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Dublin Council split about twinning with Beijing

Gearoid O'Conchúir, Epoch Times Ireland
January 17, 2008


Zhao Ming speak about his persecution in Beijing at the Global Human Rights Torch Relay, Dublin Ireland, October 17th 2007 (Epoch Times)

It was revealed last week that Dublin City Council is holding discussions relating to proposals to twin Beijing and Dublin. The twinning is to promote economic industrial and educational interaction between the two cities. Shanghai and Cork were twinned in 2005.

Dublin City councillor Andrew Montague told the Epoch Times that he is against the twinning of Beijing and Dublin. He added that Ireland is a democratic country and stands for certain ideals

He said that the Chinese Embassy has been pushing for the twinning of the two cities for years and presently its being discussed with 50% of councillors for and 50% against.

When Shanghai twined with Cork in 2005 there was also a divide in opinion in the council due to Communist China's human rights problems. The reasons given for the twinning was that the majority of councillors thought that only through dialogue with China can the human rights situation be improved.

False hope

In 2006 this proved a false hope as reports broke that many hospitals across China were systematically harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Bloody Harvest an investigation report co-written by Canadian human rights Lawyer David Matas and Canada's former secretary of state for Asia David Kilgour concluded that Falun Gong practitioner's organs where indeed being harvested and sold at high prices over a period of at least five years.

At the time Irish minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said in a statement on the Irish Governments website, "I view very seriously the allegations relating to the harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners."

"Enquiries on this issue have been made by the Department of Foreign Affairs within the EU and UN frameworks, as well as through our Embassy in Beijing."

The UN has since officially questioned China on the practice of organ harvesting but their reply merely amounted to an attack on the credibility of the authors and they failed to address any of the serious concerns raised by the UN.

Mr. Ahern continued to say in his statement however that the reports of organ harvesting have not been conclusively proved and therefore the Irish government, EU or UN cannot take any action.

Former Beijing resident shares view on twinning

Trinity College Post Graduate Zhao Ming who was rescued from a labour camp in Beijing with the help from many Dublin City councillors including former Mayor Dermot Lacy, said that he is against the twinning with Beijing.

He said, "Twinning between two cities is an expression of friendship and the will of learning from each other. However, the Beijing government is engaged in anti-humanitarian crimes, what does Dublin want to learn from it?"

"I was a Beijinger. I am now an Dubliner with Irish citizenship. With the very personal experience of living in the two cities, I would object to the twinning because more and more Chinese people are not recognising the Beijing government representing them either legally or culturally.

"Now more than thirty million Chinese people have renounced the Communist organisations with forty to fifty thousand people renouncing each day. It is just unwise and a nonsense to twin with the capital Beijing when its people deny it.", he said.

"Beijing was the city where I was kidnapped by secret police, illegally detained and tortured. It was in 2000 to 2002. At the same time, Dublin was the city where people were speaking out for me and rescuing me." Ming said.

According to Amnesty International China's violation of human rights covers almost every aspect of society in China.

The CCP continues to crack down on religious observance. Protestants and Catholics have been detained in their thousands and many ill-treated and tortured in detention, according to Amnesty's website.

77% of all executions world wide are carried out in China. Hundreds of Tibetans have been incarcerated for peacefully expressing their religious beliefs. There are numerous accounts of torture and ill-treatment across all sections of society.

The Dublin City Manager John Tierney was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

(Additional reporting by Rita O'Connor)

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