Published by: World Tibet Network News, Friday, July 5, 1996

"The Press", Christchurch, New Zealand. Friday, July 05, 1996, Editorial

Don McKinnon, the Foreign Affairs Minister, is right not to take too seriously the comment from Huang Guifang, China's Ambassador to New Zealand, that New Zealand should not admit the Dalai Lama. China has objected to previous visits and New Zealand has taken the position that the Dalai Lama makes his visits as a religious leader, not as a Tibetan political leader. On his last visit he saw Jim Bolger, the Prime Minister, who made that distinction. China might not have been fully satisfied, but did not press the point unduly. The Dalai Lama should be able to visit New Zealand in the same capacity again. Mr Huang has, however, said that the visit "can by no means be acceptable to us". This represents a hardening of China's position. It is changing the rules. Mr Huang, as a representative of his government, has to follow Beijing's directions; New Zealand does not.

Of course the subject is politically sensitive. The Dalai Lama would like Tibet to be free of the rule of China, and China regards Tibet as an integral part of China. The Dalai Lama is also the religious leader of a considerable community world-wide, and his faith has its followers in New Zealand. He should be allowed to meet those of his faith and those who draw inspiration from him in New Zealand. New Zealand rarely bans visitors on political grounds. It would go against the grain for New Zealand to keep the Dalai Lama out.

China seems more agitated about the subject than it used to be. One cause might be that there is now greater unrest against China's rule in Tibet. China is also edgy because of Hong Kong's return to China next year and the reaction of other countries; earlier this year it also conducted missile tests near Taiwan to dissuade Taiwan from declaring independence. On territorial issues and those it says are of national sovereignty China is very firm indeed.

It is not alone in this. Most countries like to keep other countries at a distance on subjects considered of national interest. New Zealand has itself displayed marked prickliness on sporting links with South Africa and the policy of keeping ships that are nuclear-powered or might be nuclear-armed out of New Zealand ports. However, New Zealand is in no way lending formal support to the cause of Tibetan independence and China should not try to tell New Zealand who it should admit as a visitor.

Mr Huang told a seminar that the visit could interfere with the development of smooth relations. In itself such a comment cannot be regarded as a threat, though China has made definite linkages before between what it saw as support for the Tibetan cause of independence and trade. For instance, it awarded a $US1.5 billion contract to Airbus Industrie in Europe and when Le Peng, the Chinese Prime Minister, signed the contract he said that Boeing had missed out because of bad Chinese-American relations. Interestingly enough, 200 French parliamentarians, on the eve of Li Peng's visit, had called for China to pull out of Tibet and China ignored that call.

Germany has been the latest country to feel China's wrath over Tibet. Relations had been close before it happened. Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor, had been the first Western leader to agree to inspect a Chinese guard of honour since the Tiananmen massacre. Possibly relations had been too close for some of Chancellor Kohl's countrymen. The Bundestag adopted an all-party resolution condemning "China's continued policy of repression in Tibet", and called on Beijing to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama's "government-in-exile". These statements were bound to infuriate China, the more so because the resolution was backed by Government members as well as by the Opposition.

Another incident in Germany upset China. A think-tank, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which has links to the Free Democrats, the party from which the Foreign Minister, Klaus Kinkel, comes, was co-host to a conference on Tibet in the middle of June. German Government money was going into the conference. After China's complaints, the money was withdrawn. China cancelled a visit Mr Kinkel planned to make this month. In protest, other German ministers cancelled their planned trips.

New Zealand is not acting provocatively towards China by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit. It is a fact of geographical and economic life that China will loom large on New Zealand's horizons. New Zealand has to learn to live with China, but that country has to learn to live with societies whose values are different. China should not expect other countries to agree with it, and should certainly not expect compliance with its whims.

...Submitted by John Herrett, Christchurch, New Zealand