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BEIJING - A U.S.-led push to punish Zimbabwe ran into resistance Sunday from China, which can veto U.N. penalties sought against its African ally over President Robert Mugabe's claim to re-election.
After talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that also covered Taiwan, Tibet and North Korea, China's foreign minister said Beijing favors negotiations between Mugabe, who was sworn in for a new term Sunday, and the opposition.
"The most pressing path is to stabilize the situation in Zimbabwe," Yang Jiechi told reporters at a news conference with Rice. "We hope the parties concerned can engage in serious dialogue to find a proper solution."
"China hopes the international community, African countries in particular, can a play a more constructive role in this regard," he said. "China as a responsible country will also play a constructive role in this process." After his swearing-in, Mugabe promised talks with the opposition.
Yang stuck to a position that China, one of Zimbabwe's chief friends and trading partners, long has held. But his comments came just after Rice had spent a significant amount of time making the case for the Bush administration's new push to pressure Mugabe, officials said.
Not much later, in Zimbabwe's capital, Mugabe was sworn in for a sixth term. Hours before, electoral officials said he had won a discredited runoff. Leaders in Africa and elsewhere had condemned Friday's runoff, in which Mugabe was the sole candidate. Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn because of the violence. Human rights groups have said opposition supporters were the targets of brutal state-sponsored violence during the campaign, leaving more than 80 dead and forcing some 200,000 to flee their homes.
Before traveling to Beijing, Rice was in China's earthquake-devastated southwest, visiting some of the tens of thousands of people left displaced by last month's temblor. Rice praised China's disaster recovery effort, saying it contrasted with Myanmar's reluctance to allow in foreign aid after a devastating cyclone. She was the highest-ranking American to inspect the damage in the mountainous Sichuan province where almost 70,000 people have died, including thousands of schoolchildren killed when their classrooms crumbled.
President Bush said Saturday the U.S. was working on ways to further punish Mugabe and his allies. That could mean steps against his government as well as additional restrictions on the travel and financial activities of Mugabe supporters. The U.S. has financial and travel penalties in place against more than 170 citizens and entities with ties to Mugabe, the White House says.
Bush also wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe as well as travel bans on Zimbabwe government officials. Mugabe leads an "illegitimate government" that retained power only through a fraudulent election, Bush said after the runoff. "The Mugabe regime held a sham election that ignored the will of the people of Zimbabwe."
Rice has said the U.S. plans to introduce a resolution in the council this coming week. The United States holds the council's presidency until July 1, but appears to face an uphill battle in getting several important members to agree to any penalties.
In addition to China, both Russia, also a permanent veto-wielding council member, and elected member South Africa have opposed action on Zimbabwe, saying the situation is an internal matter.
Although Yang indicated that Beijing's stance had not changed, Rice said the U.S. would pursue the matter. She said that conditions in Zimbabwe had "deteriorated to a grave level" and that "the sham election there is likely to bring more violence."
"We believe that it's time for the international community to act more strongly," Rice said. "Frankly, it makes sense to deny the government of Zimbabwe the means to use violence against its own people."
At present, there is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe. China is one of its main suppliers of weapons and ammunition, although Yang said a recent shipment had been returned "at the request of the receiving party."
That shipment made headlines this spring when some African countries refused to allow the freighter to dock at their ports, partly at the urging of the United States and others.
While differing on Zimbabwe, Rice and Yang both expressed hope for the success of the effort get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, North Korea submitted a long-delayed accounting of its atomic activities. Bush announced that the U.S. intended to ease some penalties against the communist country and North Korea demolished the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor complex.
Rice expressed hope that China, which is leading the six-nations disarmament talks, and the other participants would move quickly to complete the process. Yang agreed.
On other matters, Rice said:
_the U.S. is concerned about the situation in Tibet after recent unrest against Chinese rule and supports continued talks between Beijing and representatives of the Dalai Lama. Yang said his government was open to such talks; shortly after he and Rice met, Chinese authorities said a new round would be held in July.
_the U.S. hoped to carry on its recently resumed human rights dialogue with China; Yang said China was willing to do so.
On her tour of the quake region, she stopped in Dujiangyan, a badly hit city of 250,000 where officials said 3,000 people died and 90 percent of the buildings are now uninhabitable.
"My goodness," she said as she surveyed a pile of rubble — once a gym — before heading to a community of thousands of temporary homes and a water purification facility that is run by an American charity.
"I can see that the Chinese government and officials have been attentive," Rice told reporters. "I can see how much effort has gone into the recovery. But with a disaster of this magnitude, no one can do it alone."
"We are very glad that the Chinese people have reached out for help," she added.
At the camp of temporary homes, she spoke to parents of a young boy. "I wish you the very best," she said. "I'm sorry you lost so much but I know you are going to recover. You have a great spirit."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080629/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rice;_ylt=ApyRR9WaBcKXt_2VozouG5bCw5R4
China Warns of 'Black June'
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080617/video/vwl-china-warns-of-black-june-d7f4ae7.html
WUFU, China - About 150 parents gathered Friday at the ruins of Fuxin No. 2 Primary School, hoping to learn why the building collapsed in last month's earthquake, killing their sons and daughters.
They left with nothing: The results, officials say, were just not ready.
The parents said local officials had promised to give them the details on why the school crumbled in the May 12 quake. They accused the government of stalling.
"We are not satisfied with the government. They are playing for time," said Huang Zaojun, whose 11-year-old son was among 270 students that authorities say died when the three-story school collapsed.
Hong Kong Cable TV quoted parents as saying that officials denied in the meeting that they had promised to give details of the investigation. The school was located in the town of Wufu, 45 miles north of the provincial capital Chengdu.
"The government said the experts are still making an evaluation and asked us to wait. They said the result might come out in three or five days, or one or two years," Huang said.
He said parents would ask lawyers to find experts to make a separate evaluation.
Accusations of shoddy school construction have increasingly turned to anger against local authorities in Sichuan province, where more than 69,000 people died in China's worst disaster in three decades.
Parents have protested at numerous schools in the province, calling for explanations as to why schools collapsed so easily while nearby buildings were still standing after the 7.9 magnitude quake.
The parents were sensitive to official pressure and pushed a television crew out of the area that did not have media passes because they thought the crew was from the government.
Foreign engineers who inspected collapsed buildings in Sichuan blamed poor construction.
"If the government compels students to be in schools, and designs and constructs the schools, then the government has responsibility," said Brian Tucker of GEOHazards International, a nonprofit organization that works for better quake-proof buildings.
But Tucker said the many levels of government involved made it difficult to pinpoint who was at fault.
Kit Miyamoto, a spokesman for the Structural Engineering Association of California, said he found many cases of non-reinforced concrete when he inspected collapsed schools in Sichuan.
Miyamoto, head of engineering firm Miyamoto International Inc., said telltale signs of substandard construction were readily discernible.
"It took me four hours to understand what went wrong," he said. But Miyamoto added it could take longer to find out who is responsible.
At least four journalists representing foreign media outlets were detained for as long as six hours while trying to cover the meeting between the parents and authorities, including an Associated Press reporter who spoke to parents at the school.
Thunderstorm and heavy rainstorms were forecast this weekend in Sichuan, the provincial weather bureau said. This month marks the start of the annual rainy season, which routinely causes rivers to flood their banks.
Landslides are a particular concern because the May 12 earthquake caused steep hillsides to shear away and crash into river valleys below. Many slopes remain unstable and are at high risk of being washed away by rainstorms.
Authorities have evacuated more than 110,000 people since Sunday from mountain districts near the quake's epicenter, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The government has ordered many survivors to move several times because of potential danger from damaged homes, aftershocks and possible flooding from "quake lakes" that formed when huge piles of debris blocked rivers.
Torrential rains have swept much of southern China in the past week, killing at least 63 people, swamping millions of acres of farmland and causing billions of dollars in damage. Low-lying parts of eastern Sichuan have been affected, but there have been no reports of flooding in the quake zone.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake
BEIJING — Dozens of people remain imprisoned for taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Tiananmen Square, though releasing them would improve China's image ahead of the Beijing Olympics this summer, a human rights group said.
In Hong Kong, tens of thousands of activists gathered at Victoria Park with white candles to mourn those killed at Tiananmen, chanting slogans calling for democracy and the release of political dissidents.
"Despite being awarded the Olympics, the Chinese communist government has by far not improved its human rights record," Lee Chuek-Yan, a lawmaker and pro-democracy activist, told demonstrators, estimated by organizers at around 48,000.
Discussion of the student movement and the June 3 to June 4 military assault on the protesters in which hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed remains taboo within China. The Communist leadership labeled the protest an anti-government riot and has never offered a full accounting of the crackdown.
What will happen when the economy tanks? What will the governmetn response be? Read this excerpt from that article, and this is for living Chinese citizens and real people (not impersonal foreigners invested in some crashing market):
Police refused to say why they sealed off the site: "We're just following orders from above," one officer said, refusing to elaborate.
Until this week, journalists were free to interview parents who held protests and erected homemade memorials at collapsed schools, with many angrily accusing the government of corruption.
But police ordered a half-dozen reporters to stop filming and conducting interviews at the Juyuan school Wednesday. The group was placed on a bus and sent back to the capital of Sichuan province, Chengdu, an hour's drive away.
Parents said the school had been sealed off since Monday, when dozens of families turned their anger on the school principal, who made a rare appearance surrounded by security officials but didn't address the crowd.
Even at a collapsed rural school that had received little media attention, a Chengdu propaganda official stopped two journalists and asked them to leave. "For your safety," Xu Guangjun said.
More Chinese government lies... Still interested in investing there based on their interpretation of market valuations??
China cordons off schools collapsed by quake
DUJIANGYAN, China - Authorities cordoned off some schools that collapsed in last month's mighty earthquake, keeping out grieving parents and reporters Wednesday in a sign that Beijing was becoming increasingly nervous over accusations of shoddy construction.
Parents whose children were crushed in their classrooms during the May 12 quake vowed to keep pushing the government for compensation, as well as for an explanation of why so many schools fell when other buildings remained standing...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake
Bird flu is an global epidemic waiting to happen. Indeed ,though it has only shown up i nChina and a few other East Asian countries so far. China's political and social system is is unable to absorb many more disasters, as the people no long have faith in the government. Yet the Communist Party of China will never give up power. What will happen to the global economy?
Hey Joe I was thinking about that the other day and I am afraid the answer is disease.
The Olympic 'debut' of the 'new China' couldn't have come at a worse time: food shortages, earthquakes, and spreading Tibetan revolts. What is next?
I'm predicting that China is in a huge economic bubble that is going to burst soon, and it does not have a political system that can accept failures. Everyone ignores that China is a fascist state. They don't want to hear it because they have been making too much money off of it, but I am telling you that there are a great many in China that are disaffected with the government. The Tibetan uprising in the last month was completely predictable, and Chinas response to chase out foreigners and the press was to hid the fact that it was not only a Tibetan uprising, it encompassed no less than three Chinese territories. You won’t hear the truth on China. The numbers there are largely a lie. Watch out on China. And when it pops, gold goes through the roof and global currencies collapse. Political chaos in China is a big problem. The recent earthquake is further evidence of the dissatisfaction of the people, and the lies the government says to protect itself. The only tool the Chinese government has to preserve itself is nationalism and a fascist cry that foreigners are responsible. China will fall because at then end of the day the numbers have to add up. Did you see China banning the NBA games recently on TV? They said it was inappropriate to view sports during a time of crisis, and yet all other sports are still on TV there. The reality is that the Chinese Han 'supermen' that are in the NBA have been having bad performances on their teams, and its an embarrassment to the Han Chinese Nation. Imagine the amount of lies that are on the books of Chinese companies who have no regulation??? Beware of China, it is going to pop big time. Gold will be in a monster market if than happens.
I'm predicting that China is in a huge economic bubble that is going to burst soon, and it does not have a political system that can accept failures. Everyone ignores that China is a fascist state. They don't want to hear it because they have been making too much money off of it, but I am telling you that there are a great many in China that are disaffected with the government. The Tibetan uprising in the last month was completely predictable, and Chinas response to chase out foreigners and the press was to hid the fact that it was not only a Tibetan uprising, it encompassed no less than three Chinese territories. You won’t hear the truth on China. The numbers there are largely a lie. Watch out on China. And when it pops, gold goes through the roof and global currencies collapse. Political chaos in China is a big problem. The recent earthquake is further evidence of the dissatisfaction of the people, and the lies the government says to protect itself. The only tool the Chinese government has to preserve itself is nationalism and a fascist cry that foreigners are responsible. China will fall because at then end of the day the numbers have to add up. Did you see China banning the NBA games recently on TV? They said it was inappropriate to view sports during a time of crisis, and yet all other sports are still on TV there. The reality is that the Chinese Han 'supermen' that are in the NBA have been having bad performances on their teams, and its an embarrassment to the Han Chinese Nation. Imagine the amount of lies that are on the books of Chinese companies who have no regulation??? Beware of China, it is going to pop big time. Gold will be in a monster market if than happens.
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