July 03, 2008
China Faults Dalai Lama
2008/07/03
THE TOP COMMUNIST Party official in Tibet launched a fresh verbal salvo against the Dalai Lama amid talks in Beijing between the Chinese government and envoys representing the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists.
In a speech delivered Tuesday in Lhasa as negotiators met in the Chinese capital, Zhang Qingli, the party secretary of Tibet, said that riots in Lhasa in March were a 'seriously violent criminal incident by the Dalai clique.'
China's government has repeatedly blamed the Dalai Lama, who now lives in India, for the March 14 riots, which followed days of peaceful protest by monks and lay people, and unrest that swept Tibetan areas of western China in their aftermath.
The timing of Mr. Zhang's remarks -- delivered to visiting officials from the China Disabled Persons Federation and quoted by Lhasa's state-run newspaper -- could indicate China's position isn't softening despite its agreement to hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.
Mr. Zhang, known for taking a hard line against political dissent in Tibet, said the Lhasa riots were 'created by Tibetan separatists after long-term preparation, with the support and instigation of Western hostile forces.'
According to Tibet Daily, he continued: 'At a sensitive moment, they harbored the evil intention of turning the incident into a bloodbath, of disrupting the Beijing Olympics and destroying Tibet's stability and political harmony.'
The International Olympic Committee chastised China for comments made by Mr. Zhang when the Olympic torch passed through Lhasa last month, which the IOC said were improperly politicizing the Games that are to start in Beijing on Aug. 8.
Representatives of the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing Monday for what the self-proclaimed Tibet government-in-exile said would be two days of talks. China, which confirmed talks were taking place, would say nothing about their duration or agenda.
Neither side commented Wednesday on the substance of the talks. A statement issued by the Dalai Lama's office before the start of the discussions called for 'tangible progress to alleviate the difficult situation for Tibetans in their homeland.'
Some world leaders have said they are considering boycotting the Olympic opening ceremonies to protest China's crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators. French President Nicholas Sarkozy said this week he would attend if the current talks make progress.
China's foreign-ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao responded on Tuesday by saying 'the Tibet issue is China's internal affair' and that China opposes 'connecting Tibet-related issues with the Beijing Olympics.'
China's president, Hu Jintao, has made building a 'harmonious society' the guiding philosophy of his administration. And the government's focus on blaming the Dalai Lama for Tibetan unrest is coupled with an extreme reluctance to acknowledge the underlying economic, ethnic and other tensions in Tibetan areas and elsewhere.
Party officials, for example, blamed large-scale violent protests -- during which about 30,000 people took to the streets in a southwestern Chinese city in Guizhou province last weekend -- on 'very few people with ulterior motives,' according to a report by China's state-run Xinhua news agency.
The demonstrations began as a call for a new investigation into the death of a teenager who some believe was raped and murdered by people with official connections. Twenty police officers and 30 protesters were injured in the rioting and the county Communist Party Committee building was set on fire, as were 20 police vehicles.
Many Tibetans say they face limits on their religious practices and freedom of expression and feel they are being left out of the economic boom that has been enriching the eastern China heartland of the country's Han Chinese majority.
Tibet remains one of the poorest parts of China, and some government economic-development plans -- such as efforts to shift nomadic herders into more settled livelihoods -- also have caused resentment among Tibetans.
Even before the mid-March riots in Lhasa -- in which crowds of Tibetans attacked Han Chinese and Muslim Hui -- communal tensions were running high in parts of western China with large Tibetan populations.
In the town of Tongren on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau in Qinghai province, for example, Tibetan, Han and Hui residents clashed in late February during Tibetan and Han Chinese festivals after the Lunar New Year. Local residents say a dispute between a Hui balloon vendor and some Tibetans turned into a riot.
'That day was like a volcanic explosion,' says one Tibetan man. 'The violence got more and more serious as more and more people got involved.' The Tibetan anger was fueled by 'resentment,' the man said -- of Tibetans' treatment by the government and what was viewed as Han infringement on a Tibetan celebration.
After the demonstrations in Lhasa, Buddhist monks from the local monastery joined by lay people participated in more marches and protests. Police moved in reinforcements, and the unrest lately has been halted by arrests and surveillance, local residents say.
Gordon Fairclough
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May 01, 2008
One Man vs. China
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April 25, 2008
In Shift, China Offers to Meet With Dalai Lama Envoys
April 26, 2008
By JIM YARDLEY
BEIJING — China appeared to bend to international pressure on Friday as the government announced it would meet with envoys of the Dalai Lama, an unexpected shift that comes as violent Tibetan demonstrations in western China have threatened to cast a pall over the Beijing Olympics in August.
China’s announcement, made through the country’s official news agency, provided few details about the shape or substance of the talks but said the new discussions would commence “in the coming days.” The breakthrough comes as Chinese officials have pivoted this week and moved to tamp down the domestic nationalist anger unleashed by the Tibetan crisis and by the protests at the international Olympic torch relay.
“In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days,” said an unidentified Chinese official, according to Xinhua, the official news agency.
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, was returning to India from the United States on Friday. He has repeatedly called for renewed talks with Chinese officials and last month sent a letter to China’s president, Hu Jintao. Earlier this month, he hinted in Seattle that a back-channel discussion was already under way. On Friday, his spokesman, Tenzin Taklha, said: “Since His Holiness is committed to dialogue, we would welcome this.”
The spokesman added that the Dalai Lama had not yet received any official communication from China. “We also have to look at when the offer does officially arrive,” he said from Dharamshala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. “We have to look at conditions they are talking about.”
For weeks, Chinese officials have castigated the Dalai Lama in harsh language and blamed him for orchestrating the violent Tibetan protests that erupted March 14 in Lhasa and then spread across other Tibetan regions of western China. The Dalai Lama has denied any involvement in the demonstrations and denounced the violence, if also criticizing China for its crackdown against protesters.
China’s tough stance came as international leaders, including President Bush, have described the Dalai Lama as a man of peace and called on China to resume a dialogue with his envoys that began in 2002 but then broke off last summer after six rounds of talks. Those talks, focused on the future status of Tibet and whether the Dalai Lama will be allowed to return to China, never made significant progress.
The timing of China’s announcement suggests that party leaders hope to defuse the international criticism that has steadily mounted since the Tibetan protests began. In Europe, criticism is particularly strong as several government leaders have announced they will not attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Anti-China protesters caused violent disruptions to the Olympic torch relay in London and Paris, forcing relay organizers to change the route in other cities out of security concerns. China supporters have responded by flooding to the relay route.
“I believe the important question is whether China is doing this as a public relations maneuver to respond to international pressure before the Olympic Games,” said Wang Lixiong, a scholar in Beijing who has criticized government policy in Tibet. “They want the Dalai Lama to help them relieve pressure before the Olympics. But is it a sincere move, or just a public relations move?”
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at People’s University in Beijing, said the Chinese government does not want the talks to be “interpreted as a concession under duress.” He predicted that any discussions would be unlikely to bring meaningful breakthroughs.
“I doubt that both sides will change their fundamental positions,” Mr. Shi said. “If there is dialogue, this is dialogue for the sake of dialogue. Maybe both sides only want to impress the Western audience.”
This week, high-level talks aimed at repairing damaged relations have been under way between China and European leaders, notably the French. In recent days, China and France have been working assiduously to defuse the public anger and mutual accusations that began with the Tibetan protests. The Chinese have been enraged by the anti-Chinese protests during the Paris leg of the torch relay and also by threats from President Nicholas Sarkozy of France that he might boycott the Olympic opening ceremony.
On Thursday, President Hu Jintao met in Beijing with the president of the French Senate, Christian Poncelet, and emphasized the value that China places on Sino-French relations, even as he repeated Chinese complaints about the torch. Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao met with France’s prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, in another effort to smooth out the strained ties.
On Friday, hours before the government announced the new talks with the Dalai Lama, Mr. Wen discussed Tibet in a meeting with José Manual Barroso, president of theEuropean Union Commission. The two men also announced a new trade and economic dialogue. State media gave heavy prominence to the meetings as what appeared to be part of a broader effort to defuse public anger and possibly dilute plans for boycotts of French stores in China next month.
China has long condemned the Dalai Lama as a “splittist” who is pursuing Tibetan independence, even as the Dala Lama long ago disavowed Tibetan independence and has instead called for “genuine autonomy” within China. Chinese spokesmen often say the government would be willing to resume dialogue with the Tibetan spiritual leader but only if he shows “sincerity” in renouncing separatism and on other issues.
“It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks,” the unidentified Chinese official said in Friday’s official announcement.
Tenzin Taklha, the Tibetan spokesman, denounced these conditions as “basically baseless,” noting that the Dalai Lama has not sought independence since 1974 and supported holding the Olympics in Beijing, even after the violence erupted last month. “We have no preconditions,” he said. “We’re not saying these are conditions to talk. It’s a cause of concern for us to see repression is still continuing inside Tibet.”
Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from New Delhi and Jake Hooker contributed reporting from Beijing. Huang Yuanxi contributed research from Beijing
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April 23, 2008
Dalai Lama asks Chinese president to allow envoys into Tibet
3 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Dalai Lama has written a letter to China's President Hu Jintao offering to send emissaries to Tibet to calm down tensions following Beijing's crackdown, his special envoy said Wednesday.
"His Holiness expressed his deepest concerns about the situation (in Tibet) and offered to send his emissaries to help calm the situation and explain to Tibetans, but that specific offer so far went answered," envoy Lodi Gyari told reporters.
The letter, sent on March 19, was part of efforts "to begin a discussion on a peaceful way forward" following the Chinese crackdown on pro-Tibetan protests, said Gyari, who testified earlier at a US Senate hearing on the turmoil in Tibet.
Gyari pointed out that Beijing had replied to the letter but did not specifically respond to the Dalai Lama's offer.
Asked for details of Beijing's reply, he said, "There was nothing concrete, just rhetoric. Just leave it like that."
Some media reports that the Dalai Lama's side was at present in discussions with the Chinese government was "unfortunately an oversatement of fact," he said.
The 72-year-old Dalai Lama, who has lived in northern India since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959, is campaigning for "meaningful autonomy" for his homeland, currently largely under Chinese rule.
Exiled Tibetan leaders say China's clampdown last month left more than 150 dead, while Beijing says "rioters" killed 20.
The incident has overshadowed China's hosting of the Beijing Olympics in August, with protests marring international legs of the ceremonial torch relay.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6TrifJsutvbD9i2RXbG--bIUcvQ
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April 22, 2008
CBC one on one interview of Dalai Lama
http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/oneonone/2008-04-19.wmv
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March 31, 2008
Dalai Lama pleads for 'world community' to resolve Tibet crisis
Dalai Lama pleads for 'world community' to resolve Tibet crisis by Robert J. Saiget
Sat Mar 29, 7:22 AM ET
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged the "world community" Saturday to help end the turmoil in his homeland, following renewed calls from world leaders for talks with Beijing.
He did so hours after foreign diplomats demanded unfettered access in Lhasa after authorities allowed them to visit the riot-torn city, more than two weeks after anti-Chinese protests there ended in bloodshed.
"We have no power except justice, truth, sincerity... that is why I appeal to the world community to please help," the Dalai Lama told a news conference in New Delhi.
"I am here helpless, I just pray," said the spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, renewed calls for a dialogue with China's leaders to end the unrest, saying: "My side is open... we are waiting."
His appeal for world help came a day after US President George W. Bush for the first time publicly pressed China to hold talks with representatives of the spiritual leader after raising concerns about the situation in Tibet.
The Nobel Laureate Dalai Lama, who won the Peace Prize in 1989 for leading a non-violent struggle for the liberation of his Himalayan nation, reiterated he was "fully committed" to China hosting the Olympics in August.
But the 72-year-old added it was important "to remind the Chinese that in order to be respected hosts of the Games" human rights in Tibet must improve.
The unrest in Tibet began on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, the event that saw the Dalai Lama flee to India where he has since lived in exile.
Unrest erupted into widespread rioting in Lhasa on March 14, and spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans.
Beijing says rioters killed 18 innocent civilians and two police officers during the unrest.
Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at between 135 and 140, with another 1,000 people injured and many detained.
On Saturday, diplomats from 15 embassies, including those of the United States, Britain, France and Japan, arrived in the Tibetan capital for a hastily arranged one-day tour.
They visited the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred shrines, where monks converged on a tightly government-managed foreign media tour Wednesday and denounced Chinese rule, one Western diplomat in Beijing told AFP after being briefed on the trip.
"The chairman of Tibet reassured them (diplomats) that the monks would not be punished" for their Wednesday protest, the diplomat said.
"This visit is a good first step, but does not go far enough to meet the request for unfettered access," he said.
"Obviously this has been a highly managed visit."
Upon arrival to Lhasa Friday evening, the diplomats met the chairman of Tibet's government Qiangba Puncog, visited wounded paramilitary police in hospital and chatted with ordinary Tibetans, the diplomat added.
China announced the trip late Thursday night -- allowing the diplomats only hours to prepare for the long flight to Lhasa -- as an international uproar over Beijing's crackdown on the Himalayan region raged.
At the start of two days of talks in Slovenia on Friday, EU foreign ministers were split on the idea of boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony over Tibet, but keen for China to open talks with the Dalai Lama.
President George W. Bush's administration has steadfastly opposed a boycott, instead urging China to act with restraint against protesters in Tibet and to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
As China's clampdown escalated, so too has the response of the outside world.
Following a meeting with Bush in Washington late Friday, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also called on Beijing to enter talks with the Dalai Lama, while hitting out at China's rights abuses in Tibet.
"It's absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet. That's clear cut," Rudd said.
"We need to be up front and absolutely straight about what's going on. Shouldn't shilly-shally about it."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also said she opposed boycotting the Beijing Olympics over China's actions in Tibet in order to avoid insulting the Chinese people
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080329/wl_afp/chinaunresttibetrightsdiplomats_080329112255
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March 29, 2008
Europe and U.S. Press China Over Tibet
Europe and U.S. Press China Over Tibet
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and KATRIN BENNHOLD
WASHINGTON — European leaders sharpened their tone over Tibet on Wednesday, as President Bush telephoned President Hu Jintao of China and urged a resumption of negotiations with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.
Even as Chinese diplomats sought to defend the crackdown on protesters in Tibet, officials said they were considering sending a fact-finding mission to Beijing, signaling an intensification of international concern over the violent repression in the region.
In London, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told a joint session of the House of Commons and the House of Lords during a state visit that Britain and France shared a responsibility to urge the Chinese leadership to respect human rights and cultural identity.
That goal could only be achieved if there was “true dialogue” between China and the Dalai Lama, he said, a day after hinting that France might boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this summer.
French diplomats said they were in talks with other European capitals about dispatching a European Union delegation to China. France, which will take over the European Union’s presidency in July, will seek agreement on the issue during an informal foreign ministers’ meeting at the end of this week, said an official with knowledge of the draft proposal who would only speak on the condition of anonymity before the meeting.
In Washington, the Bush administration made its most extensive remarks on the turmoil after facing criticism that the president’s response had been fairly muted. Mr. Bush has already ruled out an Olympics boycott, which some have called for, indicating that he hoped to maintain a constructive relationship with the Chinese leadership.
In a statement, the White House said that Mr. Bush, in his telephone conversation with Mr. Hu, had urged that diplomats and journalists be allowed access to the region.
The statement noted that the two had discussed Tibet as part of a conversation that included Taiwan’s recent elections, negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear programs and the situation in Myanmar.
Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, later said that the president had “pushed very hard” on Tibet, urging restraint and a renewed effort to address Tibetan grievances. Neither the statement nor Mr. Hadley explicitly criticized China’s government.
“There’s an opportunity here,” Mr. Hadley said, referring to the possibility of renewed talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives, “and China needs to seize it.”
China reacted swiftly to the international criticism, comparing its handling of Tibetan protesters to a recent French police raid after rioting in Villiers-le-Bel, a volatile Paris suburb.
When asked whether China would accept an international fact-finding mission, China’s deputy ambassador in Paris, Qu Xing, told the French radio station Europe 1, “Would you allow a United Nations mission to see what happened in Villiers-le-Bel?”
The prospect of the Olympics being held against a backdrop of Chinese military action in Tibet has forced European leaders to walk a narrow line between maintaining their increasingly important economic and political ties to China while protests among their own people against China’s actions in Tibet intensify and calls from leading figures in Europe’s former communist east grow louder.
The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, acknowledged the importance of those ties in an interview on Wednesday in the newspaper Libération, saying, “We are constrained by a certain number of economic interests in order not to boost unemployment.”
Under pressure from the news media and human rights groups, more leaders are now considering defying China and meeting the Dalai Lama, and while none have supported an outright boycott of the Olympic Games in August, the possibility of not attending the opening ceremony is no longer ruled out.
The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, on Wednesday invited the Dalai Lama to speak to European Union legislators and questioned whether European leaders should attend the opening.
Following the lead of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who met with the Dalai Lama last fall, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain announced last week that he would meet with the Dalai Lama when the spiritual leader visits London in May.
Mr. Sarkozy hinted Wednesday that he might do the same, saying through a spokesman that he would decide based on how the situation in Tibet evolved.
An appeal signed by former anti-Communist campaigners like Vaclav Havel, who as Czech president also received the Dalai Lama, called for the Chinese leadership to lift restrictions on foreign journalists, release political prisoners and begin a dialogue with Tibet’s exiled leader.
Steven Lee Myers reported from Washington, and Katrin Bennhold from Paris. Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/27/europe/27europe.php
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Bush asks Hu Jintao to talks to Dalai Lama
Bush asks Hu Jintao to talks to Dalai Lama
Sridhar Krishnaswami & Raghavendra
Washington/Beijing, Mar 27 Joining others, US President George W Bush has asked his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to talk to the Dalai Lama's side on the Tibet issue but the latter said they would do so only if the Tibetan spiritual leader "truly" abandoned his quest for 'Tibet independence.' "President Bush telephoned President Hu Jintao of China today.
The President raised his concerns about the situation in Tibet and encouraged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives and to allow access for journalists and diplomats," a statement by the White House said.
"...The President pushed very hard on the need to -- concern about violence in Tibet, the need for restraint, the need for consultation with representatives of the Dalai Lama. As you know, there have been consultations between Chinese authorities and representatives of the Dalai Lama in the past," National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said.
"Those have been suspended. The President urged that those be restored as part of a process for Chinese authorities to addressing, reaching out to and addressing the grievance of the people in Tibet" Hadley said in a briefing yesterday.
Hu told Bush that the Dalai Lama should especially stop activities to "fan and mastermind" violent crimes in Tibet as well as in some regions and to sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August and accept Tibet and Taiwan as inseparable parts of China.
The riots in Lhasa were "by no means peaceful demonstrations or activities of non-violence as claimed by the Dalai Lama clique but were undisguised serious and violent crimes", the official Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese President as telling Bush. (Agencies)
Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
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Growing Gulf Divides China and Dalai Lama
Growing Gulf Divides China and Dalai Lama
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
SHANGHAI — Across much of the Western world, the Dalai Lama is known as the beatific spiritual leader of a humble community of Buddhists, beloved in Hollywood, Congress and the White House, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Chinese leaders cast him in a different light. They call him a separatist and a terrorist, bent on killing innocent Han Chinese and “splitting the motherland.” That gap in perception, which has grown immeasurably wider in the two weeks since violent unrest rocked Tibet, is breeding pessimism that Chinese leaders are willing — or perhaps even able — to embark on a new approach to Tibet even as it threatens to cast a long shadow over their role as hosts of the Olympic Games this summer.
President Hu Jintao, whose rise to leadership of China’s Communist Party was built partly on his record as party boss in Tibet during a period of unrest in 1989, has shown no signs of making a historic gambit for peace there.
Rather, he seems to be wagering that China can hunker down, keep a tight lid on Tibet through the Olympics and wait for the Dalai Lama, who is 72, to die, analysts say.
“I would obviously like for there to be a policy debate, but I see no suggestion of one,” said Wang Lixiong, a Chinese expert on Tibet and a signer of a recent petition by Chinese lawyers and scholars urging the government to resume discussions with the Dalai Lama. “There has been a big failure, but to see the government change its path or policy right before the Olympics isn’t likely.”
The inflexibility in Beijing’s position leaves Western countries with a problem. President Bush and a roster of European and Asian leaders have called for Mr. Hu to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama as a first step toward reducing tensions in Tibet. If Mr. Hu declines to do so, those leaders seem likely to face pressure from their own constituencies to take stronger diplomatic or political steps against Beijing at the moment it had expected to bask in the international limelight.
Already, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has suggested that he might consider using his presidency of the European Union this summer to organize a boycott of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. An embarrassing protest at the lighting ceremony of the Olympic torch in Greece, and the cries of monks in Lhasa who disrupted a scripted tour of the Tibetan capital for foreign reporters on Thursday, portend a steady drum roll of criticism of China.
The call for some kind of Chinese-Tibetan talks continues to mount. On Friday, the Dalai Lama, speaking in India, made his most extended comments on the violence, accusing China’s state-run media of trying to “sow the seeds of racial tension” there but calling for “meaningful dialogue” with Beijing about how to defuse tensions.
President Bush, speaking of the possibility that Mr. Hu might pursue diplomatic talks with Tibetan exiles, said “it’s in his country’s interest.” Standing by Mr. Bush’s side, Kevin Rudd, Australia’s new, Chinese-speaking prime minister, who was visiting Washington, said, “It’s absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet.”
Mr. Hu told Mr. Bush during a phone call on Wednesday that he was willing to talk to the Dalai Lama, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. But what was most striking about the exchange was the consistency of Beijing’s language on Tibet, which analysts say provides little reason to expect new initiatives.
Mr. Hu’s formulation, which has been used almost word for word since the time of Deng Xiaoping, in the 1980s and ’90s, was that China would resume contact with the Dalai Lama as long as he abandoned advocating Tibetan independence, stopped activities aimed at “splitting the motherland” and accepted that Tibet and Taiwan were inalienable parts of China.
The problem with Beijing’s line is that even when the Dalai Lama insists that he does not seek independence, as he and his representatives have repeatedly done, the Chinese government has merely repeated this trope, leaving little room for progress.
As it is, the Tibetan protests of the last two weeks seem to have taken Beijing by surprise, spreading quickly outside of the province officially known as the Tibetan Autonomous Region and into areas of neighboring provinces where Tibetans live in large numbers. The unrest has been the broadest in scale since sustained riots and a bloody crackdown in 1989.
Yet inside China, the protests have been portrayed as little more than thuggish violence against Han Chinese orchestrated by the “Dalai clique” from its base of exile in Dharamsala, India. The ruling party’s relentless anti-Dalai propaganda, reminiscent in some ways of the Cultural Revolution-style vilification of its enemies, has left the leadership in a self-imposed straitjacket.
Even as he seemed to concede that China had made mistakes in handling the protests, Hu Yan, a professor of social sciences at the party’s Central Committee School, expressed confidence in its ability to prevent further trouble before the Olympics.
“I think we can control the situation before it spreads any further,” Mr. Hu said. “We were too soft at the beginning, allowing them to destroy fire engines and rob banks without doing anything. We should have fired more tear gas, at least.”
Robert Barnett, director of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University, dismissed the Chinese contention that the protests amounted to little more than criminal riots, calling their spread through several provinces significant. “Nothing like this has happened for the last 40 years, and no Chinese leader is going to miss that,” Mr. Barnett said. “They have lost the countryside, and they are going to have to work very hard to win it back.”
But Mr. Hu, the professor at the Central Committee School, hinted at what many believe is China’s bottom-line thinking on Tibet. “This issue can only be resolved in the long term,” he said. “It’s a long-term campaign, and we probably have to wait for the Dalai Lama to reincarnate.”
China’s long-term strategy, which the violence may have only reinforced, has been to wait for the Dalai Lama to die on the theory that it can control his successor as Tibet’s spiritual leader. A new Dalai Lama would likely have little of the same prestige, inside China or abroad.
In 1995, China arrested the Panchen Lama, the No. 2 in Tibetan Buddhism, a 6-year-old at the time. He has not been seen since. China then anointed another Tibetan youth as a replacement, and it has tightly controlled his education and public duties since. Under Tibetan Buddhism, traditionally the Panchen Lama names a new Dalai Lama, theoretically giving the Chinese government control over the present Dalai Lama’s succession.
To counter this approach, Tibetans have floated ideas about changing the rules of succession, allowing the Dalai Lama to anoint a Tibetan child who lives in exile, or an even more radical change, allowing Tibetans to select a new Dalai Lama by voting. Either measure would be certain to infuriate the Chinese government, which reserves the right to control all organized religion.
The current Dalai Lama has repeatedly promised that he has no desire to see Tibet break free of Chinese sovereignty. He has, though, pressed for what he calls “genuine autonomy” under Chinese rule. He refers to China’s Constitution, which invokes the right of autonomy and self-government “in areas where people of minority nationalities live in compact communities.”
“The task at hand is to develop a system that would grant the kind of autonomy required for the Tibetans to be able to survive as a distinct and prosperous people within the People’s Republic of China,” said Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, a special envoy of the Dalai Lama, in a speech given in Washington in 2006.
Party leaders have resisted even that modest vision of enhanced self-government. Officials seem to fear that enhanced political autonomy could overload the circuits of the Chinese state, inciting demands from other ethnic or religious groups and unleashing centrifugal forces that could break up the country as surely as Tibetan demand for independence.
“If you look carefully at what the Dalai Lama says, the giving up independence part is really empty, while the demands for a greater Tibet and a high degree of autonomy are real,” said Zhang Yun, a scholar at the China Tibetology Research Center. “What kind of government could allow that? That’s impossible.
“A high degree of autonomy means giving up everything: our administrative system, our cadre system, and even party-led socialism.”
David Barboza contributed reporting.
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