5 Responses to Europe should learn how to treat its partners »»

1. Ronald Grünebaum
   Comment by Ronald Grünebaum | 2009/01/15 at 13:10:16

   Dear Mr Meng,

   obviously you want respect from Europe. Fine. But then please also respect Europe. We have diverse and open societies, we don’t like taboos and we have learned how to deal with conflict. We will not have prescribed to us by a communist regime to whom we can talk. And while we appreciate well made goods from China, we are perfectly able to produce all of that ourselves again as we did in the past.

   Regards,

2. Andre
   Comment by Andre | 2009/02/09 at 15:05:20

   “Meeting the Dalai Lama is not something of a “spiritual bonding” as the French label it. It is a political statement against China: even a fool knows this. Mixing with the Dalai Lama stands for supporting what he is for, and he is for separating Tibet from China under the name of “Tibetan autonomy”. That is how all Chinese view this issue and they reject it offhand.”

   Members of the European Parliament are free to meet and invite whomever they want. They make a statement against any interference of a government in their matters, be it the Commission or the Chinese government. And of course China is perceived as a repressive regime and repressive is any attempt to tell a parliament whom to talk with and make it bound by diplomatic foreign policy considerations such as Chinas riddiculous claim that Taiwan was no independent state. Maybe it was a mistake to enable China’s access to our markets as the democratic process didn’t take place in the pace of trade opening.

3. Hartmut Pilch
   Comment by Hartmut Pilch | 2009/07/01 at 15:38:46

   The obvious answer to the readers’ comments here is that of course heads of state are free to meet whom they want. E.g. Hu Jintao is free to meet representatives of movements for independence of Corsica or separation of Northern Ireland from UK. Still if he did so, he would probably be less credible as a partner for a “strategic partnership” of the kind that Europe claims it wants to have with China.

4. ViAL
   Comment by ViAL | 2009/12/02 at 13:27:07

   Dear Mr Meng,

   I guess the Chinese got it wrong this time: cancelling the summit is, let’s put a very simple word to it, A blackmailing, that is the tool that the TRUE strategic partners do not use. Not that it will get China what it wants (because the EU is a free country and functioning democracy and China cannot order who EU can meet and who the EU cannot meet; the EU is not a teenager kid and China is not the mother of that kid) more likely it will loose credibility in business terms. It’s acting as a moody partner to whom you cannot trust… but than again, you cannot trust imported goods either as they many times contain health endangering substances… is that the right way to treat it’s partner? Further on, talking about environmental standards, human rights and so on… you get to see that China is the one that needs additional lecture, not Europe.

5. Francisco
   Comment by Francisco | 2010/01/17 at 15:09:01

   The Dalai Lama has stated many times that he does not want independence, but rights for his people. Because he cannot lie - I believe him. On the other hand, the Chinese crony government does. And you’ve probably never heard of the Dalai Lama’s intentions because:

   a) The Chinese government has tried to portray him, of all people, as a terrorist, and you very diligently agree with whatever they have to tell you.
   b) You have tried to read about his manifesto but, “gasp”! Google does not let you search his name and you cannot find out anything about him.

   There is a reason why the West does not trust China, and this is because China does not trust China. When you have a government that controls all sources of information for its people, that bans unfriendly public demonstrations (yet foments violent demonstrations against Japan), that imprisons any journalist with a different opinion, that floods ethnically diverse areas with Han immigration to change the demographic setting of the area, that does not allow people to challenge its government; then I ask you why should the EU trust you?

   Why should we trust China when it has hijacked Copenhagen? Why should we trust China when even Taiwan does not wish to be a part of it - and they are as Chinese as they come.

   You see, China is as diverse as the EU, and when we meet the Dalai Lama we are telling you that we would trust you more if you listened to this man’s concerns. Europe gave up colonialism long ago, perhaps it is time you give this up too. This, of course is impossible, because your government needs to have 100% control of its people, which is neurotic; and ethnically diverse people are a menace to an ethno-centric Han government.

   It is very difficult to befriend such a regime, and, yes, we are afraid of China. It is the biggest country in the world, under control of an opaque and racist government - very dangerous! We would love to have better relations, but we simply do not trust you. But don’t blame us, you don’t even trust yourselves!

   My only question to you is: if tibetans are chinese, are chinese tibetans?

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