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RIGHTS-CHINA: What Will EU Stress At Summit?

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Nov 28 2007 (IPS) - Issues ranging from food safety to German contact with the Dalai Lama are creating tension ahead of a Nov. 28 summit between the European Union and China in Beijing. Yet, these political ‘hot potatoes’ do not diminish the attractiveness of the Chinese market for Western firms.

This was underscored when France and China signed commercial contracts – – mainly for Airbus planes – worth 30-billion-dollars during a visit by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president to Beijing, Monday.

No doubt hoping for similarly lucrative deals for his country’s arms industry, Sarkozy used his visit to reiterate French demands that the embargo on EU weapons sales to China be lifted – that ban was imposed following the 1989 massacre of student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

The immense potential offered by China may partly explain why the EU representatives – currently in Beijing for the 10th Annual China-EU Summit – broach human rights issues with a certain degree of timidity.

The EU’s executive, the European Commission, regularly claims that human rights are taken into account in all its dealings with foreign countries. Yet, when José Manuel Barroso – the Commission’s president – gave an eve-of- summit address to the Communist Party Central School, he made no more than an indirect allusion to the repressive nature of the Chinese state.

China and Europe "do not share the same political system", Barroso noted, adding: "Each day in Europe, we see how the development of associations and non-governmental groups, how a free and independent press and a strong independent judiciary complement the actions of governments, political parties and institutions to promote the rule of law, to strengthening the social tissue and harmony in our societies."

Phelim Kyne, a China specialist with Human Rights Watch, is adamant that business interests must not take precedence over concern for basic freedoms.

"Obviously, trade relations are of serious importance," Kyne told IPS. "However, we stress that trade and human rights cannot and should not be separated, they can be addressed in tandem. To isolate them would be a disservice to the principles of the EU and its member states."

Kyne feels that the EU has a "golden opportunity" to have greater leverage with China, given that Beijing is scheduled to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

As part of its bid to hold the sporting event, the Chinese authorities promised in 2001 that preparations for the Olympics would contribute to an overall improvement in human rights.

While some progress has been made on paper, activists complain that abuses of human rights remain systematic and widespread.

In December 2006, the Chinese authorities stated that new regulations were being introduced to allow foreign journalists – though not domestic press – – greater freedom in the period leading up to the Olympics.

The regulations will expire in October 2008 – although Cai Wu, a minister in charge of the State Council Information Office, has indicated they could be extended indefinitely.

Journalists continue to face high levels of harassment and intimidation, even though the new regulations have been in force since January of this year.

On 20 November, for example, a Swiss television crew investigating a wave of land confiscations was attacked and detained for several hours by what Kyne described as "plain clothes thugs". The crew was released after it agreed to have one of its tapes erased.

"From early next year 20,000 foreign journalists – including thousands of European journalists – will be descending on Beijing to do curtain-raisers," said Kyne. "These people are at risk," he warned, "They will be entering a city opposed to the idea of a free media."

Eleven Chinese dissidents were invited to attend a hearing held in the European Parliament this week – yet none were able to obtain from Beijing the visas needed for travel to Brussels.

Hu Jia, an environmental and AIDS awareness campaigner, spoke to the parliament meeting through a phone-link from Beijing – where he is under house arrest.

Hu complained that one of the main organisers of the 2008 Games – Ma Zhenchuan – is also the head of the security bureau in Beijing.

"The 70,000 police under the security bureau are arresting people every day," Hu said. "For example, a lot of AIDS patients have gone to Beijing to find legal solutions for their problems. They are getting arrested every day by the police. It is really ironic that the main commander of the Olympic Games is also the commander of the security bureau. It is like the mafia being in charge of the Olympics."

Hu encouraged the 27-member EU not to be swayed by Sarkozy’s efforts to scrap the arms embargo.

"Europe should be holding strong to the principle of not selling weapons," he said. "This is sending a strong message to the People’s Republic of China that what they are doing should not be allowed."

Pál Schmitt, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament and of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), argued that the IOC should issue a strong statement about the human rights situation in China.

"We are a sports organisation," said Schmitt, who holds an Olympic medal for fencing. "But we can’t just close our ears to what is happening on the outside."

In response to Beijing’s ire over a meeting held in September between Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and the Dalai Lama, the International Campaign for Tibet is calling on European leaders to publicly express solidarity with the exiled Buddhist leader.

Campaign spokesman Vincent Metten said that the Beijing authorities are showing an increasing desire to control Tibetan Buddhism lately by, for example, stipulating that the Dalai Lama’s successor must have their approval.

Metten applauded the decision by U.S. President George W. Bush to be photographed alongside the Dalai Lama last month when he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his work on peace and human rights. "This needs to be done in Europe too," Metten said, "We hope that Sarkozy, [Italian prime minister Romano] Prodi, and [the UK’s] Gordon Brown will all have the courage to appear in public with the Dalai Lama."