Media Reports
A former prisoner of the Chinese camps says she has manufactured Toy rabbits for Nestle during her detention. After investigation, the Swiss multinational denies, but wants to guarantee that no use of forced labour is done by its subcontractors.
The Taipei mayor is the first high-level politician to speak out
against the harsh Chinese crackdown on the spiritual group that has seen
hundreds killed.
Eight Falun Gong members have been sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for
hijacking local television and radio signals in eastern China’s Anhui
province to promote the banned spiritual movement.
The Taiwan Falun Dafa Society has a modest office in Taipei, but its
unofficial centre of gravity is the economics department of National Taiwan
University, the island’s most prestigious school, where at least four of the
30 or so faculty are practitioners.
United States, Britain and Canada are among the nations raising
questions, and many here doubt the “trust me” approach.
“Talk is baseless,” said Falun Gong spokeswoman Sharon Xu. “It’s not legally
binding.”
Stepping into a growing political storm over Hong Kong’s planned anti-subversion law, the top U.S. diplomat here said the government should release the exact wording as quickly as possible.
Australia has also urged Hong Kong to continue to assure basic freedoms and
pressed for a full consultation period on the proposed security laws.
A spokeswoman from Australia’s foreign office said Canberra had raised its
concerns with officials here, local radio reported Thursday.
A spokeswoman from Australia’s foreign office said Canberra had raised its
concerns with Hong Kong officials, pressing for a full and open consultation
period on the proposed law. “We look to the Hong Kong government to ensure the basic freedoms that are
so important to Hong Kong’s ongoing success as an international business
centre with an attractive way of life,” a spokeswoman from the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade told Reuters.
FALUN Gong practitioners Lucy Liu and Jennifer Zeng are caught in the shadows between diplomacy and human rights.
From Ms Liu’s Pascoe Vale flat, the pair last week described how relatives in China have been caught up in the Government’s crackdown on the Falun Gong movement. Like other followers who have fled the crackdown, the women are lobbying their new country’s government to pressure China on its human rights abuses.
US Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner is leading the 11th round of the human rights dialogue and will meet the chief justice of China’s supreme court and other high-ranking bureaucrats.
Subjects up for discussion include workers’ rights, religious freedom, Falun Gong and issues related to Tibet and Xinjiang.
