China pissed at Irish Government
Sunday, 13 April 2008

John Gormley of the green party made a keynote speech at his party's conference in Dundalk. The speech made comments regarding countries that had suffered exploitation for far too long. He stated that Tibet was such a country and that it had been subject to human rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese government.

These comments infuriated the Chinese Ambassador, Liu Biwei, who had been attending the convention at the request of the Green Party. As reported on RTE.ie

Mr Liu stated that he had been invited to the Green Party convention to participate and that he had not expected the leader of the Greens to say what he had said. Mr Liu was critical of John Gromley's statement that described Tibet as a country.

Mr Liu, as reported on RTE.ie, stated that to say that Tibet was a country was an incorrect statement as Tibet is a region of China, and "is generally recognised as such by over 200 countries in the world."

Of course it is with considerable worry that one should note the motivation of Mr Liu's anger was not that Gormley said there were human rights abuses, but that he had identifed Tibet as a country. We can then assume that the human rights abuses are ongoing and are accepted as a rights of passage by the Chinese Government for Tibet as it attempts to wriggle free from Chinese control.

RTE.ie note that the speech, although somewhat over shadowed by the Chinese exit, was used to make an appeal to politicians on all sides not to play politics with climate change. The BBC stated China has said its crackdown in Tibet is an internal issue about defending China's unity. The Irish independent worry that an international row has broken out between China and Ireland. The Turkish Press quotes the Irish foreign minister Dermot Ahern Speaking to state broadcaster RTE, Dermot Ahern said that the suggestion that a row had occurred was "overblown," and added that Environment Minister John Gormley's comments were "in line with the government's position." Reuters contiune to quote Ahern "Obviously we condemn what's going on there and there has to be restraint," Ahern told public broadcaster RTE. "The Chinese have to allow independent monitors and media people in."

Article written with the help of our sister site View of News .com

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Posted by Geraco C Sunday, April 13, 2008    

Labels: news review

3 comments:

At 11:52 AM Anonymous said...

John Gormley just used Tibet as a Red Herring to deflect the dogs away from the Dublin Bay Incinerator EPA hearing. The EPA hearing started the Monday after Gormley spoke.

 

At 1:10 PM dbspin said...

This post has been removed by the author.  

At 1:17 AM Geraco C said...

DBspin wanted to leave the below comment on this site- but he posted it on the wrong post - he has so far accused me of being in favour of China's attitude to tibet, plagerising RTE.ie and of being plain stupid. Well just so he does not accuse me of being anti free speech - here is his comment in full.

dbspin said...

"This was an incorrect statement as Tibet is a region of China, and is generally recognised as such by over 200 countires in the world."

Youre phrasing here is misleading and ambiguous. Are you stating that this is the chinese position, or that this is objective fact? If the later, that's clearly nonsense, and you should be ashamed to proliferate such Chinese propaganda. If the former, it needs to be clearer from your phrasing.

I've just read the original RTE piece you've been...inspired by, and the phrasing is much clearer - i.e: in quotes. - http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0412/green.html

PS: Rickrolling your readers on entry to your site is obnoxious, cliched and just plain stupid.

 

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