Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-13-Speech-4-125"
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"en.20050113.11.4-125"2
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"Mr President, Tibet has been recognised as part of Chinese territory, against the will of its original people, for a long time. It is an area in the course of colonisation by the Chinese and one where many newcomers fulfil the function of official, policeman or military. Violent means have for many years been used to repress opposition to this humiliating state of affairs. The death penalty, whether to be carried out immediately or delayed, has been used by the Chinese state as a means of quashing the wishes of a large part of the population of Tibet. We in this Parliament, right across the political spectrum, have every reason to be indignant about the death penalty and certainly about its use as a political instrument, and we hope to prevent the execution in two weeks time of a respected and influential Buddhist lama.
Present day China is akin to South Korea of recent years. In that model, economic growth is paramount, over and above man and the environment. If, on the basis of short-sighted European self-interest, we were to reason in the short term, there would be a considerable temptation to withdraw the criticism we have levelled at China. Indeed, China is the country with the largest population and the faster growing economy. For a century, that country stagnated on account of domestic wars, foreign occupations and idealistic, but ill-considered experiments, and has, internationally speaking, been placed off-side. It now looks as if it will be playing a vital role in the future.
Do we resign ourselves to the fact that such an authoritative country applies the death penalty, treats its minorities badly, neglects its environment, pays its workers badly, tolerates unsafe living and working conditions and is not a democracy? Or do we in Europe want to promote over there our views about a democratic constitutional state, diversity of political and religious opinions, freedom of association and democratic majority decisions?
That is why Europe must explicitly dare take sides with threatened minorities and movements, which, in future too, must be able to continue to play their role. In their relations with China, the Commission and Council must not work from the assumption that this is a big country with a fast-growing economy, but that this is a country which refuses to release colonised peoples, puts economic growth above anything else and for the rest also violates human rights. Only then can we expect results."@en1
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