Jean-Philippe Béja: Very often western governments will try to flatter the Chinese leadership when they want to access the Chinese markets. So they will accept all sorts of compromises and sometimes they will use pressure on the human rights agenda in order to obtain some advantages from the Chinese. I think this is a very, very bad attitude.
Leila: Jean-Philippe Béja has garnered years and years of knowledge about China. Welcome to watchmojo.com. I am your host Leila, and I ask this Sinologist, his opinion on how the international community can best approach the country's uncertain human rights record.
Jean-Philippe Béja: The key to success is to have a consistent attitude towards China. One of the western leaders has adopted a very interesting position, and this is Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. Right after the Lhasa Riots Kevin Rudd went for his first trip to China. She declared that she wanted to be China's pengyou. Pengyou means a real friend. A real friend won't conceal his real feeling when something sucks in. He will say the truth.
Kevin Rudd was praised in the Renmin Ribao in the People's Daily for his speech he talked about the riots in Lhasa, and he said that, he didn't agree with the way the Chinese Communist Party had repressed the rights in Lhasa, that she didn't agree with the suppression of cultural autonomy of the Tibetan people. But that she was favorable to the rise of China. That he thought that China should exert an important power under world's scene. He agreed to develop economic, political, and social relations between Australia and China.
The trouble with most of our leaders is that either they criticize 100% of Chinese and oppose the fact that China is becoming a great power and this is normal because it's one billion and more inhabitants. So it's absolutely logical, but this they won't accept it, the Chinese leaders would always take advantage of your weaknesses which is absolutely normal.
So they will try to use the contradictions between the various countries, and we, especially we Europeans are very good at fighting together when we want to access the Chinese market. So the Chinese will use the Germans against the French, and the French against the English, and things like that. And unhappily the western powers are not able to present a united fund to concern themselves when they discuss with China and very often they change their attitude. Consistency is something very, very important.
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