Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-05-Speech-4-141"
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"en.20010705.7.4-141"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to disagree with the majority in the House. I could accept most of the points made by Thomas Mann and others. I have voted and shall continue to vote in favour of all the resolutions tabled here on issues of human rights, religious persecution or on the Tibetan situation in China. I feel, however, that this resolution is on the wrong track, because I am convinced that choosing Beijing as the venue for the Olympic Games will serve to support the reformist forces and that holding the Olympic Games could be a catalyst for major change. I feel certain of this. No one can accuse me of complicity and I shall continue to defend human rights in this House. I am certainly not a propagandist for the Chinese government. It would be a mistake to isolate China and we must continue to level criticism at China in this House and in the appropriate international forums. We cannot isolate a nation-state of 1.3 billion people. I was against Chinese isolationism decades ago, when even the Chinese authorities wanted it and I am also against us attempting such a move. Incidentally, the Cuban situation is a telling example of what can happen: the United States have maintained a stubborn embargo against Cuba for years. They have achieved nothing and we see that the North American embargo is actually proving to be the main political prop shoring up Fidel Castro’s dictatorship in Cuba. This is, therefore, the reason for my vote and the reason why my group does not support this resolution, because we feel that it is the wrong way to support progress on reform in China."@en1
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