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China cancels summit with EU

China said yesterday the onus was on France to create the right atmosphere for a European summit to be held, after the Chinese side postponed the meeting amid a dispute over Tibet.

“When it will be held depends on when France, as the rotating president of the EU, takes concrete measures to create the sound and necessary conditions and atmosphere for the meeting,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said.

China on Wednesday postponed a summit with the EU scheduled for next week in France in protest at plans by EU leaders to meet Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

China directed its anger at France, because it holds the EU’s rotating presidency and because French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to meet the Dalai Lama in Poland on Dec. 6.

The 73-year-old Buddhist leader is also due to visit the Czech Republic and Belgium, where he is scheduled to address the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday.

“In China we have a saying, ‘whoever causes the problem should solve the problem.’ It is not China that caused the present situation,” Qin said.

China has insisted for many years that it opposed foreign leaders meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader, who it maintained was trying to win independence for his Himalayan homeland that has been under Chinese rule since 1951.

Qin repeated China’s stance yesterday.

“The Chinese government and people resolutely oppose [the Dalai Lama’s] engagement in separatist activities overseas in whatever capacity, and oppose foreign leaders’ contact with [him] in whatever form,” he said. “Our position is clear, consistent and firm.”

China warned France that the EU risked losing “hard won” gains in ties with Beijing if Sarkozy meets the Dalai Lama.

The decision could make it harder for the EU and China to cooperate on a host of pressing global issues and spill over into an often tricky bilateral trade relationship.

“It’s a shame because China is a fundamental partner for Europe and Europe is a fundamental partner for China,” EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who would have taken part in the summit, told French television channel Canal+.

Asked whether Sarkozy should have declined to meet the Dalai Lama, Almunia said: “It’s important to have a clean and clear policy on human rights. We can’t accept prohibitions or restrictions from our partners on which individuals, which leaders, which parties, which interlocutors we host in Europe.”

At a meeting between Asian and EU leaders in Beijing last month, the EU side backed a greater say for China in global financial bodies but urged China to use its clout to help resolve the global economic crisis.

“To maintain good relations with France and the European Union, China has told France time and again to properly handle the Tibet issue so as to create necessary conditions for the China-EU summit,” Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.

“Regrettably, the French side has not actively responded to [these] efforts, so that the summit cannot be held in a good atmosphere, nor achieve its expected goals. Under such circumstances, China has no choice but to postpone the summit,” he said.

Meanwhile, trade disputes between Brussels and Beijing have been on the rise as the EU trade deficit with China has ballooned, hitting 160 billion euros (US$207.4 billion) last year.

This month Brussels imposed anti-dumping duties and raised tariffs on certain Chinese goods. China routinely accuses Europe of resorting to protectionism against its low-cost advantage.

A senior European diplomat in Beijing said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), at a dinner with former Commission president Romano Prodi on Tuesday, passed on the message that China wanted to remain on good terms with Europe despite the cancelation.

He said China took umbrage not at the meeting itself but the fact that Sarkozy had announced it publicly. They had been “explicit and open” on that point, he said.

By penalizing the EU, not just France, China was administering collective punishment, the diplomat added, saying France in no way was signaling support for Tibetan independence.

The diplomat said the EU had been told that the new “permanent dialogue” with the bloc would continue.


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