The beginning of the call universal justice It has been a constant diplomatic headache for Spain for more than three decades.. International pressures, from Chile, Israel and the African Union to heavyweights like the United States and China, they already precipitated one first legislative reform that severely restricted the scope of said universal jurisdiction. It happened in the year 2009 under the socialist Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and with the support of the majority of the political forces of the Congress of Deputies.

However, has been the second legal reform promoted last month by the current Government of Mariano Rajoy which, beyond the apparent resistance of some judges of the National Court to the possible unconstitutionality of the new norm, could mean its final liquidation. However, ¿why this reform has been carried out precisely now? And more importantly: ¿why the law has been reformed by an emergency legislative procedure and without the mandatory reports from the Council of State and the Council of the Judiciary? China's shadow inevitably hangs over the whole matter.

This is because the chronology of events strongly suggests that The Spanish Government has succumbed to the pressures exerted by China, consequence of the case opened in the National Court against five Chinese leaders for the Tibetan genocide. The complaint was admitted in 2006 but it was at the end of last year when the case became red hot after two consecutive judicial proceedings. On the one hand, the indictment of Hu Jintao, chinese president until 2013; and , for another, the international search and arrest warrant issued by the National Court against five Chinese leaders, among them the former president Jiang Zemin. The order processed through Interpol implies the arrest of any of them if they decide to leave their country..

It was then that China launched a diplomatic offensive on all fronts.. publicly, el portavoz de Exteriores del país asiático expresó su "profundo malestar" e instó a las autoridades españolas a que "se tomen en serio la preocupación china y no hagan nada que dañe al lado chino y las relaciones entre España y China". Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Commission on Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the advisory body of the Chinese Parliament, went even further: "¡Let them continue if they dare!", said in reference to the judicial action. In addition, Last November the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned the Spanish ambassador in Beijing, Manuel Valencia, to whom the anger of the Chinese authorities was transferred.

Y, practically at the same time, In Madrid, there were also contacts between the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and personnel from the Chinese embassy in Spain.. ¿What happened on those dates?, what was said and how it was said? When consulted, The sources of the Spanish Ministry resorted to the old resource: "no comment". But from the public statements of Chinese diplomacy it can be perfectly understood where the shots were fired.: "Si este asunto puede gestionarse de manera apropiada o no, is related to the healthy development of bonds" between both countries, Chinese diplomatic sources said, who expressed their wish that "el Gobierno español sepa distinguir lo correcto de lo equivocado".

Also in November, the visit of a delegation from the National Popular Assembly was planned., the legislative chamber of the communist regime, to the Spanish Congress of Deputies. The reason for the visit, although it suspiciously coincided in time with all the judicial and diplomatic controversy, era tratar "asuntos de etnias minoritarias, relations between China and Spain, y relaciones entre la Asamblea Nacional Popular y el Congreso de España", According to the letter sent by the Chinese embassy on 6 November 2013, to which this newspaper has had access.

On the visit, which finally occurred five weeks later, none of the first swords of the Congressional Foreign Commission participated, this is, nor the president of the commission, Antoni Durán Lleida, nor the spokespersons of the PP and PSOE. "Se lavaron las manos", explains a deputy who was present, who confirms that the previous absences had to do with the judicial case opened for the genocide in Tibet: "estaba clarísimo que la delegación china venía para tratar el tema de la Audiencia", warns. Wu Yingjie, vice secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet who led the Chinese delegation, was the first to speak. And the meeting ended in a scuffle..

The impunity of the giants

In terms of propaganda, his was an orthodox speech., enumerating the supposed benefits that Chinese policies have brought to Tibet and maintaining a cautious silence regarding political repression and human rights. These are issues that Aitor Esteban did allude to in his speech., PNV spokesperson, which provoked the furious and very angry reaction of the head of the Chinese delegation, with harsh criticism of the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama included. The political advisor of the Chinese embassy in Madrid made peace, Huang Yazhong, who then acknowledged that the fundamental reason for the visit was the case opened in the National Court.

Politely and in perfect Spanish, and without simultaneous translation for the other members of the Chinese delegation, Huang Yazhong gave legal arguments to Spanish legislators about the inadequacy of universal jurisdiction while arguing that the genocide case had a baseless basis.. "Queremos convencer al gobierno español de que no hay argumentos para mantener este asunto abierto en la Audiencia Nacional", He settled. No minutes were taken of the session.. And weeks later the Popular Group in Congress began the express processing of the legal reform that empties the principle of universal jurisdiction of its content., taking forward the case against the Chinese leaders.

For Alan Cantos, director of the Tibet Support Committee (CAT), main plaintiff in the case, There is little doubt that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the pressure exerted by China as a result of the indictment of Hu Jintao and the arrest warrant for the other five Chinese leaders., and the maneuver of Mariano Rajoy's Government to shelve universal jurisdiction. "Es obvio que ha sido en particular, but not exclusively, la causa del Tíbet", notes Cantos, quien califica de "tremenda vergüenza para nuestro país" la "sumisión del Gobierno de Rajoy" to pressure from China. "Dios te libre de tocar la impunidad de los gigantes", resume, in reference to the pressure exerted by the United States and China to deactivate the universal justice cases opened against them.

China, specifically, He was already especially belligerent on this matter when, in response to the rogatory commission presented by Judge Santiago Pedraz in 2009 within the framework of the investigation of the cause of Tibet, señaló en un escrito al Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores español que "la tramitación de la Audiencia Nacional de España de dicha falsa querella ha violado los principios básicos de jurisdicción e inmunidad de Estado que el Derecho Internacional establece". In addition, señala que "la parte china deniega con firmeza cualquier solicitud de asistencia judicial relacionada con este caso y exige que el Gobierno español asuma las responsabilidades del Derecho Internacional que le corresponden".

It so happens that the Chinese regime has already gotten involved in another case prosecuted in Spain that affected more than a hundred Chinese citizens.. It was days after the explosion Operation Emperor of the National Police, that dismantled the money laundering and evasion structures of the main Chinese wholesale importers in our country whose center of operations was in Cobo Calleja. Under alleged pressure from the high Chinese delegation of Zhejiang province, Where does the boss of the dismantled plot come from?, Gao Ping, Chinese diplomats joined in with the ambassador at the head, in his meetings with senior Spanish foreign officials.

"Hubo frases veladas como que el caso podía enturbiar las relaciones entre los dos países", recognizes a Spanish diplomatic source who participated in the meetings. And although the economic and commercial relations between the two countries are not as important or fluid as those of other countries around us, It seems that the Spanish government would have preferred to blow up universal jurisdiction rather than anger the second largest economic power in the world.. An eventual state trip by Mariano Rajoy to China would also be subject to the complete resolution of the conflict due to the judicial cases., to which is added the perception in Spain that China is a fundamental partner for our economic recovery and for the future., both for the purchase of debt and for potential investments in Spain that are yet to come.