Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-05-Speech-4-135"
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"en.20010705.7.4-135"2
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"Mr President, it is about twelve years ago that on Tienanmen Square, the student protest and the call for democracy was quashed in a bloody fashion. During that time, Commissioner Patten was very active in Hong Kong in another role, and well known for his commitment to human rights. One could claim that ever since that period, in fact, the conservative trend in China has dominated, to the detriment of reformers, and that China is, in fact, still looking for a way out of the impasse in which it eventually ended up. Historically speaking, one could say that those two trends are still present, of course, but over the past couple of years, a decision has been made to occupy the political centre very firmly via a central role of the Communist Party – a very classical, old-fashioned role, in fact – and to open up the economy in a powerful manner. This creates enormous tension between the two trends, of course, which leads to enormous inequality in the country. It is clear that China cannot continue in this vein.
In my opinion, and my group shares that view, we need a dual strategy: one of commitment, cooperation, talks and political involvement, for ultimately, they will need to take fresh steps at that Congress in 2002, which for them is a stepping stone towards a new generation. They too will eventually need to adopt a different position in such a huge world nation which has the pretension of occupying a place on the world stage of the future and of playing a role there as well. In the spirit of the Olympic Games, however, and given our position and values in Europe in terms of human rights, we cannot possibly support China’s application today. That is why we, as a group, are also critical of China and support the criticism levelled at China. I believe that commitment also means talking in clear and open terms. That is why we are here: to talk openly. That is why our group supports this resolution. China is not the kingdom of darkness, but in terms of human rights, a great deal needs to be done before that country can qualify for the application to host the Olympic Games."@en1
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