China Sentences 10 Foreign Protesters

U.S. Ambassador Says China Should Immediately Release U.S. Protesters

(CBS/AP)  Chinese police have sentenced at least 10 foreigners to 10 days of detention for protesting during the Olympic Games, an activist group and officials said Saturday.

The most recent detainees included four protesters who were demonstrating against Chinese rule in Tibet, the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet said. The protesters - a German, two Americans and a British citizen - were seized Thursday while unfurling a Tibetan flag near the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. Other Americans have reportedly been arrested for protesting during the Olympics as well.

The U.S. Ambassador to China is pressing Chinese officials to immediately release eight Americans who were detained for protesting.

Ambassador Clark T. Randt Jr. says in a statement Sunday that Beijing should demonstrate respect for human rights and free speech

He says U.S. officials are "disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness."

Randt says consular officials had met with eight Americans who were detained last week by Chinese authorities.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the detention of the British protester and issued a statement urging the Chinese government "to respect its commitment to freedom of expression." It also urged British citizens to respect China's laws.

China said it would allow protests during the Olympic Games in three designated areas and required protesters to apply for protest permits. However, no applications to demonstrate have been approved.

The Public Security Bureau did not immediately respond to requests Saturday for comment about the detained foreigners' cases.

The bureau issued a statement Thursday that said a separate group of six foreigners who were arrested Tuesday were ordered to serve 10 days of detention. Police did not identify the detainees, but Students for a Free Tibet said they were bloggers, artists and activists from the United States.

Separately, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group said AIDS activist Wang Xiaoqiao, who has been detained for nine months, has been convicted and sentenced to one year in prison in Xincai, a county in the central province of Henan. The organization accused the government of waiting until the Olympics, when the world was distracted by the games, to sentence Wang.

Phone calls to the Xincai county court and to the news office of the county's public security bureau rang unanswered Sunday.

[pugster]

I recall that a few months ago some of these ''Free Tibetans'' run in front of the UN protesting and the NYPD billy-clubbed them. Now these ''Free Tibetans'' are protesting in China and they are greeted like heroes in NYC''s City Hall.

[liberty4you]

China needs to protect the freedom of all peoples in the world or America will not buy their contaminated products.

[telltale57]

I''d say the protesters would be classified under the category of nonviolent resistance or civil disobedience. If you read a few books by writers such as Martin Luther King or Mahatma Ghandi you would know that this sort of protester is anything but violent. It is their very point to be non-violent. They are opposing those who are clearly violent, so - according to their argument - they would be defeating their purpose if they were also violent. Breaking a law is not necessarily an act of violence. People in the South sat at lunchcounters and rode in the wrong part of the bus, etc. in violation of the law, but that was by no means violence. Of course, you might define violence as breaking the law. But then you are using words idiosyncratically. Ghandi has a whole set of essays on non-violent protest. You can get them from your public library, unless they have been removed by the liberated librarian.

[joechristine]

So,telltale57,you must be a romantic activist,aren''t you?Compared with you,i should be one of "lazy and selfish cowards" who are keyboarding.Yes,i really hate corruption,bully and despotism and support free of speech,demoncracy and human rights.But i think China should go on its track,no matter what the west criticises.Free of speech doesn''t mean abuse of irresponsible speech.Demoncracy doesn''t mean disordered fighting among different parties.Protecting human rights doesn''t mean violence of personal behaviors.Only do those mature communities with educated have successful true demoncracy.The substantial spirit of freedom and democracy are the same but different people has different systems or approaches to annotate the spirit.--------------Christine

[telltale57]

Joe,
you refer to "naive activists." Maybe. But I far prefer naive activists to lazy and selfish cowards. What about you?

[oneworldusa]

Sorry, you go to a communist country without free press, freedom of speech, or right to assemble/protest, and you will pay the price. Like it or not, you have to follow the laws of the country you are visiting.

These protesters made their point. The fact that they got arrested brought more attention to their cause, which is what they wanted. They knew they could be arrested and proceeded anyway.

10 Days of detention is not bad unless one has to change out an international plane ticket. Whew, the fees!

[brianbwb-2009]

"This information is probably available somewhere. I got it. But nobody cares." Posted by telltale57

But if you look at the US history of taking public land, and the mineral rights under public land (oil and gas), and in many cases "private" land and giving it to private concerns for railroads, transport and energy infrastructure, you realize that this is no different than what the US government did to build America''s infrastructure.

Not that no one cares, but that no one has the moral ground on which to stand.

[joechristine]

I have to tell the truth that those Chinese policemen actually protected those pro-tibet activists.Don''t it sound ironical?If Chinese policemen didn''t detained those licentious activists who thought they kept justice in the world,those naive activists could have been scolded or even beated by ordinary Chinese citizens,for they sparked the conflicts and contradiction amony different ethnic Chinese.And i have to remind that it''s usual that ordinary Chinese citizens call police when they find those activists.

[iamauto]

For those who broke the law, they deserve it. Especially when they tried to separate a country and they tried to do it in that country.
I don''t think the sentence is heavy.

[telltale57]

Some more items you might be interested in. The so-called ''capitalization" of China was actually a process of taking the factories that had - at least nominally - belonged to the country and giving them to the gangsters (the party leaders). They even coined a Chinese euphism (in Bourdieu''s sense) for this that translates something like "people''s property." In fact, it was the opposite of giving property to the people. It was taking the property from the collective ownership (however abused that might have been, at least it was nominally at least still the people''s property) and giving it to SOME people, namely the party bosses, the mobsters. In some cases they "paid" for it. They gave the real people an IOU that they then repaid with the windfall profits that their new company made in the non-competitive atmosphere. From that time, the mobsters were not only leaders of the party, but also the richest people in China. Look at the CV of most top party members - such as the leaders of Guangzhou - and you will see that they were not only party bosses, they were also presidents and board members of numerous banks and corporations.
This information is probably available somewhere. I got it. But nobody cares.

[telltale57]

Pang,
You are probably right that the protesters in China will be treated more fairly than they would be by the US Americans in Iraq. In fact, I wouldn''t even suggest that their rights are necessarily being violated in China. For all I know they wouldn''t either. After all, it is not the rights of the protesters in China that is at issue, but the rights of the oppressed people of China. I''ve already said that China more or less grants some degree of rights to foreigners. This is well known. That isn''t the issue. It is the rights of the Chinese themselves that is at issue. There must be some internet sites where you can get some info if you know nothing at all about it. It is not a secret. Every Chinese knows what is going on. Thousands of Chinese children perished in tofu houses (their schools) to satisfy the hunger of the Beijing officials for bribery payments from Sichuan. If an official in Sichuan had wanted to not participate in the scheme and build the buidlings according to the law and not pay the bribes, he/she would have been replaced with someone who would cooperate. If she then said anything to the press etc., she would not have a pleasant life after that. This is how it works. Children die so that the bank accounts of the gangster bosses can be filled. Any Chinese knows this system. But raise your voice against the government, and you will not have a good future.

[telltale57]

Miss Pang,
I agree with you about the violation of the US Americans of human rights in Iraq. Tell me. Do you think that that entails that anything the Chinese government does is fine? Does it bother you that there are people in the world that are not so self-centered that they will not care about the suffering of others - even those in China? Do you know what is going on in China. If you really knew - and are not a member of the ruling gangsters - then I think you would be a little bit more sympathetic towards those who are concerned enough about their fellow human beings to try to do something to help them.

[hamiltongrad]

Tell: Good question. Read the FEMALE MIND. Everything we do is motivated (in part) by the ying and yang of testosterone and estrogen, with biologic spikes of same during fetal life and at set points at young ages, as if no one noticed.

[sopheapang]

Those American clowns should be sent to Iraq after their detention in China otherwise they don''t know what human rights violations are.

[missut2]

Good Grief! -- They were in China! -- Why not just obey China*s laws, and behave like adults. -- You are in another country, not your own!

Posted by marizara

I wonder if this mentality applies to the millions of illegal Mexicans living in America??? It appears to me that we are ignoring OUR rights to cow-tow to the illegals.....JMHO

[telltale57]

But our legs don''t think. And yet there seems to be a correlation of some sort between our having legs and our walking. I''m not rejecting your view. Just tossing in some what seem to me relevant thoughts. And what is the mental capacity of testosterone, anyway?

[hamiltongrad]

TEll: That is terribly ? sophomoric idea and expression of it. Just because each society has clocks does not mean that clocks are to blame. So too for lungs. I know what you have done, it is an attempt to "poke fun" at my theory. well, nice try. But clocks and lungs do not think, plan, scheme, make others into slaves. But men do. Women do not.
No, you had been sharpen your wit. After all , I grade papers and I know all the tricks, You get an F, but an A for trying to keep up.
I do not believe that guns cause wars. Or fire is the enemy. Men are. That overactive testosterone Y driven excess, needing regulation, measurement and If I had an international law, forced estrogen shots to keep the rest of us safe . Period.

[telltale57]

I think its the lungs. Have you ever noticed something? It seems to be a strange coincidence. In every country where there is oppression - Nazi Germany, today''s China, today''s US, and also going back in history to, say, Rome ("do as the Romans," as one poster said) - everywhere, I repeat, where there was oppression people also had lungs. I just can''t see how this could be by mere coincidence. Sometimes the most obvious things never occur to us. Probably because - like the water we breath - they are too close to our nose.

[hamiltongrad]

In any MALE dominated society, there are abuses of civil rights. China is a male dominated society, where women are forced into low paying near slavery, must quit school at an early age, are forced into abortions, and can not even allow their feet to grow to the normal length ( historical reference). So that, it is clear that Communism is not the problem, no more than Capitalistic is to blame for the water shortages due to mega malls being built in the Mid west that soak up energy and resources. No, it is the MALE DOMiNATED state that is in common, and must be the focus of reform/
Countries like Iran do not have these problems as religious based, Women have EQuaL rights.

[telltale57]

Told you,
your view that that outsiders should not protest on the behalf of the oppressed in China is very convient for you. You can have cheap goods produced by oppressed labor in China and feel that you are also taking the high road in the process - as compared to those stupid people who think that the suffering and oppression of others is also their concern. I give you ten points for ethical perspicuity. Maybe you can get a job for some foreign companies as an ethical consultant.