Meeting with the Dalai Lama can be fraught with political difficulties—just ask EU leaders, who in 2008 saw annual China-EU talks shelved for the first time in 11 years after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with him.
But it seems there’s also a financial cost for meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader, at least according to a recent study published by the Social Science Research Network.
According to the authors, both from the University of Goettingen in Germany,‘Our empirical results support the idea that countries officially receiving the Dalai Lama at the highest political level are punished through a reduction of their exports to China.’
Using data from the United Nations and World Bank, the authors found that ‘official’ meetings between the Dalai Lama and the leadership of a country resulted in a cut in exports to China from that country of an average of 8.1 percent. This effect, the authors say, lasts about two years.
What’s most interesting about the findings is that they have only held true since 2002, when Hu Jintao took office as president.
As Alistair Thornton, China analyst with IHS Global Insight, notes, it could be a little more complicated than the government issuing an order from above in response to a visit. Commenting on the issue to CNN, Thornton noted: ‘The possibility remains that Chinese companies are taking it upon themselves to curb trade links, rather that it being a direct order from the highest levels.’
Still, the fact that there’s such a marked change between the reaction now and the pre-Hu years suggests even if there hasn’t been an official hardening, there remains a strong perception among Chinese importers that it’s in their best interests to curb links themselves.
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SE962582C
O Yes it does.
One actually wonders WHEN the Chinese become (more) murderous and homicidal all-together.
zack
perhaps rather than thinking ‘it’s in their best interests’, these Chinese importers genuinely disagree with their western counterparts endorsing a political figure that advocates balkanisation of China?
harry
music to my ears, everyone should just ignore this theocratic slave owner monk. then the world will be a much more peacful place.
SE962582C
O Yes it does.
‘Enough’ve been Said.
SE962582C
One actually wonders WHEN the Chinese become[S] (more) murderous and homicidal all-together.
Upon an another Note, the Dalai Lama are always associated with either or with both failed and/or (publicly) corrupt (since it could actually be argued that MOST of the Politicians are corrupt anyway, any anyhow) Politicians, either directly, or by one way of another.
Mrs Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro PELOSI, CA-8 (D), formerly CA-5 (D), and the OUT-GOING Speaker of the House of the House of the Representatives of the United States in Congress, in the Congress of the United States, and a Sponsor of THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL for the Dalai Lama, would be the example, your example of a FAILED Politician.
Mr Norman John BAKER, MP, the Member of Parliament the English/British Parliament for Lewes, THE PRESIDENT of the Political Organisation THE TIBET SOCIETY OF THE UK, and a former MEMBER of the All-Party Parliamentary GROUP FOR TIBET, was alleged to have had accepted and received FREE TRAVELS TO INDIA the HINDUSTAN, along with FREE meals, dining, Hotel-Stays and accommodation, paid for by the same Tibet Society, as well as from the Dalai Lama and from the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, in a possibly unauthorised, prohibited and disallowed, if not possibly as well illegal/unlawful, way, fashion and manner, as claimed by the BBC, the Company of the British Broadcasting Corporation, in this year, or the year 2010, and reported by the rest of the English/British Media such as by the Guardian News-Paper .
Mr Harry Michael COHEN, the Accountant, the FORMER Member of Parliament the English/British Parliament formerly for Leyton and formerly for Leyton-and-Wanstead, a Member of the Council of the same Tibet Society, and the former CHAIRMAN, the former TREASURER and the former SECRETARY of the same All-Party Parliamentary GROUP FOR TIBET, was one of the major characters of the the Daily Telegraph’s English/British Parliamentary EXPENSES SCANDAL (of the year 2009), along with at least one or 1 other fellow MP from the same Tibet Group, or from the same All-Party Parliamentary Group, by the name of Mr Anthony David STEEN (Both were forced to not presenting themselves for re-election for, de facto “resigning” and “stepping down” from, Parliament, in disgrace and under humiliating circumstances.).
SE962582C
Apologies; a “small” “little” error, and it should instead be and be read as ” … Politicians, either directly, or by one way [OR] another.”; and Thank you.
John Chan
The West is whining. Everybody knows there is no free lunch, the West has to pay for their fame and name. The West has to decide which is more important, their stomach or their ego. International politics is a grownup’s game, as in the North America, people say “If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Please grow up, the West. It will be interesting to know the impact on Norway’s commerce caused by the awarding the Nobel Peace prize to Liu Xiabo, I wondered which is more costly, Dalai Lama or Liu Xizbo.
Nahian J
Some say that Hu Jintao is moving China toward “progressive reform” but it’s things like this that happen that say otherwise. This only provides more evidence of China’s regression, especially in light of the censorship of Liu Xizbo’s Nobel Peace Prize. Francis Fukuyama in the late 80s said that the end of history is surely coming as the great political ideologies were falling down one by one, leaving western liberalism the only one left. China’s reaction to the changing times is like a turtle retracting itself inside it’s shell. China’s trying its hardest in order to prove that it is unchanging in tradition but it faces an overwhelming opposition.