— Canadian Foreign Minister Answers Reporter’s Question Regarding the Chinese Party’s Blocking Information About the Spread of SARS
By practitioners from Vancouver, Canada
On
April 13, 2003, in Vancouver Westin Hotel, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham
received leaders of local communities and held a round table meeting to discuss
Canada's foreign policy. After the meeting, a reporter from a Chinese media
asked about the Canadian government's opinion on China's blocking
information about the spread of SARS. Bill Graham answered the question directly.
A reporter from a local Chinese media pointed out, “Over the past four months,
the Chinese government blocked information from the media and deceived the international
community regarding the spread of SARS. This is similar to the tactics that
the Chinese government has been using to cover up its severe human rights violations,
such as the tricks it has used over the past four years to hide its brutal persecution
of Falun Gong. Mr. Minister, I would like to ask you what have we learned from
these things? How would it affect Canada's foreign policy towards China?”
The Minister said: “I think this is a good point, although so far I have not
had a chance to meet the newly-appointed Chinese Foreign Minister. But I will
definitely bring forward this point when I do meet him. Previously, I raised
the issue of Falun Gong to the former Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr. Tang. We
have been continuously putting forward the human rights issue to China. The
outbreak of SARS allows us to speak bluntly to the Chinese government, 'Look!
This is the consequence of your cover-ups!' Although the democratic society
looks complicated, it has the advantage of making the society highly transparent
and people could be clearly aware of what exactly have happened. It is like
the AIDS epidemic, if we did not acknowledge its occurrence, we would not be
able to take measures. Therefore we can use this as an example to point out
to the Chinese government, 'Let us be more open and let the international
communities help you to solve your problems. Because from the long-term point
of view, your problem will become ours and therefore we must work together with
you to solve it.'”
Posting date: 17/Apr/2003
Original article date: 17/Apr/2003
Category: World News
