14 November 2011

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised her concern publicly over the recent spate of self-immolations in eastern Tibet. In Honolulu for an Asia-Pacific summit last week, Clinton said the US was “alarmed by recent incidents in Tibet of young people lighting themselves on fire in desperate acts of protest, as well as the continued house arrest of the Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng.”

Clinton said the US welcomed a “thriving China” but wanted to ensure that the fast-growing region develops standards on openness and basic freedoms. “When we see reports of lawyers, artists and others who are detained or ‘disappeared,’ the United States speaks up both publicly and privately,” Clinton said in a speech at the East-West Center think-tank shortly before a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Read the AFP report