EU Parliament pushes for China Olympics boycott

A large majority of MEPs have voted in favour of a resolution urging EU leaders to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing unless China agrees to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled ‘spiritual leader’. 

The resolution calls for a “common EU position with regard to the attendance of the heads of government and of state and the EU High Representative at the Olympic Games opening ceremony, with the option of non-attendance in the event that there is no resumption of dialogue between the Chinese authorities and HH the Dalai Lama”.

MEPs condemned the “brutal repression” carried out by Chinese security forces, who have launched a crackdown on widespread pro-independence demonstrations in Tibet, a province on China’s far-eastern border where resentment against Chinese rule flared into protests in early March. 

The resolution also calls for a UN-led inquiry into the events. It follows an earlier call for a boycott made by Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, who said the Olympic games should not be held at the price of a “cultural genocide of the Tibetans” (EURACTIV 25/03/08).

EU member states leaders appear to be somewhat divided on the issue, but both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have said they will not attend the opening ceremony.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also indicated that he may decide not to attend, though Paris has not issued a definitive stance the matter. 

China has been subject to a barrage of negative press for its handling of the demonstrations, and Beijing has come under increasing pressure by Western governments, who want China to re-establish official relations with the Dalai Lama, who is pushing for greater recognition by China of Tibet’s cultural heritage.

But China’s ruling Communist Party, widely considered to be nervous about independence movements in its eastern provinces, is opposed to greater recognition of Tibet’s ‘uniqueness’, and has lashed out against what it considers both implicit and explicit support for Tibetan independence by several EU member states.

For example, a decision by the Czech Republic’s Green Party to display a Tibetan flag infuriated Chinese authorities.

“Displaying the so-called Tibetan flag at a government building is unprecedented in the European Union,” according to Chinese Embassy spokesman Zhou Qian, who was quoted in the Prague Post. “It implies direct support for the independence of Tibet, which is an integral part of the People’s Republic of China, and as such has outraged the people of China,” Zhou said.

The US Congress meanwhile has passed its own resolution on the matter, and is calling on China to end its “repression” of Tibetan culture. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the US resolution “anti-Chinese” and said it “twisted Tibet’s history and modern reality”.

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