troung

China to Canada: Dalai Lama award could hurt ties


Quote:
OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- China said on Wednesday that Canada's decision to bestow honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama could hurt commercial relations between the two countries, which have been steadily growing stronger.
The Tibetan leader-in-exile, who fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, is considered by Beijing to be a separatist.
Canada's Parliament unanimously approved the award of an honorary citizenship last month, which will be bestowed on the Dalai Lama when he visits Vancouver in early September.
The honor will mark the third time Canada has bestowed honorary citizenship. The others are former South African President Nelson Mandela and Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews in World War II.
Zhang Weidong, political counselor at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, Canada, said his officials had already complained to the Foreign Ministry about the award.
"The Dalai Lama is a separatist so I don't think he should be honored with that. That will harm the Canadian image and harm the relationship between China and Canada. We hope these things will not happen in the future," he told a news conference.
More than a million people of Chinese descent live in Canada and trade between the two nations is increasing rapidly.
Among the firms doing business in China is Bombardier Inc., which built most of the passenger cars for a new high-altitude railway to Tibet.
"China has a big market and we hope we can cooperate with all the countries in the world. But certainly, if some troubles always appear or emerge within the bilateral relationship, then the relationship in other areas certainly will be hurt," said Zhang, who spoke in English.
Asked if this represented a threat to Canadian firms, he replied with a smile: "I don't think it's a threat. I'm just trying to make things clearer. It is a clear fact and very easy to be seen."
Canada's previous Liberal government was enthusiastic about boosting ties with China and sent several high-level trade missions headed by prime ministers.
But the new Conservative government, which took power in February, is cooler toward Beijing and has already complained about Chinese industrial espionage in Canada.
Last month Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his Japanese counterpart that China was a challenge the two countries should work together to tackle, Japanese officials said.
When in opposition, the Conservatives also strongly backed the island of Taiwan, which China claims as sovereign territory.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said Ottawa was "committed to building a strong and comprehensive relationship with China" and did not recognize Tibet's government-in-exile.
An official Chinese commentary on Wednesday accused the Dalai Lama -- who has proposed a "middle way" policy, seeking autonomy but not independence for Tibet -- of collaborating with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Zhang also dismissed a report by two prominent Canadians who said earlier this month that China has been killing Falun Gong dissidents so it can use their organs.
"Based on rumors and false allegations, the report is biased and groundless," he said, adding that the authors had close ties with Falun Gong.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

__________________
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

lemontree

Its rather funny of China to preach. I wonder if they ever thought if proliferation of nuke tech to rogue nations did'nt hurt ties with other nations?...

__________________

Cheers!...on the rocks!!

Ray

Nice of China to ensure their homilies don't get rusty!

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

ZFBoxcar

We let our separatists form political parties and hold referendums...for a little while the Bloc Quebecois was the leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament. And we aren't trying to destroy Quebec's culture or destroy them demographically. If the PRC was running Canada they would have probably have sent all the Quebecois to re-education camps and have made the population 99% Anglo/Han Chinese. They have no business telling us how to treat separatists of any type.

Canmoore

well said

China needs Canada's natural resources, so wether they like it or not, they will have to be friendly towards us. Me thinks this is nothing more than a game of words.

dabrownguy

WOW. The Llama is still causing such a political uproar. lol.

__________________
http://www.indiandefenceforum.com/index.php
Indian defence Forum!

Canmoore

I was watching Larry King interview the Dali Llama on CNN once, and he cut off the dali mid-sentance....i was like "woa"

it just seemed weird, but i guess that Larry can do that to anyone lol

tphuang

yeah, but China isn't going to get any of Canada's natural resources. We know all of our natural resources are going to the Americans.

Another reminder for me to not vote for the conservatives.

ZFBoxcar

What do you have against Taiwan? I think economic integration has been working great between them, but nevertheless Taiwan should be under no obligation to come under the CCP's rule.

Confed999

Not now, not ever.

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

tphuang

the de facto situation basically keeps everyone satisfied right now. Why would you want to disrupt that? Actually, I'm more upset if Harper actually told Japanese that China is a problem that they should tackle together. Considering that China is our number two trading partner and the large Chinese Canadian population that is looking to do business with China. It's definitely not something that I agree with.

Canmoore

oh please. there are lots to go around!


Oh god, please do not tell me you vote for the Libranos? Or even worse the NDP!?!

Confed999

China isn't a problem?

tphuang

actually, I prefer the old conservatives and then they merged with the "Reforms". What a disappointment. The new conservatives are far too right for my liking. So basically, I was stuck voting for the Liberals in the last 2 elections.

depends on who you ask, right? Some people think China is a problem and some people don't. Views toward China in Canada is far more favourable than in America imo.

Confed999

I suppose people who are ok with tyranny think they're alright...