SHENZHEN, China — China and the Dalai Lama’s envoys agreed to keep the door open on dialogue after holding talks here Sunday, state media said, although no breakthrough in ending the Tibet crisis was reported.
The closed-door meeting was the first between the two sides in over a year and came after global leaders pressured China to reopen dialogue amid seven weeks of deadly unrest in Tibet that has marred the nation’s Olympic build-up.
“Chinese central government officials and the private representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama agreed to hold another round of contact and consultation at an appropriate time,” China’s official Xinhua news agency reported late Sunday.
However, the Chinese officials in the talks held firm on China’s previously stated conditions for dialogue to succeed, positions that the Tibetan spiritual leader has already rejected.
Xinhua did not report any major agreement between the two sides during their one day of talks on Sunday.
Tibetan officials had said the top priority for the Dalai Lama’s envoys at the talks was to end the current wave of repression in Tibet.
Ahead of the meeting, Chinese President Hu Jintao voiced hope that progress would be made in the talks.
“I hope some positive results will be achieved in the meeting,” Hu told Japanese reporters in Beijing ahead of his visit to Tokyo this week.
“Our policy toward the Dalai Lama is clear and consistent, and the door for dialogue remains open.”
However, Hu also cautioned that China, which belatedly offered on April 25 to hold the talks following appeals by US President George W. Bush and other leaders, would not take the words of the Dalai Lama’s envoys at face value.
“We need to look out for not only what they would say but also what they would do,” Hu reportedly said.
China has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of wanting independence for his homeland and of fomenting the recent unrest in an effort to shine a world spotlight on Tibet ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner has rejected these accusations, but has accused China of widespread human rights violations of his people and maintained his push for greater Tibetan autonomy under Chinese rule.
The unrest in Tibet began on March 10 with peaceful protests in the capital, Lhasa, to mark the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
It escalated into a day of rioting on March 14 in Lhasa, then spread to other parts of western China with Tibetan populations.
The Tibetan government-in-exile says 203 Tibetans have been killed and about 1,000 hurt in the crackdown.
China says it has acted with restraint and that Tibetan “rioters” and “insurgents” have killed 21 people.
Sunday’s meeting was between Sitar, who uses only one name, and Zhu Weiqun from China’s ruling Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, and the Dalai Lama’s top envoys, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen.
In the meeting, Zhu and Sitar defended the action taken by Chinese authorities in quelling the unrest as “completely correct,” Xinhua reported.
Zhu and Sitar also repeated China’s publicly stated positions as to what the Dalai Lama should do to “create conditions” for further talks.
“The Dalai 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,” Xinhua cited the pair as saying.
Exiled Tibetan leaders had sought to play down expectations for the talks, and said their top priority was to end the current crisis in Tibet.
“Our immediate concern is for the repression to end and all restrictions on Tibetans should be lifted,” the government-in-exile’s spokesman, Thubten Samphel, said Sunday.
Tibetan prime minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche emphasised on Saturday that the talks would be held at an informal level and not be on a par with six earlier rounds that started in late 2002 and broke off in 2007.
“There will be no discussions over basic China-Tibet issues… as there is no atmosphere and conditions for these matters under the current situation in Tibet,” Rinpoche told reporters.
Rinpoche told AFP on Sunday that the Dalai Lama’s envoys were due to return to India, where the government-in-exile is based, on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950 before annexing the region the next year. The Dalai Lama fled his homeland following the failed 1959 uprising.
