By Tenam
PARIS, AUGUST 6: Two French lawmakers have urged President Francois Hollande to officially invite the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama to France by making use of the opportunity of the 7th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet to be held in France next year.
Member of the Parliament Noel Mamere and Senator Andre Gattolin, in an open letter published in the French media Le Nouvel Observateur and Rue89, urged Hollande to review his China policy that is dangerously close to “political indecency” and that the entire French diplomacy is “to bailout the foreign trade deficit with China”.
“So we say loud and clear: enough is enough! As we commemorate this year, with numerous events, the 50th anniversary of the recognition of Communist China by General de Gaulle, we are shamefully silent on the 25th anniversary of the massacre of students of Tiananmen Square, and more than hundreds of thousands of victims of repression, torture and political assassination by China since that date”, wrote Mamere and Gattolin.
Referring to the French government’s effort of leaving no stones unturned to make the March visit of the Chinese President Xi to China pleasant as rights group complained about the heavy-handed tactics of the French police, noticeably creating legal obstacles for groups like Journalist Without Borders, the letter pointed out that the fabled 18 billion contract were ones that were already agreed to and was a symbolic gesture.
“In the name of this economic realpolitik, we cannot put aside our political values and democratic principles; which unfortunately seems to be the case today,” the lawmakers wrote.
Activists from the regional chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress were pre-emptively taken away by French police before the arrival of Xi Jinping on the famous Champs Elysée boulevard in March.
The letter also deplored the fact that today, China, an authoritarian regime, sits at almost all the major international bodies.
As the member of “the United Nations Human Rights Council, last March China did not miss any opportunity to refuse any discussion on a damning report on its extremely repressive internal policies,” the letter pointed out.
“The price of Chinese money seems to be to play by their rules and thereby today the message coming from China to France is clear. If France wants to improve its trade balance with China, it must not speak up on its repressive internal policies.
“One is forbidden to speak publicly on the situation of Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols and Chinese democrats. Also, barred from receiving the Dalai Lama officially,” the letter said.
The letter also pointed out to the “very worrying extradition treaty between China and our country, signed in 2007 by Jacques Chirac, that had long been shelved as it was denounced by defenders of human rights”, and was passed by the French Senate last year.
In conclusion the letter urged the French government to “to take an initiative at European level to establish the foundations of a genuine dialogue between Beijing and its oppressed minorities”.
