The Dalai Lama understands that forgiveness is good for the giver and that anger hurts the angry. It is easy. The Cadre is deaf. Last eve I learmed from a Nanjing born author that the Cadre all have grandmothers who remember the old ways and wait patiently for the bully boys to step away.
China seeks positive outcome from Tibet talks
By Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: May 4 2008 14:12 | Last updated: May 4 2008 14:12
Hu Jintao, China’s president, said he hoped the opening round of new talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, held amid tight security at a state guesthouse in southern China on Sunday, would “yield a positive outcome.”
The talks were held in Shenzhen, the economic centre bordering Hong Kong, a location far from Beijing, the capital, in an apparent effort to minimise their domestic profile and possibly also downplay their importance.
Chinese officials have met representatives of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader six times since 2002, but the talks foundered last year, and then were put on hold after the suppression of sometimes violent protests in the remote Himalayan region in March.
Beijing announced last week it was willing to restart the talks, an apparent tactical shift to take the spotlight off Tibet as controversy over Chinese policies there threatened to cloud both this summer’s Olympics games and China’s interaction with the west generally.
However, Beijing has given no indication of any change, large or small, in its Tibet policy.
The official Chinese media attacked the Dalai Lama and his supporters sharply in the lead-up to Sunday’s talks, a sign of possible internal opposition to even the restart of talks agreed to by the leadership.
State media outlets called the elderly Buddhist monk a “loyal tool of international anti-Chinese forces” and accused him of “colluding with international anti-Chinese forces to spread rumours and slander to disrupt and sabotage the Olympic torch relay.”
Mr Hu, in comments to Japanese journalists before his trip to Japan this week, said Beijing’s policy was “clear and consistent, and the door of dialogue remains open,” according to a report of the interview on Xinhua, the state news agency.
But he added that “the Dalai Lama side should take concrete actions to stop violent crimes and activities involving disruption of the Beijing Olympics and splitting the motherland, to create conditions for further consultation.”
Beijing has said that it only agreed to the talks after “repeated requests” for it to do so from the “Dalai side.”
Beijing was represented in the Shenzhen talks by relatively junior officials, Zhu Weiqun and Sitar, who are vice-ministers in the ruling Communist Party’s United Front department, and who would have no indepedent negotiating authority.
The United Front department is a party body responsible for managing and co-opting various non-party bodies and their leaders, such as religious figures and ethnic minorities.
The Dalai Lama sent two envoys, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, who are the spiritual leader’s representatives in Washington and Switzerland, respectively.
Chhime Chhoekyapa, a senior aide to the Dalai Lama, was quoted by Reuters at the weekend as saying the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile “can’t have great expectations” from the talks.
The talks coincided with the beginning of the torch relay on the Chinese mainland, in the resort area of Sanya, in Hainan.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Dalai Lama Envoys,
China Officials Meet
No Big Breakthrough
Appears to Emerge;
More Talks in Future
By SHAI OSTER in Beijing and PETER WONACOTT in Dharmsala, India
May 5, 2008; Page A10
The Dalai Lama's envoys met Chinese officials in their first talks since violent antigovernment protests erupted in Tibet in March and brought international pressure on Beijing ahead of the Olympics.
There appeared to be no major breakthroughs from the meeting, held in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese commercial center near Hong Kong. The two sides agreed that "another round of contact would be held at an appropriate time," according to China's official Xinhua news agency.
The two envoys expressed their views on relevant matters and said they would report what had been discussed at the meeting to the Dalai Lama, according to Xinhua.
Beijing, facing international pressure to restart talks with the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles, had offered to meet the exiled religious leader's representatives. The move raised hopes among Tibetans that Chinese leaders may seek to defuse tensions while the country is under the Olympic spotlight.
A statement from the Dalai Lama's office before the meeting said the envoys "will convey His Holiness the Dalai Lama's deep concerns about the Chinese authorities' handling of the situation and also provide suggestions to bring peace to the region."
The meeting was the first for the two sides since antigovernment protests erupted March 14 in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and in parts of western China with large Tibetan minorities. The violence has marked one of the biggest challenges to China's rule in decades. That unrest has also fanned protests in several other countries, turning the international Olympic torch relay into a symbol of discord between critics of the Chinese government and its supporters.
But the two sides still appear to be far apart.
China's central-government representatives said it was their hope that "to create conditions for the next round of contact and consultation," the Dalai Lama's side would take "credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games," according to Xinhua.
The officials said the Lhasa riot "had jeopardized the fundamental interests of all the Chinese people including Tibetans." China says that a total of 18 Chinese civilians and one police officer died in the riot, in addition to hundreds of injured civilians and policemen, according to Xinhua.
The Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile say they have advocated only greater autonomy for the people of Tibet, not independence, and say the pursuit of that goal must be peaceful. Tibetan exile groups say some 200 Tibetans have been killed by Chinese authorities since the riots, which began as peaceful protests to mark a failed uprising against the Chinese in 1959. After that failed attempt, the Dalai Lama fled to India.
According to Xinhua, the meeting was arranged after repeated requests from the Dalai Lama's side to resume talks. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu had expressed the hope that the Dalai Lama and his followers could "cherish" this opportunity for contact and consultation.
As the two parties gathered, President Hu Jintao said he hoped for a "positive outcome" and that the "door of dialogue remains open," according to Xinhua.
A spokesman for Tibet's government in exile couldn't be reached Sunday. But a statement posted on the Tibetan government Web site Saturday said the envoys would push to continue the dialogue with the Chinese in order to broaden the scope of talks beyond the current crisis to the future of Tibet.
"Since the Chinese leadership has indicated, publicly as well as in briefings given to foreign governments, its position on the continuation of the dialogue, the envoys will raise the issue of moving forward on the process for a mutually satisfactory solution to the Tibetan issue," the statement said.
Separately, the mainland-China leg of the Olympic-torch relay was welcomed with no protests on the southern island of Hainan Sunday.
Write to Shai Oster at shai.oster@wsj.com and Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com
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