Xinhua reports "U.S. Senate adopts resolution to mourn victims of China earthquake" - which we have decided to quote in full below. The list of senators sponsoring this resolution are particularily interesting to the China watchers. Note that both Senators Clinton and Obama are on the list - one of them will be the Democratic candidate for this years election.
This story hasn't shown up in the Western media yet. Maybe it will go unnoticed.
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Xinhua) -- In an unusual move to express its sense, the U.S. Senate on Monday adopted a resolution to mourn the victims of a devastating earthquake which struck southwest China on May 12 and convey condolences and support to the Chinese people.
"The Senate mourns the horrific loss of life and terrible human suffering caused by the earthquake in the People's Republic of China on May 12, 2008," said the resolution, jointly submitted by Barbara Boxer, Democratic senator from California, and Lisa Murkowski, Republican senator from Alaska.
The Senate also expresses its "deep condolences" to the Chinese people and to all those affected by this enormous tragedy and its "profound sorrow" for the families of all who lost their loved ones, including those who suffered the heartbreaking loss of having their children trapped in schools that collapsed.
The Senate called on President George W. Bush to respond to any requests for humanitarian assistance made by the Chinese government, saying that it stands ready to support the provision of additional resources, as necessary, to assist those impacted by the earthquake which claimed at least 34,000 lives and injured 245,000 others.
Another 19 senators also co-sponsored the resolution. They include Senators Richard Durbin (the Democratic Whip), Joseph Biden (Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee), Richard Lugar (ranking member of Foreign Relations Committee), Chris Dodd (Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs),Dianne Feinstein (Chairman of Committee on Rules and Administration), Patrick Leahy (Chairman of Committee on the Judiciary), Hillary Clinton (Democratic presidential candidate) and Barack Obama (Democratic presidential candidate).
A similar resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives and is expected to be adopted this week.
Editor: Wang Hongjiang
4 comments:
"In an unusual move to express its sense..". Indicating quite directly that a government is usually without sense is a very loaded way to start an article. I do not believe this is an opinion peice but rather a wire story. Whether or not the US congress usually has sense or not should be left to the reader to decide after he/she reads about the activities of congress over the years.
This is not an attack against Chinese media. We can find this sort of thing in all media, and it must be pointed out.
Good point. The choice of (English) words by the Chinese media are not right some times. This was acknowledged by the spokesman fron the London Chinese Embassy - for example - he said that China will rename its "Propaganda Department to something that better suits Westerners taste."
I just read this on the Wall Street Journal China Blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/05/20/a-change-in-tone-from-the-us-congress/?mod=WSJBlog
""Typically, U.S. congressional resolutions on China are highly critical of the nation’s government and it actions. Last month, by a vote of 413-1, the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on China to end its crackdown on Tibet. Other recent resolutions have criticized China’s one-child policy, supported Taiwan’s right to self-defense and named China as one of several “serial abusers of human rights.”
But in another sign of softening in the tone toward China, at least temporarily, in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake, the U.S. Senate yesterday passed a resolution mourning the loss of life in the May 12 Sichuan quake. "" (It continues... see link above)
Anyway, I haven't read too much of the blog yet, but i already like it better than some of the others maintained by mainstream US media. What do you think?
Thx for sharing with us about this blog, Michelle. Wall Street Journal largely targets business readers in the USA, and we believe business-minded people tend to be more "worldly". It is defiitely more sophisticated than other U.S. mainstream media.
We agree with you - based on entries we have read so far - it seems much better than blogs from other mainstream U.S. media.
The one from NPR, called Chengdu Diary, is good also.
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