Paul Murphy
Question:9. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to report on his meeting with the Chinese Premier Li Qiang. [2809/24]
View answerWednesday, 14 February 2024
Questions (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
Seán Haughey
Question:10. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent engagement with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. [3810/24]
View answer
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:11. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent engagement with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. [3957/24]
View answer
Peadar Tóibín
Question:12. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach to report on his meeting with the Chinese Premier Li Qiang. [3972/24]
View answer
Mick Barry
Question:13. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent engagement with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. [4127/24]
View answer
Marc Ó Cathasaigh
Question:14. Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent engagement with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. [6211/24]
View answer
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:15. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on his meeting with the President of China. [6660/24]
View answerOral answers (6 contributions)
I proposes to take Questions Nos. 9 to 15, inclusive, together.
I welcomed Premier Li Qiang to Ireland on 17 January for a working visit which marked 45 years of diplomatic relations between Ireland and China. In addition to our bilateral meeting, there was a working lunch that included several Chinese ministers, the Governor of the Central Bank of China, the Tánaiste and the Ministers, Deputies Ryan, Foley, McConalogue and Coveney.
I had a productive meeting with Premier Li and his delegation. We agreed there is more we can do economically, including boosting trade. Importantly, the Premier confirmed that the pause on beef exports to China had been lifted. This was very welcome news for farmers and food producers around the country. It is testament to the very hard work that they do in ensuring that Irish food is of the highest quality.
Premier Li confirmed China’s decision to extend a visa exemption to Irish passport holders wishing to travel to China for 15 days or less. This is very good news for tourists, business people and those visiting friends or relatives, who no longer need to apply for a visa to go to China provided they are only there for 15 days or less.
We discussed global issues, including the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. I was very clear that our relationship must be based on values and mutual interests. I expressed our strong commitment to a rules-based international order, based on the UN Charter and respect for fundamental rights.
As we do in all our engagements with the Chinese Government, I raised human rights with Premier Li, including our concerns around the human rights situation in Xinjiang and in Hong Kong, and in the other special autonomous regions. I also mentioned the specific case of Jimmy Lai. I welcomed the resumption of the EU-China human rights dialogue to discuss these and other issues, including Tibet and the situation regarding human rights defenders.
Overall, it was a very good and useful meeting, underlining the need for us to engage with China as a very important actor in the world if we are to deal effectively with the global challenges we all face.
The Chinese regime is a repressive and authoritarian regime. It is a country with very few democratic rights. I was struck by the decision to close all access for the public to the Phoenix Park to facilitate this meeting. It was not just to facilitate the meeting, because one could have had lots of people in the Phoenix Park and the meeting could have gone ahead, but to facilitate the meeting happening without expressions of protest about what is happening in China. Was that a request of the Chinese administration that this would happen? How did that occur?
What was the response of the Premier to the points raised by the Taoiseach on the repression within China? In particular I want to raise the situation of the Uyghur people. At the height of the repression of the Uyghur people, which is a denial of culture, a denial and discrimination against language and a definite denial of any question of self-determination, there were maybe up to 1 million Uyghur people in prison or in some form of detention without any trial. The repression seems to continue. A report just last year from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that since 2017 the Chinese Government had committed grave rights violations against millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic people in Xinjiang. The report found that these abuses were so systematic and widespread that they "may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity". Did the Taoiseach put points like that to the Premier and what was the response?
The People's Republic of China is a major economic global power. As such, it has considerable influence in geopolitical matters. It is, therefore, in a strong position to help resolve many of the world's problems. It is right that we enhance and develop good relations with that country. It is in our interest to do so. Meetings such as the Taoiseach's meeting with the Premier of the State Council are important. Although the EU has a sensible de-risk policy regarding China it is in everyone's interest for the EU to have good relations with China as well.
At a press conference issued at the time of the Premier's visit reference was made to a forthcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Council universal periodic review. As we know, there are concerns about human rights issues in China. My question is whether the Taoiseach was in a position to raise these well-known human rights matters with the Premier. The Taoiseach has said that he did. As Deputy Paul Murphy also asked, I would be interested to know what was the Premier's response.
We are all very interested in the response Premier Li gave regarding China's well documented human rights issues. China is a huge geopolitical player. What questions did the Taoiseach put to the Chinese about their engagements on a worldwide basis, not only in regard to ongoing conflicts but also the Chinese engagement across parts of Europe and right across Africa, particularly as those engagements relate to scarce resources?
I had hoped to get in during the previous group of questions with a question on the tech sector. We have had an element of job losses, with more to come at PayPal. The Government needs to keep an eye on the packages employees get. There are some worries in that regard.
As we are talking about issues on a global scale, we all know what the situation is in Gaza and we all welcome the letter the Taoiseach wrote alongside Pedro Sánchez. Was it the case that they could not get more people to be a party or signatory to that letter? The Taoiseach brought up the issue of the EU-Israel trade association agreement and whether we have looked into the situation legally. Is there an absolute requirement for unanimity on any decision relating to the agreement? We are talking about the Israelis being absolutely in breach of humanitarian conditions. If there are conditions within the agreement, logic would say there has to be a means of enacting those requirements.
The Chinese regime is a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has engaged in across-the-board suppression of any dissent and wholesale persecution of certain groups. The Uyghurs were mentioned. In fact, it has been suggested that the Uyghurs are victims of a possible genocide and certainly victims of a really brutal suppression of an entire national and ethnic group. Did the Taoiseach raise that issue with the Chinese Premier?
I do not know much about the philosophy of Falun Gong adherents, and I doubt I would share much of that philosophy, but I know they are a persecuted group. People from that group who live in my area come into my office regularly and did so again recently to report what is happening. I wrote to the Tánaiste about it a while ago. Their relatives were grabbed and arrested because they are supporters of Falun Gong. That happens very regularly, with horrific accounts of the treatment of people who subscribe to that particular group. There is also the absolutely brutal suppression of democracy in Hong Kong. Anybody who articulates any dissent or opposition to the regime will suffer pretty brutal consequences. Did the Taoiseach raise those issues with the Chinese Premier?
The inconsistency of European Governments, including our own, on the principles of human rights is stark. We are very quick to jump up and down about the lack of respect for human rights of certain regimes but we say less about others, perhaps because we see it as in our economic interest to do so. China is one such regime, the United States is another and, for many years, Israel has been another. The list goes on and includes Saudi Arabia, etc. I would like to know what human rights issues the Taoiseach raised and what kind of response he got from the Chinese Premier.
Decisions on security matters, including road closures such as, for example, in the Phoenix Park, are not made by me. They are security matters, they are dealt with by the Garda and the Defence Forces and they must, of course, remain confidential.
At my meeting with the Chinese Premier, I raised our concerns about the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. Premier Li disputed the veracity of those concerns and invited me to visit the region to see with my own eyes what the situation is there. I urged China to implement the recommendations of the recent UN report issued by Michelle Bachelet on the situation and to engage proactively with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
I also raised our concerns with regard to the human rights situation in the other special autonomous regions of Tibet and Hong Kong but we did not discuss any particular religious groups, including Falun Gong. I stressed our ongoing concerns about the national security law in Hong Kong and the clampdown there on media freedoms. We welcomed the resumption of the EU-China human rights dialogue to discuss issues including Tibet and the situation regarding human rights defenders. In June last year, the European Council set out its approach to China, shared by all EU states, which makes clear our desire to engage with the Chinese Government. The EU wants to see a balanced, reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship with China, with a level playing field for our businesses. I am particularly pleased to see co-operation mechanisms between the EU and China advanced. It is important that China and the EU have strong and productive engagements on critical issues like climate, digital development and the sustainable development goals. It is equally important that we engage with China guided by values and interests. We welcome that the dialogue has continued.
I also reaffirmed Ireland's long-standing adherence to the One China policy and our recognition of the People's Republic of China as the legitimate Government of China. We emphasised our view that any change to the current status quo should only happen through peaceful and democratic means and that while we uphold the One China policy, we seek to maintain economic, cultural and interpersonal ties with Taiwan.
Deputy Ó Murchú referred to the tech sector. I join him in expressing my regret at the bad news about the jobs at PayPal that will be lost in his constituency. It is important that workers get a decent redundancy package. That is normally the case when a large successful company lays off staff. Certainly, the Government will be there to make sure they get any social welfare entitlements they may need, as well as advice around job search, alternative jobs and careers, and perhaps help with going back to education, gaining a new skill or setting up their own enterprise. I know people who lost jobs in the tech sector previously who went on to set up their own businesses and have done extremely well. I wish the workers the best in that regard.
The Deputy also raised the letter to President von der Leyen. We invited other countries to co-sign the letter. They declined for their own reasons and that has to remain confidential for reasons of diplomatic confidentiality. My understanding is that any decision to formally suspend the agreement would require a unanimous decision because foreign policy matters are subject to unanimity in the EU and do not fall under qualified majority voting. I would be up for that being changed. I would like to see the EU adopt common foreign policies by qualified majority voting. We would need to have a reasoned debate about that in this House and among the general public because while we would be on the winning side of most votes, we would not always be. We would have to bear in mind that this would leave us in a situation sometimes where we would be bound by foreign policy positions we do not support. That happens in other fields of EU competence but not as yet on foreign policy. We would need a proper debate about it if we were ever to go down that line.