06 JANUARY 2017
By Ester Unterfinger (Image editing), Christian Raaflaub (Text)
Read article and see more photos in the original here
Next week, Switzerland receives a visit from Xi Jinping. It will be the first state visit by a Chinese president since 1999. The last one was marred by an unfortunate incident that deteriorated bilateral relations.
The Swiss Government receives Chinese President Xi Jinping “as a sign of the increasingly closer political and economic relations between Switzerland and China”, according to the official statement issued this Friday. Several speeches are planned on the agenda., conversations and a gala dinner.
Relations with the Asian giant were not always idyllic. In fact, the last state visit in 1999 led to a diplomatic disagreement: While the authorities received President Jang Zemin with military honors in front of the Federal Palace in Bern, on the roofs of the buildings that surround the square it was read: “Free Tibet” (free tibet). They were the banners that Tibet sympathizers had displayed.
The Chinese leader, enraged, He refused to shake hands with the then president of Switzerland, Ruth Dreifuss, and continued on his way to the Federal Palace, where he declared: “You have lost a good friend.”. Since that unfortunate episode, relations between Bern and Beijing have improved considerably.. Proof of this was the signing of the free trade agreement in 2014.
(Photos: Keystone)
