Monday, Jul. 08, 2002
Iceland, Lithuania
BEIJING (AP) -- The Chinese president was arriving, and no one wanted trouble. So last month, just before Jiang's visit, Iceland's government took action.
Five dozen foreigners linked to the Falun Gong spiritual movement were detained. Icelandic agents showed up at American airports to keep Falun Gong [practitioners] off Reykjavik-bound planes. [...]
Four days later, when Jiang visited Lithuania, things were similar. Tibetan protesters were kept at a distance -- according to instructions from China, the Lithuanian government said. Those carrying Tibetan flags were dragged off. "I could not guarantee that Chinese security officers would not shoot them on the spot," Raimundas Kairys, the Lithuanian Interior Ministry's security chief, said in Vilnius.
China, which says it opposes interference in other nations' affairs, is, some assert, doing just that lately -- ensuring the dissent that it stifles at home doesn't bubble up while Beijing's leaders are in the spotlight abroad.
[...]
In recent years, the Chinese government has pushed Australia to crack down on Falun Gong activity. In the United States, mayors of smaller cities who honored Falun Gong with proclamations received calls from Chinese diplomats condemning [Falun Gong]. Some scoffed; some, like Westland, Mich., rescinded the proclamation. Others said the diplomats mentioned the importance of Chinese-U.S. trade ties.
[...]
But such pressure can backfire by antagonizing public opinion in the host country.
In Lithuania, opposition politicians protested that their nation's dignity had been undermined by its police. In Iceland, 300 prominent citizens took out a full-page newspaper ad apologizing to Falun Gong for their government's "incomprehensible actions."
And although Iceland's government said these actions were taken independently, not because of any Chinese security requests, it did demand an explanation from Beijing's ambassador for the interference in Icelandic affairs -- the exact sort of meddling that China would never tolerate. "China is trying to maintain a double standard," Goldstein says. [...]
http://www.canoe.ca/WorldTicker/CANOE-wire.China-Global-Muscling.html