Friday, April 3, 2009

French and Chinese Leaders Meet to End Tibet Friction

By SHARON LaFRANIERE and ALAN COWELL
Published: April 1, 2009
BEIJING — President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and President Hu Jintao of China met Wednesday night in London before the Group of 20 summit meeting after months of friction over China’s handling of Tibet.
Mr. Hu called the meeting “a new starting point” for bilateral relations.
An unusual joint statement issued Wednesday by the foreign ministries of both countries said that “France fully recognizes the importance and sensitivity of the Tibet issue” and reaffirmed “the position that Tibet is an integral part of the Chinese territory.” It said that France refused to support any claim of Tibetan independence and that both countries adhered “to the principle of noninterference in each other’s affairs.”
The statement said leaders had “decided to conduct high-level contacts and new sessions in their strategic dialogue at an opportune time.”
France went to some lengths to emphasize that its position on Tibet in particular was not a shift from its long-held policy. In the joint statement, the two sides noted that what was called the “one China policy” and the French view of Tibet’s status had first been formulated by Charles de Gaulle in the late 1950s and 1960s.
It said the French attitude “has not changed and will not change.”
Nonetheless, the French authorities seemed to have stepped back from their previous readiness to antagonize the Chinese leadership as the world confronts an economic crisis in which France can ill afford poor relations with a global powerhouse.
Last year, Mr. Sarkozy’s support for the Dalai Lama angered Chinese leaders. In response, China postponed a meeting with European leaders that France was supposed to host. At the time, France held the rotating presidency of the European Union.
China strongly opposes any encounters between foreign officials and the Dalai Lama, accusing him of harboring separatist ambitions for Tibet, which he denies.
Chinese officials were also offended last year by demonstrations in France as the Olympic torch for the Beijing Games wended its way around the world; the protesters in Paris focused in part on Tibet.
The statement did not directly refer to the Dalai Lama.
Sharon LaFraniere reported from Beijing, and Alan Cowell from Paris.