UK gov't inclines to China-Britain relations rather than Dalai Lama

2015-12-04 14:45:45 | From:

It is reported that the UK cabinet "split" over the position toward Beijing by the Sunday Times recently after another report saying that leaked documents showed David Cameron banned ministers from speaking to the Dalai Lama in December, 2012, according to the Telegraph.

In the previous news on Feb. 17, 2013, it is said that “the split emerged from the UK's deteriorating relations with China, as the prime minister are anxious to avoid escalating tension with the People's Republic of China amid fears that increasing hostility could damage the bilateral trade relations” to rescue the British economy, while the deputy prime minister Clegg and the foreign chancellor William Hague kept its hard-line attitude.

From Cameron's meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama by himself in May, 2012 and upsetting China, to banning ministers speaking to the lama to avoid bilateral tensions, what leads to his shift and who stands for the position of the UK government largely?

The answer is "trade relations" according to Cameron's own words, which could be lifeline of the British society in the eye of the prime minister since the domestic economy has been suffering terribly after the international financial crisis and subsequent European debt crisis over the past several years. In this case the emerging markets such as Russia and China become the hope of boosting domestic economy to a large degree.

The UK wishes to attract 500,000 Chinese tourists annually after 2015, which would bring 569 million pound in revenue and create over 14,000 jobs for the country. The government is also "keen to attract Chinese sovereign wealth for infrastructure projects", and the Treasury "is trying to make London the leading international centre for trading China’s currency", not to speak of the much more extensive bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

However, the relation and cooperation between the two countries have deteriorated sharply since last summer, with the meeting of the British Prime Mister Carmon and the 14th Dalai Lama. A series of official visits of the UK officials and ministers were canceled, including Lord Green, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, and the bilateral trade was also stagnated.

Considering the precedent that it had spent over two years for France to normalize the relations with China after Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama in 2008, it is not surprising at all that Cameron would change his position under the realistic pressure.

He has realized much more clearly that it is quite a bad deal for the UK to offend China for the meeting the 14th Dalai Lama, as the meeting not only has affected economic cooperation with the Chinese government, but also damaged the bilateral non-governmental exchanges without bringing any benefit at all.

It is a "bad deal" and the root cause of Cameron's turnaround.

Meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama is not so much Cameron's sympathy toward this lama, but a political show to challenge China in order to transfer the domestic grievance toward its declining economy. However, it is his full play of realism that turning to woo China to boost economy after the stupid self-destructive meeting.

Under the pressure of the reality, it is more urgent for Cameron to and boosts its domestic economy to please his voters in the country by giving up the so-called "Tibet issue". As a mature politician, he has a clear mind which is more important, China or the "Tibet independence" group led by the 14th Dalai Lama.

"There's no perpetual friend or perpetual enemy, only perpetual interest"-the law has been confirmed again by Cameron's shift, which explains that the 14th Dalai Lama and his "preach" is of no account at all compared with the national interests of the UK.

Being awarded "Templeton Prize" with a 1.1-million-pound reward in May, 2012, but being banned to be met only seven months later, the 14th Dalai Lama and his group are only chess pieces in the eyes of some Western countries, which can be abandoned at any time.

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