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DEMOCRACY

Swedish youth politician injured in Cuba car crash

Swedish politician Aron Modig, the current chair of the Christian Democrats youth wing (KDU), has been injured in a car crash on Cuba which claimed the lives of two renowned critics of the Castro regime.

Swedish youth politician injured in Cuba car crash

“Aron Modig is conscious and staff from the Swedish embassy are on their way to the hospital,” confirmed KDU’s press secretary Kalle Bäck in a statement on Monday.

The dead have been identified as Oswaldo Paya, one of Cuba’s most well-known dissidents, and opposition politician Harold Capero.

A fourth passenger, Spanish citizen Angel Carromero Barrios, was injured in the crash which occurred in the Granma province some 750 kilometres east of Havanna.

The car drove off the road between the provincial capital Bayamo and Las Tunas of at 1.50pm local time on Sunday. The car then collided with a tree.

According to a CNN report, Oswaldo Paya’s daughter has forwarded claims that a further car was involved in the crash and that the vehicle deliberately drove into the car carrying Aron Modig.

This information was however denied by the Cuban government in a statement on Sunday, citing eye witnesses.

Modig was reported to have visited Cuba to offer his support for the pro-democracy movement.

Oswaldo Paya received the Sakharov Prize in 2002 and received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 by the former Czech president Václav Havel.

He was 60-years-old when he died.

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CHINA

China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as ‘political farce’

China on Tuesday blasted a democracy conference in Copenhagen attended by Taiwan's president and a Hong Kong activist alongside Danish government officials this week, qualifying it a "political farce".

China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as 'political farce'
Demonstrators gathered outside the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

The Copenhagen Democracy Summit was held Monday and Tuesday in the Danish capital and organised by the Alliance of Democracies, an organisation targeted by Beijing sanctions in March and founded by former NATO boss Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

In addition to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod also participated in the forum by video link, which Beijing said violated “the one-China principle.”

“This summit is a political farce,” the Chinese embassy in Denmark wrote in a statement published on Tuesday. “Inviting those who advocate Taiwan and Hong Kong ‘independence’ to the meeting violates the one-China principle and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” it said.

“Some hypocritical western politicians are good at meddling in other countries’ internal affairs and creating divisions and confrontation in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. They are bound to fail,” it added.

At the conference on Monday, Kofod said it was “deplorable” that Beijing had imposed sanctions on 10 European individuals and organisations in response to EU sanctions on Xinjiang officials over their actions against the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Like most countries, Denmark applies the one-China principle — under which Beijing bars other countries from having simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taipei — though it does maintain relations with Taiwan.

Cut off politically from the rest of China since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the territory is self-governing but is not recognised by
the United Nations.

Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province that will one day return under its control, by force if necessary.

China’s sabre-rattling has increased considerably over the past year, with fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers breaching Taiwan’s air defence zone on a near-daily basis.

“Our government is fully aware of the threats to regional security, and is actively enhancing our national defence capabilities to protect our
democracy,” Tsai told the conference in a video address on Monday. US President Joe Biden is expected to present his China strategy soon, as
calls mount for him to publicly commit to defending Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

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