Friday 17th of May 2024
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kevin in the china shop .....

kevin in the china shop .....

China sprays Rudd over Tibet human rights claims ….. 

Senior Chinese Government officials have publicly attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his comments on Tibet. 

During his recent trip to Washington Mr Rudd said it was clear that human rights abuses were being committed in Tibet, and on Wednesday he repeated those claims during a speech in Mandarin at a university in Beijing. 

But Chinese Government officials say his comments are unfounded. 

Communist Party Central Committee spokesman Si Ta has criticised Mr Rudd at a Beijing press conference. 

'The reporter mentioned about the certain politician who expressed concern about China's human rights record. This particular politician should join us in condemning the violent crimes in Lhasa - the crimes that have violated human rights,' he said. 

China Sprays Rudd Over Tibet Human Rights Claims 

meanwhile …. 

Greens leader Bob Brown has praised Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for speaking out on human rights in China. 

Mr Rudd has been criticised by Chinese leaders for raising his concerns about Tibet during a speech to Beijing University yesterday. 

But the Prime Minister says that will not dissuade him from taking a similar line when he meets his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao today. 

Senator Brown has previously criticised Mr Rudd for not taking a tougher line on human rights abuses in Tibet, but he has told ABC News Radio he believes the Prime Minister is now on the way to making a breakthrough with China. 

'Kevin Rudd's reading the Australian people's mood on this issue,' he said. 

Brown Praises Rudd's China Stance 

while …..

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is having talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. 

Mr Rudd is planning to raise human rights issues, including in Tibet, and he says a true friend should be able to raise those concerns and still be able to talk about other issues, like trade and climate change. 

He wants to work with China on ways to use carbon capture technology and reduce greenhouse emissions in the polluted nation. 

Aust, China To Aim For 'Stronger Relationship'

Alice makes a good zhengyou

Australia to China: Let's Not Be Friends

Does the West have a new secret weapon in dealing with China in the person of Kevin Rudd, the new prime minister of Australia?

Rudd is the only Western leader who speaks Chinese, and his Chinese is pretty good at that. But deeper still is Rudd's understanding of China.

Australian China scholar Geremie Barme unpacks Rudd's marvelous speech, given at Beijing University last week, in which he bluntly called on China to recognize its human rights problems in Tibet.

Most Western leaders probably would have either punted or come on too strong. Rudd's tone, however, was pitch perfect.

Rudd's brilliance in the speech involves turning the Chinese term "friend" on its head. Friend (pengyou in Chinese) and frienship (youyi) are two of the most distorted concepts in modern China culture. In modern China, a friend is someone who will do you favors and who expects favors in return. A "foreign friend" is someone the Chinese party-state expects will carry water for them and NEVER criticize them.

Whenever a Chinese official called me "foreign friend" (waiguo pengyou), I knew some type of horrible deal would soon be asked or expected of me.

"To be a friend of China, the Chinese people, the party-state or, in the reform period, even a mainland business partner," Barme writes, "the foreigner is often expected to stomach unpalatable situations, and keep silent in the face of egregious behaviour. A friend of China might enjoy the privilege of offering the occasional word of caution in private; in the public arena he or she is expected to have the good sense and courtesy to be 'objective.' that is to toe the line, whatever that happens to be. The concept of 'friendship' thus degenerates into little more than an effective tool for emotional blackmail and enforced complicity."

So what did Rudd do? He went back -- way back -- into Chinese history, to the 7th century AD, and used another word for friendship (zhengyou).

"A true friend," Rudd said, "is one who can be a zhengyou, that is a partner who sees beyond immediate benefit to the broader and firm basis for continuing, profound and sincere friendship."

"Rudd's tactic," Barme wrote, "was to deftly sidestep the vice-like embrace of [the current] model of friendship by substituting another.

"A strong relationship, and a true friendship," he told the students, "are built on the ability to engage in a direct, frank and ongoing dialogue about our fundamental interests and future vision."

mending pathways...

 

The departure of Kevin Rudd as the foreign affairs minister is a golden opportunity to ''start afresh'' and mend the often fractious Australia-China relationship under his watch, according to a leading expert on China.

Linda Jakobson, the Lowy Institute's east Asia program director, also said Canberra was probably overestimating the likelihood of military conflict between the United States and China, and risked neglecting the need to strengthen its relationship with China by focusing too much on its existing alliance with the US.

Ms Jakobson urged Mr Rudd's surprise successor, Bob Carr, to seize the opportunity and visit China as soon as possible to push for a meaningful strategic dialogue between the two countries.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudd-exit-brings-chance-to-heal-china-rift-says-director-20120321-1vkbi.html#ixzz1poaG7Nkx

 

Meanwhile, since Gillard took over the PMship...