The WSJ Asia team weighs in. Remind what Mary Kissel editor of editorial page AWSJ said two weeks back, Only thing cadre listens to is blunt talk. Free Tibet! Torch talks blunt. The Dalai Clique gains, but softly. Others can speak louder now.
China Offers Tibet Talks
With Envoy of Dalai Lama
By SHAI OSTER in Beijing, PETER WONACOTT in New Delhi and JAMES T. AREDDY in Shanghai
April 26, 2008; Page A1
China's surprise offer to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama raises new hopes for detente between the bitter adversaries, but also poses a challenge for leaders on both sides: How to placate younger generations convinced that there's no room for compromise.
Associated Press
China has been under intense international pressure to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama, who met with U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky in Ann Arbor, Mich., earlier this week.
China on Friday said it would meet with a private representative of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, whom Beijing has accused of masterminding deadly protests that shook Tibet in March. It would be their first meeting since last year, and it comes as China is working to avoid letting international criticism over its handling of Tibet interfere with the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
It isn't yet clear when a meeting might occur, at what level the two sides would meet -- or even if the Dalai Lama's side will agree to talks. A Dalai Lama spokesman said they hadn't received official word of the offer by Friday evening in northern India, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based.
Still, it's the clearest sign yet of a possible rapprochement since the Tibet crisis began in Lhasa on March 14. By that date, what had begun as peaceful protests by Buddhist monks had spiraled into full-fledged violent rioting by Tibetans against ethnic Chinese individuals.
China's government says about two dozen people, mostly ethnic Han Chinese (the country's majority ethnic group) died. Tibetan exile groups say more than a hundred Tibetans were killed in the ensuing crackdown.
CONFLICT IN TIBET
Associated Press
Find complete coverage of the conflict in Tibet, including a timeline of the Dalai Lama's relationship with China and the latest news and a history of Tibetan resistance.
China has been under intense international pressure -- including from the U.S. -- to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising against China in 1959.
That pressure has been particularly intense given the fast-approaching Olympics. This month's Olympic torch relay has been beset with anti-Beijing protests around the world. Foreign leaders including French President Nicolas Sarkozy have threatened to boycott the Games' opening ceremony to protest Chinese policies in Tibet.
All of this has threatened to transform the Olympics into a moment of international discord instead of a source of national pride for China. Beijing in recent years has become increasingly conscious of its international image, and has solicited the advice of Western public-relations agencies on how to handle the Olympics and other sensitive issues.
"We can clearly notice the change of the government's attitude towards the Dalai clique, from the formerly tough condemnation, to a milder stance," said Li Hongbin, a history professor at Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, using the government's term for the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Word of the proposed talks came via the state-run Xinhua news agency. Citing an unnamed official, it said: "In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks," China's government "will have contact and consultation with Dalai's private representative in the coming days."
Tibetan exile marches in India
The Bush administration, which has been pressing for talks, called it a good first step. "We would urge that there be some immediate follow-up to these statements of intent," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Friday.
There is little so far to indicate that new talks would achieve more than six previous rounds of negotiations, held between 2002 and 2007. Envoys of the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama made little progress on Tibet's links to China -- such as agreeing when it was, and wasn't, historically part of the country, for example -- or steps to broaden Tibet's autonomy under Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama has stopped short of calling for Tibet's independence. He has said Tibet could use China's help in modernizing its economy, as long as it safeguarded the culture and language. The Dalai Lama also wants China to widen the "autonomous region" of Tibet to include other Tibetans in neighboring Chinese provinces so they could share the same geographic zone.
The mere prospect of new talks raises acute complications for both sides. Beijing must shield itself from criticism at home that it is ceding ground to the Dalai Lama, who -- partly because of China's own government propaganda machine -- has become the subject of intense public anger in recent weeks.
For the Dalai Lama, failure could erode support for his moderate "Middle Way," which stresses greater autonomy for Tibet, as opposed to outright independence. Unsuccessful talks could also mean the 72-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate loses one of his last real chances to push his agenda.
One sign of the distance still separating the two sides came in Friday's brief Xinhua report. It suggested that full negotiations might eventually be possible, but only if the Dalai Lama and his backers agree to "take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games."
The Dalai Lama has denied doing any of those things.
Several members of the exiled Tibetan government expressed optimism that China's offer signaled a more accommodating stance. "The Chinese leadership seems to have realized there is deep resentment to its policies in Tibet," said Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary in the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala in northern India.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly called for a resumption of talks. But the Tibetans also have their requirements. The Dalai Lama's aides have said that political conditions in Tibet would play a role in the timing of any talks. "The ongoing repression in Tibet must stop," said Thubten Samphel, secretary for the department of Information and International Relations for the Tibet government-in-exile.
Those statements reflect, in part, a need to placate younger members of the Tibetan exile community. Many younger Tibetan groups -- led by the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest organization of exiles with more than 30,000 members -- have sharply differed with their spiritual leader's acceptance of China's sovereignty over Tibet. They advocate outright independence to safeguard their culture, language and unique school of Buddhism.
Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, said he and others were awaiting more information about the talks before deciding how to respond. Dialogue, he said, "has been a waste of time." His organization has spearheaded anti-China protests in several countries, including the U.S.
Meanwhile, China's government has fueled public hatred of the Dalai Lama within its own borders with statements vilifying what it calls the "Dalai clique." The public anger has boiled over into street protests and calls for a boycott against western companies.
In a sign of the strong sentiment, some people in China viewed Friday's offer to talk with the Dalai Lama as caving to international pressure. Wu Hao, a 26-year-old Beijing-based blogger whose recent calls for boycotts of Western goods gained widespread attention, said, "Every single Chinese should be angry and should condemn this."
--Juliet Ye in Hong Kong and Loretta Chao in Beijing contributed to this article.
Write to Shai Oster at shai.oster@wsj.com, Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com and James T. Areddy at james.areddy@wsj.com
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