EU-China talks are ‘gimmick’, warns top Tibetan

By David Cronin

Date: 20/07/05

The EU's dialogue with China on human rights risks becoming a "gimmick", a representative of Tibet's government-in-exile has warned. Lobsang Nyandak Zayul, the Tibetan foreign affairs and finance minister, drew a distinction between the EU institutions in their policies on Tibet.

While he welcomed the numerous resolutions passed by the European Parliament against China's oppression of Tibetan activists, he described the position of the European Commission as "very dissatisfying".

"For the European Commission, trade is the top priority as of now," he said. "The moral issues of human rights and freedom have taken a back seat, even though the human rights dialogue is being continued with the Chinese counterpart."

While Zayul said he supported the fostering of close political and economic relations between the EU and Beijing, he said that the EU must not make human rights concerns subordinate to them. "If we mix diplomacy with human rights, then problems of human rights can never be solved. If governments are not courageous enough to take up the issue of human rights, when gross violations occur, then exercises of exchanging delegations are just a gimmick."

Although China has released some Tibetan detainees in recent years, Zayul noted that 150 political prisoners remained in Tibetan jails. The whereabouts of the Panchem Lama remain unknown, he added, ten years after the then six-year-old boy was named as Tibet's second highest religious leader by the Dalai Lama.

Despite Zayul's criticisms, the Commission's President José Manuel Barroso used a visit to Beijing this week to urge political reforms. He said that democratic progress would be necessary if China was to sustain its economic growth.

A spokesman for China's EU embassy dismissed Zayul's remarks. "The Chinese government has made a lot of effort to improve the life and economic development of the Tibetan population and has also paid a lot of attention to human rights problems," the spokesman said. "The Chinese policy has always been the same on Tibet: the door to negotiations is open."

Lobsang Nyandak Zayul, Foreign Affairs and Finance Minister of Tibet's government-in-exile, criticised that the EU's dialogue with China on human rights risks becoming a 'gimmick'. While he welcomed the numerous resolutions passed by the European Parliament against China's oppression of Tibetan activists, he described the position of the European Commission as 'very dissatisfying'.