Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence


APPENDIX 37

Memorandum submitted by All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet

  This Group is made up of Members who are deeply concerned about the situation in Tibet. Members believe there is a moral obligation to support the non-violent approach the Tibetan people have adopted in promoting their legitimate aspirations. By renouncing violence to promote their cause, within and outside Tibet, their only "weapon" is parliamentary and public support. Members of the Group have a considerable range of relevant personal experience of Tibet and China. They have also had the opportunity of discussing the issue at first hand with Chinese officials, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, ministers of the Tibetan Government in exile and with Tibetan refugees. Meeting have been held with a considerable number of ministers and Foreign Office officials, as well as other key individuals such as the US Special co-ordinator for Tibet.

  The experience of the Group, which was founded in 1987, is that whoever the Minister and whatever party is in power, in practice the approach of the Foreign Office towards China has remained the same throughout the period of the last and current administration. The FCO has consistently shown deep apprehension of the Chinese aggressive style of diplomacy. Three specific instances illustrate the point. Under the previous Government it took months of meetings by the Group to persuade the Foreign Office to agree to state that "they supported negotiations between Chinese Government and The Dalai Lama "without pre-conditions", such was the concern of Chinese Government's reaction which has set a raft of pre-conditions. More recently, the British Prime Minister was the only Prime Minister in Europe who felt the need to have a Bishop with him when he met His Holiness, to assuage Chinese anger at the meeting. The third illustration is the unprecedented attempt to protect the Chinese President from seeing any form of demonstration or Tibetan flag during his State Visit.

  This approach means that the policy of engagement has become a highly effective diplomatic weapon for the Chinese Government, who have used it to reduce pressure on China in the field of Human Rights, particularly over the Tibet situation. The Chinese government has adroitly managed to use the UK/China bilateral dialogue to play on FCO fears that they might withdraw from the dialogue, further constraining HMG's ability to robustly bring pressure to bear on the Chinese Government in the area of Human Rights and the Tibet issue. This is despite a series of EDMs showing extensive support among Members for HMG to scale up, rather than down its pressure on the Chinese Government in respect to Tibet.

  The driver of policy appears to be trade opportunities for the UK. But little account is taken of the increasing imbalance in trade relations with China to the UK's disadvantage. Virtually, every UK/China business contract includes a transfer of plant or skills to China. The problems for companies investing in China, for example of payment, invariably result in advantage to the Chinese economy.

  HMG will argue that the programme developed for China to assist with the development of the judiciary and legal system are tangible outcomes of the UK/China bilateral dialogue. It is arguable that in the long term it will help move China towards the rule of law. But the fact remains that the legal system remains firmly under the control of the political system particularly in respect to any show of dissidence. The Group has not been able to ascertain any benefit to Tibet from any of the programmes.

  As regards Tibet the Chinese policy is to put up so many barriers to negotiation with The Dalai Lama, as to make them impossible. Recently they have required him to state publicly that Taiwan is an inalienable party of China as well as Tibet, as a pre-condition to any negotiation. The approach is to economically consolidate control of Tibet, while waiting to The Dalai Lama to die. This fails to recognise that the population shows all the reactions of the oppressed peoples of Eastern European states under the Soviet Union. Increasingly Tibet resembles the South Africa of apartheid. Because of the inhospitable geographic environment of Tibet, Chinese migrants are given advantages that put Tibetans at a disadvantage in their own country.

  Currently China is adopting a hard-line approach within Tibet in the run up to the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Tibet's culture and religion are part of its national identity which is viewed by the Chinese authorities as a threat and which they perceive as being used to foster the "splitting" of the motherland. In August an attempt to raise a Tibetan flag by a resident of the capital, Lhasa, resulted in arrest and the death of the individual in prison, such is the determination to crush any non-violent, civilised expression of self determination.

  The weakness of HMG's policy in the context of Tibet is exemplified in the Ministers responses to Baroness Williams's debate on Tibet in the House of Lords on 10 May (appended).

  Tibet is a country of considerable size. Its occupation has major strategic and environmental consequences for Asia. Any regime, which cause over three thousand men women and children a year to climb the highest mountains in the world to escape from their country, would normally result in expressions of major Government concern, except in the case of the Chinese Government.

  The Group would appreciate the opportunity to make a verbal submission to the Committee.


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2000
Prepared 29 November 2000