Shortly after midday on Friday, Dutch member of parliament Henk Jan Ormel rode his bicycle over to the Chinese embassy in The Hague. Ormel, a Christian democrat and the president of the parliamentary foreign affairs commission in, was carrying an important message for Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun: the Dutch parliament had decided not to grant the ambassador's urgent request to cancel a scheduled meeting with the dalai lama on June 5.
In a letter dated April 9, ambassador Zhang Jun had warned that a meeting with the dalai lama, who has been living in exile since China occupied Tibet in the 1950s, could seriously jeopardise Dutch-Chinese relations. Zhang Jun subtly reminded the Dutch parliament that we are in the middle of a global economic crisis, and "I wouldn't want to see our good relationship hijacked by the dalai and the image of the parliament affected by his visit".
It was expected that China would object to the dalai lama's visit to the Dutch parliament; China always protests when Tibet's spiritual leader visits a foreign country. Earlier on, China had already let it be known through diplomatic channels that it opposed the dalai lama's visit to the Netherlands altogether.
The dalai lama is scheduled to appear at the RAI convention centre in Amsterdam, the Great Church in The Hague and the Melkweg concert hall in Amsterdam. A meeting with crown prince Willem-Alexander was originally scheduled but has been canceled. The Centre for Strategic Studies invited both the dalai lama and prince Willem-Alexander to a conference on water management on June 5, but the crown prince declined several weeks ago.
An official meeting with representatives of the Dutch government will be even less appreciated by China. Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen has said that he will probably 'meet' the dalai lama at some point during his visit to the Netherlands. 'Meet' being the key word: China doesn't mind people meeting the dalai lama so much as long it doesn't become an official reception. The British prime minister chose a similar path last year when he met with the dalai lama, not at his Downing Street 10 residence, but at a religious centre.
Similarly, the dalai lama's visit to the Dutch parliament will be stripped of the trimmings of a state visit. The dalai lama will meet with members of the foreign affairs committee in a reception room; on the way to that meeting he will be intercepted by parliament president Gerdi Verbeet. At no point will the dalai lama set foot in the actual parliamentary chamber. The arrangement resembles the dalai lama's visit to the Belgian federal parliament last year: Tibet's spiritual leader skirted the plenary chamber, and the usual guard of honour was skipped as well.
The members of the Dutch foreign affairs commission are confident that this careful approach will be enough to appease the Chinese. At worst, there will be some difficulties when Dutch members of parliament visit China later this year.
