Mission & Justice

Richard Spencer; 1/5/08

Thousands of children are being sold “like cabbages” to China’s booming factories as virtual slave labour. Young people — some less than 10 — are said to have been discovered being bought and sold at a street market in Szechuan, one of rural China’s most overpopulated provinces. According to investigative reporters, the children stood in line as they were assessed like cattle, before being driven on trucks to factories in the Pearl River Delta, China’s manufacturing heartland.

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Rowan Callick; 26/4/08

China last night moved to reopen talks with the Dalai Lama in an effort to prevent the Olympic Games from being engulfed in controversy over its stance on Tibet. The official Xinhua news agency said Beijing would start negotiations with a personal representative of the exiled Tibetan leader “in the coming days”. It said the first talks in almost a year followed repeated requests “made by the Dalai side for resuming talks”. Tenzin Takla, a spokesman forthe 72-year-old Dalai Lama, last night welcomed the offer as “a step in the right direction”. He said the issue could only beresolved by face-to-face meetings.

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Paul Maley; 25/4/08

Gangs of Chinese students have marred the Australian leg of the Olympic torch relay, assaulting, intimidating and harassing vastly outnumbered pro-Tibetan activists as the torch was carried through Canberra’s streets. Last night, the ACT Government proclaimed the event an “outstanding success” after managing to avoid the violence that has marked the flame’s passage through Europe and the US. “This is the 14th stop of the Beijing Olympic torch relay … and it’s the first successful relay that’s been run,” ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said. While the majority of the crowd was peaceful, there was sporadic violence during yesterday’s 16km run.

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Paul Maley; 24/4/08

Chinese Olympic officials have conceded that controversial flame attendants are trained security personnel and declared that they will defend the torch if it is attacked. As the Olympic torch arrived in Canberra yesterday morning for what authorities said had become the city’s greatest security challenge, greater even than the visit of US President George W.Bush, the role of the flame attendants was still in doubt after a Chinese official again contradicted assurances by Kevin Rudd that the blue tracksuited men would have no security role. Thousands of Chinese students and Tibetan activists have flocked to Canberra to attend the 16km run. Chinese organisers put the number of students and community members expected to attend at between 4000 and 10,000. Organiser Michael Liu said the Chinese community had raised between $10,000 and $20,000 to help subsidise students’ travel to Canberra.

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Michael Sheridan; 21/4/08

Members of a peaceful Chinese spiritual movement say more than 1500 of its supporters have been detained in the run-up to the Olympic Games and that one of them, a popular folk singer, has died in custody. The arrests have been carried out against Falun Gong, a group that practises traditional meditation and exercise. The Chinese Government banned Falun Gong in 1999, calling it “an evil cult”. The official media have not reported the arrests, but there has been lively discussion among music fans on websites over the fate of the singer Yu Zhou, 42. “F…k authority. Another beautiful soul has left the world,” one distraught fan commented.

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16/4/08

Chinese guards travelling with the Olympic torch could face arrest if they lay hands on any protesters during the relay in Australia’s capital next week. Ted Quinlan, chairman of the Canberra relay task force, said the so-called torch attendants will have no responsibility for security. “The answer is no they won’t and, in fact, they could be subject to arrest if they laid a hand on somebody,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. The Australian official’s remarks came as Pakistan welcomed the Olympic torch early on Wednesday.

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Mark Dodd; 16/4/08

Impoverished East Timor has signed a $28 million deal with China to buy two advanced patrol boats in a move that will alarm Australia and Indonesia about increasing Chinese influence in the struggling nation. The deal was signed on April 12 by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, Secretary of State for Defence Julio Pinto and Hao Yantan from the Chinese defence company Poly-Technic. China has been steadily increasing its presence in East Timor. It is involved in oil and gas exploration and was responsible for compiling a geological survey of the half-island state. China has also recently built a massive Foreign Ministry office on Dili’s waterfront.

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Samantha Maiden & Paul Maley; 16/4/08

International Olympic Committee vice-president Kevan Gosper was carpeted by the federal Government yesterday for suggesting Chinese security guards could play a role in protecting the Olympic torch, contradicting Kevin Rudd on the issue. The Prime Minister remained adamant last night that the Chinese paramilitaries condemned as “thugs” by the head of London’s 2012 Olympics organisation would be confined to a bus during the relay through Canberra on April 24 and local police would handle security. Mr Gosper had suggested the Chinese Sacred Flame Protection Unit might be called in to help control crowds if Australian police could not cope.

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11/04/08

The new public holiday for Qingming made it easier this year for Catholics to take part in this traditional Chinese “grave-sweeping” festival. Last December, almost 50 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the government declared the annual Qingming (Ching Ming) Festival a public holiday. Chinese traditionally visit and clean the graves of their ancestors on this day, which fell on April 4 this year. The public holiday allowed more Chinese, including Catholics, to perform this observance this year.

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14/4/08

Illegal Chinese migrants are allegedly entering the country in large numbers in shipping containers bound for the Ramu nickel mine. The ships coming from China carrying equipment for the Ramu nickel mine reportedly go straight to Basamuk Bay where the illegal migrants are off-loaded in large shipping containers. These illegal migrants were then reportedly doing jobs which locals could do and pushing the local landowners out of job opportunities in the mine. This was revealed by Rai Coast Member Niuro Toko Sapia on Friday when he briefly raised it during Grievance Debate in Parliament.

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