Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-173"
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"en.20020410.5.3-173"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, unlike the lady who spoke before me, I am not sure whether membership of the WTO will automatically lead to political change in China, but that is something I shall return to shortly. I think it was a good thing that the People's Republic of China joined the WTO. It was not a straightforward thing for the Chinese to do, as it will mean major processes of internal restructuring for them, but I consider it urgently necessary from the point of view of China's interests that these processes of restructuring should start now. I also believe that it represents a good starting point for an improvement in trading relationships.
I wish, though, to appeal to the Commission to keep a careful eye on how China meets the obligations it has entered into by joining the WTO. The behaviour of China, which had made promises, for example to open up the insurance market, has not been very encouraging in recent years. Promises were made, but attempts were made to evade them. In this respect, I hope that China will give real and positive acknowledgement of what the consequences must be – and it would be interesting if the Commissioner were to make a statement on the line the Commission will take on this.
As regards political dialogue, my fellow Members have all made reference to the human rights issue. These human rights apply universally; they are not European human rights that we want to enforce on China, but universally recognised human rights that we demand, and they include the rights of minorities, be they religious or cultural. My fellow Members have already had something to say about Tibet. I would like to take up another example, the persecution of the unofficial Catholic Church in China, which has to exist underground because the government does not recognise the Catholic Church which sees itself as linked to the Vatican. That is not acceptable.
Turning to Taiwan, I hope that the People's Republic of China will open political dialogue without setting prior conditions. It is only political dialogue of this kind that can lead to reunification, and then only if this is on the basis of human rights and of democracy in a constitutional state. We in Parliament should play our part in promoting
contact between the two states. We should likewise maintain contacts with members of the parliaments in the People's Republic of China and in Taiwan.
Commissioner, I hope that the Commission will soon set up its office in Taipei, so that the Commission, too, may support dialogue between the two states by means of its missions in Beijing and in Taipei."@en1
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