41 China threatens to end Melbourne's sister-city relationship with Tianjin over Uighur film

(1) Australian Government grants visa to Uighur leader Rebiya, despite Chinese protests
(2) Xinhua asks Australian FM whether Australia respects China's territorial integrity
(3) China threatens to end Melbourne's sister-city relationship with Tianjin over Uighur film
(4) China supporters try to buy up all the tickets for viewing Uighur film
(5) Hong Kong distributor pulls Taiwanese film from Melbourne Film Festival
(6) Green light for China: Australia's Treasurer lowers barriers for foreign investment

(1) Australian Government grants visa to Uighur leader Rebiya, despite Chinese protests

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25860126-5013871,00.html

Uighur Rebiya Kadeer gets visa despite China protest

Rowan Callick and Michael Sainsbury | July 31, 2009

AUSTRALIA has issued international Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer with a short-stay business visa in the face of strong pressure from the Chinese government.

China had signalled that such a move would exacerbate tensions in a relationship already reeling from a series of problems, including what Beijing sees as unfair media coverage over the imprisonment of Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday referred The Australian to comments made last week about Ms Kadeer in which its spokesman, Qin Gang, said: "We resolutely oppose any foreign country providing a platform for her anti-Chinese, splittist activities." And the Chinese embassy in Canberra said: "Rebiya Kadeer is a criminal. Facts have indicated that the violent crime on July 5 in Urumqi (capital of Xinjiang region) was instigated, masterminded and directed by the World Uighur Congress headed by Rebiya."

The Australian government is pushing Beijing for hard evidence of its claims that Ms Kadeer was responsible for the 200 deaths during recent violence in China's far-west Xinjiang province.

Adding to Canberra's dilemma, Mamtimin Ala, the general secretary of the Uighur Association of Australia, who will be Ms Kadeer's host, is pressing for a meeting with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith when she comes to Australia next week. Labor MP Michael Danby, parliamentary joint standing committee on foreign affairs chairman, who officially supported Ms Kadeer's visa application, said China's claims that she was a terrorist were "transparent manipulation".

Mr Ala said: "I don't think Australia will risk its economic relationship with China over such human rights issues, it will probably take its cue from the USA over this. It is on the defensive with China.

"But Australian people are taking more and more interest in the Uighur issue, despite -- or because of -- the pressure from China for the Melbourne International Film Festival to withdraw the film about her."

He said the Chinese campaign of "vilifying" Ms Kadeer had been counter-productive. "One of the most powerful countries on earth is pitting itself against a single woman."

Such interest is likely to peak when she gives a televised address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday, August 11. She quietly visited Australia for a week in March -- chiefly to meet the 2000-strong Uighur community, including one of her sons and his family in Melbourne. But since then her profile has soared.

Next week, she will attend a public launch of her biography and lunch at Victoria's Parliament House. Australian Uighurs are further antagonising China by planning a demonstration outside its Melbourne consulate on Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow week Ms Kadeer will attend the sold-out launch of the 53-minute documentary about her, 10 Conditions of Love, jointly hosted by Greens leader Bob Brown and Mr Danby. John Lewis, producer of the $130,000 documentary, said the withdrawal of five Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan films from the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest against Ms Kadeer's presence had led to the film's promotion "all over the planet".

"It's provided publicity we couldn't have dreamt of," he said. In Australia, the film now had a cinema release "previously unthinkable".

The coverage of the Hu affair in Australia appears now to be affecting business in China. At a private Australian Chamber of Commerce dinner held in Beijing on Wednesday night with former foreign minister Alexander Downer, Mr Hu was the main topic of conversation.

Many people there complained that the rising view in China that Australia was sinophobic had begun to affect their businesses. Chinese business people are more reluctant to deal with Australians, especially in the service sector -- lawyers, consultants, accountants and technical experts -- which had been targeted as the next major wave of exports to China.

Additional reporting: Mark Dodd

(2) Xinhua asks Australian FM whether Australia respects China's territorial integrity

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/08/content_11844809.htm

Australia respects China's territorial integrity, sovereignty: FM

www.chinaview.cn 2009-08-08 00:26:23

CAIRNS, Australia, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Australia respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of China, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said here on Friday.

Smith was responding to a question from Xinhua on allowing Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the separatist World Uygur Congress (WUC), to visit Australia, at a press conference after meeting his visiting Indian counterpart S. M. Krishna.

"Allowing someone to come to Australia to visit doesn't mean that we agree necessarily with any or all the views that person espouses or articulates," Smith said.

"The view that is publicly made by a visitor in Australia does not reflect views of Australian people or the Australian government," he said, adding that it was the nature of Australian society to allow different views to be expressed.

Smith said he had made the point clear on several occasions that "Australia, of course, respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of China over the western provinces."

He said Kadeer's application for a visa was processed in the normal way.

This is the first time a senior Australian government official has addressed the Chinese media on the issuing of a visa to Kadeer.

Smith came to Cairns, a northeastern coastal city in Australia, to attend the 40th Pacific Islands Forum, held from Wednesday to Thursday, and the 21st Post Forum Dialogue Partners' Plenary Session on Friday.

China has lodged a solemn representation to the Australian side on its allowing Kadeer to visit Australia.
Editor: Mu Xuequan

(3) China threatens to end Melbourne's sister-city relationship with Tianjin over Uighur film

http://www.theage.com.au/national/chinas-new-film-threat-20090807-ecxz.html

China's new film threat

Mary-Anne Toy

August 8, 2009

THE Chinese Government has threatened to end Melbourne's 29-year sister-city relationship with the city of Tianjin if Lord Mayor Robert Doyle does not intervene to stop the screening of a film about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer at the Town Hall today.

Mr Doyle has rejected the Chinese demands - as well as intense pressure from his own councillors to stop the screening of the controversial film.

The Chinese consul-general in Melbourne, Shen Weilian, requested an urgent meeting with Cr Doyle after the Melbourne International Film Festival on Wednesday moved the premiere of The 10 Conditions of Love to the 1500-seat Town Hall. The move sought to cater for unprecedented demand created by earlier Chinese attempts to ban the film.

It is understood that Mr Shen told Cr Doyle in blunt terms at a meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday that he risked jeopardising the Australia-China relationship - including Melbourne's sister-city arrangement with Tianjin - if he did not intervene and cancel the screening.

The Chinese Government has labelled Ms Kadeer a terrorist and accused her of inciting the ethnic riots that last month killed almost 200 people. It is appalled at any apparent support for her.

Mr Shen told Cr Doyle that the Chinese Government would be deeply offended if he failed to cancel the screening. It is understood Cr Doyle was equally adamant that the Melbourne City Council would not be strong-armed into stopping an Australian-made film being shown at the Town Hall.

Melbourne city councillors are divided over the issue. At a meeting, several councillors objected strenuously to Cr Doyle's position that the council should not be censoring debate or be bullied into taking a particular stand.

Mr Doyle was criticised in June by pro-Tibet groups for allowing a photo exhibition on the benefits of Communist Party rule in Tibet to proceed. The exhibition was indirectly funded by the Chinese consulate here.

Cr Doyle yesterday confirmed to The Age that a "very formal" meeting with Mr Shen had taken place.

"He expressed in the very strongest terms his Government's concerns about the screening of the film,'' Cr Doyle said. "I indicated it was not a decision of council and the screening did not carry in any way the endorsement of council.

"But I also indicated that I would not be instructing the [council's] chief executive officer to prohibit the screening of the film.''

Asked whether threats were made about Melbourne's sister-city relationship with Tianjin, Cr Doyle refused to comment further.

Melbourne was the first Australian city to enter a sister-city relationship with China. Melbourne and Tianjin, the thriving port city an hour east of Beijing, were twinned in 1980.

The relationship has been crucial in helping Victorian governments and businesses forge closer ties with China. Premier John Brumby frequently refers to the Melbourne-Tianjin sister city relationship on his trips to China to promote Victorian business.

Mr Shen and the Chinese consulate yesterday were unavailable for comment. About 100 protesters yesterday gathered outside the consulate in Toorak calling for an end to alleged Uighur persecution in western China. Ms Kadeer, who will attend the premiere of the film this afternoon, addressed the crowd.

The film festival has been inundated with Chinese protests including hacker attacks on its website, death threats and boycotts by Chinese filmmakers since The Age revealed that it had refused Chinese Government demands to withdraw the Uighur film.

Beijing is upset that Ms Kadeer is being given a public platform so soon after the July 5 riots between Uighur and Han Chinese in Xinjiang. China accuses Ms Kadeer and her World Uighur Congress of orchestrating the riots.

Ms Kadeer says the Chinese Government ignited the violence by suppressing a peaceful Uighur protest.

The festival has hired private security guards to protect Ms Kadeer during her time here and has been liaising with the Victoria Police over security for today's screening. It is believed that all parties involved with the film have come under immense pressure not to further inflame Australia's relations with China.

(4) China supporters try to buy up all the tickets for viewing Uighur film

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25876945-5000117,00.html

China the bully on our block

David Penberthy

August 04, 2009 12:00am

SUPERFICIALLY, it's an arthouse issue that affects a small number of culture-vultures who won't see a movie unless it's got subtitles.

It's actually one of the most alarming stories in Australia today, as it shows how the most pernicious features of a totalitarian regime have been imported into our own country.

The Melbourne Film Festival is facing concerted attacks on its freedom of expression and assembly on behalf of the Chinese dictatorship.

Festival director Richard Moore is trying to manage this event against a backdrop of website hacking, telephone sabotage, suspected surveillance and direct threats from supporters of Beijing who want the festival to pull a movie and cancel the Melbourne visit by the woman it profiles.

The film is Ten Conditions of Love and it tells the story of China's Uighur people through the life of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer (below), once one of the most successful businesswomen in China, now regarded by Beijing as an enemy of the state.

Kadeer is facing claims from Beijing that she is a terrorist who from afar masterminded the July 5 violence between the Uighur and the Han Chinese where almost 200 people were killed. Obviously, she denies the allegations.

For Moore, what started as a diverse program of film with a strong focus on China has turned into one of the most frustrating and even frightening episodes of his life.

Seven Chinese movies have been cut as directors pulled out for fear of being black-banned or persecuted for sharing the bill with the Uighur film, or the podium with Kadeer.

Moore has refused to take the film out of the festival, but the intimidation has been intense. Beijing's supporters hacked into the festival website and tried to buy every ticket to Ten Conditions of Love.

Then, when the festival cancelled those tickets and said only friends of the festival could buy them, they discovered some Chinese nationals had signed up as members and were bulk-buying tickets anyway.

So the festival told the public they could buy tickets only over the telephone and, since then, its system has been in meltdown as Beijing supporters ring in to clog up the lines.

"We have had our fax lines blocked. Some of it has been quite absurd. One of them was a picture of a kangaroo saying 'LOL You Stupid Kangaroos'," Moore told me.

Moore stops just short of suggesting any official involvement by China in the sabotage and censorship that he, his staff and their intended audience are facing.

"All I will say is it is concerted - it's a sort of faceless tactic, and it's consistent with the type of intimidation tactics that have been taken elsewhere," he says.

It's impossible not to conclude that these attacks are the artistic rerun of last year's violence at the Olympic torch relay, where pro-Tibetan protesters were jostled and abused by well-organised Chinese nationals.

It also helps answer whether China is becoming more democratic as it becomes more economically open.

China does still not appear to be interested in democracy at all.

David Penberthy is editor of The Punch website

(5) Hong Kong distributor pulls Taiwanese film from Melbourne Film Festival

HK distributor pulls Taiwanese film from MIFFNO 'MIAO MIAO': A DPP legislator deplored China's meddling in the arts and said Taiwanese and the rest of the world should learn a lesson from this

By Loa Iok-sin

STAFF REPORTER, WITH AFP, SYDNEY

Monday, Aug 03, 2009, Page 1

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/08/03/2003450216

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Australia said in a statement that it was "surprised and regretful" that Fortissimo, the Hong Kong-based distribution company of the movie Miao Miao (??) by Taiwanese director Cheng Hsiao-tse (???) and with mostly Taiwanese actors had pulled the movie from the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).

"The withdrawal is the result of the recent boycott by the authorities of the People's Republic of China … against the Melbourne International Film Festival," the statement said. "This has nothing to do with Taiwan, which supports the presentation of the film, freedom of expression and human rights."

The office said that "the arts are a special medium that should be above politics and political dictates."

"TECO firmly believes that it is wrong to boycott this international cultural event because of political differences," it said. "TECO feels very disappointed that the Australian public will be unable to see Miao Miao."

Meanwhile, TECO confirmed that two Taiwanese short films, Joyce Agape (?????) and The Pursuit of What Was, would still participate at the film festival.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (???) said the film industry — as well as other industries — could learn a lesson from the incident.

"What we can learn from this is that being ruled by an authoritarian regime, China is an unreliable source of funding. Whether it's the film industry or any other industry, we should never depend on it for funding," Chen said.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (???) said it would be difficult for the film industry to avoid working with production companies from any specific country because cultural industries transcend boundaries and cross-strait cooperation is in vogue.

"If it's a production by a Hong Kong-based company, it's up to the company to decide what to do and it should try to rid itself of political intervention," Lu said. "After all, it's the Hong Kong-based company that has to shoulder the losses from withdrawing from the film festival."

The reactions came after the organizers of the film festival announced on Friday that they were left without any Chinese-language movies after a boycott by directors in a row over exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

Mounting tensions about the visit of Kadeer, of the World Uighur Congress, have now led seven directors to pull their work from the festival in a dispute that has also seen Hong Kong withdraw its sponsorship.

Six films were originally scheduled — all sold out — but now the director of a seventh title that was to have plugged a hole created by the boycott has also pulled his work.

"[The directors] are against Rebiya Kadeer coming out and the film [about her life] screening at the festival," festival spokeswoman Louise Heseltine said.

Heseltine said the withdrawal of the films, the most recent of which occurred on Tuesday, was a "major inconvenience" for the festival, forcing ticket refunds and massive rescheduling.

She said the organizers had never considered bowing to pressure from Beijing to pull Ten Conditions of Love, a documentary about Kadeer's life, from the festival program.

Nor had they entertained not hosting her as a guest on Wednesday at a screening of the film, Heseltine said.

"There's no way the festival would not screen the film," she said, adding: "She's definitely coming out."

The Hong Kong and Taipei trade offices have "been partnering with the festival for a number of years and I believe that they're disappointed, but it's just circumstances that are really beyond our control and beyond their control as well," she said.

China has labeled the US-based Muslim minority leader a "criminal" and accuses her of inciting recent violence in the restive Xinjiang region, which left at least 197 dead.

Canberra has rebuffed Chinese objections to the visit by Kadeer, saying she is not a "terrorist" and there is no reason to exclude her.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Kadeer had been given a visa for this week's visit

(6) Green light for China: Australia's Treasurer lowers barriers for foreign investment

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25883171-36418,00.html

Swan lowers barriers for foreign investment

David Uren, Economics correspondent | August 05, 2009

CURBS on foreign investment by private companies have been relaxed, but all investments by state-owned Chinese businesses will still have to run the gauntlet of the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Wayne Swan announced yesterday that the requirement for all private foreign companies establishing new businesses worth more than $10 million to notify the FIRB had been dropped, while the threshold at which the government formally reviewed investments had been raised.

Foreign companies seeking a stake in an Australian company or making an outright takeover will now be able to act without seeking approval in deals worth up to $219m, a figure that will be indexed.

They previously faced a threshold of $100m for minority interests and $200m for outright takeovers.

"New businesses in Australia boost growth, create jobs and facilitate access to new technologies, global integration and networking," the Treasurer said yesterday.

"Recognising these factors, and based on my own experience reviewing new business proposals, the government has determined that such investments do not generally raise national interest concerns."

He presented a sombre view on the medium-term outlook, saying that while Australia had enjoyed a surge of foreign investment interest both from China and from its traditional suppliers of foreign capital, the "investment outlook will be less bullish, as a consequence of the slower global economy".

"We recognise that in a capital-constrained world, which will be a feature of the post-crisis economy, we must do more to send a signal about our attractiveness to investors. If we can cut out some of the red tape we should do that," Mr Swan said.

The liberalisation does not apply to real estate transactions, which account for 92 per cent of applications for FIRB approval, or to investments by state-owned entities, for which all investments require foreign investment approval. Mr Swan said he did not believe the changes for private companies would generate a negative response in China.

"We've had a lot of Chinese investment in this country in recent times -- $34 billion since the government came to power," he said. "There has never been a threshold for foreign government or state-owned investment, so nothing changes there for everyone."

Mr Swan said that both he and Trade Minister Simon Crean had had extensive discussions with their Chinese counterparts about Australia's investment guidelines.

Addressing a seminar run by Thompson Reuters, he rejected suggestions that the arrest of Rio Tinto's iron ore negotiator, Stern Hu, had any connection with Australia's foreign investment guidelines, or the failure of the Chinalco bid for a stake in Rio Tinto.

The new investment regime will still favour US companies which, under the Australia-US free trade agreement, can make investments in Australia worth up to $953m without FIRB approval, a figure that is indexed annually.