Mick Hartley

The Chinese are not happy:

China says it had "no choice but to postpone" a summit with the EU because of the French stance on the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.

China's foreign ministry said French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to meet the Dalai Lama had "deprived the summit of a good atmosphere".

Mr Sarkozy has said he will meet the Dalai Lama in Poland on 6 December.

France – holder of the EU's rotating presidency – was to have hosted the EU-China summit on 1 December.

"To maintain good relations with France and the European Union, China has told France time and again to properly handle the Tibet issue, so as to create necessary conditions for the China-EU summit," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

"Regrettably, the French side has not actively responded to [these] efforts, so that the summit cannot be held in a good atmosphere, nor achieve its expected goals."

Mr Qin added: "In China we have a saying, 'Whoever causes the problem should solve the problem'. It is not China that caused the present situation."

Of course not.

Some analysis here:

"This is an unusually strong way of sending a signal," said Robbie Barnett, professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York.

"The Dalai Lama has been visiting Western capitals since 1987 but there has not been a response to this degree — the cancellation of a multilateral summit."

China has in the past called off visits or talks with foreign officials — Germany's finance minister, for example, was forced to cancel a trip to China in December last year after Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the Dalai Lama.

China has insisted for many years that it opposes foreign leaders meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader, who it maintains is trying to win independence for his Himalayan homeland that has been under Chinese rule since 1951.

"But this is unprecedented, it's serious, China has never before cancelled summits," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University.

"China feels much more powerful than before and wants to impose its rules on the rest of the world."

The decision to cancel the summit comes amid an accumulation of irritants between the EU and China, Cabestan said, culminating in a number of actions planned in Europe for December that were bound to anger Beijing.

These included the Dalai Lama's visit to several countries in the EU, his meeting with Sarkozy on December 6, and the European Parliament's formal awarding of the Sakharov Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia on the 17th.

Xing Hua, head of the Europe research centre of the Chinese government's China Institute of International Studies, said Beijing's response was borne out of genuine frustration.

"China was forced to do this, as it cannot continue to tolerate heads of state recognising so lightly the head of a secessionist movement," Xing said.

But more than a simple diplomatic signal, some analysts said this could be a deliberate attempt by China to try and split nations within the EU.

"There are internal divisions among the EU powers, and this is a squeeze to try and see who will stick to their principles and who believes they mustn't upset China… it's a high-stakes game," said Barnett.

He cited several recent high profile U-turns in Europe, including the refusal by Germany's foreign minister to meet the Dalai Lama in May after Merkel's talks with the Buddhist spiritual leader caused diplomatic problems.

The Pope also refused to meet him last year, despite having held discussions with him before.

"These are spectacular successes for pressure politics on the Tibet issue," said Barnett…."This is more than a chess play, this is diplomatic hard ball."