This blog casts a fresh and rigorous look at a phenomenon that is changing the world and our lives.: el ascenso de China y su "conquista" of the planet. Here we talk about how and why Beijing is approaching Latin America, What are the consequences of China's arrival in Africa and whether the Chinese will save us from the crisis that is plaguing Europe..
Spain kneels before China
The decision of the Spanish Government, through the PP parliamentary group in Congress, of blow up the case opened in the National Court against five Chinese leaders for genocide in Tibet, It fundamentally demonstrates three things.. The first, the pusillanimity that Spain displays every time there is an obstacle in its bilateral relationship with China.
Our country already raised its chest when Fernández Ordóñez became the first foreign minister of the European Union to set foot in Beijing after the Tiananmen massacre.. Also We were among the first to not only want to lift the arms embargo on China –in force precisely since 1989– but also in making it public no less than during our presidency of the Union, with the consequent anger of our community partners.
Those were the years in which senior Spanish officials in China, or any politician from any party visiting Beijing, Their mouths filled with pride when they insisted that the Chinese Government considered us “China's best friend within the EU”. High praise coming from the biggest dictatorship on the planet.. And what's worse: Underlying the false mirage was that this servility was going to give us commercial returns..
Now we have a new episode: the attempt by the Government of Mariano Rajoy to deactivate the case at all costs open in court. And for this they intend to do for an emergency procedure that settles the case as soon as possible and prevent the execution of the search and arrest warrant for five leaders of the Chinese leadership, including Jiang Zemin and Li Peng.
Jiang Zemin y Li Peng.
This brings us to the second question., which is none other than China's interference in the internal affairs of Spain. And the Government's maneuver coincides with the visit to the Spanish Congress made by a parliamentary delegation of Tibet autonomous region, composed –don't get confused– by a majority of Han Chinese related to the Chinese Communist Party and not by Tibetans. To this we must add the pressure from the Chinese Government on the Spanish Executive, both in Madrid and Beijing.
It is not the first time that happens. Weeks after Operation Emperor broke out at the end of 2012, that dismantled a plot that managed to evade between 800 and 1.200 millions of euros of black money in just four years, A parliamentary delegation from the province of Zhejiang arrived in Spain, where Gao Ping is from, the brain of the aforementioned plot. ¿What did that delegation come for??
During research for our latest book, “The Invisible Empire”, that documents the economic criminality behind Chinese business success in Spain, We try to know what was behind that visit and the pressure from the Chinese embassy in Spain, especially considering that the case was judicialized. And what we found out is that on the Chinese side there was, at least, veiled threats, and for the Spanish, excessive deference and a letter from the former Spanish ambassador in Beijing urging the Government to make an institutional declaration to avoid Chinese retaliation.
Which leads the Spanish Government to brandish and, For example, a stand in profile with the case of Tibet, It is the perception that the Asian colossus is important given its economic weight for our economic recovery. And in honor of the truth, and here is the third conclusion, it must be said that Spain is not the only Western country that adopts a utilitarian stance regarding China. It happens with countries with as much economic weight as Canada, whose government has gone from being one of the most critical about the human rights situation in China and the circumstances in Tibet, to be at odds with the communist regime to be able to sell its oil and receive its investments.
own The European Union has also capitulated on the issue of human rights, that are already off the agenda in the bilateral relationship and we are now focusing solely on trade., where things are also going wrong for us. In the case of the United Kingdom, more of the same, why make London the financial center offshore for the renminbi demands, Of course, paying a political price. And so on, There are examples all over the planet., with the notable exception of Norway.
China, therefore, He does his will with a checkbook. But the paradox is that, in the case of Spain, That servility is of absolutely no use to us., because while the Chinese are investing throughout Europe, Chinese investments in Spain, apart from exceptions like Huawei, They are clearly conspicuous by their absence.
Thubtne Wangchen, spanish citizen.
In any case, apart from debates about the convenience of so-called universal justice, the tremendousness of the actions of the Government in the case of the Tibetan genocide in the Court it's not so much that they cut it, as PP and PSOE already agreed in 2009, but the procedure used: emergency and through the back door, lest it last longer than necessary and the Chinese get angry.
And in that tactic, by the way, The judges of the Court also have an undoubted responsibility, what they pass each other the hot potato thereby paralyzing the case and preventing the search and capture order from being executed..
The serious thing about all this is that the procedure demonstrates the obvious: what They have cowardly given in to pressure from Beijing. Given which it is appropriate to ask the Government a double question: ¿perhaps the complainant Thubten Wangchen, a Tibetan nationalized Spanish, does not have the right to effective judicial protection? Mainly, ¿Whose side is the Spanish Government on?, of the Spanish people whom he is supposed to represent or of the largest totalitarian regime on the planet?
