Free Tibet Campaign
Urgent Campaign 14th July 1997
BLAIR TO VISIT CHINA
(Please contact Free Tibet Campaign if acting after 31st August 1997)
On the eve of the hand over of Hong Kong, British Prime Minister Tony Blair met President Jiang Zemin and accepted an invitation to visit the People's Republic of China next year.
Free Tibet Campaign is opposed to this visit as we believe that Tony Blair's presence in Beijing would be seen by the international community as an endorsement of China's human rights record, particularly its treatment of Tibetans. This visit would be the first by a British Prime Minister to Beijing since 1991, when John Major met with the Chinese government little more than 2 years after the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Free Tibet Campaign believes that it is important to raise our concerns with Tony Blair now before plans to visit Beijing are finalised.
The new British government has yet to clarify its position on the issue of linking human rights and trade. So far only conflicting messages have been issued. Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, was recently quoted in The Guardian saying:
"Hong Kong can be a bridge over which Britain and China can increase trade and co-operation." (Guardian 2/7/97)
However the Labour party pledged during the election campaign to:
"...make the protection and promotion of human rights a central part of (their) foreign policy." (Labour Party manifesto "Because Britain deserves better", 1997)
Now is the time to ensure this pledge is upheld and the proposed visit to China is one of the first test cases. Free Tibet Campaign believes that a high level visit to Beijing will be taken by the Chinese and the international community as a sign of approval for China's activities in occupied Tibet. Such a visit would also send a message that human rights are not an important issue when dealing with the British government. With respect to Hong Kong, now that it has returned to China, any dealings with or through Hong Kong must take into account the actions and conduct of the Chinese government including the occupation of Tibet.
It is often asked whether linking trade and human rights has any effect. A report in 1996 stated that political detentions in Tibet increased after the USA ended their efforts to link human rights conditions and Most Favoured Nation trade status for China. The same report said that many Tibetans were convinced that repression increased when international pressure on China eased. ("Cutting Off The Serpent's Head", Tibet Information Network & Human Rights Watch/Asia, 1996)
Recent information
In the period around the hand over of Hong Kong the regime over which Jiang Zemin presides increased security across China. Fearful of unrest, China tightened its grip on Tibet and other sensitive areas such as Xinjiang. Reports emerged of "dozens" of political prisoners being moved to Beijing from Tibet and Xinjiang in an attempt to defuse protests. Troop numbers were increased in Lhasa and other important cities. In Beijing there were 30,000 police on the streets during the hand over. In the 3 months leading up to the hand over, during an anti-crime drive designed to "forestall trouble ahead of Hong Kong's hand over", 590,000 people were detained.
The Chinese-run newspaper, Tibet Daily, launched a propaganda campaign exhorting Tibetans to be patriotic, to rejoice in the reunification of Hong Kong with the Motherland and to renounce 'splittists'. "The historic trend of reuniting the motherland cannot be reversed" the paper said.
Travellers and exiled Tibetans were turned back from the border between Nepal and Tibet. In Kathmandu travel agents reported that restrictions were being imposed on tour groups intending to visit the region. The restriction was expected to last until mid-July.
(Sources: The Guardian, Tibet Information Network and Human Rights Watch/Asia)
Please write immediately to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and your MP with the following demands:
1. That Tony Blair should not meet with Jiang Zemin in China due to China's appalling human rights record, particularly with respect to Tibet.
2. That such a meeting would only be seen as an endorsement of China's occupation of Tibet and the treatment of the Tibetan people.
3. That international trade must not be prioritised before human rights, and that trade with China through Hong Kong must now consider China's human rights record as a whole and not just its record in Hong Kong.
Prime Minister Tony Blair
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
(salutation Dear Prime Minister)
Robin Cook
Foreign Secretary
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
(salutation Dear Mr Cook)
Your MP can be reached at the House of Commons or your local constituency office.
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F R E E T I B E T C A M P A I G N (formerly Tibet Support Group
UK) 9 Islington Green, London N1 2XH
http://www.freetibet.org
Telephone +44 (0)171 359 7573, Fax +44 (0)171 354 1026
- an independent membership organisation campaigning in support of the
rights of the Tibetan people to freedom and independence.
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The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Free Tibet Campaign.
