In the first major speech of his five-day tour of China, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, yesterday pointed to the success of the Belfast Agreement as a model for resolving China's differences over Tibet.
The Northern Ireland agreement convinced him "of the need to enter into dialogue with all parties to a dispute if a viable and just solution is to be found", he told students of diplomacy at Beijing's Foreign Affairs College.
"I believe that this principle is fully applicable in the case of Tibet. Direct negotiation with the accepted leaders of the Tibetan people would be both a desirable and a productive first step in helping to resolve this long-standing and distressing issue."
He believed the Belfast Agreement "provides a lesson which even a small country like Ireland can perhaps offer to the rest of the world as an example of how the most deep-seated and bitter problems can be resolved through determination and the spirit of compromise".
Dialogue is the long-stated policy of the EU and other western countries which have been pressing China to talk to Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama, but it is new for western leaders to be given a semi-public platform in Beijing to put the message across to young Chinese people, albeit privileged foreign affairs students.
On Monday, when he arrived for the first-ever visit by a Taoiseach to China, Mr Ahern raised the Tibet issue with the Chinese Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji.
Chinese leaders up to now have refused to accept the Dalai Lama's protestations that he is seeking autonomy for Tibet rather than full independence, accusing the spiritual leader of "splittist" designs.
Chinese troops entered Tibet almost 50 years ago, and Beijing claims the mountain region is part of the ancient motherland of China.
Mr Ahern's speech ranged over Ireland's history and economic progress, but at its heart was the eloquently expressed conviction that without good governance Ireland could not be "a self-confident, dynamic member of the community of nations".
That governance "is founded on the core values of parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and the rights of the individual", he said.
"I am not saying that our experience since independence in 1922 has been without blame or fault - far from it - but as a nation we have attempted to fulfil the great democratic aspiration of `government by the people, for the people'."
Much of this was due to the Constitution which guaranteed "freedom of speech, including, importantly, press freedom, freedom of assembly, the right to hold private property, and the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature".
Two historic events have helped make it possible for Mr Ahern to deliver such a speech in communist China without creating a ripple with the leadership, to whom he made the same points the previous day.
One is the strong economic growth in the Republic which has made other nations sit up and take notice of the fundamental principles underlying it.
The other is the new spirit of dialogue which has dominated and transformed China's relations with the west since early this year, when the EU and the US stopped criticising China through the UN, something the Chinese regarded as a national humiliation.
Everyone benefits from the fundamental freedoms "which release and give free rein to the talents and expertise of all members of society", Mr Ahern said.
"I believe very strongly that a country can only reach its full potential and achieve true greatness when it displays full respect for individual rights and civil liberties."
He said adequate levels of development and prosperity "are far more likely to ensue as a result of the presence of fundamental freedoms rather than their absence".
Mr Ahern said Ireland and the EU were ready to assist China in whatever way possible to build and develop the structure necessary for a democratic society.
Praising China's economic reforms which would affect "all humanity", the Taoiseach added: "Human rights should not be an issue of confrontation between west and east, an exchange characterised by cultural misconceptions, historical ignorance, misunderstandings and political deafness."
Human rights must, instead, be a matter of collective mutual concern.
"Human dignity, human worth, equality between men and women, equality before the law, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to freedom of expression - these are not the moral property of western people and nations but the collective moral imperative of all humanity."
Yesterday Mr Ahern also had a 45-minute conversation with the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, during which Mr Jiang told him of his role as commander-in-chief of 320,000 soldiers fighting the floods in China, the worst for decades.
Today Mr Ahern visits a village outside Beijing, before flying in the Government jet to Shanghai.