China said on Thursday it opposed any foreign platform for Rebiya Kadeer, after an Australian film festival accused Beijing of trying to stop a showing of a documentary about the leading Uighur activist.
“What kind of person Rabiya Kadeer is, we are all very clear,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) told reporters. “We oppose any foreign countries providing her with a platform to engage in anti-China separatist activities.”
Qin did not confirm if Chinese diplomats had pressured organizers not to show the film about the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Festival director Richard Moore said an official from the Chinese consulate called him on July 10 and urged him to withdraw the documentary Ten Conditions of Love by Melbourne film-maker Jeff Daniels.
Moore said the consulate official argued the festival should not screen the film because Kadeer was a criminal and also called for organizers to cancel a promotional visit by the activist scheduled for next month.
“She actually said: ‘I’m urging you to withdraw this film from the festival,’” Moore told ABC radio.
Moore said he told the official he did not have to justify the film’s inclusion, “then politely hung up.”
Violence that erupted in Xinjiang on July 5 left at least 192 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, Chinese authorities have said. China accuses Kadeer of fomenting the unrest.
The unrest saw members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority, who have long said they live under repressive Beijing rule, attack members of the nation’s dominant Han ethnic group.
Kadeer, who spent six years in a Chinese prison before she was released in 2005 after US pressure, has denied the accusations she organized the unrest.
Canberra is in the midst of a diplomatic row with Beijing over the fate of Stern Hu (胡士泰), a top Rio Tinto executive arrested and accused of bribery and espionage during troubled negotiations over iron ore contracts.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported yesterday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since US president-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory on Oct. 6. At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region. Kim also criticized the US over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion.
RSS