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CHINA

Tibetan exiles berate Chinese rights record

Tibetan exiles in Bern on Friday urged Swiss authorities to take China to task for its human rights record during a landmark visit by Premier Li Keqiang focused squarely on a trade deal.

Tibetan exiles berate Chinese rights record
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

Waving Tibetan flags and chanting slogans such as "free the prisoners", "stop the killing" and "long live the Dalai Lama", hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the Swiss capital.
   
"We're asking the Swiss government not to forget the principles of human 
rights," community leader Pasang Memmishofer told AFP.
   
"Our basic message is that the condition in Tibet is disastrous," she said.

"Tibetans can't live in a dignified way. They are second-class citizens in their own home."

Switzerland is home to a Tibetan community of some 5,000 people which has grown up since China took over Tibet in 1959.
   
Its protests during visits by Chinese officials have in the past seen Berne 
face sharp rebukes from Beijing.
   
Memmishofer, whose husband is also Tibetan but was adopted by a Swiss 
family, said that despite Beijing's claims that exiles want to split the Himalayan region from China, they are simply seeking respect and autonomy.
   
"We're asking Premier Li to resume a dialogue with us. Only through 
dialogue can anything happen," she added.
   
Li is on his first visit to Europe since taking the helm in March in a 
once-in-a-decade Beijing power transfer.
   
He was 
Friday to ink a preliminary free-trade deal with Switzerland, before heading to Germany, China's top European commercial partner.
   
Due to be signed formally in July, the Swiss deal follows a similar accord 
last month with Iceland, as Beijing underscores its growing global role and seeks to strike an agreement with the European Union, of which neither Switzerland nor Iceland is a member.
   
There have been suggestions that building trade ties could help promote 
human rights and democracy in China, but Memmishofer said that process, even if it happened, would be too slow.
   
"Will it take another 50 years of suffering in Tibet?" she asked.

"The situation is getting worse."

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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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