Bill Clinton Says Chinese Donations Save Lives, Supports Dalai Lama
Bill Clinton told the Observer yesterday that the money his foundation has taken from foreign companies does not pose a conflict of interest for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
A story in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend examined the potential problems in Clinton's fund-raising relationship with a Chinese Internet company that has allegedly aided China's crackdown on Tibetan activists by posting "most wanted" pictures of protest organizers on the Yahoo China homepage, which the Clinton-donor company operates.
Asked at a campaign event in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania yesterday whether those and other foreign donations presented a potential conflict for his wife, Clinton answered, “No.”
"They help me save lives in China," Clinton said. “The Chinese company's investment, they know all the money goes into teaching Chinese people with AIDS and we run an AIDS program in China, that's what we do."
When asked about concerns that the company, Alibaba Inc, supported the Chinese human rights violations and thus undercut Hillary Clinton's criticism of China's crackdown, Clinton responded, "I support the Dalai Lama and I support Hillary's position."
The LA Times article on former President Bill Clinton's accepting a donation and travel expenses from China's Yahoo internet company, Alibaba, shows the success of China's government in buying friends and influence here in the United States.
The LA Times article quotes Chinese human rights leader, Harry Wu: "A former president of the United States received a donation from a Chinese firm that is involved in censorship, and now his wife is running for president. This is a shame of the U.S."
How sad and how true.
It is sad that our former president did not use his speaking engagement to discuss Shi Tao's imprisonment, or the imprisonment of internet blogger Hu Jia- an AIDS activist - who is languishing in China's prison system for writing an article on the internet. Hu Jia's wife is under house arrest with her baby.
Congressional hearings led by the late Tom Lantos (D-CA) highlighted the disgrace of US-based companies like Yahoo who facilitate China's government's surveillance of Chinese citizens who seek basic human rights.
These stories have been in newspapers and magazine throughout the United States.
Our former President could have followed the example set by Yahoo in their legal settlement with Shi Tao's family by pressing for the release of Shi Tao and other internet writers such as Hu Jia.
Before he was elected president, Bill Clinton criticized former President Bush's relationship with China's government as "coddling the dictators."
After he became President, Bill Clinton coddled away, and there seems to be no end in sight.
Can we expect anything different from Hillary?