MN HEBBAR (View from Europe)
IT WAS only the other day that the chancellery in Berlin had the look of an impregnable fort. No, there was no threat of a terrorist strike. Nor was there a whiff of a conspiracy to bring down the government of the day. But it would be explosive in content and significance. It was shortly to receive a visitor who would somewhat shake the fulcrum of Sino-German relations, however briefly.
Enter the Dalai Lama, the revered Tibetan spiritual leader. Chancellor Angela Merkel honoured his spiritual credentials by receiving him at her official residence, despite repeated warnings by Beijing to desist from such a move, under threat of disrupting bilateral relations. With this simple act, the chancellor struck a blow for Germany’s independent foreign policy unlike any her predecessors dared to do.
Chancellor Merkel, widely appreciated for her diplomatic approach, has displayed her deft hand in the handling of crucial questions, whether it’s the budget crisis in Brussels or a softening of US President Bush’s stance on climate change, and has produced admirable results. She has said on record, albeit in a different context, that once someone uses pressure to influence her mind on an issue, her mind is already made up to follow her own inclinations. That is precisely what she did in Berlin. Far from being apologetic, she defended her meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader by insisting that the promotion of human rights should rightfully be at the heart of German foreign policy.
Did Merkel reckon with the consequences? She certainly did. But they did come to haunt the government not long after when Beijing administered a sharp rebuke to German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck by denying him a meeting with his Chinese counterpart during his planned visit to China on official business. The minister was to have been accompanied on the trip by a sizable delegation of finance industry executives. German officials admitted that the Chinese leadership remains deeply angry with Angela Merkel over her meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader.
The weightage given by the chancellor to the observance of human rights in her foreign policy is no window-dressing. She has last month won domestic support for her tough stance over human rights and democracy in relation to Russia as well as China. Her recent statements and those by her Christian Democratic Party have particularly annoyed the Chinese.
Consider this. On a visit to India last month, the chancellor indirectly criticised the lack of democracy in China, while a new CDU strategy paper on Asia notes that China’s political system may not be sustainable because it is not based on “participation and the protection of human rights”.
While the Chinese are deepening their influence in Africa, the recent EU-Africa summit in Lisbon saw the German chancellor, to the surprise of many African leaders present, castigate the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe for undermining the image of Africa (read “trampling of human rights”) although she was later censured for her comments. It’s always unpleasant to be at the receiving end of criticism, especially at international summits. The Chinese were keen observers at Lisbon.
It is not difficult to understand why Merkel has wielded great influence but not won many friends in an era of political double standards. Given the fact that China is the dream investment location for entrepreneurs in the 21st century – even the British business community has already started readying itself for the long haul by hiring Mandarin-speaking nannies for their offspring in what must be one of the most far-sighted perspectives of any mercantile class – Germany’s industrial leaders ask why the chancellor has let herself in for an argument about values that could get in the way of the country’s future prosperity. But the lady is not for turning.
Is then the French president Nicolas Sarkozy a better example to follow when he trims his sails to harsh realities? He has been careful to ensure that his own rhetorical nods to universal values do not impinge on French commercial interests. It was a reflection of Sarkozy’s political astuteness that when he visited China last month, he conveniently left his human rights adviser at home. And while Merkel did not hesitate to criticise Russia for its vitiated conduct of elections last week, Sarkozy was the first to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his brilliant success.
Merkel has not shied away from asserting herself even within the unruly “grand coalition” when her coalition allies openly attacked her over the Dalai Lama meeting, accusing her of “playing to public opinion” without regard for the effectiveness of the meeting in improving political or religious rights on the ground in China. If anything, she has departed from a discreet approach taken to these issues regarding China and Russia by former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Indeed, in an unusual break with political protocol, Schroeder, on a recent visit to China, criticised Merkel by telling the media in Beijing that it was a “mistake” by the chancellor to have met the Dalai Lama. Merkel has laughed it off as a pathetic attempt at political one-upmanship. But Schroeder is known to be a political opportunist.
A cursory look at Chinese history may be salutary in understanding the Chinese conundrum. If Europeans are ignorant or careless about history, the Chinese are evidently not. They are yet to forget the pain and humiliation inflicted on them during an inglorious period of European imperialism. And it seems to still rankle in Beijing. Given the fact that the Chinese civilisation long pre-dated its European counterpart, there is less reason to be startled about China’s rise and assertiveness. It wants recognition as a great power.
Hence, would it be politically correct to state that to “lecture” the Chinese about human rights now would be to aggravate the imperialism of the 19th and 20th centuries with cultural imperialism in the 21st? It certainly does not make sense. Being sensitive to history is one thing. But to veer away from human rights today on that account would be sheer folly.
Sino-German relations have not keeled over by all this Chinese bluff and bluster? Merkel is on the right side of history. And it redounds to her credit that she has been steadfast in her political convictions. The Dalai Lama has only given her a nudge.
M N Hebbar is a Berlin based writer
