By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, May 5: Concerned by reports that Dalai Lama could be made honorary citizen of Paris during his planned visit to France next month, Chinese state media Monday reported that such a move would adversely affect relations between China and France again.
“Only a month after Sino-French relations got back on track, the Dalai Lama has planned a visit to Paris. And he could become an honorary citizen of Paris in the process,” China Daily said in a report.
“It’s a move analysts say would affect relations between China and France,” the report added.
“The Dalai Lama’s visit will have an impact on bilateral relations,” it quoted Zhao Junjie, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as saying.
“The Dalai Lama intends to disturb Sino-French relations through his visit at a time when they are developing in a healthy way,” Junjie added.
The Dalai Lama is expected to visit Paris June 6-8. The visit will be part of a European tour that includes Denmark, Iceland and the Netherlands.
“It is very possible that he will receive the title of ‘honorary citizen’ of the city of Paris from the mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, but no meeting with leaders of the French government is scheduled,” AFP reported Wangpo Bashi, general secretary of Dalai Lama’s Paris office, as saying on Saturday.
Paris city council, led by socialist Delanoe, approved a resolution in April 2008 to honour the Dalai Lama. The decision, according to AFP, provoked a sharp response from China at the time.
Sino-France relations soured considerably after French President Nicolas Sarkozy defied stern warning from Beijing and met with the exiled Tibetan leader in Poland in December 2008.
“After Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai, China called off the Sino-EU summit scheduled in Lyon, France and cancelled high-level visits to France,” China Daily’s report said.
Bilateral tensions thawed after the two foreign ministries jointly released a communique on April 1 stating that France fully recognized “the sensitivity of the Tibet issue” and that France would not support “Tibet independence” in any form, the report added.
Pointing out that the “Dalai Lama received the titles of ‘honorary citizen’ in Rome and Venice in February,” the report said that the “impact on bilateral relations of the Dalai Lama’s visit is manageable.”
China, which sent military troops in 1949 to occupy Tibet, routinely vilifies the Dalai Lama as as a “separatist” seeking independence for Tibet and regularly warns countries and leaders who receive him.
China last month warned Dutch MPs not to invite the Dalai Lama to visit parliament when he comes to the Netherlands on June 4 and 5. Despite a letter of protest from the Chinese ambassador, the Dutch parliament announced that its deputies will receive the Dalai Lama there.
The Dalai Lama, who is widely revered by Tibetans as their undisputed spiritual and political leader, rejects Chinese accusations and openly advocates for a “real and meaningful” autonomy for his people within the constitutional framework of the People’s Republic of China.
