Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in a little more than 4 months, the world will witness one of its great quadrennial events: the Summer Olympic Games. The games have been billed as a way for China to reintroduce itself to the international community. China has done everything, virtually, to prepare. It has pulled out all the stops: $38 billion in infrastructure improvements, including a brand new 91,000-seat stadium, 300 miles of new roads, and an entirely new terminal at Beijing's international airport--all done for the Olympic Games. What China will not be highlighting is its human rights record. That is because its human rights record is abysmal. Last year, Amnesty International, the nonpartisan, nonaligned, highly respected international group that monitors human rights, said of China that: An increased number of journalists . . . were harassed, detained, and jailed. Thousands of people who pursued their faith outside officially sanctioned churches were subjected to harassment and many to detention and imprisonment. Thousands of people were sentenced to death or executed. Migrants from rural areas were deprived of basic rights. The report went on to say: Severe repression of the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region continued, and freedom of expression and religion continued to be severely restricted in Tibet and among Tibetans everywhere.”