Regards, Ivan
Posted on 10/11/2004 1:16:28 AM PDT by MadIvan
President Jacques Chirac was accused yesterday of brushing aside Beijing's human rights record and the legacy of Tiananmen Square as he launched a public relations exercise intended to boost trade links between France and China.
In China to launch the "Year of France", Mr Chirac called for an end to the European Union arms embargo, imposed after the 1989 massacre of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters.
He was attacked yesterday by human rights activists for "profoundly dishonouring" the massacre victims and their families.
France has been leading calls in Europe for a lifting of the arms embargo, which Mr Chirac said on Saturday had "no foundation or justification". He told President Hu Jintao: "It's a measure motivated purely and simply by hostility toward China."
The embargo is still supported by several European nations and the United States.
Mr Hu said he would not revise the official verdict that the massacre was the suppression of a counter-revolutionary riot, despite repeated calls to do so by Chinese intellectuals at home and abroad.
The Human Rights in China group said: "The bloody suppression of unarmed civilians cannot be considered a matter of 'another time' after 15 short years."
A free press group, Reporters San Frontières, claimed that China was using French technology to scramble foreign radio broadcasts in China, including the BBC World Service and the Voice of Tibet, based in Norway.
It said Thales, the arms giant part-owned by the French government, had sold the Chinese government antennae that were being used to block broadcasts.
Mr Chirac's visit was also overshadowed by accusations of censorship of a gala concert and light show staged in the Forbidden City yesterday by Jean-Michel Jarre, when the French musician admitted that the Chinese had forced him to drop plans to perform with the country's best-known rock star, Cui Jian.
Cui has been subject to an informal ban by the Chinese government since the Tiananmen protests, when his songs were sung as anthems by student demonstrators.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
bump
Always similar, Chirac would sell his own mother to have markets with China, and the reputation of France he makes fun of it.
Chirac wants to arm China to build a super power to challenge the United States of America. It will also give the French access to US technology that they weren't able to steal on their own.
Perhaps but he especially wants to make money with China because in France there is too much unemployment.
One fine day, we're going to wind up nuking France.
France another Russia only smaller. Well it looks like another cold war coming on except now it will be against France.
French Honor.
Hmmmm.
I think this is a contradiction in terms.
"France another Russia only smaller. Well it looks like another cold war coming on except now it will be against France."
IMHO I think Europe is turning a blind eye to the reality that Russia is still the Soviet Union, however smaller.
Putin is a Communist. Most towns and cities are still controlled by the Communist party. Difference being that there are no death squads running around killing the opposition. Russia found out after the fall of the wall that there is really no need to do this.
Global Communism is a perceived reality. When you look at this world you can see that many countries governed by dictators are Communist by design. France and Germany will fall to Communism peacefully in the next 10-15 years. They are the proverbial food for the crocodile. They want to be eaten last.
I have a view that is tinfoil hat related. I believe that Islamofacism is the army the Communists will use to take down Democracy. Countries that are governed by Marxist ideology will no longer send troops to keep the peace. They are sending troops to ensure that the genocide is thorough and complete. Look at Rwanda and Sudan.
The domino theory lives. It just has taken on another form.
Yes I think I share that type of thinking myself.
Yeah, I'll bet the French nukes are all duds like Russia's, right?
They're headed that way; France stopped making special nuclear materials in the 1990s (they stopped making plutonium in 1992, and bomb-grade uranium in 1996).
And they had a heck of a lot less special nuclear material to start with--their arsenal has about 350 warheads. We still have about 8,000 warheads deployed.
What do you have to say about this, then?
U.S. Nuclear Material Unloaded in France - 10-07-2004
It's being turned into nuclear reactor fuel--in other words, into material that won't work in a nuclear bomb. If France tries to grab it, that facility will get flattened before Chirac can finish reading the press release.
While the EU, backed by China and Russia, wants ITER to be built in the French city of Cadarache, the United States along with South Korea have said they prefer Rokkasho, in Japan.
A fusion reactor isn't a bomb. And ITER has been on the drawing board since 1988--I sincerely doubt it will ever be built. Too many chiefs, and zero Indians.
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