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NEWS - Australia, China to Discuss



Subject: NEWS - Australia, China to Discuss Tibet, Falun Gong Ban

Australia, China to Discuss Tibet, Falun Gong Ban

CANBERRA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Australia and China will hold their third
annual human rights talks later this month, with Australia saying Tibet
and China's treatment of the banned Falun Gong movement will be among
issues raised. 

Foreign affairs officials said Australia was seeking to discuss a "very
broad perspective" on human rights during the August 16-20 talks in
Beijing and in the western province of Qinghai, which borders Tibet. 

"We are not just looking at political rights, we're looking at religious
rights, social rights, economic rights, cultural rights," an official
said, noting China's Ministry for Public Security would participate for
the first time. 

"We haven't got any no-go areas, we haven't quarantined certain
sensitive issues from the dialogue," the official, who did not want to
be named, told a media briefing. 

He cited Tibet, the ban imposed on the Falun Gong, family planning, the
use of the death penalty, and political detention in China as issues
which were up for discussion. 

Beijing outlawed the Falung Gong, an exercise and meditation movement,
on July 22 and set a reward for the arrest of its leader after thousands
of members surrounded government offices in 30 Chinese cities in the
wake of a crackdown on its leaders. 

The main purpose of the visit to Qinghai would be to consider local
minority issues, with the province home to significant numbers of ethnic
Tibetans, as well as other minorities, including some Moslem groups, the
briefing was told. 

China in 1997 began human rights dialogue with Australia after
Canberra's decided not to back a move in the United Nations condeming
Beijing for human rights abuses. 

China has been accused of persecuting Tibetan monks and nuns loyal to
the country's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959
after an abortive Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.