Maxime Verhagen via WikipediaOther countries have received the Dalai Lama, and dealt with China's anger, others like South Africa refused a visa to avoid political complications.
Beijing's tone has been already rather subdue, as it sees that stopping the visit on the request of Dutch parliament will not be possible, but it is rather trying to limit the political effect by trying to avoid meetings with the Dutch foreign minister and its prime minister. By indicating he is eager to meet the Dalai Lama the Dutch foreign minister has created himself a dilemma that will make him lose face, or possible millions in Chinese orders.
The incident brings back found memories of the so-called submarine crisis in the 1980s and spilling over into the beginning of the 1990s, as struggling RDM from Rotterdam tried to sell its submarines to Taiwan, another nono in China's international politics. In exchange for this order, for a company that went under anyway, many other Dutch companies suffered a political backlash. When I started to get involved as a journalist in China when the affair was just over - one of the reasons I got an accreditation as a journalist could well have been the new improved relations between the two countries - only mentioning the word "submarine" was enough to get Dutch and Chinese diplomats, and companies, into a bad mood. The current mayor of The Hague, Van Aartsen, was at the time minister of foreign affairs for the Netherlands and might want to use the opportunity to look back at this incident.
When Maxime Verhagen decides to upset China's central government, Dutch companies will suffer again, although on a different level compared to the 1980s and 1990s, as many companies tried in those days to enter the China market and relied on government permissions to do so. Those permissions were frozen for such a long time. For those companies now working in China, the backlash will be limited, although vast expansion plans might be put on hold. Who is going to suffer are the companies who hope to get a piece of the action as China's central government is on an international shopping spree to spend its billions of US dollars in foreign reserves. When the Netherlands will be put on a penalty bench for half a year, many interesting opportunities will be lost, opportunities that would be welcome at a time when the effects of the global crisis take hold of Europe.
I'm glad I'm not in the shoes of the Dutch minister of foreign affairs.
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7 comments:
I am very pleased with the way the Dutch government is standing by to what they believe is correct. Meeting the Dalai Lama is just a form of showing respect.
IF China is clever, China would just ignore anyone who wants to meet the Dalai Lama. After all it is the FREE world China wants to be belong isn't it. Looks to me China wants to have the cake and eats it too. China is the only one to blame for all these fuss. Not the other way round. China might be able to use money to buy her way around Africa, but gaining respect for being a true leader??? A long, long way to go.
First test will come soon: today China has officially warned the Dutch parliament NOT to receive the dalai lama 'especially in these difficult economic times '...
(Dutch): http://www.geledraak.nl/html/showarticle.asp?id=2332
The tenet of your article seems to suggest that the world should kowtow to childish Chinese sensibilities.
There is only one country in the world that doesn't respect the Dalai Lama. The world's leaders can't abandon their principles to appease an increasingly aggressive China. The world, including the Dutch and the French, have been on the wrong end of that policy in the past.
I urge both governments to stand firm, which is what their people would want them to do, and go ahead and receive one of the few justified recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.
What's the difference between this and when China got slapped with sanctions after the Tiananmen Square incident? Obviously China is still in the penalty box 20 years after that incident.
Oh, you can't be serious about that, pugster?!
China arguably ought to be still "in the penalty box" for Tiananmen, but.... well, as soon as it could have an Olympic bid taken at all seriously, and get involved in preliminary talks about joining the WTO, it was out. That only took 3 or 4 years.
The DL is a respected international statesmen and Nobel Laureate. China's continuing attempts to demonize him - even if it had grounds for doing so, which it really doesn't - only serve to make it look ridiculous in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.
Another Easter Sunday is about to come. We have to ensure that we are going to reflect in the lenten season to become a better person.
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