Irish Times Reports on Councillors Joining Rights Protest as Cork is Twinned with Shanghai

According to a report from Irish Times on May 20 by Southern correspondent Barry Roche, a ceremony of twinning of Cork and Shanghai was held on May 19. But the twinning ceremony was not without controversy, however, as four members of Cork City Council joined a protest outside Cork City Hall to highlight human rights abuses in China.

The report states, among those protesting outside the ceremony was Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Ming (30), a native of Beijing who was imprisoned for almost two years and tortured with electric shocks by the Chinese authorities when he returned to Beijing in 2000 for a holiday after studying in Dublin.

"Of course for two countries to show friendship for each other is good but they are coming here as if nothing is happening. That is not the case - more than 2,000 death cases have been recorded among Falun Gong practitioners in the labour camps and prisons in recent years."

According to the report, the Green Party's Cllr Chris O'Leary strongly condemned Cork City Council for arranging the twinning.

"The regime in China is very intolerant of those who practise different religion, those who have HIV, anybody who is outspoken, the right of people to associate - and here we are signing a twinning arrangement with a Chinese city. I think it sends out the entirely wrong signal," he said.