Beirut, March 23: The newly appointed Chinese ambassador to Lebanon is determined to be a neutral and positive influence in the country, putting trade and developmental cooperation at the top of his agenda.
Wu Zexian presented his credentials to President Michel Sleiman on Feb. 28 but has already begun touring the diplomatic circuit, holding meetings with caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and various figures from across the political spectrum.
“The political issues should not stand in the way of development of Lebanon and the improvement of living standards,” Wu told The Daily Star. “The importance is to try and reconcile [diverging parties] and to work on the interests of all Lebanese.”
China, known for its policy of non-interference in internal matters of other states, abstained in the 2007 U.N. Security Council vote establishing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
It has since stayed relatively quiet on the court charged with investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“We abstained, but we understand perfectly the sensibility of this problem and I think it is very important to find the truth. No one says that criminals should escape justice,” said Wu.
The STL has been blasted by the March 8 camp, which demands Lebanon cease cooperation with the “politicized” tribunal. However, the March 14 coalition, alongside the U.S. and many European powers including Russia, insists that the STL be allowed to continue its work.
An as-yet-unpublished indictment, widely reported to implicate Hezbollah members in the murder, is expected to unveiled to the public very soon.
“The divergence of opinion is not on the necessity of finding the assassins but it is the means and the orientation of the tribunal’s work that [is causing controversy],” said Wu. “We think that you always have to take into account the two aspects. We have to think about justice but at the same time we have to think about the national equilibrium and consensus.”
China is a contributor to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and has slightly fewer than 350 non-military personnel on the ground.
However, this number is less than the 1,000 peacekeepers that had been reported to be joining in 2006. The decrease is attributed to a general realignment in Chinese U.N. peacekeepers worldwide.
“It is of fundamental importance to find a definitive solution to resolve this conflict [between Israel and Lebanon],” Wu said. “We cannot live indefinitely like this, always with tension, even if in appearance we are at peace but the problem remains unresolved,” said Wu, who visited UNIFIL forces last month.
Lebanon was absent from the latest round of U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which lasted less than three months and collapsed in December 2010 after Israel refused to halt settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
However, Wu insists that Lebanon must play an active role in the peace process. “Lebanon is obliged to participate in the peace process because it is a neighbor country to Israel and there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon,” said Wu. “It is not a will, it is a reality, and Lebanon is already involved in the conflict.”
Some 300,000 Palestinian refugees are estimated to be living in Lebanon where their right to work is severely restricted and where they are prevented from owning property.
“I understand perfectly the worries of the Lebanese authorities to see the conflict resolved as soon as possible and I think that all the political personalities that I met with so far have expressed urgency in wanting to resolve the issue,” he said.
“We cannot see hundreds of thousands of refugees living in very difficult conditions indefinitely. This is not possible. They have right to return to their homeland.”
Ordinary Lebanese too are subject to great hardship, with some 20 percent of the population living below the poverty line.
China, although still a developing country with vast regional inequalities, has proved a willing creditor for infrastructural and natural resource exploitation projects in many parts of the Middle East and Africa.
Wu has vowed to promote ties between Lebanese and Chinese businesses and would like to see relations shift from just trade to other fields of cooperation. A top priority will be the ongoing rehabilitation of Tripoli port, which could enter the second phase with Chinese help.
“In other countries China is developing a lot of cooperation projects but in Lebanon they are still not very numerous,” he said. The few projects that do exist are “not sufficient” and should be expanded.
——–Agencies