US President George W. Bush said yesterday he had used talks with Chinese leaders during the Olympic Games to press them to use their influence with Sudan to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Wrapping up his Olympics tour, Bush said that in Sunday’s meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and other officials he raised US concerns, including human rights and religious freedoms in China and the situation in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.
“My attitude is if you’ve got relations with [Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir], think about helping to solve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur,” Bush said in an interview with NBC Sports. “That was my message to the Chinese government.”
Support for Sudan — China is a key investor in its oil industry and Khartoum’s biggest arms supplier — has been among the sources of international criticism of Beijing as the world’s spotlight has fallen on it for the Olympic games.
Bush has denounced the Sudanese government for its policies in the Darfur region, where conflict has taken some 200,000 lives and displaced some 2.5 million people since rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.
Bush has called it genocide, a charge the Sudanese government has rejected.
The US protested to China over its decision before the Games’ opening ceremonies to revoke the visa of Olympic gold medallist Joey Cheek, an activist for Darfur.
DESPERATE ACT
State media quoted police as saying that the man who murdered an American tourist in Beijing before throwing himself off a tower acted out of despair over failures in his life.
Tang Yongming, 47, stabbed Todd Bachman — the father-in-law of US Olympic volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon — to death in Beijing on Saturday in an attack that also left his wife, Barbara, seriously injured.
Police in his hometown of Hangzhou in east China, said Tang “took his anger out on society” in an example of “individual, extreme behavior,” Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday.
Tang had two failed marriages and his 21-year-old son was sentenced to six months in prison for theft earlier this year, the news agency said.
STILL MISSING
Meanwhile, a Christian activist who was detained on his way to a church service attended by Bush on Sunday has not returned home, his brother said yesterday.
Hua Huilin said he and his brother, Hua Huiqi, a member of Beijing’s underground Christian church, were stopped by security agents in two black cars on Sunday while they were cycling to the Kuan Jie Protestant Church around dawn.
The pair was taken away in separate cars and Hua Huilin said he was released a few hours later. He said his brother, however, remained missing.
“We’re so worried,” Hua Huilin said by telephone yesterday.
A man who answered the telephone at the spokesman’s office of
the Beijing Public Security Bureau said yesterday officials there were trying to find out what happened and would only comment when they had “an accurate answer.”
‘TERRORISTS’
Two women were among a squad of assailants that hurled homemade bombs at government buildings and police this week in violence that left 12 people dead in a Muslim region of China, officials said yesterday.
Police were still investigating whether the attackers belonged to a group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda that has threatened to disrupt the Games.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College