Chinese UK Ambassador: Keep politics separate 28/03/2008 - 09:11:18
The Chinese ambassador to Britain said today she wants to keep politics separate from the 2008 Olympics.
Amid international criticism of the Chinese government’s treatment of protestors in Tibet, Ms Fu Ying told BBC Breakfast that the Games should be treated as a separate issue.
She said: “I’m very worried because for days, for weeks we have heard about the Beijing Olympics as if it’s a UN conference for solving all domestic problems.
“For the Chinese it’s about sports.”
She added: “There’s a lot more awareness about the influence of politics and there are better means for solving political problems, but you don’t solve them on the football ground, you don’t solve them in the swimming pool.”
Ms Fu Ying claimed foreign journalists have been denied free reign in the country to protect them from recent violence.
“People died and people are angry with the way it’s presented. The most important thing China wants to do is to calm the people,” she added.
The ambassador also said the Chinese government would speak to the Dalai Lama as long as he was not asking for Tibetan independence.
“Independence is always a sensitive thing in China because of all the ethnic groups,” she said.
“The dialogue (with the Dalai Lama) started in the 70s and he was invited to come back to China in the 80s and since then the dialogue has been open. There have been some difficulties but the door has never been closed.”
The Olympic torch would go to Tibet despite recent unrest, she said.
Ms Fu Ying added that she was pleased millions of Chinese people would be able to see London on television when the Olympic torch goes through the city on April 6.
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