Qatar-China ties stronger: envoy

Joseph Varghese/Staff ReporterThe visits of the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Qatar and Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani’s to China last year have boosted the bilateral relations between the two countries, Chinese Ambassador  Gao Youzhen has said. In an interview with Gulf Times, ambassador Youzhen said that both the countries have developed  increased political trust in recent years.Regarding the bilateral relations between the two countries the ambassador said:  “These high level visits have increased the political trust between the countries. Both the countries reviewed the bilateral relations and discussed various regional and international issues. Both sides have also signed many agreements of mutual interest and practical co-operation.” He also said that there might be some ministerial level visits from both the countries this year.Youzhen claimed that Qatar has always supported China on issues like Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. He went on to highlight that Qatar has always been supportive of China in its dispute against Taiwan. He said: “In the declaration of the establishment of China-Qatar diplomatic relationship, Qatar has reiterated the Chinese stand of One China principle. Qatar also does not allow Taiwan to set up an official representative office in Doha and has supported China’s One China policy in the UN and other international bodies.” Youzhen affirmed that his country has always held the argument that there was only one China which is the People’s Republic of China. He said: “There is only one China in the world that includes the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Qatar has been very supportive of this argument right from the beginning.” As for the Taiwan issue he said that it started in the late 1940s due to differences of opinion between the Communist party leaders and their opponents. “The Communist party won  and  the opponents  fled to Taiwan and started working against China. The US started supporting Taiwan and a small fraction of people in Taiwan also supported separating from China,” he added.He said that the Tibetan issue was started by Dalai Lama and his group who wanted to separate Tibet from China. He explained: “Historical and legal proofs suggest that Tibet belongs to China and Qatar has been supportive of the fact that Tibet is an inseparable part of China.” As for Xinjiang, the envoy said that it belongs to China and the issue was initiated by some separatists.