You are here

China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown

China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown
EU said concerned about “very serious” human rights situation in China, in particular in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. (FILE/SHUTTERSTOCK)
Short Url

https://arab.news/nnvn8

Updated 18 June 2024
Reuters
Follow

China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown

China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown
  • Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing that China was willing to cooperate with the EU
  • Chinese #MeToo activist and independent journalist Huang Xueqin was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion on Friday
Updated 18 June 2024
Reuters
Follow

BEIJING/BRUSSELS: China on Tuesday dismissed European Union calls for it to stop alleged human rights violations and said it opposed “double standards” and interference in its internal affairs.
The EU said on Monday after an EU delegation visited Tibet and met with Chinese officials last week that it was concerned about what it called the “very serious” human rights situation in China, in particular in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
This included a crackdown on human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists in China. The EU urged China to investigate any rights violations and expressed concern about cases of unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, the EU said in a statement.
In response, Chinese officials said the EU should “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights issues.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing that China was willing to cooperate with the EU on the issue on a basis of equality and mutual respect.
“At the same time, China firmly opposes politicizing the human rights issue and double standards, and opposes imposing one’s own model on others. We are opposed to...engaging in microphone diplomacy in the multilateral arena,” Lin said.
Lin said both sides believed the dialogue was “frank and in-depth,” and said that China was willing to explore further multilateral human rights cooperation in areas including rights of women, children and the disabled.
The EU also raised the case of the detained Swedish citizen Gui Minhai as well as the imprisoned Uyghur intellectuals Ilham Tohti, Gulshan Abbas and Rahile Dawut, the EU statement said.
Chinese #MeToo activist and independent journalist Huang Xueqin was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion on Friday, which supporters called arbitrary and politically motivated.

Topics: China human rights

Related

US renews warning it’s obligated to defend the Philippines after its new clash with China at sea
World
US renews warning it’s obligated to defend the Philippines after its new clash with China at sea
China says G7 statement ‘full of arrogance, prejudice and lies’
World
China says G7 statement ‘full of arrogance, prejudice and lies’

UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel

UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel
Updated 46 sec ago
Follow

UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel

UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel
Updated 46 sec ago
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that a lack of coordination between UK police and intelligence agencies is partly responsible for a surge in the number of migrants reaching the UK in small boats across the English Channel.
At an international meeting on boosting border security and tackling people-smuggling, Starmer expressed frustration at the difficulty of stopping thousands of people a year risking the dangerous sea crossing from France.
“We inherited this total fragmentation between our policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies,” Starmer said as officials from more than 40 countries met in London. “A fragmentation that made it crystal clear, when I looked at it, that there were gaps in our defense, an open invitation at our borders for the people smugglers to crack on.”
Starmer’s center-left government, elected nine months ago, is grappling with an issue that vexed its Conservative predecessors.
Despite law-enforcement cooperation with France and work with authorities in countries further up the route taken by migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, more than 6,600 migrants crossed the channel in the first three months of this year, the highest number on record.
The opposition Conservatives say the figure shows Labour should not have scrapped the previous government’s contentious – and never-implemented – plan to send asylum-seekers who arrive by boat on one-way trips to Rwanda.
Starmer called the Rwanda plan a “gimmick” and canceled it soon after he was elected in July. Britain paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds for the plan under a deal signed by the two countries in 2022, without any deportations taking place.
Monday’s meeting was addressed virtually by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right government has opened centers in Albania to hold some asylum-seekers while their claims are processed – a project being closely watched by Starmer’s government.
Meloni said the plan was “criticized at first,” but had “gained increasing consensus, so much so that today, European Union is proposing to set up return hubs in third countries.”
The governments of Albania, Vietnam and Iraq, whose nationals account for a significant number of asylum-seekers in the UK, were also represented.
Starmer, who has said organized people-smugglers should be treated in the same way as terror gangs, has been criticized by refugee groups, and some Labour supporters, for his hard-line approach to irregular migration.
But he said “there’s nothing progressive or compassionate about turning a blind eye to this. Nothing progressive or compassionate about continuing that false hope which attracts people to make those journeys.
“This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions, pits nations against one another and profits from our inability at the political level to come together,” Starmer said.
“We’ve got to combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics, and tackle the problem upstream at every step of the people smuggling routes.”

Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas

Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas
Updated 31 March 2025
Reuters
Follow

Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas

Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas
  • Tesla cars have become targets for vandalism across several countries, in response to the right-wing activism of company owner Elon Musk
  • Tech billionaire, who also owns X, has joined Donald Trump’s administration and has come out in support of far-right parties in Europe
Updated 31 March 2025
Reuters

ROME: Italian police are investigating possible arson at a Tesla dealership in Rome overnight that destroyed 17 cars, a security source said on Monday.
Italy’s anti-terrorism police unit Digos is leading the investigation and is looking into the possibility that anarchists set fire to the cars on the eastern outskirts of Rome, the source said.
Drone images of the Rome fire showed the burnt-out remains of cars lined up in a parking lot, with two rows of vehicles back-to-back and a third row some distance away.
Tesla cars have become targets for vandalism across several countries, in response to the right-wing activism of company owner Elon Musk.
The tech billionaire, who also owns X, has joined US President Donald Trump’s administration and has come out in support of far-right parties in Europe.
The fire brigade said in a statement that the blaze broke out at around 04.30 a.m. (0230 GMT). The dealership was partially damaged, but nobody was injured.

Topics: Italy Tesla Elon Musk

Related

Tesla chargers torched in France arson attack
World
Tesla chargers torched in France arson attack
Protesters rebelling against Elon Musk’s purge of US government swarm Tesla showrooms
World
Protesters rebelling against Elon Musk’s purge of US government swarm Tesla showrooms

Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban

Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban
Updated 31 March 2025
AP
Follow

Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban

Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban
  • Afghanistan’s Taliban were outlawed by Russia two decades ago as a terrorist group
Updated 31 March 2025
AP

MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday said it received a petition from the prosecutor general’s office to lift the ban on Afghanistan’s Taliban, who were outlawed two decades ago as a terrorist group.
The court said in a statement that it would hold a hearing on the petition, submitted by Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, on April 17. Russia last year adopted a law stipulating that the official terrorist designation of an organization could be suspended by a court.
The Taliban were put on Russia’s list of terrorist organizations in 2003. Any contact with such groups is punishable under Russian law.
At the same time, Taliban delegations have attended various forums hosted by Moscow. Russian officials have shrugged off questions about the seeming contradiction by emphasizing the need to engage the Taliban to help stabilize Afghanistan.
The former Soviet Union fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with Moscow withdrawing its troops in 1989. Since then, Moscow has made a diplomatic comeback as a power broker, hosting talks on Afghanistan involving senior representatives of the Taliban and neighboring nations.
There is a deepening divide in the international community on how to deal with the Taliban, who have been in power for three years and face no real opposition. Afghanistan’s rulers have pursued bilateral ties with major regional powers.

Topics: Russia Afghanistan Taliban

Related

Taliban leader says there is no need for Western laws in Afghanistan
World
Taliban leader says there is no need for Western laws in Afghanistan
US woman released by Taliban in Afghanistan
World
US woman released by Taliban in Afghanistan

Kremlin official says Russia sees efforts to end Ukraine war as a drawn-out process

Kremlin official says Russia sees efforts to end Ukraine war as a drawn-out process
Updated 31 March 2025
AP
Follow

Kremlin official says Russia sees efforts to end Ukraine war as a drawn-out process

Kremlin official says Russia sees efforts to end Ukraine war as a drawn-out process
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is 'working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement'
  • Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries’ leaders as he tries to bring about a truce
Updated 31 March 2025
AP

Russia views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as “a drawn-out process,” a Kremlin spokesman said Monday, after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries’ leaders as he tries to bring about a truce.
“We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
“There is nothing concrete yet that we could and should announce. This is a drawn-out process because of the difficulty of its substance,” he said when asked about Trump’s anger at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy to negotiate a deal.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting. The feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea, used by both countries to transport shipments of grain and other cargo, was cast into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions.
Trump promised during last year’s US election campaign that he would bring Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II to a swift conclusion.
Peskov didn’t directly address Trump’s criticism of Putin on Sunday when he said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin had questioned Zelensky’s credibility as leader.
But he said that Putin “remains absolutely open to contacts” with the US president and was ready to speak to him.
Both countries are preparing for a spring-summer campaign on the battlefield, analysts and Ukrainian and Western officials say.
Zelensky said late Sunday that there has been no letup in Russia’s attacks as it drives on with its invasion of its neighbor that began in February 2022. He said the attacks demonstrated Russia’s unwillingness to forge a settlement.
“The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally every day and night, show that Putin couldn’t care less about diplomacy,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
“And almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes,” he said.
He urged further international pressure on Moscow to compel Russia to negotiate, including new sanctions.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas picked up on that theme at a meeting of some of the bloc’s top diplomats in Madrid on Monday.
“Russia is playing games and not really wanting peace,” Kallas told reporters ahead of the meeting, which was due to discuss the war. “So our question is, how can we put more pressure on Russia.”
Trump said he would consider adding further sanctions on Russia, which already faces steep financial penalties, and using tariffs to undermine its oil exports.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, came under another Russian drone attack overnight, injuring three people, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Monday.
Russia also fired two ballistic missiles and 131 Shahed and decoy drones, the Ukrainian air force said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 66 Ukrainian drones early Monday over three Russian regions.
“The continuing attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on Russia’s energy facilities show the complete lack of respect for any obligations related to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine by the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.

Topics: Ukraine War Russia

Related

Russia pounds Kharkiv for second night in row, Ukraine says
World
Russia pounds Kharkiv for second night in row, Ukraine says
‘Pissed off’ at Putin, Trump threatens tariffs on Russian oil if Moscow blocks Ukraine deal
World
‘Pissed off’ at Putin, Trump threatens tariffs on Russian oil if Moscow blocks Ukraine deal

Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000

Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000
Updated 31 March 2025
AFP
Follow

Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000

Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000
  • The figure was a sharp rise compared to the 1,002 announced just hours earlier, highlighting the difficulty of confirming casualties over a widespread region
  • In neighboring Thailand, the death toll rose to 17 after the quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, home to around 17 million people, and other parts of the country
Updated 31 March 2025
AFP

MANDALAY: Myanmar declared a week of national mourning on Monday over the country’s devastating earthquake, as the death toll passed 2,000 and hopes faded of finding more survivors in the rubble of ruined buildings.
National flags will fly at half-mast until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages” from Friday’s massive quake, the ruling junta said in a statement.
The junta also announced a minute’s silence on Tuesday, to begin at 12:51:02 p.m. (0621 GMT) — the precise time the 7.7-magnitude quake struck.
People should stop where they are to pay tribute to the victims, the junta said, while media should halt broadcasting and show mourning symbols, and prayers will be offered at temples and pagodas.
The announcement came as the tempo and urgency of rescue efforts wound down in Mandalay, one of the worst-affected cities and the country’s second-largest, with more than 1.7 million inhabitants.
“The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening,” said Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of Mandalay’s Sajja North mosque.
People prepared to camp out in the streets across Mandalay for a fourth successive night, either unable to return to ruined homes or nervous about the repeated aftershocks that rattled the city over the weekend.
Some have tents but many, including young children, have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, trying to keep as far from buildings as possible for fear of falling masonry.
The junta said Monday that 2,056 have now been confirmed, with more than 3,900 people injured and 270 still missing, but the toll is expected to rise significantly.
Three Chinese nationals are among the dead, China’s state media said, along with two French people, according to the foreign ministry in Paris.
At least 19 deaths have been confirmed hundreds of kilometers away in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, where the force of the quake caused a 30-story tower block under construction to collapse.
Mandalay’s 1,000-bed general hospital has been evacuated, with hundreds of patients being treated outside.
Patients lay on gurneys in the hospital car park, many with only a thin tarpaulin rigged up to shield them from the fierce tropical sun.
Relatives did their best to comfort them, holding hands or waving bamboo fans over them.
“We’re trying to do what we can here. We are trying our best,” said one medic, who asked to remain anonymous.
The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.
But traffic began returning to the streets of Mandalay on Monday, and restaurants and street vendors resumed work.
Hundreds of Muslims gathered outside a destroyed mosque in the city for the first prayer of Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
The challenges facing the Southeast Asian country of more than 50 million people were immense even before the earthquake.
Myanmar has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021, with its economy shattered and health care and infrastructure badly damaged.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the quake a top-level emergency as it urgently sought $8 million to save lives, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an appeal for more than $100 million.
International aid and rescue teams have been arriving after junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made an exceptionally rare appeal for foreign assistance.
In the past, isolated Myanmar’s ruling generals have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun thanked key allies China and Russia for their help, as well as India, and said the authorities were doing their best.
“We are trying and giving treatment to injured people and searching for missing ones,” he told journalists.
But reports have emerged of the military carrying out air strikes on armed groups opposed to its rule, even as Myanmar grapples with the quake’s aftermath.
One ethnic minority armed group told AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the quake, and there were reports of more air strikes on Monday.
Myanmar’s raging civil war, pitting the military against a complex array of anti-coup fighters and ethnic minority armed groups, has displaced around 3.5 million people.
In Bangkok, diggers continued to clear the vast pile of rubble at the site of the collapsed building.
Officials say they have not given up hope of finding more survivors in the wreckage, where 12 deaths have been confirmed and at least 75 people are still unaccounted for.

Topics: Myanmar Thailand Myanmar Earthquake

Related

Special Thailand, Myanmar race to find earthquake survivors as death toll tops 1,700 video
World
Thailand, Myanmar race to find earthquake survivors as death toll tops 1,700
The science behind the powerful earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand
World
The science behind the powerful earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand

Latest updates

UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel
UK’s Starmer blames a lack of joint action as he struggles to stop migrants crossing the Channel
Jamie Osborne targeting a 2nd UAE Derby triumph with Heart Of Honor on Dubai World Cup night
Jamie Osborne targeting a 2nd UAE Derby triumph with Heart Of Honor on Dubai World Cup night
Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas
Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas
Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban
Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban
UAE court sentences killers of Israeli-Moldovan to death
UAE court sentences killers of Israeli-Moldovan to death

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.