By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, July 9: A well-known Chinese dissident and democracy activist has said that the desire to negotiate with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is very much in the heart of Chinese leaders, but the Beijing government is unable to sit down for talks.
“Many people say the Chinese government is not willing to negotiate with the Dalai Lama but that is not the fact,” a survivor of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Dr Yang Jianli told Phayul. “Beijing is always willing but unable to negotiate since China’s claims are based on lies and fabrications.”
Dr Jinali was recently in the Tibetan exile headquarters of Dharamshala to attend the 77th birthday celebrations of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
“Chinese central government is not being able to sit with the Dalai Lama to talk as they have limited wisdom and bad policy,” the founder and president of Initiatives for China, a pro democracy movement committed to a peaceful transition to democracy in China said.
The 1963 born scholar (Ph.D. s in Political Economy, Harvard University and in Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley) was imprisoned by the Chinese government in April 2002 for espionage and illegal entry. He was freed on April 27, 2007.
Speaking on the resignation of the two envoys of the Dalai Lama, responsible for negotiations with the Chinese government, Dr Jianli said that the change has lot to do with the transition of leadership in the exile Tibetan administration.
“Resignation is a good decision. Now it is a good chance for the Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay to strategize and find the right person,” Dr Jianli said.
The two Envoys- Gyari Lodi Gyaltsen, and Kelsang Gyaltsen, who have led nine rounds of talks with the People’s Republic of China since 2002, cited the deteriorating situation inside Tibet and their “utter frustration” over the lack of positive response from the China as reasons for their resignations.
Dr Jianli last August attended the public inauguration of Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay and congratulated the Tibetan people for their “achievements in democracy and struggle for freedom.”
Dr Jianli had called Tibetans a “beacon of hope to many people, including Han Chinese under the rule of the communist regime.”
