III° EUROPEAN SEMINAR ON TIBET
FULL AUTONOMY FOR TIBET WITHIN THREE YEARS OR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE TIBETAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE

European Parliament, Brussels, 7- 8 December 2000

Intervention of Mr Anthony O'Brien - Ireland Tibet Support Group - December 8, 2000

The business of boycotts against China has been discussed frequently. The same problem always comes up, that has just been expressed, that it's virtually impossible to identify specific Chinese goods. Not just the things that come from "laogai" labour camps, but so many cheap Chinese exports, which come to Europe, which go to the Third World, which go to so many countries, are repackaged, relabelled, and then resold. So the whole boycott thing is really impracticable. It's very, very dificult to do effectively.

What we really need is specific research into where Western money goes in China. Because it is the experience of many many western companies which go to China on joint ventures, that they put up a whole load of capital and the joint venture company is set up. In about a year or so ( we don't hear about this ) many of these joint ventures fail, and the money has disappeared into the pockets of Chinese officialdom. This is where corruption really bites.

The campaigns we have discussed over the last day have focused on two areas. One is public awareness, flags and all that, and the other is parliamentarians. The politicians will respond to financial considerations. Because that is where "real politik" comes from in the West. And if we could, we need to do the research that points out how much western money actually disappears in China. Jonathan Mirsky produced an article last year in the Wall Street Journal at the time of President Jiang Zemin's visit to London, which showed that most western companies investing in China see little more than 3% return on their investments. And those are the lucky ones, the ones who make it. Many many get their fingers burned and produce nothing. So we need research into that area.