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| Europe |
| Chinese diplomat tries to silence Swedish politician - bad move |
| 2007-05-15 |
| The First Secretary at the Chinese embassy in Stockholm is accused of having tried to stop a Member of Parliament from holding a speech on the democratization of China. The Moderate Party's Göran Lindblad claims to have received a phone call from Chen Jinxiang last Thursday, a few days ahead of the Swedish politician's planned trip to Brussels and the Second International Conference for Global Support of Democratization in China and Asia. "He said that we needed to meet. He wondered if I knew who was behind the conference and I answered that I knew very well. If they hadn't organized it, I would have done so myself. "He then advised me not to travel. He didn't think I should; it wasn't a good idea," Lindblad told news agency TT. As vice chairman of the Council of Europe and the organization's former reporter on crimes committed by communist regimes, Lindblad regularly gives talks at events of this kind. He says he is not surprised by the attempt to keep him from travelling. "It's a communist technique. Communist regimes and other dictatorships work like this. "As a supporter of immigration, I have the fascists after me as well as the communists. Now I am the Council of Europe's reporter on Iran, so I suppose soon the mullahs will join in too," said Lindblad. (emphasis added) The Moderate politician intends meeting the First Secretary later this month. He also plans to take up the matter with the foreign ministry. "Since Thursday I have also been getting anonymous intimidation calls. They let the phone ring one, two or three times before hanging up," said Lindblad. I like this guy. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #4 China needs a serious smackdown. Their incessant meddling has done no more good than Soviet Russia's in its time. Hell, even modern Russia has proven incapable of working towards any betterment of the global community. A general boycott of Chinese manufactured goods would bring the Politburo to its knees in an instant. This really needs to happen soon, before China can do any more damage than it already has. Oh, and pip-pip for Göran Lindblad. Maybe there's hope for Sweden yet. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-15 15:24 |
| #3 He had better be careful. The Chinese are starting to get aggressive with their foreign agents, against mostly ethnic Chinese who speak out against the Chinese government in other countries. They are already acting at about the same level as the KGB was when attacking expats towards the end of the Cold War. And that ended up with an attempt on the life of the Pope. Already the Chinese have sent agents to the US to bust up Falun Gong newspapers and beat up their people. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-05-15 12:26 |
| #2 As a supporter of immigration, I have the fascists after me Not me, though I appreciate his stand in that particualr case. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-05-15 10:45 |
| #1 Me too. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2007-05-15 10:32 |