Policy Focus

China postpones summit with EU over Dalai Lama invitation

Beijing - The EU and the Chinese government have clashed following a shock postponement of the upcoming EU-China summit scheduled for next week.

According to the website of the French EU presidency, the Chinese authorities decided to cancel the summit due to anger over the fact that the Dalai Lama was due to visit the EU and to meet with French premier Nicolas Sarkozy.

The surprise cancellation comes only hours after senior Chinese officials launched a blistering attack on parliament over its selection of a Chinese dissident for its annual Sakharov prize for human rights.

The outburst in turn led to a bitter reaction from members of a parliamentary delegation visiting Beijing and Shanghai this week, as part of an annual inter parliamentary meeting.

The attack comes after parliament awarded the prize to Hu Jia, one of China's best known dissidents. The prize will be awarded in Strasbourg on 16 December, although he will be unable to collect it as he is currently serving a three and a half year jail sentence.

Jia was sentenced this spring on subversion charges amid what human rights groups described as a coordinated crackdown on activists before the Olympics.

The decision to give him the prize provoked an amazing attack by Zha Peixin, a senior Chinese parliamentarian who chairs a body responsible for relations between the National People's Congress and the European parliament.

In a meeting on Tuesday with the delegation, he said the decision to award the prize to Jia had caused "great offence" to China's 1.3 billion people and he warned MEPs that parliament would have to "face the consequences" of its actions.

His comments were later echoed by Zhang Zhijun, a senior member of the Communist Party, who told members that China regarded Jia as a "criminal" and that parliament should "consider the consequences" of its decision to make the award to him.

Both Zhijun and Peixin, vice chair of the NPC foreign affairs committee, also bitterly criticised parliament's decision to invite the Dali Lama,the Tibetan leader, to parliament on December 4, warning of a "serious" response from China if it goes ahead.

Responding to the attack, Hans-Peter Martin, an Austrian independent MEP, said, "Such comments are outrageous. I am simply astonished. I even considered quitting the delegation in protest."

Lithuanian EPP member Laima Andrikiene, another member of the delegation, described the Chinese response as "counter productive" adding, "It was parliament's decision to award Jia the prize and I still hope he will be able to attend the Strasbourg session to receive it."

Delegation leader Belgian ALDE member Dirk Sterckx said, "China is very, very nervous about this award going to a Chinese dissident."

In a separate development, parliament's president Hans-Gert Pottering has written to Jia in jail applauding him for his "courage in standing up for basic fundamental values which must be defended as strongly as possible."

The letter, which was due to be handed to Jia's family in Beijing this week, says, "I can assure you this parliament will be doing all its power to secure your release from jail."

EPP member Neil Parish, also on the delegation, said, "The Chinese are overreacting and, certainly on Tibet, they seem terrified of a Soviet style break up of their country. My advice would be for the Chinese to adopt a more liberal attitude to Tibet and the Dali Lama.

"When it comes to the Sakharov prize dispute, the Chinese have to remember that parliament is an independent body, trying to promote peace in the world. China is totally paranoid over this and what it should be doing is striving for more democracy rather than kicking up a stink over this award. China is OK with democracy so long as you agree with what it says."

A senior staff member of the delegation said, "I think it is true to say that the comments over the Sakharov prize and the Dali Lama have taken everyone totally by surprise. None of us expected it at all."

Chinese officials told the MEPs that both the award and Tibet could "seriously damage' relations between the parliament and China, with one senior Chinese figure told the members "not to treat China like we are a candidate country."

The row threatened to overshadow the whole trip but Sterckx called an emergency private meeting of the delegation in a bid to smooth things over.