EU-China summit latest victim of China's strong-arm diplomacy on Tibet

26 November 2008

The EU announced today that China had postponed next week’s EU-China Summit. EU diplomats said that China had postponed the meeting in opposition to the Dalai Lama visiting several EU member states at the same time as the Summit was due to take place(1). French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is due to meet the Dalai Lama in Poland on November 6 and France currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese government spokesperson, Qin Gang, stated bluntly: "we oppose any foreign leaders having any contact with the Dalai.”

China’s high-handed postponement of such a high-level meeting at such short notice is the latest example of its increasingly strident diplomacy on Tibet: China has either abandoned, dismissed or postponed other recent bilateral dialogues and forms of engagement in which either its repressive role in Tibet’s worsening human rights crisis has come into question, or where it was due to be held accountable for its ongoing human rights abuses in Tibet.

On November 10, after eight rounds of dialogue with envoys of the Dalai Lama, China stated aggressively that it would “never” accept Tibetan calls for genuine autonomy in Tibet, signalling that it was no longer willing to take part in talks on finding a political solution to the Tibetan issue; the Chinese government has been evasive in refusing to commit to dates for a scheduled bilateral human rights dialogue with the British government(2); and China recently dismissed furiously conclusions made by the UN Committee on Torture about its record on torture and abuse in Tibet and China, commenting that members of the Committee had “prejudice against China”(3).

Free Tibet spokesperson, Matt Whitticase, said:

“By postponing the EU Summit China has highlighted its deep insecurity over its deteriorating human rights record in Tibet as well as its ongoing determination to avoid being held accountable for such abuses.

“With the Sino-Tibetan dialogue in gridlock, the UK-China human rights dialogue on hold, a UN Committee dismissed as ‘prejudiced against China’ and now the EU summit delayed over Tibet, it is clear that China has no intention of accepting the level of accountability for its actions in Tibet that its position on the world stage demands. The international community must therefore urgently decide upon its own strategy for concerted action to ensure China is held to account.”

Ends

For further information: Matt Whitticase t: +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456

Notes to Editor:

1. The EU-China Summit was due to take place in France on December 1. The Dalai Lama travels to Europe next week and will visit theCzech Republic before addressing a plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels on December 4. He then travels to Polandwhere he will meet French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, on December 6.
2. In response to a parliamentary question by Keith Simpson MP as to whether the Chinese had agreed to dates for the next round of human rights dialogue with the British Government, British Minister of State, Bill Rammell, responded: “We continue to press the Chinese to agree dates as soon as possible”.
3. The Reuters report on China’s reaction to the UN Committee’s conclusions is available at:http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE4AM0CX20081123 Free Tibet’s statement on the UN Committee’s conclusions is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/un-torture-committee-issues-scathing-indictment-china%E2%80%99s-record-torture

For further information: Matt Whitticase: +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456
Or e-mail matt@freetibet.org