By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, November 10: China said Monday that no progress was made at the recent talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, and blamed the exiled Tibetan leader as being responsible for the failure to make any progress.
China further accused the Dalai Lama of trying to seek a “legal basis” to claim “independence or semi-independence over Tibet”, and insisted it would never accept the Tibetan leader’s demands for greater autonomy for the occupied Himalayan region.
“Our contacts and talks failed to make progress and they (the Dalai Lama’s representatives) should assume full responsibility for it,” AFP reported a Communist Party statement as saying on Monday.
“We pointed out… the unification of the motherland, territorial integrity and national dignity are the greatest interests of the Chinese people.
“We will never make a concession,” added the statement.
“The sovereignty is the most fundamental issue. The Dalai has — by denying Chinese sovereignty over Tibet — been trying to seek a legal basis for his claims of independence or semi-independence over Tibet,” AP reported Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister of the United Front, the Chinese government department in charge of talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, as saying during a news conference in Beijing on Monday.
Zhu was among the Chinese representatives who met with the Tibetan delegation during the talks in Beijing last week.
Envoys of the Dalai Lama returned to India on Nov 6 after holding the “eighth round of talks” over Tibet with Chinese representatives. They have said they would not comment on the talks before a special meeting of Tibetan exile communities and political organizations to be held Nov. 17-22 in Dharmsala.
Although the Tibetan delegation left for China on October 30, the two sides only began formal discussions on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday.
The talks last week remained frank and sincere but the “two sides had great divergence over China’s policy over Tibet,” Zhu said Monday of the talks.
Zhu reportedly said talks would be successful only if the Dalai Lama gives up what Zhu said was his bid to split the country.
The door for Tibet’s independence, or a “disguised independence,” is not open “and never will be in the future,” he said.
Zhu also accused the Dalai Lama of ignoring an appeal from Beijing in July to stop efforts by some overseas Tibetan groups to disrupt the Beijing Olympics in August.
“Not only did the activities to damage Beijing Olympics not stop, but they escalated. The responsibility is on the Dalai’s side that the talks failed to make progress,” he said.
Dalai Lama last month complained that even after sincerely pursuing his peaceful and “mutually beneficial Middle-Way policy” for a long time there hasn’t been any positive response from the Chinese side.
At a huge function in Dharamsala, his exile base in northern India, on October 25, the Dalai Lama said he was losing “faith and trust” in dealing with Chinese government over the future of Tibet.
In the absence of any positive response from the Chinese leadership to his “middle-way” policy, the Dalai Lama maintained that he would be left with no option but, to ask Tibetan Government-in-exile in consultation with Tibetan people to decide the future course of the dialogue process.
The 73-year old Tibetan leader maintained that the final decision regarding Tibet would be made by Tibetan people by saying the “issue of Tibet is the issue of Tibetan people and not the issue of the Dalai Lama alone”.
“If the Chinese leadership honestly engages in talks, then I may be in a position to take up this responsibility again. I will, then, sincerely engage with them,” the Dalai Lama said.
However, at the briefing Monday, Zhu reportedly said the talks last week had centred mostly on the Dalai Lama and his policies.
“We merely talked about how the Dalai Lama should completely give up his splittist opinions and actions and strive for the understanding of the central authorities and all Chinese people so as to solve the issue concerning his own prospects,” Zhu said.
The Dalai Lama says he is only seeking a “real and meaningful” autonomy for Tibetan people within China and opposes the use of violence, but Beijing has regularly accused the Tibetan leader of trying to split Tibet from China, which sent military troops to occupy the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan country in 1949.
