It is less than six months since I visited Lhasa with a cross-party Parliamentary delegation. It's particularly shocking when you see on TV streets and squares that you yourself have visited turned into scenes of riot and slaughter. With very few western reporters in Tibet and strict state control over the media and Internet access, it is hard to be certain of exactly what happened.
It looks as though what started as peaceful protests by monks to mark the anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight to India in 1959, spiralled into rioting directed at Han Chinese and Muslim people living in Lhasa and a ferocious crackdown by the Chinese authorities. As a party, we have called upon China to exercise restraint in its response to the crisis in Tibet and we welcome the call by the Dalai Lama for Tibetans not to use violence.
The protests and the violence have focused world attention on the suppression of human rights in Tibet and more widely in China and also on the dispute over Tibet's political status. Last year, I found the authorities in Lhasa keen to argue that Tibet was sharing in China's growing prosperity and that there was greater freedom now than in the past. I saw people praying and prostrating themselves at the Jokhang Temple; prayer wheels and prayer flags were in use throughout Lhasa, and we visited Ganden Monastery, literally torn down during the Cultural Revolution, now rebuilt and in use again. But there were limits to personal and political freedom. When we visited Ganden, our delegation was joined by a couple of extra Chinese officials, both carrying tape recorders. And it was clear in all the conversations we had with the provincial leadership in Lhasa and the government in Beijing that for them there could be no challenge to the principle that Tibet is an inalienable part of China or to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party.
One thing that has become clear over the last few days is that at least some young Tibetans, both within Tibet and outside, have grown impatient with the political leadership of the Dalai Lama and in particular with his commitment to non-violence and his acceptance that Tibet should not be independent but have greater autonomy within China. Talks between the Chinese authorities and representatives of the Dalai Lama have been dragging on for some years now without much apparent sign of progress. My own view is that it is in interests of China's leaders to deal with the underlying political tensions which last week's events laid bare by engaging with Tibetan representatives of the Dalai Lama in those talks.
China's political as well as her economic influence in the world is growing. We want to see China exercise her responsibilities as a world power. It is not going to be possible to deal with major global challenges such as climate change, or the threat of nuclear proliferation without the active partnership of China, and the negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme have shown that China can play an important and constructive role. As China becomes a more active player in world events, it is both inevitable and right that her record on human rights, in Tibet and elsewhere, will come under closer scrutiny. The Olympics in Beijing this year will bring tens of thousands of foreign visitors, including thousands of journalists, to China. Chinese society, both the good and the bad, will be under the spotlight to a greater extent than ever before.
What has happened in Tibet is shocking and unacceptable but we must not forget that issues of religious freedom, freedom of expression and the right to due process and a fair trial before anyone is deprived of liberty matter in every part of China. This week, a leading Chinese dissident and human rights activist, Hu Jia, is on trial in Beijing after giving interviews to foreign media in which he criticised his government's record on religious freedom, the treatment of aids and environmental protection. China has signed and promised to ratify the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We should press China to complete ratification without delay. Our Party must continue to speak out about human rights in China and to raise both individual cases and general issues of human rights in our contacts with Chinese leaders. These days, no man, and no country, is an island.