Pro-China protesters and Uighur activists argued outside an Australian film screening yesterday, each side condemning the other as “terrorists” who incited violence in restive Xinjiang region.
Police had to break up a heated exchange between supporters of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer and detractors who said Beijing was right to label her a “criminal” who started last month’s violence that left at least 197 dead.
Dozens of protesters from either side rallied outside the 1,500-seat Melbourne Town Hall, where a sell-out screening was underway of 10 Conditions of Love, a film about Kadeer’s life, at which she was the guest of honor.
PHOTO: AFP
“Two thousand years ago China was there [in Xinjiang],” yelled Stanley Li, objecting to the Kadeer biopic and her presence inside the venue.
“It’s not appropriate to show this film in public,” he said, according to the AAP newswire.
“I care about these people in China and they are being killed by terrorists,” added pro-China demonstrator Bruce Jiang.
Uighur advocate Hikmat Hason countered with an accusation that Li and his group were the terrorists, sparking a heated row which had to be broken up by police, AAP said.
Uighur supporters carried the blue and white flag of the independence movement of East Turkestan, the name by which the movement refers to Xinjiang.
One female supporter briefly clashed with a pro-China protester and had to be separated by police, witnesses said.
Kadeer, exiled head of the World Uyghur Congress, was escorted through the back door of the venue under tight security, organizers for the Melbourne International Film Festival said.
Police said there were extra officers on hand to deal with an anticipated crowd of up to 100 people, but the gathering had been relatively small and peaceful and no arrests had been made.
“It was all a bit of a non-event, it wasn’t anywhere near as big as anticipated,” a spokeswoman said.
The screening was moved to the Town Hall earlier this week due to unprecedented demand for tickets, fuelled by intense controversy surrounding the film and Kadeer’s visit, to which Beijing strongly objected.
Beijing had urged Australia not to give Kadeer a visa, and all Chinese films and funding were withdrawn from the festival program after it refused to pull the Kadeer biopic. The film festival’s Web site has twice been hit by cyber attacks mounted from China.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Friday defended Kadeer’s visit, but assured China that Australia did not necessarily agree with her views and respected China’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty” over Xinjiang.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS