Tibetan Review
May 18, 2009

China could not stand the French President
Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to meet with the Dalai
Lama and so cancelled the Dec 1, 2008 EU-China
annual summit. There was no question of agreeing
to disagree on the issue between the two sides.
However, with Austria, China said differences on
Tibet would not stop the ushering in of a new era
of bilateral relations between them, according to
a report by China’s official Xinhua news agency May 16.

Both sides agreed that despite differences on
such issues as Tibet, they should join efforts to
bring in a new era of bilateral relations, the
report said, referring to a meeting between
Austria’s President Heinz Fischer and the
Chairman of China’s National People's Congress (NPC) Mr Wu Banguo on May 15.

The report said Fischer reiterated the permanence
of his country’s commitment to the one-China
policy while Wu reiterated China's "principled stance on the Tibet issue."