Rohrabacher Starts Tibet Caucus
Posted by: Jubal | 04/01/2008 2:20 PM
I spotted this Denis Bunis post over at Total Buzz:
Kudos to Dana for this. Whatever he and other members of Congress can do to stand up for human liberty by spotlighting Communist China's brutalization of Tibet is laudatory.
Rohrabacher Starts Tibet CaucusYou can read the rest of Dena's post here.
The Olympic torch for the Beijing games is making its way around the world, but Rep. Dana Rohrabacher isn't giving up on his quest to stop America's participation in the games and draw attention to what he says is the "tyrannical" rule of Tibet by China.
So today Rohrabacher joined forces with Rep. Neil Abercrombie - a Hawaii Democrat who is usually diametrically opposed to the Huntington Beach Republican's views - to form the Tibet Caucus.
As we've already reported, the congressman has introduced a resolution to boycott this summer's Olympic games, a measure that so far hasn't made any headway. And judging by the lack of support from leadership or at the White House, there's little chance that it will go anywhere.
The caucus Rohrabacher and Abercrombie founded today goes beyond just the Olympics. They want to organize support for the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet against Chinese rule.
Rohrabhacher decided to set up this caucus after recent news stories "shed light again on the atrocities going on over there," his press secretary, Tara Setmayer, told our Morgan Cook.
Kudos to Dana for this. Whatever he and other members of Congress can do to stand up for human liberty by spotlighting Communist China's brutalization of Tibet is laudatory.
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Is this an April Fools joke?
If Dana spends the rest of this year fighting for Tibetan rights, he might have a lot of spare time on his hands come next year to pursue this issue on a full time basis.
No matter how deeply Dana may feel about the Tibetans, this is NOT an issue high on the agenda of his constituents.
"Kudos to Dana for this. Whatever he and other members of Congress can do to stand up for human liberty by spotlighting Communist China's brutalization of Tibet is laudatory."
Perhaps he can start by encouraging the president to stop taking money from the PRC to add to our national debt.
Ok, Dan: why don't you lead by example and refuse to buy anything made in the PRC, or using components manufactured in the PRC?
Japan's Emperor Akihito and other members of the royal family are unlikely to attend the Beijing Olympics amid concerns here about China's crackdown in Tibet and other issues, a report said Wednesday.
The Japanese government thinks it is not a good time for a rare royal visit because of the unrest in Tibet, a recent health scare over Chinese-made "gyoza" dumplings and a spat over disputed gas fields, the Sankei daily said.
"We were planning not to ask royals to go even before the gyoza incident (surfaced in January). It is all the more true now that the Tibetan unrest occurred," it quoted an unnamed government official as saying.
Japanese authorities have confirmed at least 10 people suffered pesticide poisoning after eating tainted dumplings imported from China.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao invited Emperor Akihito and other royals to the opening ceremony of the August Olympics when he visited Japan last year.
The emperor told Wen then that the government decides on the royal family's foreign trips, a palace spokesman said.
The foreign ministry said no formal decision had been made.
"Nothing has been decided regarding the attendance of dignitaries," a ministry official said.
The last trip to China by members of Japan's imperial household was a landmark visit by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in 1992.
China remains deeply resentful over Japan's brutal occupation from 1931 to 1945, an era in which the Japanese revered Akihito's father Hirohito as a demigod.
The two countries have recently worked to mend ties, which were strained by former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to a war shrine in Tokyo, which Beijing regards as a symbol of Japan's militarist past.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to visit Japan in the coming months.
http://www.france24.com/en/20080402-japans-royals-likely-skip-olympics-report