Australia provides quality education in a safe environment
By Albert Smith | Fri, 09/04/2009 - 23:13
Irrespective of what China thinks, Australia has made it absolutely clear that it will allocate Australian Visas to ones they wish to and there would be no compromise on its stand.
John Howard, the former Australian Prime Minister, criticized the clumsy and ridiculous efforts of Chinese diplomats to advice Australian immigration to decline visas to exiled dissidents of China. Mr. Howard said at a business functions in Sydney that China has got a very silly practice, that if they do not want one to see someone, they say it straight, which implies one must see them.
Last month, China tried to prevent the granting of visa to exiled Uighur leader Rebiva Kadeer for visiting Australia.
Mr. Howard said that there was no doubt that Australia had to give a visa to that lady, and commented in a strict tone that Australia doesn’t allow the Chinese or any other government, be it America or Britain, to have a say on who should be granted visa and who should not.
China responded to granting visa to Kedeer’s application for an Australian visa by canceling a visit of its senior minister. China believes that Ms. Kadeer is a separatist who was responsible for unrest in the North West Xinjiang region of China.
Mr. Howard summarized some of the others efforts on part of China aimed to have a say on granting of Australian visas to citizens of China. As an example, he cited Dalai Lama’s case and also said that the recent tensions between the two countries may be due to the rejection by Rio Tinto of a US$19.5 billion cash introduction from Chinalco, the state-owned aluminum giant of China.
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