BEIJING: Lawmakers from at least six countries said Chinese diplomats were pressuring them not to attend a China-focused conference in Taiwan, in what they described as efforts to isolate the self-governed island.
Politicians in Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and one Asian country that declined to be named said they were getting texts, calls and urgent requests for meetings that would conflict with their plans to travel to Taipei. China vehemently defends its claim to Taiwan and views it as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.
The conference begins Monday and is being held by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing. IPAC has long faced pressure from the Chinese government: Some members have been sanctioned by Beijing, and in 2021 the group was targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to a US indictment unsealed earlier this year.
But Luke de Pulford, the alliance’s director, said the pressure from Chinese officials the past few days has been unprecedented. During past IPAC meetings in other locations, lawmakers were approached by Chinese diplomats only after they concluded. This year, the first in which IPAC’s annual meeting is taking place in Taiwan, there appeared to be a coordinated attempt to stop participants from attending.
The Associated Press spoke to three lawmakers and reviewed texts and emails sent by Chinese diplomats asking whether they were planning to participate in the meeting.
“I’m Wu, from Chinese Embassy,” read a message sent to Antonio Miloshoski, a member of parliament in North Macedonia. “We heard that you got an invitation from IPAC, will you attend the Conference which will be held next week in Taiwan?”
In some cases, lawmakers described vague inquiries about their plans to travel to Taiwan. In other cases, the contact was more menacing: One lawmaker told AP that Chinese diplomats messaged the head of her party with a demand to stop her from going.
“They contacted president of my political party, they ask him to stop me to travel to Taiwan,” said Sanela Klarić, a member of parliament in Bosnia. “They’re trying, in my country, to stop me from traveling ... This is really not OK.”
China routinely threatens retaliation against politicians and countries that show support for Taiwan, which has only informal relations with most countries due to Chinese diplomatic pressure. Klarić said the pressure was unpleasant but only steeled her determination to go on the trip.
“I really am fighting against countries or societies where the tool to manipulate and control peoples is fear,” said Klarić, adding that it reminded her of threats and intimidation she faced while suffering through wars in Bosnia in the 1990s. “I really hate the feeling when somebody is frightening you.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
De Pulford called the pressure “gross foreign interference.”
“How would PRC officials would feel if we tried to tell them about their travel plans, where they could and could not go?” de Pulford said, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China. “It’s absolutely outrageous that they think that they can interfere in the travel plans of foreign legislators.”
Lawmakers from 25 countries were expected to attend this year’s meeting. The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, Beijing criticized Taiwan for its annual Han Kuang military drills, saying that Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party was “carrying out provocations to seek independence.”
“Any attempt to whip up tensions and use force to seek independence or reject reunification is doomed to failure,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters.
China has been peeling off the island’s diplomatic allies, often with promises of development aid, in a long-running competition between the two that has swung in Beijing’s favor in recent years. The Pacific Island nation of Nauru switched recognition to Beijing earlier this year, a move that reduced Taiwan’s dwindling number of diplomatic allies to 12.
But China’s at-times heavy-handed approach has also alienated other countries.
In 2021, Beijing downgraded relations and blocked imports from Lithuania, a member of both the EU and NATO, after the Baltic nation broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing that a Taiwanese representative office in its capital of Vilnius would bear the name Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, which other countries use to avoid offending Beijing. The following year, the EU adopted a resolution criticizing Beijing’s behavior toward Taiwan and took action against China at the World Trade Organization over the import restrictions.
The pressure over the IPAC meeting was also triggering backlash.
Bolivian Senator Centa Rek said she submitted a letter of protest after a Chinese diplomat called her and told not to go to Taiwan, saying the island was run by an “imposter president” and that the meeting was hosted by an organization “not accepted within the terms of the policy of mainland China.” When Rek refused, the diplomat said he would report her decision to his embassy, which Rek interpreted as a “veiled threat.”
“I told him that it was an unacceptable intrusion, that I would not accept an order or intrusion from any government,” Rek said. “These were personal decisions and that it seemed to me that he had gone beyond all international political norms.”
Most of the lawmakers targeted appear to be from smaller countries, which de Pulford, the alliance’s director, said was likely because Beijing “feels that they can get away with it.” But he added that the coercive tactics have only made participants more determined to take part in the summit.
Miriam Lexmann, a Slovakian member of the European Parliament whose party head was approached by Chinese diplomats, said the pressure underscored her reason for coming to Taiwan.
We want to “exchange information, ways how to deal with those challenges and threats which China represents to the democratic part of the world, and of course, to support Taiwan,” she said.
Lawmakers from 6 countries say Beijing is pressuring them not to attend conference in Taiwan
https://arab.news/g2stp
Lawmakers from 6 countries say Beijing is pressuring them not to attend conference in Taiwan
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/07/29/4490316-1073957929.jpg?itok=YSPzSmKd)
- China vehemently defends its claim to Taiwan and views it as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary
- Lawmakers from 25 countries were expected to attend this year’s IPAC meeting, which is taking place for the first time in Taiwan
Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel
Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel
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CHICAGO: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot and killed on Friday in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus during a non-violent protest against the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements and escalating settler violence against Palestinian home and landowners.
Social media discourse was dominated by expressions of outrage over what was described as a double standard in US media, which did not hesitate to blame Arabs and Muslims when pro-Israel Americans were killed but was reluctant to point a finger at Israelis when pro-Palestinian Americans were killed.
Human rights attorney and author Qasim Rashid condemned American media’s double standard, writing on X: “Shame on these legacy media outlets. Not one is willing to state the fact that the Israeli military killed Aysenur Ezgi Eygi — a US citizen. Apparently, a magical bullet appeared out of thin air & killed her. This is how legacy media normalizes violence against people of color.”
When several Israelis, including one with American dual citizenship, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were killed in Gaza last week, mainstream news media featured an avalanche of condemnation from American politicians.
President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” over Polin’s death, while Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris invoked a Jewish prayer for the dead, saying, “May Hersh’s memory be a blessing.” Harris went on further to denounce Hamas as “an evil terrorist organization,” adding that “with these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands.”
In contrast, both Biden and Harris were personally silent regarding the killing of Eygi, allowing the release of a generic media statement attributed to the White House, which said it was “deeply disturbed” by her death.
The White House called for Israel to investigate Eygi’s killing, a sentiment reiterated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who, during a press briefing in the Dominican Republic, expressed condolences to the victim’s family but said: “Let’s find out exactly what happened … and that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing.”
Neither the White House nor Blinken, however, asked for an investigation into Polin’s death and immediately embraced Israel’s assertions that he was killed by Hamas. And while Blinken did not post any comments regarding Eygi’s killing on his official X account, he posted at length on Polin’s death, writing on social media: “Hersh Goldberg-Polin is an American hero who will be remembered for his kindness and selflessness. Our hearts break for Jon, Rachel, and their entire family, as well as the other families who found out today their loved ones won’t be coming home. May their memory be a blessing.”
US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller also spoke at length at a press briefing following news of Polin’s death but repeated Blinken’s statement saying the State Department is “urgently” gathering more information on Egyi’s death.
After graduating from university, Eygi volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, which monitors and protests the expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements on non-Jewish-owned lands in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
The ISM released a lengthy statement describing Eygi as “peacefully demonstrating alongside Palestinians” but criticized the hypocrisy of American politicians and news outlets’ response to her death.
“This is just another example of the decades of impunity granted to the Israeli government and army, bolstered by the support of the US and European governments, who are complicit in enabling genocide in Gaza. Palestinians have suffered far too long under the weight of colonization. We will continue to stand in solidarity and honor the martyrs until Palestine is free.”
The New York Times came under particularly harsh criticism when it reported that Eygi had “joined the rally in Beita, where residents have been protesting for years — sometimes violently — against a settler outpost on lands claimed by the village.”
The outlet later updated the story to remove the phrase “sometimes violently” from the original story authored by Ephrat Livni, an Israeli-American writer.
Family members and witnesses said Eygi had traveled to the West Bank to celebrate her graduation with relatives there when she observed a protest in Beita near Nablus against repeated acts of violence by Israelis and soldiers from a nearby settlement, which is being expanded onto Arab land.
According to the Associated Press, two doctors on the scene said Eygi was shot in the head, killing her instantly.
Israeli officials referred to Eygi as a “foreign national,” not referencing her citizenship as an American. She has dual citizenship and is of Turkish origin.
Eygi’s parents published a statement on Instagram calling for an immediate investigation into their daughter’s killing, describing her as a “fiercely passionate human rights activist” and “staunch advocate of justice” who “felt a deep responsibility to serve others.”
Eygi graduated from the University of Washington where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures.
Her parents said in the statement: “She was active on campus and (in) student-led protests advocating for an end to violence against the people of Palestine. Aysenur felt compelled to travel to the West Bank to stand in solidarity with Palestinian civilians who continue to endure ongoing repression and violence.”
They said Eygi “was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.”
‘Gaza is America’s war and we can stop it the blink of an eye,’ US presidential candidate Jill Stein tells Arab News
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- Green Party candidate says the billions of dollars in military aid given to Israel should be used to address American needs
- Asked whether a third party could undercut the main candidates, Stein says Democrats and Republicans ‘don’t own those votes’
CHICAGO: Dr. Jill Stein, the US Green Party’s candidate for November’s presidential election, says Americans are losing “much needed benefits” due to tax money allegedly being redirected to fund Israel’s war in Gaza.
Speaking to The Ray Hanania Radio Show during an episode broadcast on Thursday, Stein accused the mainstream media and the Democrats of trying to block her candidacy to artificially strengthen the candidacy of Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris.
She also said the US bore responsibility for the violence in Gaza, fueled by the perceived pro-Israel bias in the media and by politicians who received millions in campaign donations from pro-Israel political action committees to support the war.
“In the current case, the US is providing 80 percent of the weapons that are being used to murder women, children, and innocent civilians. We’re also providing money, military support and diplomatic cover and intelligence. So the US has total autonomy here,” she said.
“This is our war. It is really a misnomer in many ways to call this Israel’s war. This is the US’ war. We are in charge of this war and we can stop this war with the blink of an eye,” she added, urging voters not to get talked into “endorsing genocide.”
“There is no more critical of an issue than what’s going on right now in Gaza because this is really normalizing the torture and murder of children on an industrial scale. The destruction of international law and human rights.
“As Gaza goes, eventually we’re all gonna go. If we allow human rights to be systematically torn down and international law, the way it’s being done here, eventually that’s gonna rebound to us because the US has been the dominant power for the last several decades but we are no longer the dominant power economically and militarily.”
Stein said every vote for her candidacy and the Green Party could help bring an end not only to Israel’s war in Gaza but also to other conflicts around the world.
“What’s going on is terrible for the US and it’s terrible for Israel. We are hypocrites. We’re supposedly defending democracy, yet we are throwing candidates off the ballot here in our own country,” she said, referring to recent efforts by the Democratic Party in Montana, Nevada and Wisconsin to remove the Green Party from the ballot over alleged procedural issues.
“We’re also mobilizing Israel’s neighbors against Israel. In the countries that have had peace treaties, some of Israel’s most staunch partners, including Egypt and especially Jordan where there are huge rallies and demonstrations against Israel demanding the end of the peace treaty.”
Stein, who is Jewish American, has openly stated she supported Israel, Palestine, and the two-state solution, but has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, calling it “a fascist government” that was engaged in genocide.
She urged voters not to believe the one-sided picture often presented by politicians and the media, insisting that criticism of Israeli policies was “not antisemitism” but legitimate political discourse that must take place to make the US stronger.
“In the long-term interest of everyone in the region, the US and the Netanyahu government need to come into compliance with international law and specifically the rulings of the International Court of Justice,” she said.
“Which means an end to the genocide immediately and then a withdrawal to 1967 borders, which is what this agreement calls for. Withdrawal, an end to the occupation and an end to the ethnic cleansing, which has been going on for a very long time,” she said, referring to the civilian death toll of more than 40,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“To criticize Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism. Zionism and Judaism are very different things. Zionism is a political ideology. It is not the Jewish religion. There are many strong proponents of the Jewish religion who are fierce opponents of Zionism.”
Instead of financing Israel’s military campaigns, Stein said the next US president should “fund solutions” to improve the lives of Americans by addressing affordable health care, creating more jobs, improving education for children and strengthening social security for seniors and retirees.
Both the Democrats and Republicans were instead sending US tax money to Israel while depriving public services of the funding they need, she said.
“Half of the Congressional budget is being spent on the endless war machine,” she said, referring to legislation providing $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April.
Although this is in no way half of the Congressional budget, which is worth $6.8 trillion, Stein said the outlay nonetheless meant “we are not meeting the emergencies that we have on health care, housing, education and the environment.”
“So this is a disaster for every American, and it’s really important that we not be talked into drinking the Kool-Aid,” she said, using a term that means having a cult-like faith in a dangerous idea because of wrongly perceived rewards.
Stein, who ran for the presidency in 2012 and 2016, said she was again putting her name on the ballot because she was concerned about the problems that Americans were facing, which she believes neither of the two main parties are addressing.
Americans “need a new political option that is in the public interest,” she said, insisting the Green Party offered a greater focus on American needs than either the Republicans or the Democrats.
On the same episode of The Ray Hanania Radio Show, in an interview recorded a couple of days earlier, former Chicago Congressman Bill Lipinski — who represented one of the largest concentrations of Arab and Muslim voters in the US — said American voters should not take the role of third-party candidates like Stein for granted.
Although it is extremely difficult for a third-party candidate to break the two-party system and win a presidential election, Lipinski said they could have a disproportionate impact on the outcome, particularly in swing states where every vote counted.
Given today’s polarized, emotion-driven politics, Lipinski said the US election system should be changed to better accommodate third-party candidates.
“At times I would like to see a third party. There are other times when I think (it is better having just) two parties. In another time in another place, two parties were sufficient. Today, I don’t believe that’s the case,” he said.
“Today I would really like to see a third party because, unfortunately, the Republicans are controlled to a great extent nowadays by their extreme right wing, the Democrats by their extreme left wing. That’s not good for the parties. Nor is it good for the country.”
The Green Party has run candidates in several presidential elections, often making a significant impact on the final outcome. Ralph Nader, the party’s candidate in the 2000 poll, drew votes away from Democratic Vice President Al Gore, contributing to his loss to Republican George W. Bush.
When Stein ran as the Green Party candidate in 2016, she drew significant support away from Democrat Hillary Clinton, who lost to Republican Donald Trump.
To those who might argue that a vote for the Green Party means splitting the progressive vote, making it easier for the Republicans to succeed, Stein insisted that neither the Democrats or Republicans “own those votes.”
“They don’t belong to parties. They belong to people.”
- You can listen to the full interview with US presidential candidate Jill Stein and former US Congressman Bill Lipinski online at ArabNews.com/RayRadioShow.
Venezuela says presidential opposition candidate has left country
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- Venezuela has been in a political crisis since authorities declared Maduro the victor of the July 28 election
CARACAS: The Venezuelan government said Saturday opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — in hiding after he challenged President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed reelection — has left the country, seeking asylum in Spain.
“After taking refuge voluntarily at the Spanish embassy in Caracas a few days ago, (Gonzalez Urrutia) asked the Spanish government for political asylum,” Venezuela’s vice president said on social media, adding that Caracas had agreed to his safe passage and that he had left.
The opposition could not immediately be reached for comment.
Venezuela has been in a political crisis since authorities declared Maduro the victor of the July 28 election. The opposition cried foul, claiming it had evidence Gonzalez Urrutia had won by a comfortable margin.
Numerous nations, including the United States, European Union and several Latin American countries, have refused to recognize Maduro as the winner without Caracas releasing detailed voting data.
After the election, Venezuelan prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Urrutia over his insistence that he is the rightful winner of the election.
Prior to leaving the country, he had been in hiding for a month, ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors.
Post-election violence in Venezuela has claimed 27 lives and left 192 people injured while the government says it has arrested some 2,400 people.
Pope to bring in a ton of humanitarian aid to remote Papua New Guinea as he celebrates periphery
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- n estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass
- On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families
- He urged the church leaders to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition”
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea: Pope Francis honored the Catholic Church of the peripheries on Sunday as he celebrated Mass in Papua New Guinea before heading to a remote part of the South Pacific nation with a ton of humanitarian aid to deliver to the missionaries and faithful who live there.
An estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass. It began with dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performing to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar.
In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may well feel themselves distant from both their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them.
“You who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”
Francis was himself traveling to a distant land on Sunday, flying into remote Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s northwest coast, to meet with the small Catholic community there served by missionaries from his native Argentina.
Francis was being transported by an Australian military aircraft and was bringing with him one ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothes and toys for children, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Eight suitcases of medicine and other necessities had been prepared by one of the Argentine missionaries, the Rev. Alejandro Diaz, during a recent trip to Rome and left with the Vatican to bring in on the cargo plane, the ANSA news agency reported.
Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority.
Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, the coastal city is perhaps best known as a surfing destination.
Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan, but was prevented from going because of his poor health.
Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed to bring the faith to far-away places.
There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animizm and sorcery.
On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In remarks to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis urged the church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”
“I think too of the marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives,” Francis said. He urged the church to be particularly close to such people on the peripheries, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.
Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
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- The incident comes just days after a mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia high school that saw 4 killed and nine others wounded
LONDON, Kentucky: Multiple people were shot Saturday along Interstate 75 in a rural area of southeastern Kentucky, authorities said.
The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook that it was an “active shooter situation” and “numerous persons” were shot near the highway.
In a video statement, London Mayor Randall Weddle said was told seven people were hurt, but not all of those were wounded by gunfire. Some of the victims were injured in a vehicle accident, he said.
“There are no deceased at this time. No one was killed from this, thankfully, but we ask that you continue to pray,” Weddle said.
Hospital officials at Saint Joseph London said in a statement that the facility was treating multiple patients, LEX 18 reported. The hospital added that the ones it received had minor injuries.
The sheriff’s office also announced that a “Person of Interest” has been identified in connection with the shooting, saying he should be considered armed and dangerous and people should not approach him. The man’s name was given as Joseph A. Couch, a 32-year-old white male, and anyone with information about his location was urged to call the county 911 center.
State lawmakers from Laurel County urged residents in the area to stay home as police continued to search for the shooter. “Without a doubt, this is an act of senseless violence that does not reflect the values of this community, our Commonwealth, or its people,” they said in a statement.
A “heavy presence of police and fire personnel” was on the scene and “working diligently to address the situation,” the Mount Vernon Fire Department said in a statement. It advised motorists to avoid I-75 and US 25.
The interstate was closed 9 miles (14 kilometers) north of London but later reopened, according to the sheriff’s office.
“I am receiving initial reports from the Kentucky State Police and our Office of Homeland Security — together we are actively monitoring the situation and offering support in any way possible,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a post on the social platform X. “Please pray for everyone involved.”
“We will provide more details once they are available,” Beshear said.
London is a a small city with a population of about 8,000 located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.