China, EU discuss trade, human rights

[Ulhas Joglekar]

22 December 1999
China, EU discuss trade, human rights
BEIJING: At a summit meeting intended to improve ties, China yielded little
ground Tuesday on European Union demands that Beijing ratify human rights
treaties and abolish the death penalty.
After a one-day meeting with Premier Zhu Rongji, a delegation of EU leaders
also offered little indication of when talks on China's accession to the
World Trade Organisation might begin. China was studying EU demands, they
said.
Pressed about ratification of two United Nations human rights pacts that
China has signed, Zhu offered that it was "only a matter of time" before
China's parliament approves them, said Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of
Finland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.
Zhu also refused to relent on capital punishment, saying China, the world
leader in executions, needed the death penalty for reasons of social
stability, Lipponen said at a post-summit news conference.
Queried about reopening talks with the Dalai Lama, Zhu told EU leaders that
the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader must first accept that Tibet and Taiwan
are parts of China, said Lipponen.
"We would like to have more concrete results, naturally, and we are
concerned about progress here, but there were, in my opinion, some positive
signs," Lipponen said. He noted that China and the EU had agreed to continue
their dialogue on human rights.
Though the EU leaders did not discuss individual human rights cases, they
did raise China's crackdowns on democracy activists and Falun Gong, a
multimillion member spiritual movement Chinese leaders banned in July as a
dangerous cult.
On China's efforts to join the WTO, European Commission President Romano
Prodi expressed hope that Beijing would be "as constructive with the
European Union as it has been with the United States."
China struck separate market-opening deals last month with the US and
Canada, leaving the EU as Beijing's biggest obstacle to joining world
trade's rule-making body.
Prodi said the EU was ready to negotiate as soon as China finishes studying
European demands. He listed telecommunications, life insurance and tariffs
as priority issues for Europe.
"The list is not too long," he said. "It is just a problem of adapting the
agreement that has already been done with the United States to the special
and clear European needs."
Finnish Foreign Trade Minister Kimmo Sasi added: "The American deal doesn't
cover all our worries and I think the negotiations will take some time."
Sasi said whether an EU delegation visits Beijing in mid-January as planned
would depend on whether the Chinese are ready.
Zhu greeted Prodi and Lipponen, saying "welcome" and "old friend" in
English. But Zhu gave only a perfunctory handshake to the delegation's No.
3, Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten.
As Hong Kong's last colonial governor, Patten earned the enmity of China's
communist leaders by promoting democracy in the colony before Britain handed
it back to China in mid-1997. In a book on his experiences, Patten urged
governments not to sacrifice human rights for the marginal benefits trading
with China brings. (Associated Press)
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Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 1999.