https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/05\/14\/china-owned-nyc-tower-reportedly-blocked-amnesty-international-lease.html?fbclid=IwAR0M2n9MH1Ke1rLLtUnbWiGP9XcgqbDS5hTVDwRXl1N0Ckul5Yb5EKw9zI8<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
KEY POINTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- A state-owned Chinese shipping giant declined to lease an office space in New York to human rights group Amnesty International U.S.A, The New York Times reports.<\/li>
- A spokeswoman for Amnesty International U.S.A. said the organization was told it is \u201cnot the best tenant\u201d for the building, according to The New York Times.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAmnesty International has widely protested the Chinese treatment of predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Here, a protester is confronted by supporters of Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on Oct.16, 2018 in The Hague, Netherlands.Pierre Crom | Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A state-owned Chinese<\/a> shipping company refused to lease an office space in New York City<\/a> to human rights group Amnesty International U.S.A, The New York Times reported<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosco Shipping<\/a> acquired Orient Overseas in 2017,<\/a> and took ownership the company\u2019s real estate investments, including the office building in question, called Wall Street Plaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokeswoman for Amnesty International U.S.A. said the organization was told that it is \u201cnot the best tenant\u201d for a building owned by a Chinese state-owned firm, according to The New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amnesty, a non-governmental organization, regularly calls attention to human rights abuses in China<\/a>. Recently that has included calls for the United Nations to establish an international fact-finding mission<\/a> in China\u2019s Xinjiang territory: A 2018 Amnesty International report<\/a> documents how China runs detention camps in the region where up to a million people are held and tortured for breaking a \u201chighly restrictive and discriminatory\u201d law supposedly aimed at \u201cde-extremification\u201d of Muslim ethnic groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOpen or even private displays of religious and cultural affiliation, including growing an \u2018abnormal\u2019 beard, wearing a veil or headscarf, regular prayer, fasting or avoidance of alcohol, or possessing books or articles about Islam or Uighur culture can be considered \u2018extremist\u2019 under the regulation,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWATCH NOWVIDEO04:39What does China own in the US?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chinese government is sensitive about allegations of human rights abuses. It works hard within its own borders to squelch information about such accusations, both online and offline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were planning to sign the lease until we were told a week ago by our contact at Orient Overseas \u2014 who owns the building \u2014 that his bosses were declining,\u2033 Robyn Shepherd, a spokeswoman at Amnesty International U.S.A. told the Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHis response was along the lines that we weren\u2019t the best tenant for a building owned by a Chinese (state-owned enterprise), and that we probably wouldn\u2019t want to be a tenant there anyway, given the owners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New York Times reported that it didn\u2019t hear back from Cosco Shipping. The company did not immediately reply to a CNBC request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shepherd told the Times that Amnesty International U.S.A. is exploring other lease options in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLISHED TUE, MAY 14 2019\u00a0\u00a012:18 AM EDTUPDATED TUE, MAY 14 2019\u00a0\u00a012:53 AM EDT https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/05\/14\/china-owned-nyc-tower-reportedly-blocked-amnesty-international-lease.html?fbclid=IwAR0M2n9MH1Ke1rLLtUnbWiGP9XcgqbDS5hTVDwRXl1N0Ckul5Yb5EKw9zI8 KEY POINTS A state-owned Chinese shipping giant declined to lease an … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4,9],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-human-rights","tag-present-danger-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}