Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20020410.3.3-054"2
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"Mr President, I should also like to thank the rapporteur for a sound and well-balanced report which expresses the greater number of common interests there are between the EU and China today. China is in all respects becoming a more and more important player on the world stage, and that also applies in the combating of terrorism where we must appreciate China’s active support for this serious struggle. The Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party wants to see a democratic China that respects the principles of a free market, human rights and the rule of law. We also want China to fulfil the Copenhagen Criteria. There is no reason why these criteria should be confined to applying only within the borders of Europe. The ELDR Group has tabled a list of amendments, all designed to tighten up the report a little. The most important issue for us in this context is the One China policy. We are all familiar with this, and we know why it exists. As liberals, we are not proud of the One China policy, because it impedes development in a country that respects democracy, social pluralism and constitutional principles – namely Taiwan. The ELDR Group believes that the will and desires of Taiwan must be respected and that the China policy is an obstacle to their being so. We also believe that the European Parliament is the right place from which to send this signal, and it is therefore up to our governments to follow our advice. Last year, the President of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, was awarded the Liberal International Freedom Prize. Unfortunately, no EU country would also give him a visa so that he himself could collect it. His wife instead collected it, here in this House in November. Nonetheless, we should like to express our dissatisfaction with the fact that the Member States do not comply with their obligations to respect the President of Taiwan’s basic right to travel freely. The Olympic Games are to be held in China in 2008. That decision has been taken and is not to be altered, but let us take this opportunity to demand that China use this opportunity to demonstrate that it will comply with all the international standards and conventions relating to human rights. Recently, China has employed a practice whereby children born in mainland China are separated from their parents in Hong Kong. That is an infringement of human rights that is very much to be censured, and we will therefore demand that the Chinese Government stop this practice immediately and begin reunifying families so that parents in Hong Kong can be together with their children. I would again thank Mr Graça Moura for a thorough and well-considered report which aims at a more effective EU policy on the China issue."@en1
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