FT Chronicle

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Dalai Lama’s chief envoy said Tuesday that President Barack Obama probably won’t make a public appearance this week with the Tibetan spiritual leader during a White House visit that is already infuriating China.

A joint appearance by Obama and the Dalai Lama before reporters could make tense U.S.-China ties even worse and further complicate U.S. efforts to secure Chinese help in settling North Korean and Iranian nuclear standoffs and crucial economic, military and environmental issues.

Still, Lodi Gyari said Thursday’s meeting in the White House between the Nobel Peace laureates would be an important boost for Tibet and for the broader U.S. commitment to human rights.

The Dalai Lama, who has met with every U.S. president for the last two decades, is a recurring thorn in U.S.-Chinese ties. China accuses him of pushing for Tibetan independence — something he has repeatedly denied — and considers meetings between the monk and foreign leaders to be an infringement on Chinese sovereignty.

This week’s meeting follows a tense couple of months in what the Obama administration has called the world’s most important relationship, highlighted by the recent U.S. announcement of a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own.

Former President George W. Bush appeared at the public presentation in 2007 of a Congressional Gold Medal Award to the Dalai Lama, but presidential meetings with the Dalai Lama have typically been held away from reporters, often in the White House’s private residences.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that he didn’t know if Obama and the Dalai Lama would make a televised appearance after their meeting.

BEIJING (AP) — China has responded sharply to President Barack Obama’s plan to meet this month with Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saying it is “resolutely” opposed to any such contact.

China accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing for Tibetan independence, which he denies.

The United States confirmed on Thursday that Obama would meet the Dalai Lama in Washington in the middle of this month.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement late Friday that “China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely opposes US leaders having contact with the Dalai Lama.”

Bilateral relations have already been strained by the U.S. announcement Friday that it planned to sell $6.4 billion worth of arms to Taiwan.

Beijing quickly suspended military exchanges with Washington and announced an unprecedented threat of sanctions against the U.S. companies involved in the sale.

China is very sensitive to any meetings that the India-based Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has with government leaders, calling them interference in its internal affairs.
Every US president in the last two decades has met with the Dalai Lama.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a week after enraging China with an arms sale package for rival Taiwan, President Barack Obama risks more damage to this crucial relationship by agreeing to meet with the Dalai Lama in two weeks.

Obama already postponed the visit once, angering U.S. lawmakers and rights groups. As Obama struggles to regain his footing after political setbacks, the last thing he needs is to open himself up to fresh criticism that he is kowtowing to China.

So on Thursday, his administration confirmed what had long been expected: Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan monk visits Washington on Feb. 17-18.

China immediately urged the United States to scrap the meeting to avoid hurting bilateral ties. China accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing for Tibetan independence, which the Dalai Lama denies, and believes that shunning the exiled Tibetan monk should be a basic principle of international relations for countries that want to deal with China.

Every US president for the last two decades has met with the Dalai Lama, and those visits are considered powerful signs of the American commitment to human rights. Obama also told Chinese leaders last year that he would meet with the monk.

The Dalai Lama enjoys widespread support in America. High-profile celebrities call him friend; college students flock to his frequent campus lectures; powerful US lawmakers would call another postponed meeting a betrayal.

Obama is focused on domestic matters as he deals with a struggling economy and a series of Republican political victories. He does not want to add to that with an outcry over his snubbing the Dalai Lama again.

For the last year, Obama has faced criticism that his administration is more eager to win Chinese cooperation on nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea and climate change and economic crises than to hold Beijing accountable for what activists call an abysmal rights record.

Much of that criticism stems from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s comments during a trip to China a year ago that human rights should not interfere with improving U.S.-China ties. Activists also said Obama failed to make human rights a big enough priority during his China trip in November.

Just a month before that high-profile trip, Obama faced anger for putting off a White House visit when the Dalai Lama came to Washington.

Still, he has little to show from China for his outreach. As Beijing refuses to give ground on many key issues, the Obama administration has shown an increasing willingness to get tough.

In September, Obama slapped tariffs on a flood of Chinese tires entering the United States. Although he antagonized China and heard complaints about US protectionism, he was praised by powerful American union allies who blame Chinese tire imports for the loss of thousands of jobs.

And, in recent weeks, the administration announced the $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own; Clinton urged Beijing to investigate hacking attacks that led to Google’s threat to pull out of China; and Obama vowed to get tough with China on a currency dispute.

China maintains that Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for much of its history.

Tibet and Taiwan are China’s most sensitive issues, and Obama risks Chinese retaliation by stoking anger in Beijing.

Already, China has threatened to punish US companies involved in any arms sales to Taiwan and has suspended military exchanges with Washington.

Many will be watching whether the Dalai Lama meeting wrecks a possible April visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington.

WASHINGTON – “In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation’s networks can be an attack on all,” warned US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she urged Beijing to look closely into the recent hacking attempts on Google’s China division. The attacks had earlier led Google to threaten to pull out its entire operations in the country.

“We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions… We also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent,” Clinton said in a speech at the Newseum journalism museum in Washington on Thursday.

Google had earlier detected what it called a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China”. The company said that the attack primarily targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates.

Google reacted strongly to the cyberattacks, but did not directly implicate the Chinese government. The search engine giant however announced that it would stop acceding to the government’s request to censor local search results and even considered pulling the plug on its entire China division.

Two days later, the Chinese government issued an official statement underscoring its commitment to maintaining a hold on online search results. “China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law,” stressed foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

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Agence France-Presse

BEIJING–China arrested more than 5,000 people in a crackdown on Internet pornography in 2009, officials said, vowing tougher online policing in the new year as a key element of “state security”.

China maintains strict censorship of the Internet to curb what the government deems to be unhealthy content including porn and violence — an effort that has become known as the “Great Firewall of China”.

Authorities in December offered rewards of up to 10,000 yuan (1,465 dollars) to Internet users who report websites that feature pornography.

According to figures published by the ministry of public security late Thursday, 5,394 people were arrested last year under the Internet porn crackdown, and 9,000 illegal porn-related sites were shut down.

The ministry, in a statement on its website, did not specify if all of those arrested were later prosecuted.

It said it would “strengthen punishment for Internet operators that violate the laws and regulations” in the coming year and “severely punish operations that have serious problems with harmful information”.

China has blocked several social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Citizens can only gain access to such sites by using proxy servers.

Last year Beijing threatened to sanction major websites, including search engine giants Google and Baidu, alleging that pornography and other material that could corrupt young people was turning up in search results.

Authorities effectively cut off Internet access in the far-western Xinjiang region after deadly ethnic unrest erupted there in July.

The government says terrorists, separatists and religious extremists used the Internet, telephones and mobile text messages to spread rumours and hatred as the violence broke out.

Earlier this week, limited access to state-run news websites was restored.

Nine dead while eight others injured after a fireworks factory blast in northern China, local media reported Saturday.

The explosion happened Friday afternoon at the Xinping Firecrackers Co Ltd in Shaanxi province, obliterating the entire seven workshops where fireworks were done, Xinhua news agency said.

Police have begun a hunt for the factory head, Qu Pingxin, who is now hiding after the explosion, Xinhua said.

China has a vast fireworks business that is infamous for its negligent safety standards. However, the government launched series of campaigns to make the industry safer.

Akmal Shaikh, a British national executed at 10:30am (China time) after being sentenced to death in China for illegal possession of heroin despite the clamour of his family and the British government for clemency.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, other ministers and opposition leaders condemned China for executing a British who said to have had mental disorders.

In a statement, Mr. Brown said: “I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted,”

“No one has the right to comment on China’s judicial Sovereignty. It is common wish of people around the world to strike against the crime of drug trafficking.” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu in press briefing.

According to Chinese embassy in London, Shaikh had “no previous medical record” of mental illness and that his rights and interest had been properly respected. “During the legal process Mr Shaikh’s rights and interests were properly respected and guaranteed and the concerns of the British side were duly noted and taken into consideration by the Chinese judicial authorities.”

Shaikh, a father of 3 who was arrested in September 2007 and was convicted of smuggling 4kg of heroin into China.

(Photo credits: AFP/GETTY, via Telegraph.co.uk)

BEIJING, China—The half-brother of United States President Barack Obama has been made an “image ambassador” for southern China’s booming city of Shenzhen, state press reported Sunday.

Mark Obama Ndesandjo was named image ambassador on Friday by the Shenzhen Youth League for his volunteer work teaching piano to orphans in the city, where he lives, the Beijing News reported.

Since moving to Shenzhen in 2002, Ndesandjo has given lessons once a week to orphans at the Shenzhen Social Welfare Center, the paper said.

The son of President Obama’s late father and his third wife Ruth Nidesand, Ndesandjo reportedly runs a business consultancy in China.

During Obama’s visit to China last month, the two had a brief, but emotional reunion in Beijing. Ndesandjo recounted having a big hug with each other.

The two half-brothers did not know each other while growing up, but have met from time to time as adults, and always manage to re-forge their bond, Ndesandjo said.

Eight students were killed and 26 others injured in a stampede at a school in Hunan province, central China, state media reported on Tuesday.

Seven boys and one girl aged 11 to 14 from Yucai Middle School in Xiangxiang city were reported killed.

The incident occurred Monday night in the city of Xiangtan in Hunan province when middle-school students were rushing down a flight of stairs after an evening study session, Xinhua news agency reported.

Some students at the front tripped, causing those in the back to run or topple over them, it added. The five-storey school building has a number of stairwells but the bulk of the students leaving evening classes chose the one closest to their dormitory building to avoid Monday night’s heavy rain, Xinhua said.

The accident happened on Monday evening but the school was open for classes as usual on Tuesday.

Officials in Xiangxiang have dismissed the head of the city’s education bureau, the news agency said.