Indian, China, and Tibet Culture - Essay Example

Running Head: Indian, China and Tibet Culture Indian, China and Tibet Culture Name Institute Date The relation between the Dalai Lamas and foreign powers The relation between the Dalai Lama and foreign powers is affected by the Tibet issue. Dalai Lama has visited more than 62 counties on all continents. He uses his travels as a chance to met foreign officials in order to discuss the Tibet issue. The Chinese sovereign state of Tibet contains substantial amounts of natural resources and connects China to South and Central Asia. It is therefore an area of great economic and geo-strategic importance to foreign politicians. Moreover, several important rivers, like Yellow, Mekong and Moreover, several important rivers, like Yellow, Mekong and Yangtze, originate in Tibet (Goldstein 1998). This political status of Tibet has led to continuous cause of conflict both in China and International relations as to whether the incorporation of Tibet in China was in line with international law1. China rejects any foreign interference as it considers Tibet as an internal issue. Hence, any meeting between Dalai Lama and foreign politicians is considered as interference with internal matters by Beijing. The Chinese government has realized that it needs to enforce its position on Tibet’s status both locally and globally2. This is because international opinion plays a significant role in determining the state sovereignty as “the ambiguity about when entities have the right to seek self-determination has made international opinion an important dimension of such disputes” (Fuchs and Klann (2010: 83). Dalai Lama is a prominent leader of the Tibetan movement. China sees Dalai Lama as an ostentatious state leader with separatist agenda as regards Tibet and hence his relationship with foreign power is seen as a risk to the integrity of the Chinese nation. As a result, meetings of foreign politicians with the Dalai Lama are a continuous cause of bilateral diplomatic tensions with china. In order to avoid endangering the powerful economic connections that foreign countries have established with China, foreign officials are unwilling to receive Dalai Lama. China, in an article published in China Daily, evidently warns outside countries not to interfere with the Tibet question “if they [countries] want to remain on good terms with China3. Bilateral political environment plays a significant role in trade associations (Rose 2007). In addition, political relations between trading partners promote bilateral trade through political representations and state visits (Nitsch 2007). The state of diplomatic exchanges between China and its trading partners has more room to influence trading decisions since China is not a free market economy. The Chinese government applies extra influences on commercial activity apart from prices and other products characteristics in determining import decisions in a market system. This has led to the utilization of trade flows as foreign policy tool. The trade-deteriorating effect in China has its roots in foreign politicians receiving Dalai Lama since a state’s policy towards Dalai Lama affect its bilateral associations with China and can incite disciplinary reactions from Beijing (Polachek 1980). Diplomatic tensions are created between Chinese and the country that officially invited Dalai Lama. The extent of punishing a country that receive Dalai Lama depend on the cost for China of substituting goods from this country with those from another country. A country has to bear additional costs when its commercial relations with opposition state are broken up. This is called vulnerability interdependence. Substitutable goods interact with lower inelasticity to conflicting political associations than less substitutable goods. This is because substitutable goods can be easily obtained from other trading partners. For example, Oil export experience low export elasticity to conflict trading associate since oil-dependent countries have no option than to continue importing the product despite of any bilateral conflicts with oil-exporting country (Fuchs and Klann (2010). Most Western countries have to a greater extent accepted Dalai Lama as a notable religious leader regardless of the Chinese opposition. This has granted him considerable attention. However, China has continued to increase pressure on other countries not to receive Dalai Lama. For example, in 1989, when Dalai Lama was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in Oslo, China threatened to cut economic associations with Norway if the government attended the ceremony4. The persistence opposition of the Chinese government towards foreign officials meeting Dalai Lama has increased China’s economic power providing china with the power required to advance its political interests (Goldstein 1998). In 1991, Dalai Lama was formally invited in United States for the first time by George Bush. This provoked immediate protest in China and marked a remarkable change from the policy of former US president5. Dalai Lama had been a frequent visitor in US during the Clinton and Bush presidencies, sparking regular protest from Beijing. In 2007, Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by US Congress. The then US president, George Bush attended the ceremony. This adversely affected diplomatic relations between China and US. President Obama strategically declined to meet Dalai Lama in 2009 so that he can avoid confrontations in Beijing. However, their meeting in February 2010 after his Beijing visit aroused considerable dissatisfaction in Beijing. This move destroyed US-Chinese associations undermining the US’s revival from the recent economic crisis (Rose 2007). Following the announcement of the Dalai Lama visit to Italy, the Chinese administration warned the Italian government that it risked their trade relations if it received the religious leader. As a result, Italian Prime Minister openly admitted that the international community was facing a dilemma, ““caught between the importance of maintaining trade relations and protecting human rights.”6 The decision of the Italian prime Minister to receive Dalai Lama regardless of the Chinese threats was termed as courageous by both the Tibetan leader and the Italian media (Fuchs and Klann 2010: 98). For a long time, the political leaders in Germany avoided meeting with Dalai Lama. The foreign policy of Germany was designed to evade political conflict over human rights issues with China as a way of protecting their lucrative associations with the emerging economy. In 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to meet Dalai Lama leading to bilateral dissatisfaction between China and Germany. Gerhard Schroder, Markel’s predecessor, recognized for his devotion on superior economic associations with China, condemned this decision as foolish due to the negative impact it had on bilateral associations with Beijing. The reception of Dalai Lama in Berlin led to cancellation of several bilateral meetings at several political levels (Morrow, Siverson and Tabares 1998). In April 2008, Paris city council awarded Dalai Lama with honorary citizenship causing intense tension between France and China. Two days after this award, China imposed import ban on car from French manufacturer Renault. This move has been interpreted as a form of economic revenge against Paris’ decision. The meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Dalai Lama in November 2008 led to the cancellation of the EU-China summit on quite short notice and postponement of the finalization of a contract to buy 150 passenger planes from Airbus without further explanation. Furthermore, in early 2009, China blocked France from two Chinese trade delegation. China assigned 15 billion US dollars’ worth of trade contracts to other Europeans countries in the first delegation. In January 2009, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabo failed to visit France during his trip to Europe (Richardson and Kegley 1980). Mongolia as a country has powerful historical and cultural connections with Tibet. As a result, Dalai Lama visited the country on various occasion. In 2002, Mongolian Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar accepted to meet Dalai Lama. Consequently, China enforced a temporary ban on imports from Mongolia and blocked the only railway connection between the two countries. This ban was lifted after only one day. However, despite Dalai Lama Visit to the country in 2006, no further formal reception occurred in Mongolia (Gowa and Mansfield 1993). Foreign leaders are conscious of the effect their meeting with Dalai Lama can have on their countries’ bilateral associations with china. As a result, they have invented alternatives means of meeting Dalai Lama without hurting their relation with China. The first alternative involves meeting him in an informal capacity and not as head of state. For instance, in 2008 when Dalai Lama decided to visit Switzerland, Pascal Counchepin announced that he would be meeting the Buddhist monk as minister of culture and not in his capacity as president7. In the same way, Clinton Administration invited Dalai Lama to the White house, but he was officially received by a minister and not the president himself. Even though formal sources emphasized that there was no official meeting between Clinton and Dalai Lama, he nonetheless dropped in during the discussions. US President realized that a better reception of Dalai Lama could have cost them trade with Chinese (Nitsch 2007). The other available alternative is delegating the assignment to government representatives with low rank as a way of mitigating the adverse impact that such meetings may have on economic relations with China. Nonetheless, by applying this approach, the government is in a position to demure pro-Tibet lobby groups, human rights organizations and other sympathizers of the Dalai Lama. For instance, , the Dalai lama was received by a number of members of parliament and met with the country’s foreign minister in a symposium between Dutch religious leaders, during his trip to the Netherlands in 2009. The Netherland Prime Minister feared that feared that a private meeting with Dalai Lama would result to interrupt relations with China. Germany employed a similar strategy in 2008. High position members of the Germany administration avoided further meetings with the religious leader by claiming that they had a busy schedule. Consequently, Dalai Lama was received by the president of the German Bundestag, the minister of Economic cooperation and non-government officials and this made all parties to save their face (Goldstein 1997). Latin American countries also used lowly ranked politicians as an alternative to meet Dalai Lama. Between 1989 and 2009, Dalai Lama embarked on a number of trips all over the region. with respect to Dalai Lama receptions an apparent downwards trend can be observed in terms of the position of politicians receiving Dalai Lama in the most key destination countries in the continent, for example Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Chile. Dalai Lama has had to be contented with being met by lower-ranked officials despite being met by presidents of these countries up to the year 1999. Chilean president Michel Bachelet is suspected of avoided meeting with the religious leader in 2006 so as not to risk the current debate for the country’s first trade agreement with China. By this time china was already Chile’s second significant trading partner after the US. A similar predicament was experienced In New Zealand when a visit from Dalai Lama coincided with ongoing debate regarding a free-trade deal with china in 2007. Dalai Lama was only allowed to meet shortly with specific members of government and this ignited criticism from opposition parties (Gowa and Mansfield 1993). Receptions of Dalai Lama by members of the opposition party helped avoid trade reductions that could have experienced if he was received by members of the ruling party. In 2008, Dalai Lama himself acknowledged that most politicians met before they become members of parliament; however, they declined to meet him after taking office so as not to risk their country’s trade relations with China. The Tibetan leader concluded that “economic relations with China gain the upper hand.”8New Zealand is a good example of such behavior. Though Prime Minister John Key met the religious leaders in 2007 when he was still in opposition, he refused to meet him in 2009 after his party come into power (Morrow, Siverson and Tabares 1998). Reception of Dalai Lama leads to diplomatic tensions between China and the host country. These tensions are resolve after some of time has passed since receiving the religious leader, though China expects countries to make political concessions to correct their mistakes. For example, bilateral tensions between France and China were resolved nine months after the meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the religious leader. Shortly after this reconciliation, France declared that it acknowledged Tibet as an important part of the Chinese region. Similar reconciliations had to be achieved between China and Australia in September 2007 following diplomatic tensions between the two countries after Chancellor Gusenbauer meeting with Dalai Lama. Australians politicians were banned from meeting with Chinese politicians for about one year. A state Visit of the Austrian Chancellor in Beijing in October 2007 led to restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries (Polachek 1980). Though Dalai Lama reception led to cancellation of trade missions and state visits as outlined in numerous examples above, anecdotal evidences shows that a country’s position of the Tibet matter affect Chinese consumer behavior. Dalai Lama reception affected the demand for daily consumptions goods as well as figurative goods that are typical of a partner country. An excellent example is France in 2008 where bilateral tensions with China affected both bilateral trade and consumer attitude. During the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, pro-Tibet activists interrupted the Olympic touch relay via French capital Paris. This incident annoyed most Chinese Public, who later called for a consumer rejection of all French products. Chain Carrefour, a French supermarket and luxury goods company LVMH were most affected after rumors spread they had contributed large amount of money to the Buddhist leader (Richardson and Kegley 1980). Conclusion In Conclusion, we find that bilateral political relations matter for trade with China and this has affected relations between Dalai Lama and foreign powers. This article has demonstrated that meetings between Dalai Lama and China’s trading partners are met with hostility and result in deterioration in their trade relations. The discussion above also shows that trade reductions result when heads of states officially meet with Dalai Lama as opposed to when lower-ranked officials receive him. Exports to china are reported to decrease by 8.1% following a political meeting with Dalai Lama. However, this effect disappears two years after the meeting. Chinese trade relations are politically biased as China tend to use trade as a foreign policy tool. Though foreign officials should be conscious of the potentials export reductions when receiving the religious leader, failing to meet him is not the only unavoidable policy of protecting commercial interests. Globally coordinated receptions of the religious leader by foreign officials are a possibility to reconcile economic interests with the demands to meet the Dalai Lama. The use of such a strategy can decrease the scope of China playing one trading partner off against another. However, there is a possibility of increase in the abuse of trade relations as a foreign policy with the rising economic power of China and other emerging countries. References Fuchs, A and NH Klann (2010), “paying a Visit: The Dalai Lama Effect on international trade”, cege Discussion Paper 113, University of Goettingen. Goldstein, M. C. (1997). The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Goldstein, M. C. (1998). “The Dalai Lama's Dilemma”, Foreign Affairs, 77(1), pp. 83-97. Gowa, J. and Mansfield, E. (1993). “Power Politics and International Trade”, The American Political Science Review, 87(2), pp. 408-420. Morrow, J. D., Siverson, R. M. and Tabares, T. (1998). “The Political Determinants of International Trade: The Major Powers, 1907–1990”, American Political Science Review 92(4), pp. 649–61. Nitsch, V. (2007). “State Visits and International Trade”, The World Economy 30(12), pp. 1797-1816. Polachek, S. W. (1980). “Conflict and trade”, Journal of Conflict Resolution 24, pp. 55-78. Richardson, N. and Kegley, C. (1980). “Trade Dependence and Foreign Policy Compliance”, International Studies Quarterly 24(2), pp. 191-222. Rose, A. (2007). “The Foreign Service and Foreign Trade: Embassies as Export Promotion”, The World Economy 30(1), pp. 22-38. Read More

A country has to bear additional costs when its commercial relations with opposition state are broken up. This is called vulnerability interdependence. Substitutable goods interact with lower inelasticity to conflicting political associations than less substitutable goods. This is because substitutable goods can be easily obtained from other trading partners. For example, Oil export experience low export elasticity to conflict trading associate since oil-dependent countries have no option than to continue importing the product despite of any bilateral conflicts with oil-exporting country (Fuchs and Klann (2010).

Most Western countries have to a greater extent accepted Dalai Lama as a notable religious leader regardless of the Chinese opposition. This has granted him considerable attention. However, China has continued to increase pressure on other countries not to receive Dalai Lama. For example, in 1989, when Dalai Lama was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in Oslo, China threatened to cut economic associations with Norway if the government attended the ceremony4. The persistence opposition of the Chinese government towards foreign officials meeting Dalai Lama has increased China’s economic power providing china with the power required to advance its political interests (Goldstein 1998).

In 1991, Dalai Lama was formally invited in United States for the first time by George Bush. This provoked immediate protest in China and marked a remarkable change from the policy of former US president5. Dalai Lama had been a frequent visitor in US during the Clinton and Bush presidencies, sparking regular protest from Beijing. In 2007, Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by US Congress. The then US president, George Bush attended the ceremony. This adversely affected diplomatic relations between China and US.

President Obama strategically declined to meet Dalai Lama in 2009 so that he can avoid confrontations in Beijing. However, their meeting in February 2010 after his Beijing visit aroused considerable dissatisfaction in Beijing. This move destroyed US-Chinese associations undermining the US’s revival from the recent economic crisis (Rose 2007). Following the announcement of the Dalai Lama visit to Italy, the Chinese administration warned the Italian government that it risked their trade relations if it received the religious leader.

As a result, Italian Prime Minister openly admitted that the international community was facing a dilemma, ““caught between the importance of maintaining trade relations and protecting human rights.”6 The decision of the Italian prime Minister to receive Dalai Lama regardless of the Chinese threats was termed as courageous by both the Tibetan leader and the Italian media (Fuchs and Klann 2010: 98). For a long time, the political leaders in Germany avoided meeting with Dalai Lama. The foreign policy of Germany was designed to evade political conflict over human rights issues with China as a way of protecting their lucrative associations with the emerging economy.

In 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to meet Dalai Lama leading to bilateral dissatisfaction between China and Germany. Gerhard Schroder, Markel’s predecessor, recognized for his devotion on superior economic associations with China, condemned this decision as foolish due to the negative impact it had on bilateral associations with Beijing. The reception of Dalai Lama in Berlin led to cancellation of several bilateral meetings at several political levels (Morrow, Siverson and Tabares 1998).

In April 2008, Paris city council awarded Dalai Lama with honorary citizenship causing intense tension between France and China. Two days after this award, China imposed import ban on car from French manufacturer Renault. This move has been interpreted as a form of economic revenge against Paris’ decision. The meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Dalai Lama in November 2008 led to the cancellation of the EU-China summit on quite short notice and postponement of the finalization of a contract to buy 150 passenger planes from Airbus without further explanation.

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