Today, on our second day here in Beijing, our group had the fantastic (and rare) opportunity to visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to observe a live press briefing. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Miss Hua Chunying briefed the press on several recent and upcoming issues in which China is involved. Some of these included upcoming visits by Chinese dignitaries to Israel and Croatia as well as high level visits by the president of the Kyrgyz Republic. What was more interesting, however, was the discussion of recent tensions in the South China Sea where Vietnamese vessels have apparently been ramming Chines ships and oil rigs in an attempt to disrupt oil drilling in what China believes to be their "undisputed territory". We found this information very insightful has we were unaware of any current tensions between China and Vietnam.
We also greatly enjoyed the question and answer portion where journalists from various international news agencies were able to ask further question regarding other fascinating subject of which we had never heard discussed. A couple such questions involved the current construction of what is believed to be a Chinese airstrip along a reef that Indonesia claims is theirs but which China claims is indisputably their territory. Again, a very interesting topic we had never heard discussed before. Spokeswomen Hua simply stated that construction might be taking place, but the land belongs to China, making such construction perfectly legal. We enjoyed taking part in such a rich experience and were grateful for the opportunity we were given to observe and discuss such interesting topics in very current Chinese international affairs.
Sean
14 May 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment