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<HR class=print-hr>Lee Kuan Yew: Arab revolts will not go to China
By shaza
Created Wednesday, March 30th
AFP [1]
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 15:50:00
WASHINGTON: The wave of revolts against authoritarian regimes in the Arab world will not spread to China as its leaders are not worried about global opinion, Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew said.
Chinese Internet users inspired by events in the Middle East have tried to organize mass strolls in a number of cities but they have faced a clampdown by authorities.
Asked in a US television interview if China could be the next country to witness major protests, Lee Kuan Yew said: "Not likely."
"Public security is so comprehensive and tight," Lee told public television's "The Charlie Rose Show" in the interview broadcast late Monday.
Lee, who stepped down as prime minister of the prosperous city-state in 1990 but remains influential in Asia, said that China's leaders believed their system was right for their own circumstances.
"They're not interested in what the world thinks about them. They're interested in their own internal stability and good order and success," he said.
Rights groups say that up to 100 Chinese activists have been warned, placed under house arrest or have disappeared into police custody as Beijing tries to prevent even a hint of the Tiananmen democracy movement crushed in 1989.
Mass movements have swept the Arab world since February, bringing down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. In Libya, a Western-led military intervention is supporting rebels fighting to oust leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Lee praised French President Nicolas Sarkozy for taking the lead in the effort and predicted that Kadhafi would battle until the end.
"Sarkozy has, I think very courageously, gone ahead regardless of what the US was willing to do," Lee said.
"I think he knows that if Kadhafi stays there, he'd have no end of problems with Libya," he said.
Home > Printer-friendly > Printer-friendly
<HR class=print-hr>Lee Kuan Yew: Arab revolts will not go to China
By shaza
Created Wednesday, March 30th
AFP [1]
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 15:50:00
WASHINGTON: The wave of revolts against authoritarian regimes in the Arab world will not spread to China as its leaders are not worried about global opinion, Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew said.
Chinese Internet users inspired by events in the Middle East have tried to organize mass strolls in a number of cities but they have faced a clampdown by authorities.
Asked in a US television interview if China could be the next country to witness major protests, Lee Kuan Yew said: "Not likely."
"Public security is so comprehensive and tight," Lee told public television's "The Charlie Rose Show" in the interview broadcast late Monday.
Lee, who stepped down as prime minister of the prosperous city-state in 1990 but remains influential in Asia, said that China's leaders believed their system was right for their own circumstances.
"They're not interested in what the world thinks about them. They're interested in their own internal stability and good order and success," he said.
Rights groups say that up to 100 Chinese activists have been warned, placed under house arrest or have disappeared into police custody as Beijing tries to prevent even a hint of the Tiananmen democracy movement crushed in 1989.
Mass movements have swept the Arab world since February, bringing down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. In Libya, a Western-led military intervention is supporting rebels fighting to oust leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Lee praised French President Nicolas Sarkozy for taking the lead in the effort and predicted that Kadhafi would battle until the end.
"Sarkozy has, I think very courageously, gone ahead regardless of what the US was willing to do," Lee said.
"I think he knows that if Kadhafi stays there, he'd have no end of problems with Libya," he said.
