Merkel says she will not attend opening of Beijing Olympics

[AnthemZ]

Merkel says she will not attend opening of Beijing Olympics

This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday March 29 2008 on p21 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:13 on March 29 2008.




The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

"The presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate," Tusk said. "I do not intend to take part."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, confirmed that Merkel was staying away. He added that neither he nor Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister responsible for sport, would attend the opening ceremony.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the politician from Merkel's Christian Democratic party who chairs the European parliament, encouraged talk of an Olympic boycott this week and invited the Dalai Lama to address the chamber in Strasbourg, while another senior German Christian Democrat, Ruprecht Polenz, said a boycott should remain on the table.

"I cannot imagine German politicians attending the opening or closing ceremonies [if the Tibetan crackdown continued]," he said. Merkel enraged the Chinese leadership a few months ago by receiving the Dalai Lama in Berlin for private talks.

Brown is to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader when he visits Britain in May, but is determined to be in Beijing. "We are fully engaged in supporting the Olympics," said David Miliband, the foreign secretary. "We want to see it as a success, and I think it's right that the prime minister represents us."

While announcing that German leaders were staying away from Beijing, Steinmeier denied they were boycotting or staging a political protest against the Chinese military and police campaign in Tibet and surrounding areas.

While expressing scepticism about a complete boycott, he did not rule one out. "This is not the right moment to talk about a boycott ... We should watch how the Chinese government deals with the situation in the next weeks and months."

If Merkel and others do not attend the opening ceremony, it is likely to reinforce a growing sense in China that the Olympics is being used to vilify the host.

China had hoped to use the games to highlight its economic development and growing openness. But it is increasingly proving an opportunity for critics to bash China's one-party political system, human rights abuses, treatment of minorities and tightly controlled media.

The Tibet crisis has been pushed on to the agenda of a meeting of European foreign ministers in Slovenia, with the French, who will be presiding over the EU during the Olympics, calling for a team of European officials to be dispatched to China on a fact-finding mission.

British and US diplomats were among a group of outside officials allowed to travel yesterday to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, for the first time since the crisis erupted a fortnight ago.

The EU foreign ministers are to discuss the China quandary at lunch in Slovenia today, with calls being made for a common European position.

"We don't support a boycott and don't intend to boycott the opening of the games," a British Foreign Office spokesman said. "None of the 27 [EU states] are calling for a boycott yet."

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has described the boycott proposal as "interesting", while Sarkozy this week hedged his bets and said his attendance depended on China's conduct.

[Nemowork]

Oh whoopeee, that'll make the politburo stop erasing those annoying monks.


Waht does she do for an encore, promise to stop smoking to counter india's industrial development?

[Meursault]

Kinda pathetic. Instead of stranding up to them and seriously pushing for china to behave, all they can come up with is empty gestures that are even half-hearted.

[Prof Maxwell]

If the entire friggin world decided to boycott the olympics, and stayed home, it would change nothing. I'm sure China would prefer the games be hailed as a monumental triumph for them, but not at the cost of their strangle-hold on it's territories.

It'll take more than a sporting event, even the olympics, to make a communist government as rigid as China, to start compromising.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Meursault

Kinda pathetic. Instead of stranding up to them and seriously pushing for china to behave, all they can come up with is empty gestures that are even half-hearted.

Very tough position for a German Chancellor, given the history of 1936. The question of "pushing China to behave" is awkward. The first grounds for boycotting China were Sudan-- I gather that they've been supportive of an awful government there, but that hardly puts them in some unique position of evil.

The Tibet protests are a more substantial thing, but I can't claim to know enough of the rights and wrongs of it.

I think the Chinese government has done a pretty good job for most of its people over the last twenty years

[Meursault]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

Very tough position for a German Chancellor, given the history of 1936. The question of "pushing China to behave" is awkward. The first grounds for boycotting China were Sudan-- I gather that they've been supportive of an awful government there, but that hardly puts them in some unique position of evil.

The Tibet protests are a more substantial thing, but I can't claim to know enough of the rights and wrongs of it.

I think the Chinese government has done a pretty good job for most of its people over the last twenty years

What I meant was that back here, most german politicians amply deplore the apalling human rights situation in China, they moan about the blatant disrespect for intellectual property and the dubious safety of chinese products. But when they meet their chinese counterparts everything is dandy and no-one dares speak out so as not to piss off the upcoming superpower.

[lost in melb.]

Originally Posted by Meursault

What I meant was that back here, most german politicians amply deplore the apalling human rights situation in China, they moan about the blatant disrespect for intellectual property and the dubious safety of chinese products. But when they meet their chinese counterparts everything is dandy and no-one dares speak out so as not to piss off the upcoming superpower.

It's true, just a token effort. But mate, it's probably the strongest message by any leader so far. Our PM is a wuss in comparison

I actually think it's about as far as a leader can go without being counterproductive. I mean, would the Chinese change their Tibet policy if stronger sanctions were employed? I doubt it...