by Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, May 18 – A new policy paper by the Washington based International Campaign for Tibet criticized the European Union for its position on Tibet that it says has “generally been one of ambiguity and accommodation, even in the face of gross human rights violations”.
The paper 11th EU-CHINA SUMMIT: A REVIVED EU POLICY ON TIBET was launched in Brussels today as the EU-China Summit opens in Prague on Wednesday. China canceled the last summit in December 2008 citing a meeting between President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, which then held the EU Presidency, and the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama in Poland on December 6 last year.
The efforts undertaken so far by the EU Council and its 27 member states and by the European Commission are insufficient to address the situation in Tibet, despite the range of policy options at their disposal, according to the paper.
The paper urges the European Union to adopt a consistent new position on Tibet to reflect the importance of Tibet in EU-China relations.
Beijing has recently warned individual European countries including the Netherlands and France of negative impact on bilateral ties if their leaders and lawmakers meet with the Tibetan leader who it regularly accuses of ‘separatism’.
The EU-China Summit in Prague is the first high-level meeting of EU and Chinese leaders since the cancellation of the last summit.
The paper warns that a lack of cohesion among European member states on the issue of Tibet and conflicting national approaches, especially on protocols for meeting with the Dalai Lama, is not in EU’s interests as it weakens EU’s leverage leaving some countries vulnerable as targets for China’s pressure.
“By threatening reprisals against EU countries whose leaders welcome or meet with the Dalai Lama, the Chinese government undermines its own position against interference in the “internal affairs” of another country, and contravenes European values,” the paper says.
The EU’s assumption that the Chinese government will liberalise its economy and move towards democratization under the influence of positive engagement is wrong, according to the paper. “Countries within the EU have consistently miscalculated in making concessions to China that are not reciprocated, such as the decision by the UK to redefine its historic relationship with Tibet last year.”
The paper prescribes that the EU approach should be unified, advanced multilaterally, and framed in the context of common interests.
Vincent Metten, EU Policy Director for ICT in Brussels, gave the introduction of the recommendations to the EU. “The cancellation of the last EU-China Summit by Beijing during the French EU Presidency raised the diplomatic stakes, pointing both to the importance China attaches to the Tibet issue and the need for a unified EU response,” Vincent said. Also present at the paper’s release were some former political prisoners including Ngawang Sangdrol who spent 11 years in Chinese prison before being freed in 2002.
Download the paper in PDF here
