Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04DUBLIN1700
2004-11-19 14:21:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Dublin
Cable title:  

CHINESE VICE-PREMIER'S VISIT SPARKS MINOR

Tags:  PREL PARM ETTC EUN 
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UNCLAS DUBLIN 001700 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PARM ETTC EUN
SUBJECT: CHINESE VICE-PREMIER'S VISIT SPARKS MINOR
CONTROVERSIES

Ref: STATE 247288

UNCLAS DUBLIN 001700

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PARM ETTC EUN
SUBJECT: CHINESE VICE-PREMIER'S VISIT SPARKS MINOR
CONTROVERSIES

Ref: STATE 247288


1. (U) Chinese Vice-Premier Huang Ju's November 16-18 visit
to Dublin was a minor source of controversy in Ireland, with
media complaints about a press blackout as well as calls by
Falun Gong practitioners for Huang's arrest. During his
stay, Huang met with President McAleese, Prime Minister
Ahern, Deputy Prime Minister Harney, and several cabinet
ministers. The Irish Government received media criticism,
however, for the fact that Huang's schedule did not include
a press conference. The National Union of Journalists said
in a press release that the absence of opportunities for
media questioning amounted to censorship. Labor Party
spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Michael Higgins, also
criticized the Government as being complicit in censorship.
In response, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern told
local press that the GOI had raised the possibility of press
conferences before Huang's visit, but that the Chinese had
rejected the suggestion.


2. (U) Lawyers for five Falun Gong practitioners called for
the arrest of Vice-Premier Huang. One of the practitioners,
Ming Zhao, holds refugee status in Ireland on the basis of
alleged torture in China. The lawyers filed an application
to have the Garda (National Police) arrest Vice-Premier
Huang on charges of complicity in torture under the 2000
Criminal Justice Act, which incorporated the UN Convention
on the Prevention of Torture into Irish law. The
application failed in the District Court, however, after
Judge Cormac Dunne said that the case lacked evidence.
Judge Dunne also said that he could not proceed without
clarification of Vice-Premier Huang's possible diplomatic
immunity.


3. (SBU) On November 17, Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) EU correspondent, Gerald Keown, told emboff that
Huang's visit was a follow-up to Premier Wen Jiabao's visit
to Dublin last May and also to Prime Minister Ahern's
discussions with Premier Wen at the October Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM) in Hanoi. Huang's visit has set the stage
for Prime Minister Ahern's planned January 2005 visit to
Beijing. Keown noted that trade, investment, culture,
tourism, and human rights were among the issues discussed by
Huang and his Irish interlocutors. According to Keown,
Huang made clear China's interest in the lifting of the EU
arms embargo, and the Irish side explained that China's
human rights record would make such a move difficult to
justify to the Irish public. (In conversations with
Embassy, the Irish DFA has not explicitly opposed the
lifting of the embargo, but has alluded to China's human
rights violations as a significant factor in its
considerations.) Deliverables for Huang's visit included an
agreement signed by Education Minister Mary Hanifan for
college and university exchanges between Ireland and China.

KENNY