO, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the National
> Consumers League and the Sierra Club. Among the guest speakers is Bette
> Bao Lord, whose husband, Winston Lord, is a former U.S. ambassador to
> Beijing. Hours after addressing the rally, the Lords will attend a state
> dinner at the White House in Jiang's honor.
> 
>          In Washington, the Wednesday rally may draw the largest crowds.
> But groups with chapters around the country, such as the International
> Campaign for Tibet and Amnesty International  USA, have been working for
> weeks to organize events other
> than the standard protest "so that the effect is varied," said
> Amnesty's Christine Haenn.
> 
>        After the Chinese leader visits the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia
> on Thursday, Tibetan monks in cinnamon-colored robes plan the next day
> to chant Buddhist prayers to "cleanse" the site. In  Boston, before
> Jiang is to speak at Harvard University on
>  Saturday, protesters are planning to begin a 48-hour hunger strike to
> commemorate those killed in the Tiananmen Square crackdown eight years
> ago.
> 
>        Protest organizers say they do not want to isolate China  because
> of its human rights abuses. Like the Clinton   administration, they say
> their goal is to encourage the United  States to deepen its relationship
> with the world's most populous nation. But, organizers say, they want
> the administration to do so by pursuing a vigorous commitment to human
> rights and democracy.
> 
>       "We support Jiang coming here, and we also support the president
> going over there -- so long as he stops being so  wimpy," said John
> Ackerly, president of the International Campaign for Tibet.
> 
>         If, for example, the administration fails to meet a Nov. 1
> deadline for naming a coordinator for U.S. policy regarding Tibet, a
> move strongly opposed by China, which considers Tibet's status an
> internal matter, "they just look like they're  waffling all over the
> place," Ackerly said.
> 
>        Although organizers say the Chinese leader will be met by
> demonstrations at each of his stops, it is unclear how much the
> protests will go beyond the organized events to resonate with  average
> Americans. In part the effect may depend on how Jiang responds to the
> protests, if at all.
> 
>        "It's really going to take something to engage the American
> public on a traditional foreign policy issue like China," said Andy
> Kohut, director of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a nonprofit
> public interest survey and research organization.
> 
>       In a survey of 2,000 respondents last month, only 1 in 7 saw China
> as an adversary and most "aren't alarmed about China," he said.  for
> Americans to see foreign policy as something relevant in their lives, he
> said, takes more than "dramatic movies and protests." Several movies
> critical of China, including one starring Gere, are being released in
> the weeks surrounding the visit.
> 
>         Others disagreed. Labor union officials point to a May 1 Wall
> Street Journal/NBC poll that showed Americans believing by a ore than
> 2-1 ratio that the Chinese Government should improve its human rights
> practices or lose its normal trading status with the United States.
> 
>         "I think for the average union member, they care quite a bit,"
> said Thea Lee, assistant director of public policy for the  AFL-CIO.
> "They do see China as an egregious abuser of international norms for
> worker rights and environmental protection. Take a combination of that
> with the massive trade  imbalance, and it does resonate as a problem to
> most people."

> 3. China Signs UN Human Rights Accord (AP)
> 
> UNITED NATIONS, 10/28 (AP) -- As Chinese President Jiang Zemin begins his U.S.
> visit, China's U.N. ambassador signed an international human rights
> agreement which has been in force for more than 20 years.
> 
> Ambassador Qin Huasun on Monday signed the International
> Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which went into force
> in 1976. The covenant, which calls on states to respect individual
> liberties in the three areas, was adopted by the U.N. General
> Assembly in December 1966 when Taiwan held the Chinese seat at the world
>  organization.
> 
> The decision to sign the agreement appeared to be a move by
> Jiang to deflect criticism of China's human rights record, especially in
> Tibet, during his U.S. visit.
> 
> Jiang arrives in Washington for his summit with President Bill
> Clinton on Tuesday afternoon following a rest stop in Williamsburg,
> Virginia.
> 

> 4. Police arrest 37 Tibetans for illegally entering Nepal (AFP)

>       KATHMANDU, Oct 27 (AFP) - Nepal authorities have arrested 37 Tibetans for illegally entering the country, police sources said Monday.
> 
>    The Tibetans were arrested on Sunday in Kathmandu after arriving by bus
> from Katari 250 kilometres (156 miles) east of the capital.
> 
>    Police said none had visas to enter Nepal and the exact purpose of their
> visit was unclear due to language problems. They had previously travelled
> without valid papers to different parts of the country.
> 
>    A Home Ministry spokesman said the group would be handed over to the
> Department of Immigration Monday.
> 
>    Tibetans in the past have passed through Nepal on their way to Dharamsala
> in India to meet their spiritual leader and Nobel peace prize winner the Dalai
> Lama.
> 
>    He has been living in India since a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese
> occupation in the late 1950s.

4. China's president plays Pearl Harbor card on outset of summit visit
(AFP)    by Karen Lowe
> 
>    HONOLULU, Hawaii, Oct 27 (AFP) - China's President Jiang Zemin was to leave
> here Monday on the next step of his landmark US tour, shrugging off his first
> brush with demonstrators and commemorating the US casualties of Pearl Harbor.
> 
>    The Chinese have publicly voiced concern about upgraded military ties in
> the Pacific between Washington and Tokyo, and Jiang's gesture at Pearl Harbor
> was clearly made to recall a time when Japan was a significant military threat.
> 
>    Jiang, 71, laid a wreath of white carnations soon after arriving here
> Sunday at a marble monument inscribed with the names of more than 1,000 US
> servicemen killed aboard the USS Arizona in the infamous December 7, 1941
> Japanese air attack.
> 
>    Jiang then rode on the bow of a ship with US Navy escorts out to the sunken
> battleship where he dropped a lavender-colored lei into the waves, noting that
> "it floats."
> 
>    The attack drew Washington into World War ll, in which the United States
> fought alongside the Chinese, the last time the two countries were military
> allies, against the Japanese.
> 
>    Protestors have vowed to dog Jiang's eight-day tour, the first by a Chinese
> president since China's People's Liberation Army crushed pro-democracy student
> demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989 with a heavy loss of
> life.
> 
>    Outside a formal dinner at Governor Benjamin Cayetano's residence Sunday,
> about 200 demonstrators shouted "Free Tibet!" and "Human rights now! Holding
> candles aloft, they chanted "Stop the torture now" and "Tiananmen never
> again."
> 
>    The Chinese secret service reportedly asked their US counterparts to step
> in and arrest the protestors but were turned down.
> 
>    "This demonstration won't come close to the numbers who will demonstrate in
> Boston and Washington," said Claire Hanusz, local spokeswoman for Amnesty
> International.
> 
>    Some 50 pro-Taiwanese protestors were camped outside Jiang's hotel holding
> up banners reading, "Dear Mr. Jiang, one Taiwan, one China is a reality" and
> "Say No to China."
> 
>    Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province, is a sensitive issue
> with Washington. The United States maintains ties with Taipei but espouses a
> policy of "one China."
> 
>    In Washington, nine pro-Taiwan protestors were reportedly arrested outside
> the White House.
> 
>    Jiang arrived in Honolulu earlier Sunday and was greeted with a 21-gun
> salute and full military honors, a precondition set by China for agreeing to
> the summit.
> 
>    At the governor's dinner, Jiang offered a toast to strong Sino-US ties,
> saying they served the "fundamental interests of the two peoples and the rest
> of the world."
> 
>    He pledged his visit to improving relations between the United States and
> China, which have been strained since the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
> 
>    "I am looking forward to discussions with President Clinton on developing
> China-US relations oriented toward the 21st century, and major international
> and regional issues so as to usher our relations into a new stage," he said.
> 
>    Jiang's visit to the United States is the first by a Chinese leader since
> President Li Xiannian came in 1985. Before him, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
> visited in 1979.
> 
>    The centerpiece of the trip will be Jiang's summit with Clinton in
> Washington Wednesday, the most significant outcome of which is expected to be
> the announcemente of a deal to phase out China-Iran nuclear cooperation, a
> move which would allow US companies to compete for billions of dollars in
> nuclear power plant equipment sales and site construction.
> 
>    US and Chinese officials hope the summit will signal a closer relationship
> bound by broad common economic interests that would overshadow conflicts over
> Taiwan, Tibet, nuclear weapons and human rights.
> 
>    However, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking on NBC
> television Sunday, insisted that Washington would raise the issue of human
> rights with Beijing, though it will not be the focus of this visit.
> 
>    Jiang was to leave here later Monday for colonial Williamsburg, Virginia
> and head to Washington Tuesday for Wednesday's summit.
> 
>    Thursday he will tour Independence Hall in Philadelphia, then visit the New
> York Stock Exchange on Friday, and deliver a speech at Harvard University in
> Boston on Saturday.
> 
>    Sunday he is scheduled to be in Los Angeles, where he will meet with
> industry leaders and sign some 1.4 billion dollars in contracts before
> returning to China.


> 5. China puts documentary against Dalai Lama on the Internet

>    BEIJING, Oct 28 (AFP) - China has put online a video documentary attacking
> the Dalai Lama, Xinhua reported Tuesday.
> 
>    The 90-minute documentary on the Nobel Laureate "shows how he practices
> serfdom in Tibet, defected from his motherland and engaged in activities
> directed at splitting China," the official news agency said.
> 
>    The film is the first Chinese-made documentary on Tibet's spiritual leader
> to be put on the Internet.
> 
>    China has kept tight security over Tibet and has accused the Dalai Lama of
> trying to split the troubled province from the mainland.
> 
>    Beijing has prohibited Buddhist Tibetan monasteries and followers from
> displaying pictures of the Dalai Lama who leads an India-based government in
> exile.

> 6. Ziang should have Tibet on his agenda in US talks: Tibetans (AFP)


>       NEW DELHI, Oct 28 (AFP) - A Tibetan official on Tuesday asked Chinese
> President Jiang Zemin and US President Bill Clinton to find a solution to the
> Tibetan issue during their meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
> 
>    The official in a statement from the northern Indian hill town of
> Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama's exiled government is located, said the two
> presidents should also call the Tibetan spiritual leader to the talks.
> 
>    "We welcome the meeting," Tempa Tsering, a spokesman for the Tibetan
> government, said in a statement.
> 
>    "We hope this will help China to face the changes of the 21st century by
> shaking off the legacy of its troubled and tormented past.
> 
>    "We believe the summit provides the best opportunity for the American and
> Chinese presidents to discuss the issue of Tibet so as to find a solution
> which gives the Tibetan people genuine self-rule," Tsering said.
> 
>    The Dalai Lama has been living in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959
> following an abortive anti-Chinese revolt. India is also home to more than
> 100,000 Tibetan exiles.
> 
>    Tsering said: "Besides meeting with the American president, Jiang is
> visiting some of the most enduring symbols of American freedom and liberty.
> 
>    "It is high time he translates his symbolic gesture to democracy and
> liberty abroad into concrete action back home."
> 
>    Beijing annexed the Himalayan territory, sandwiched between India and
> China, in the 1950s and is accused of widespread rights abuses there.