McCain condemns Tibet crackdown

3/21/2008 - 6:10:28 PM

US Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain said today that China was harming its world image with its crackdown in Tibet and expressed hope Beijing would seek a peaceful solution to the crisis.

McCain did not discuss the issue during a 45-minute meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but told reporters later the subject was “one of the first things I would talk about if I were president of the United States today”.

China’s crackdown “is not correct”, McCain said in the court yard of the French presidential Elysee Palace.

“The people there are being subjected to mistreatment that is not acceptable with the conduct of a world power, which China is,” McCain said in response to a question by a Chinese television journalist.