1st September 2005

Prime Minister must put Tibet before Textiles

Free Tibet Campaign has called on UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will visit China next week for the EU/China and UK/China summits, to press China's President Hu Jintao to meet the Dalai Lama, in order to escalate efforts to secure an end to China's 55 year occupation of Tibet. Free Tibet Campaign hopes that the visit will not be hijacked by the current dispute over textile production, which has resulted in mountains of clothing being warehoused in China.

"The direct personal involvement of Hu Jintao in the 'formal contact' between Beijing and the exiled Tibetan leadership is now required if progress is to be made on Tibet," said Free Tibet Campaign Director Alison Reynolds in a letter to Mr Blair prior to his departure. "Hu's experience as Party Secretary in Tibet and his continued interest in Tibet policy, makes it essential that Mr Blair now asks him, as China's most senior leader, to meet the Dalai Lama." Ms Reynolds added, "We will be severely disappointed if the so-called "bra wars" get in the way of a robust exchange between the two leaders on Tibet."

Mr Blair's visit to China next week takes place shortly after Beijing sent 50 high level officials to Lhasa to 'celebrate' the 40th anniversary of the 'Tibet Autonomous Region.' Free Tibet Campaign has warned Mr Blair not to participate in any event which commemorates this anniversary, and has further asked him to make a public statement of concern about Tibet whilst he is in China.

Tony Blair will meet both Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao during his short visit to China. Blair's trip follows Hu Jintao's attendance of the G8 summit in Scotland in July, and Mr Hu will return to the UK to pay a State Visit in November; The Queen will apparently visit China next year. Free Tibet Campaign supporters will be sending postcards to Tony Blair in the coming weeks, to emphasise the request that Mr Hu be asked to meet the Dalai Lama.

Mr Blair is known to have discussed Tibet with Hu Jintao over dinner during his last visit to China in July 2003, although Downing Street refused to confirm the fact for more than two weeks after the Prime Minister's return home, in an unaccountable bout of secrecy. It is not known who first raised the subject on that occasion, nor how robust Mr Blair's message was, but it is understood that President Hu spent some time describing his experiences in Tibet (where he served as Party Secretary between 1989 and 1992) and China's 'Go West' economic development strategy. When Premier Wen Jiabao visited the UK in May 2004, then UK Foreign Minister Bill Rammell personally informed Free Tibet Campaign that Tibet had been discussed.

Notes to editors:

1. 'Formal contact' between representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Beijing Government is in its fourth year. A total of four meetings have taken place during this period, most recently a brief, insubstantial meeting in Berne, Switzerland in July. China has still to demonstrate a genuine desire to work towards real negotiations, which gives credence to fears that the talks are merely a political expediency to silence critics of its Tibet policy. In previous occasions, Free Tibet Campaign has called on Tony Blair to urge China to drop its stringent pre-conditions to full negotiations over the future of Tibet. These are: (i) the Dalai Lama must abandon his claim for the independence of Tibet and stop all 'splittist' activities (he has done this for at least ten years with the 'Strasbourg proposal' that called for 'genuine autonomy' for Tibet) (ii) the Dalai Lama must openly recognize Tibet as an inalienable part of China (iii) the Dalai Lama must recognize Taiwan as one of China's provinces (iv) the Dalai Lama must recognize the government of the People's Republic of China as the country's sole legitimate representative.

2. China looks set to be disappointed that its efforts to persuade the EU to lift the 16-year old arms embargo have not yet proved successful. The EU's foreign policy representative Javier Solana told Xinhua recently that the embargo would not be lifted next week but added, "it remains the EU's intention to lift the arms embargo as soon as reasonably practical." Free Tibet Campaign has asked the UK Government for a commitment that it will resist efforts by other EU member states to lift the embargo.