Foreign Affairs
China and Ireland - a diplomatic spat?
Recent international relations with China have been somewhat fractured to say the least. Not only have the anti-Olympic protests gathered a worldwide strangehold - from activists scaling the Golden Gate Bridge to grown men wrestling with Blue Peter presenters over a fiery torch - but now there seems to be a frosty atmosphere growing between them and Ireland.
After a speech in which Irish Environment Minister John Gormley brought up China's continual human rights violations in Tibet, the Chinese ambassador took it upon himself to get up and walk out. Not to worry, though - according to Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, there is absolutely no evidence of diplomatic unease whatsoever. So that's just fine then.
What was it that - allegedly - upset Chinese envoy Liu Biwei so much? It's most likely that the following Gormley soundbite had a role to play:
''We have always enjoyed good relations with the Chinese people. But we condemn this abuse of human rights and we call on the Chinese government to enter dialogue with the Dalai Lama."
Gormley has also denied that the speech had any sort of unforeseen consequences, even adding that Biwei had been informed of the content beforehand. Which leaves only a few viable reasons for the departure of the envoy - a) it was all simply coincidental, and down the call of nature more than anything else, b) Biwei has an incredibly short memory and forgot what was coming up, only to fume with anger when the issue arose or c) Biwei had parked his car in a reserved spot and had to rush outside to deal with it.
No-one at the Chinese Embassy in Dublin could be reached for comment. Evidently the secretive media stance of back home is something they like to export ...
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