Bangalore, April 3 – Song Deheng, the consul general at the Chinese consulate at Mumbai has said that Tibetan Spiritual leader, Dalai Lama was a separatist.
He said that Tibet was already enjoying great autonomy and Beijing was unclear as to what more the Dalai Lama wanted.
“Dalai Lama is a separatist. He advocated the separation of Tibet from China. Actually Tibet now is an autonomous region; just number two…the second largest autonomous region. So actually Tibet is quite autonomous. What autonomy Dalai Lama needs now?” Song told reporters on the sidelines of an India-China seminar in Bangalore where Chinese premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to begin a landmark visit to India next week.
Earlier last month the Dalai Lama, who leads a Tibetan government-in-exile in India said that he was not seeking Tibet’s independence from China, reiterating previous remarks that he only wanted greater autonomy for the Tibetan people.
He had made the comments in an annual statement to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule that prompted his flight to India.
The statement carries significance as China still sees Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as a separatist who provoked an uprising in the restive western region under Beijing’s control despite his recent soft talk on seeking autonomy and not independence.
Ealier, last September, envoys of the Dalai Lama visited China as part of a delicate and slow-moving process to pave the way for a dialogue on the future of Tibet and possibly the eventual return of the Dalai Lama to Lhasa. However, entrenched differences proved hard to overcome.
