Nous comprenons les préoccupations exprimées et les prenons très au sérieux.
Compte tenu de la taille de notre délégation, la visite a été organisée en coordination avec les équipes de la tour Eiffel, au début des horaires habituels d’ouverture, afin de limiter autant que possible toute gêne pour les autres visiteurs.
À notre connaissance, à aucun moment l’accès à la tour Eiffel n’a été refusé à qui que ce soit.
Nous tenons néanmoins à présenter nos sincères excuses à toute personne qui aurait pu être blessée ou gênée par cette situation.
Nous sommes profondément attachés aux valeurs universelles de respect mutuel et de service aux autres.
We respect the concerns raised and take them very seriously.
Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal opening hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others.
To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower.
Nevertheless, we sincerely apologise for any pain or inconvenience caused.
We believe in the universal values of mutual respect and service.
On December 18, 1803, at Zalongo, a group of Greek Women jumped from the cliffs, holding their children. They chose death over falling into the hands of Muslims where they would face rape, abuse and enslavement. They chose death over dishonor. Islam has no place in Greece.
What happened near the Tibet–Nepal border was not simply “an unavoidable natural disaster,” as China would want you to believe. It was a natural hazard magnified by CCP's political negligence.
A collapsing glacier unleashed a wall of water, ice, rock and mud through the Himalayan valleys, destroying bridges, roads and entire communities. The China–Nepal Friendship Bridge was swept away, but the more important casualty is China’s claim to responsible regional leadership.
The CCP has covered Tibet with surveillance cameras, military installations, highways and massive infrastructure projects. It can monitor a Tibetan carrying the wrong photograph or posting the wrong sentence. Yet when a catastrophic flood threatened tens of thousands of people downstream, where was the effective cross-border warning system?
This was not an unforeseeable event. A similar flood struck the same river system only 14 months ago. Scientists have warned repeatedly that Himalayan glaciers are destabilizing as temperatures rise. China knew the danger, possessed the technology and controlled extensive upstream territory. What it apparently lacked was the urgency, and transparency to protect people beyond its border.
China loves calling its projects “Friendship Bridges,” “development corridors” and “win-win cooperation.” But friendship means warning your neighbors before a wall of water reaches them, not dispatching officials and propaganda crews after their towns have disappeared.
The glacial collapse may have been natural. The absence of adequate monitoring, information sharing and emergency coordination was not.
China wants to dam transboundary rivers and reshape the Himalayas while treating downstream countries as spectators. Nepal, India and Bhutan should study this catastrophe carefully.
When an opaque authoritarian state controls the upstream water, everyone downstream inherits the risk.