'Good riddance,' China says as Germany leaves U.N. Security Council

Brody · Post by **Brody** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:01 am

'Good riddance,' China says as Germany leaves U.N. Security Council

https://www.yahoo.com/news/good-riddanc ... 12420.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Germany's U.N. envoy, during his last scheduled U.N. Security Council meeting, appealed to China to free two detained Canadians for Christmas, prompting China's deputy U.N. envoy to respond: "Out of the bottom of my heart: Good riddance."

Germany finishes a two-year term on the 15-member council at the end of this month and Ambassador Christoph Heusgen plans to retire after more than 40 years as a diplomat.

"Let me end my tenure on the Security Council by appealing to my Chinese colleagues to ask Beijing for the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Christmas is the right moment for such a gesture," Heusgen told the council session, whose official agenda topic was Iran.

Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat who was working as an adviser for the International Crisis Group think tank, and businessman Spavor were detained by Beijing in 2018 shortly after Canadian police picked up Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant.

China's deputy U.N. ambassador, Geng Shuang, accused Heusgen of abusing the Security Council to launch "malicious" attacks on other members "in an attempt to poison the working atmosphere".

"I wish to say something out of the bottom of my heart: Good riddance, Ambassador Heusgen," Geng said. "I am hoping that the council in your absence in the year 2021 will be in a better position to fulfil the responsibilities...for maintaining international peace and security."

Arget · Post by **Arget** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 12:18 pm

Arrogant ctnus... Can you imagine the kerfuffle that would go on if anyone said anything like this about Pooh and his crew

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Post by **Freightdog** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 12:37 pm

The art of being politely offensive, and spinning the narrative to mean something else altogether. They’re pretty good at making it sound right, despite everyone knowing it is a complete facade. The reason they are able to do so, I think, is because everyone else is trying to maintain some stability and at the same time secure their own interests, and keeping the buggers on-side.
However, I’m fairly certain that they feel emboldened to keep pushing because there is no unified NO! From the rest of the world. And with about a 1/5th of the global population under their governance, they clearly have plenty of spare meat to throw at the fray if they want to keep pushing.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus · Post by **Bitte_Kein_Lexus** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 1:56 pm

Indeed. The Chinese menace keeps spreading its long fingers as long as there's no "No means No"...

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 3:29 pm

They have an electricity shortage and the price of coal has gone up due to their embargo of Australian coal.
These embargoes indicate they have liquidity issues as most products targeted are luxuries.