Bruni-Sarkozy meets Dalai Lama

Sarkozy meets the Dalai Lama … not but yes but no but yes but no … but Carla Bruni-Sarkozy yes! AFP August 10, 2008 PARIS (AFP) — The Dalai Lama kicks off Tuesday an 11-day visit to France that threatened to spark a crisis between Paris and Beijing, until President Nicolas Sarkozy quashed speculation he [...]

No press freedom during the Olympic games!

There will be no free internet for accredited journalists during their stay in Beijing as Reporters without Borders writes: The Chinese authorities confirmed today that the 20,000 foreign journalists covering the Olympic Games will not have unrestricted access to the Internet during their stay. International Olympic Committee media chief Kevan Gosper nonetheless yesterday said the [...]

Jacques Rogge against a “better world”?

The Economist blog “Certain ideas of Europe” describes the China argumentation of IOC boss Jacques Rogge. His defensive approach can be summarised with the following statements: “be reasonable, old chap, what can we do?” and “we don’t do politics but things are much better than you think” combined with some claims about the successes of [...]

Breaking news: China to Meet With Representative Of Dalai Lama

Breaking news: Chinese officials will meet representatives of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom China blames for a wave of unrest, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday, citing official sources. The move marks a change in tactics on the part of Beijing, which has stepped up its vilification of the Dalai [...]

Don’t let it happen!

via eurotopics a short excerpt of this article (in french): Marie-Hélène Miauton, director of the Swiss polling firm MIS Trend, doesn’t believe the threats of an Olympic boycott this summer in Beijing. “The Olympic universe has its own momentum, media rituals that it has to respect to the letter. … It’s in the lead up [...]

EU and China: The threat of a boycott

John Fox, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations calls for a more efficient EU foreign policy that does not rule out any olympic boycott: EU leaders need to make clear to the Chinese Government that they are prepared to boycott Olympic ceremonies and to consider a broader boycott of the [...]

Polish PM to boycott Beijing Olympics opening ceremony!

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has said he would boycott the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics in Beijing. This makes him the first European Head of Government to announce a political boycott! According to Bloomberg he also wants to convince other European politicians to follow his example! Deputy Foreign Minister Ryszard Schnepf explained this [...]

AI: China is getting ready

Amnesty International Campaign: “In the name of ensuring stability and harmony in the country during the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Government continues to detain and harass political activists, journalists, lawyers and human rights workers. Get involved: www.amnesty.sk”

The debate in the European Parliament

MEPs debated the situation in Tibet with some MEPs calling for a possible boycott of at least the opening ceremony of the forthcoming Olympic Games to be held in China this summer while others said that a boycott would be futile. Many MEPs called for freedom for Tibet and underlined the human rights abuses in [...]

How to crank up the pressure on China?

A very handy European press round-up about the current debate on how to deal with China can be found here. Are the Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing at risk? The debate about how the world should act towards China in view of the events in Tibet continues. Who is in the best position to crank [...]