China will not participate in a multilateral meeting aimed at
discussing the Iranian nuclear issue, foreign ministry spokesman
Liu Jianchao said Tuesday.
The meeting, scheduled to be held in Berlin today, is a
gathering of senior officials from the five permanent UN Security
Council members and Germany.
Liu said Beijing's absence is due to technical reasons, adding
its position on Teheran's nuclear issue had not changed.
Myanmar issue
Referring to UN envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari's current Asian
trip, Liu said China welcomed Gambari's forthcoming visit to
exchange views on the issue.
Gambari, dispatched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has
already traveled to Thailand and Malaysia and is to head to India,
China and Japan.
Japanese held
Procurators in the northeastern city Shenyang have arrested a
Japanese man in connection with illegal organ transplants, Liu
said.
The suspect's name is Nagase Hiroyuki, a legal representative
for a Japanese-invested information and consultation company in
Shenyang of northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Under the name of "China International Transplantation Network
Assistance Center", the company first released information on the
Internet in 2004 offering organ transplant services for Japanese
customers.
Liu said such an activity was beyond the company's scope and had
broken Ministry of Health rules.
China implemented a regulation on organ transplants in May with
provisions to prohibit the organ business and to respect donor
wishes.
Liu said the case was under further investigation.
Attack in Ukraine
Liu also said three female Chinese students who were attacked by
unidentified gangsters with knives in the capital city Kiev of
Ukraine are no longer in critical condition.
The incident took place late Sunday.
The foreign ministry had paid high attention to it, urging the
Ukrainian side to take effective measures to ensure the safety of
Chinese students, the spokesman said.
Dalai Lama
China strongly opposed a so-called Congressional gold medal to
Dalai Lama from the US Congress and the presence of President
George W. Bush to the awarding ceremony, and strongly urged the US
side to cancel such arrangement.
"China is strongly resentful of and resolutely opposes this and
has made solemn represent to the US side. We seriously urged the US
side to correct such wrong doing and cancel relevant arrangement,
and stop interfering in China's domestic affairs in any forms," Liu
said.
"The words and deeds of Dalai Lama in the dozens of years showed
that he is a political refugee engaging in separating the country
in the name of religion," Liu said.
He stressed that the Chinese people have undeviating resolution
to safeguard their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Any conspiracy using Dalai Lama issue to interfere in China's
internal affairs is destined to be defeated.
Sudan political crisis
"We believe the Sudan National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) will proceed from the overall
situation of national unity and reconciliation and safeguard the
hard-won peace between north and south," Liu said.
He said China hopes they could resolve the issue through
dialogue and consultations and make joint efforts to implement the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) so as to push forward peace
process in the country.
The SPLM, a former anti-government group in southern Sudan,
decided last Thursday to suspend its partnership with the Sudanese
central government and recall its senior officials in the
government of National Unity.
The SPLM signed a peace agreement, the CPA, with the Sudanese
government in 2005 according to which the ruling NCP is to share
the political power with the SPLM in the government.
The NCP said it would conduct more consultations with its peace
partner, the SPLM, to settle the political crisis between them.
Nobel Peace Prize winners
China congratulated former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on their winning
of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Liu said China appreciated Gore and IPCC's positive role in
promoting international cooperation on dealing with climate change
issues.
Gore and the IPCC jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on
October 12 for their efforts to raise awareness of the threat of
climate change.
President of Costa Rica to visit
Liu announced that Oscar Arias Sanchez, president of Costa Rica,
will pay a state visit to China from October 22 to 28 at the
invitation of President Hu Jintao.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency October 17,
2007)
