China Raid Press Conference by S. Korean Lawmakers

[quaoar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4194-2005Jan12.html

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; 5:22 PM

BEIJING, Jan. 12--Chinese security agents raided a news conference organized by visiting South Korean legislators Wednesday, cutting the lights in a hotel meeting room, forcibly ejecting several foreign journalists and prompting official statements of protest and concern in Seoul.

Four members of South Korea's opposition Grand National Party had called the news conference to urge the Chinese government to show leniency toward refugees from North Korea and to release South Korean activists jailed for trying to smuggle them out of China. The lawmakers refused Chinese orders to leave the room, resulting in a standoff that lasted more than eight hours and continued late into the night.

China's ruling Communist Party routinely shuts down meetings it considers politically sensitive, but it is rare for it to break up events hosted by visiting foreign dignitaries. The decision to disrupt the news conference highlights the government's growing anxiety about the migration of North Koreans into China as well as international criticism of its efforts to stem the flow.

Beijing refuses to recognize North Koreans who slip into China fleeing hunger and repression in their homeland as refugees entitled to political asylum and routinely sends them back to the North, a communist ally. Human rights organizations have protested, saying China is sending them back to a country that will imprison and perhaps execute them. As many as 200,000 North Koreans are believed to be living illegally in China.

[Hard Attack]

1. One Word Missing from the Headline....

''Communist''

Its time to stop playing the political correctness.

[MsMagnificent]

2. Absolutely!

they are what they are... if they don't like the connotations, they're free, at least on a personal level, to change.