France and China Seek to End Differences Over Tibet
BEIJING — France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chinese President Hu Jintao have agreed to meet this week after months of friction over China’s handling of human rights and Tibet, French officials said Wednesday as the two men prepared to join other world leaders for the G-20 summit meeting in London.
In Paris, the government spokesman, Luc Chatel, said a face-to-face meeting was possible on Thursday — the day of the summit — but there was no immediate word from the Chinese authorities about a possible encounter.
In an unusual joint statement, the two countries said that “France fully recognizes the importance and sensitivity of the Tibet issue” and reaffirms “the position that Tibet is an integral part of the Chinese territory.” The statement, issued by the foreign ministries in both countries, said France refused to support any claim of Tibetan independence.
The statement did not give a time for high-level meetings between French and Chinese officials but said the two sides “decided to conduct high-level contacts and new sessions in their strategic dialogue at an opportune time.”
France went to some lengths to stress that its position on Tibet in particular was not a shift from its long-held policy. In the joint statement, the two sides noted that what was called the “one China policy” and the French view of Tibet’s status had first been formulated by President Charles de Gaulle, who led his country in the late 1950s and 1960s.
It said the French attitude “has not changed and will not change.”
Nonetheless, the French authorities seemed to have stepped back from their previous readiness to antagonize the Chinese leadership as the world confronts a global economic crisis in which France can ill-afford poor relations with a global economic power-house.
Last year, President Sarkozy’s support for the Dalai Lama angered Chinese leaders. In response, China postponed a meeting with European leaders that France was supposed to host. At that time, France held the rotating presidency of the European Union.
China strongly opposes any encounters between foreign government figures and the Dalai Lama, accusing him of harboring separatist ambitions for Tibet, which he denies.
Chinese officials had also been offended by demonstrations in France last year as the Olympic torch for the Beijing games wended its way around the world; the protesters in Paris focused in part on Tibet.
The statement made no direct reference to the Dalai Lama.
Sharon LaFraniere reported from Beijing and Alan Cowell from Paris.
