From: Tibet Information Network 8 June, 1995

A major European development project in Tibet should be cancelled, according to a committee of the European Parliament. Members of the Parliament last month called only for the project's funding to be better deployed, but now seem to be hardening their positions.

Cancellation of the proposed project would cut 50% off the European Union's annual financial assistance to China, just at the time when the Commission is planning to triple its aid to China as part of a new effort to improve Europe's image and trading prospects there.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has now concluded that the Panam County project "should not go ahead with any finance from the European Union (EU)", accoridng to a letter it sent on 31st May to Sir Leon Brittan, the Commissioner in charge of external economic relations with China.

The letter went further than the Parliament's resolution, passed on 18th May, which had called on the Commission "to deploy resources from the Panam Project to aid which will better serve the Tibetan people" and instead to support "small local projects" run by non-governmental organisations.

"This is a very unusual step to take because the Parliament does not normally consider individual projects," said James Moorhouse, a British MEP and human rights co-ordinator for the People's Party. "There is concern that the project as presently constructed might not be in the best interests of the Tibetan community and we are now at the stage that the three committees will have to exchange opinions with a view to reaching a firm recommendation to send to the Commissioner responsible," he added, referring to the Development, Budgetary and External Relations Committees, which are also assessing the scheme.

In his letter the Spanish MEP Abel Matutes, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, says that a major reason for the cancellation call was "the fact that the main beneficiaries would be Chinese settlers rather than the Tibetans themselves". The 5 year Panam project, designed to develop 3,600 hectares of irrigated land near Shigatse mainly for high yield agriculture, has attracted controversy since it was first publicised in the London-based newspaper "the Observer" in December 1994, in part because it seems designed to increase wheat supplies for Chinese migrants in Tibetan towns.

A report to the committee by the European Commission officials who had drawn up the 7.5 million ECU scheme rejected the criticism, saying that their figures for planned wheat production were projections which "reflected expected changes in food habits and not any obligation to grow a specific crop". The impact of increased wheat production on Chinese migration into Tibet was difficult to assess because of "the general unreliability of statistical data", said their report. There was confusion about interviews carried out by the EU experts with "hundreds of local Tibetans", all of whom are described by the Commission as having suppoorted the project. The report says the interviews were done on a confidential basis while another Commission statement one week later, in response to a question by the British Liberal MEP Graham Watson, says they were carried out openly. The Commission said earlier it could not release details of the interviews, because of the risk that Interviewees might be punished for their views

by the Chinese authorities.

EC officials today played down the calls for the Panam project to be cancelled. "The status of the project is that nothing has been decided and it is not decided in what form it will go ahead," said Peter Guilford, spokesman for Sir Leon Brittan. "We are going to take the views of the current debate, including those of the European Parliament and the Tibet lobby groups, seriously," he said, but would not say if any compromise proposals had yet been drawn up.

- EC to Triple Aid to China -

The debate over the Tibet project comes as the Commission prepares a new China policy in a document strongly flagged by Commissioner Brittan during a visit to China on 18th April, his third trip there in 12 months. "The time has come for a fresh start in relations between Europe and China", he said, announcing the "major strategy paper", which is now not expected to appear until July.

A draft of the document circulating in Brussels shows that the EU is planning to launch a public relations effort to improve its image in China, and that it plans to buy its way into China, tripling financial assistance to Beijing from the current 20 million ECU per year - described as "inadequate", and less than a quarter of EU aid to India - to 62 million by 1996.

The draft policy aims to enhance Europe's image in China in order to increase European trade with China, which at US $21 billion last year, with a deficit of around US$9 billion in China's favour, is less than half the US two-way trade with China. In the field of direct foreign investment, described as a "crucial element in China's reforms", EU companies "are lagging clearly behind" with only about 4% of the total foreign investment in China, according to the draft report. "This could have negative implications not only for future trade but also weakens the EU's global competitiveness," it added.

The draft policy paper says that the EU countries have to co-operate "to avoid any risk of discrimination" in seeking trade opportunities with China. Particularly in areas where the US has concluded trading agreements with China, it is vital "to ensure that EU economic operators enjoy the same treatment as their competitors in China", says the report, which is haunted by the spectre of EU companies and nations competing to exclude each other from the China market. "If we do not co-operate, Europe's voice will not be heard", it concludes.

The policy paper views China as a major power, whose role, as one of the world's biggest arms producers and exporters, is "central to global, as well as regional security". The Chinese economy is described as second only in size to the US in terms of purchasing power and in terms of energy consumption. "A foothold for EU interests in China is essential", it says. The EU on the other hand is described by the Commission as having "limited resources", which will "always be small relative to a country of China's size".

The Commission proposes to enhance European profile in China by such mechanisms as providing opportunities for Chinese students to study in Europe, by establishing "Europa Houses" in Chinese cities, and by encouraging European Studies courses in Chinese universities, as well as enhanced co-operation and information exchange between EU businesses.

Any sense of inadequacy in Europe will have been re-inforced by Beijing this week, who, in confident mood, told Europe that it had to try harder and would have to offer better financing conditions and lower prices if it wanted to enter the "highly competitive socialist market economy". The Chinese government complained that the EU was imposing discrimnatory limits on Chinese export, according to the official magazine Beijing Review on Monday. The actions of EU countries "have seriously impeded the further expansion and progress of bilateral trade," the magazine said. The attack on the EU was preceded by lavish praise for the EU's export of high technology and equipment to China, which in 1993 was still higher than Japan and the US, an achievement which was not noted in the EU draft report. Beijing is keen to import more advanced technology from Europe, but is insisting on the best terms. In return for exporting high technology, Europe imports from China clothes, shoes, carpets, toys and bicycles, the magazi

ne pointed out.

- Human Rights Effectiveness -

The draft paper refers to "serious restrictions" on civil rights in China and places human rights "at the heart of EU policy world-wide", but insists that any initiatives must be effective and not merely "frequent and strident declarations". It proposes regular meetings on the subject with the Chinese, which have already begun at Beijing's request, and plans to set up an exchange programme for lawyers, judges and policemen. This focus on human rights represents a change for the EU, which in its 1994 "Asia Strategy" paper had followed the US in placing human rights as secondary to economics, describing the strategy as "inspired by the assumption that economic development could bring about the progressive construction of civil society and thus improve the exercise of human rights".

Both the European Parliament's 18th May resolution on Tibet and the letter from the Foreign Affairs Committee called on the Commission to make future aid "conditional on respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms" in Tibet. The EU's draft China policy document does not propose any linkage with human rights.

The Commission is considering acceding to growing pressure from the Parliament, triggered mainly by concerns over abuses in Turkey, to re-introduce human rights conditionality into its bliateral agreements, and on 12th April the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a report by the Italian MEP Renzi Imbeni calling for a human rights clause to be inserted as an essential element in all the EU's bilateral agreements.