GREEN PARTY leader John Gormley's decision to describe Tibet as a country - which provoked a walk-out by the Chinese ambassador on Saturday - will not damage Irish-Chinese trade, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has said. Mark Hennessyand Marie O'Halloranreport.
During his keynote speech to the Green Party's convention on Saturday night, Mr Gormley condemned human rights abuses in China, and called for dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.
"Respect for human rights must extend to all cultures and countries. One country which has been ex- ploited and suppressed and suffered for far too long is Tibet," he said.
The Chinese ambassador, Liu Biwei, who had been invited by the Greens to its conference, immediately left the hall during the televised speech, along with two embassy staff.
"It is not acceptable and I lodge my strong protests. So I must leave to show my strong protests," he told journalists, through an interpreter.
The ambassador had been warned before the speech by the party's general secretary, Colm Ó Caomhánaigh, that Mr Gormley would be critical of China's treatment of Tibet.
A spokesman for Mr Ahern said last night the Minister was "happy to hear that the contents of the speech had been signalled in advance".
However, Mr Ahern put some distance between himself and Mr Gormley by saying the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, "isn't even referring to [ Tibet] as a separate country.
"The Dalai Lama accepts that they are not looking for independence. They are looking for an autonomous Tibet, which is an awful lot different to an independent country. That may very well be what the ambassador took offence to," said Mr Ahern.
Asked if Mr Gormley's remarks would hit Irish business interests in China, the Chinese ambassador said the Green Party leader's "personal perspective" could "do nothing good" for relations. "We want to have good relations with the Irish people, and I hope our relations, including our economic relations, can still go on," said the ambassador.
Refusing to apologise yesterday, Mr Gormley said he did not believe that "there was any threat, explicit or implicit" in the ambassador's reference to trade links: "I don't think that it will damage relations. China is not a democracy in the sense that we know a democracy. It just isn't. There is a thing called freedom of speech which I believe in as a democrat, and that is not a feature of the Chinese state, unfortunately."
Green Party delegates also voted overwhelmingly for a boycott by Government representatives of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics this summer.