China and France sought yesterday to cool tempers over Tibet and the Olympics, with a former French prime minister heading to Beijing for top-level talks criticizing a decision to honor the Dalai Lama.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who arrives today bearing a message from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the Paris city council had contradicted official policy by conferring honorary citizenship on the Tibetan spiritual leader.
Raffarin is one of three senior French figures visiting Beijing this week, all carrying letters from Sarkozy as the president tries to repair relations damaged by pro-Tibet protests in France and hurt pride in China.
At the same time, the Chinese commerce ministry warned against an ongoing boycott of French supermarket giant Carrefour, noting that it employs 40,000 workers here and that up to 95 percent of its products are made in China.
Raffarin is due today to meet the Chinese premier and is expected to pass on Sarkozy’s letter at a separate meeting to the Chinese president.
In the southern city of Zhuzhou, protesters reportedly attacked a young US teacher on Sunday evening after he emerged from a local Carrefour.
Accounts on numerous Internet boards said the man was punched, pushed and chased and was only rescued by police after taking refuge in a taxi. The US embassy in Beijing said it had no information it could release about the incident under rules requiring a privacy waiver.
Meanwhile, six people were arrested as the Olympic flame arrived in Australia yesterday, while officials said they were prepared for more protests on the latest leg of the troubled global torch relay.
Even before a chartered airliner carrying the flame touched down in Canberra under tight security, protesters used the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a backdrop for their pro-Tibet message.
A man and a woman attempting to unfurl a banner and a Tibetan flag on the iconic landmark were arrested hours after lasers beamed pro-Tibet slogans including “Don’t torch Tibet” onto one of the structure’s pylons.
Four more people were taken into custody after raising a pro-Tibet banner on a prominent billboard in the city’s King’s Cross nightlife district, police said.
Australian officials have shortened today’s relay route through Canberra over concerns about security at an event expected to attract thousands of pro-China supporters and pro-Tibet demonstrators.
Barriers have been erected along the 16km route and more than half of the city’s police force will be on patrol.
Police said they were confident that security would be adequate, despite a dispute between Australian and Chinese officials over the role of the torch’s Chinese escorts.
A Beijing Olympics torch relay spokesman, backed by the Chinese ambassador, said that the escorts could use their bodies to protect the flame if necessary.
But Stanhope said this condition had not been agreed to by the Australian government.
In related developments, China has altered plans for foreign media coverage of the Olympic flame’s ascent of Mount Everest, citing weather conditions.
Changes to the plans mean foreign reporters would spend only 10 days overall in Tibet — about half the time initially planned.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat