West Midlands say Tibet before trade as Chinese Premier arrives at MG Rover

24  June 2011

Half of all adults in the West Midlands think protecting human rights in Tibet is more important than maintaining good trade relations with China, the highest percentage in all regions of the UK to hold human rights in such regard.

Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said:

“It is time to put human rights in Tibet and China on at least an equal footing with trade considerations, in line with British public opinion and British national interest.”

Wen Jiabao is due to visit the MG Rover plant in Birmingham (owned by Chinese company Shanghai Automotive) shortly after his arrival in the UK on Saturday. Tibet supporters, Chinese democracy activists and Falun Gong supporters will be protesting at the factory on Lickey Road, Longbridge from 10am – 12noon.

Ends

Notes to Editor

(1) ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+ by telephone from 29 October – 1 November 2010. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
Please cite Free Tibet if you use information from this poll.

Q1. For you, is protecting human rights in Tibet more important, less important or equally as important as maintaining good trade relations with China?

Results for the West Midlands:

More important: 50%
Equally as important: 26%
Less important: 11%
Neither are important: 1%
Don’t know: 13%

2) Analysts regard the human rights situation in China as being at its worst since the brutal suppression of Chinese democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tibet is currently closed to foreign visitors for the second time in 2011 as China prepares for rather one-sided celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the ‘peaceful liberation’ of Tibet and the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Tibetan monks and laypeople in Ngaba, Eastern Tibet remain under the strict control of Chinese military forces following unrest that began in March when a young monk died after setting fire to himself (http://freetibet.org/newsmedia/tension-ngaba-county-escalates) ; Tibetans in Kandze, also in Eastern Tibet, are reported to have been staging protests throughout June, with reports of protesters being beaten and detained. Information coming out of Tibet is severely restricted to the ban on foreigners, including foreign media, and the severe penalties for Tibetans convicted of passing information to the outside world.

2011 has seen protests by citizens not just in Tibet, but also in Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Beijing, Shanghai to name but a few. There were an estimated 180,000 such ‘mass incidents’ across China in 2010, and government spending on ‘public security’ is increasing year on year in the hopes of keeping a lid on things, outstripping spending on defence this year by millions of yuan (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-06/china-s-spending-on-internal-police-force-in-2010-outstrips-defense-budget.html)

Free Tibet is an international campaigning organisation that stands for the right of Tibetans to determine their own future. We campaign for an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the fundamental human rights of Tibetans to be respected.

For further interviews and further information please contact Free Tibet’s Director Stephanie Brigden

E: stephanie@freetibet.org

T: +44 (0)207 324 4605