United States Senator Sam Brownback (R) has this week accused the Chinese government of exerting pressure on US-owned hotels to install Internet filtration systems that will censor online content during the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.
US senator accuses China of forcing US-owned hotels to apply Olympic censorship. Image: SqueakyMarmot/Flickr.
The Press Association reports that Senator Brownback made his accusations during a news conference in which he, and other concerned political figures, called on US President George W. Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremony in a stand against China’s poor record of human rights.
In commenting on the government orders sent out to at least two (unnamed) US-owned hotels in the region, Senator Brownback said that such action was “against international conventions,” and “against the Olympic spirit.”
The senator also said that, by exposing the move to censor international visitors during the games, he hoped resulting public pressure against the Chinese government would see it retract the hotel orders.
China is “the foremost enabler of human rights abuses around the world,” offered Senator Brownback, adding that the Chinese government is fast turning the 2008 Olympic Games into “an Olympics of oppression.”
By way of response, the Chinese government has said that the rights of its citizens are protected by the country’s constitution, and that it welcomed the possibility of renewed dialogue on the matter. However, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that US politicians are exercising bias through their opinions.
During the same news conference, Senator Brownback and the other gathered politicians slammed China for its support of repressive regimes in both the Sudan and Burma. They also highlighted the ongoing suppression of Tibetan dissenters, and the longstanding Chinese clampdown on religious freedoms, the media, and anyone who dares criticise the government.
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!