China says it regrets beating of Japanese journalists over coverage in Xinjiang

Tuesday 05th August, 04:04 PM JST

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TonyUS at 01:04 PM JST - 6th August

Pepin.. Not just two guys getting beat up. What news do you not read??? This is what goes on by the CCP and why the human rights issues are so alive and breathing when it comes to China’s system and which has been going on ever since their take over of the country. So lets forget all of that and concentrate on two instead of 10s of thousands. Let forget all the reports of incidences . Lets forget Tibet. Lets forget all that has shaped the opinions and views from the outside looking in. With the censorship in China, one can only imagine what goes on if all could be known, if there was free press, if people were not scared to talk openly and on and on and on.. I guess you want to forget all the reports over the years that was very rare to get out and all that was kept quiet and secrete that never got out. But also there are people that disappear and family members not knowing what happened to them, some later finding out they have been detained, even Nobel peace prize winners, forget those placed under house arrest because they could possibly be a threat to social stability or the so called “ harmony of society”, labor political reform camps, .... this is not about two guys as you try to put it, it is about the system and the abuse from the system in China which is common on a daily basis around the country by the thugs with the baking of the government..

And what country are you from that these two guys would not last 30 minutes in?? That says a lot about where you live!
PepinGalarga at 01:43 PM JST - 6th August

tony: don't really consider this incident to be censorship or institutionalized violence against foreigners. i have been to 26 cities in China for the last 5 years and never saw anyone even close to get beating up. You should go to China its the most entertaining country I have been in by far. There's no inside/outside mentality. Can't say the same thing about Cuba and North Korea, where people really live in fear.

What about the "Desaparecidos" in US-backed Pinochet regime, just to name one of many examples? What about all the "enemy combatants" that got shanghaied, er, "rendered" and end up in Guantanamo for the last 6 years without any access to counsel or protection under the Geneva Convention, where their families must have left them for dead? Are those people not human beings? what if some country that disagreed with US policies invaded the US and started to kidnap citizens and take them to some unknown island for 6 years?

there's this image ignorants and fearmongers are trying to build about China and other "red" countries. This goes back to McCarthy, or even further back. "red" Vietnam is now a top US trade partner, but you don't hear any complaints about them, do you?

ask yourself, is there any free press or free speech even in the USA? There's propaganda in every country. try wearing a shirt that says what some controversial people think inside the Capitol (who is supposed to protect constitutional rights), or in an airplane. what if the shirt says "hello" in arabic?...

China has opened up massively in the last 30 years, and they are doing their best to make the Olympics look civilized. They have spent money they don't have to create a good impression and save face. If they held the olympics in Washington D.C. please try to have an idea of the security measures the US would take; they would probably eclipse anything in place in Beijing right now.

I agree with you on Tibet and many other issues, but its not as clear cut as people make it seem.

With China, we must be careful not to reject their reforms, because it could happen like in Russia, where the reforms happened too quickly and anarchy led to corruption and organized crime at the highest levels. Now Russia is again a threat to US and NATO.

heck, even I am afraid for writing all these things. i guess there's a big bullseye on my house now, something about to land on it...

i live in Puerto Rico and proud of it. This is the land of prize fighters, home run hitters, beauty queens and also corrupt politicians and drug lords. Like any major US city, there's good spots and bad spots, like in LA, NY, Baltimore, DC, etc., etc. Please unleash these reporters behind the Capitol in DC and see if they last the 30 minute challenge...
kinniku at 02:22 PM JST - 6th August

PepinGalarga,

I cannot speak for others, but I am not in favor of boycotts in general. As you correctly mentioned, it is nearly impossible to boycott Chinese products. However, I do think that China is not a great choice for the Olympics on the face of it. The one bright spot is that having the Olympics brings more and more of the outside world into China and more and more attention toward the less than positive sides of China. The fact that the police did not even think about what possible outcome could occur over their actions says that such things are even more likely when the international spotlight is not so clearly focused on the country.

I will say that I did overspeak (overwrite?) when I ageed with the comparison to Nazi Germany. That was going overboard.
PepinGalarga at 02:35 PM JST - 6th August

in the past, the Olympics have been awarded to countries that were breaking out into the world scene. It happened with Tokyo after WW2. Some were ready, some were clearly not. Some countries actually dropped into oblivion, like Germany and Yugoslavia.

Let's hope for a succesful olympics, for the sake of all the people involved. the attention brought will accelerate even faster the pace of reforms over there. The great middle kingdom for the first time is being forced to do things in a different way.

the "green" revolution will actually be felt more strongly in countries like China and India, where there are no serious commercial interests to be affected by a change in lifestyle. In these cases, a strong public sector making the right decisions is better than a strong private sector that goes its own way. India has been handicapped by fragmented politics, but China has been able to build concensus.
TonyUS at 12:47 PM JST - 7th August

Sure I have heard go to CHina it is beautiful, but on the surface does not reflect what is the root of society. No one beaten? People know what can happen for disobedience same with self censored press. Sure I would love to see China reform into a great democracy based on the wishes and ideas of society and it this Olympic help all well and good, but leading up to the Olympics all has been promised by the government and they are reneging on their promises that achieved them being awarded hosting the games. Is this right. Hell no it is not right and they should be brought to the forefront to face these acts they are throwing into the wind instead of sticking to the promises made.

I am sure Beijing is remarkable with all the construction and beautifying the city to the max, any place would be, but then there is the base that is not seen, behind the scenes. I have friends from China and I talk to Chinese form China from time to time. THey have their love of their country but also have alot of negative sentiment about the government and the pace of change, very aggravating to them, but what can they do... nothing it seems, but the outside pressures seems to have to be their voices because they have none and if they try,, hey it is more common for the actions that happened to the Japanese journalists, to happen to the Chinese citizens. These are not my words, these are words of reports that are out of China all the time.. I do not see an isolated visit to China seeing one block at a time being any vision of what the country is about. What I do find informative are reports gathered from around the entire country, or at least some of the areas that people have been able to report on when allowed or they have cleverly gained access to. Was you in Tibet when the conflict broke out or after the military crack down, I think not, what about Tiananmen when who knows how many was killed wanting democracy that they never got. What about when farmers were being shot just a couple years ago, beaten, was you there to witness the beauty? Maybe a little sarcasm there but the point is , to visit is not looking beyond the face of beauty. Many people of China I am certian will agree with that, and I have talked to some.
stanoue at 08:52 PM JST - 7th August

Ah I am slow in returning so this will probably go unnoticed.
\ Imagawa - it is not the IOC's 'fault' that China was picked to host the Olympics. They had tried the past two times before the current Olympics to host and had proven every time that they were, both importantly, capable and willing to host an Olympic Games. The whole Olympic movement is about sport. It is not about politics and the IOC has always tried to distance itself from politics. For example, by allowing Olympic teams from both Taiwan and China, right in midst of all the issues that created. Also, the IOC is not the UN it is not a political body - it is a sporting body. Unfortunately, money has become an inevitable part of the whole thing - but that can't be helped. The political crap has been brought about by everyone else. There are very, very few instances where the IOC has ever banned a country from participating, for example. The surrounding politics just happen.

And kinniku - I was not criticizing China or questioning its rights to host the Olympics. I was making an observation that terrorism has become far too convenient globally as an excuse for taking down unsavouries.

And really are you asking that we all ignore the tens of thousands that suffer every day in China because of a handful of sports people? That was their choice, what choice was given to the Chinese people?

THE OLYMPICS ARE A SPORTING EVENT. Get over the politics.
kinniku at 09:01 PM JST - 7th August

stanoue,

And kinniku - I was not criticizing China or questioning its rights to host the Olympics. I was making an observation that terrorism has become far too convenient globally as an excuse for taking down unsavouries.

Your 'observation' was directed at China and it looked more like criticism to me. Valid criticsm at that.

You wrote:

What I am worried about is that China will use 'terrorism' as an excuse to shut down dissidents/problem citizens even if they are not doing anything to target the Olympics.

THE OLYMPICS ARE A SPORTING EVENT. Get over the politics.

Rather difficult to get over for it for, as you say:

The surrounding politics just happen.
kinniku at 09:03 PM JST - 7th August

Sorry.

"THE OLYMPICS ARE A SPORTING EVENT. Get over the politics."

Should be separately quoted.
blaze524 at 12:15 PM JST - 8th August

Let's try not to equate the actions of a group of police officers - whom I might add had just lost 16 of their colleagues and friends - as happening under the consent of the Chinese Government.

This article provides scant details of the situation. There is no mention of how the reporters conducted themselves so for all we know, these reporters could have been a nuisance and possibly made a chaotic situation worse.

I'm not trying to blame the victim, and the Chinese government to its credit, is not blaming the reporters either. They have apologized for the incident.

As for boycotting the Olympics...I think that would only make things worse. If these Olympics go badly, there is a good chance that China's relationship with the foreign press would be further strained. The administration is far from perfect, but they are making strides and the change within the last 20 years alone has been staggering. That being said, I don't think China should have been awarded these Olympics. The 2016 Olympics might have been a better showcase for China.
TonyUS at 02:49 PM JST - 8th August

Blaze, your comments might as well say, hey these incidents do not happen on a regular basis in China, but all the reports that of incidents that are found out about tell a different story than yours. Then take into account the censorship and the incidents that do not get recognition by the Chinese public and especially international. Sorry I do not fall for that stance and I use facts and information to back my stance.
JoeBigs at 03:06 PM JST - 8th August

Qin also said the Foreign Ministry will continue to make an effort to provide a ‘‘good environment to foreign reporters, including Japanese reporters,’’ according to the statement.

Let us see, you are attacked by so called terrorist and what do you do...Yes you beat reporters for taking pictures. Wonder what they caught on film?

The like the "including Japanese reporters" line. So from now on the Chinese will no longer target Japanese reporters?
carlosgodoy1 at 01:47 AM JST - 9th August

Me too. It's regrettable.
blaze524 at 04:58 AM JST - 9th August

TonyUS: The facts as I see it (based on this article) are thus: 1. There was an attack on the police resulting in 16 deaths, 16 wounded 2. Japanese reporters on site were beaten 3. The officers responsible have apologized

We can speculate on issues relevant to the scope of the article i.e. what were the reporters doing? How did the Chinese police beat up the reporters? What was the official reason? Was this a case of censorship? Was this a case of the police targeting the Japanese reporters? This is fine, and I would have no problems with it.

But some people are using it as a springboard to launch into a whole slew of issues and that's where I am a bit annoyed. This incident is just an excuse to start another China bashing session by supposedly drawing attention to issues such as Tibet, Human rights or how China doesn't deserve the Olympics and so on and so forth. Of course these issues are important and China's record is spotty at best (it would be disingenuous to suggest otherwise). However, I still think that this isn't the place for it and people are having difficulty separating the actions of the police officers from the actions of the government.
TonyUS at 07:51 AM JST - 11th August

Well Blaze , China bashing is fine if based on truths and the topics you mention China is guilty of so what your problem?
TonyUS at 07:56 AM JST - 11th August

And as for you trying to separate the police from government I see that very arrogant or should say blind.. Police are under the direction of those above them and respond to such. Should anyone want to try and say police put people under house arrrest because it is just the police wanting to do this themselves, or taking people away with no one knowing where they are, I guess police do this on their own as well.. To try and separate the police from the government in any country sounds a litte far fetched, especially what goes on between authoirity and actions by authorities in China.