By Janet Ong
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) — A Tibetan official today rejected media reports the Taiwanese government is gagging the Dalai Lama during his visit to the country to avoid straining ties with neighboring China.
The Dalai Lama wasn’t told by the government to curtail his activities during the five-day visit that ends tomorrow, Sonam Dorjee, secretary of the Taipei-based Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama, said by telephone.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s nephew, Khedroob Thondup, told Agence France-Presse yesterday the government had imposed a “gag order” on the Dalai Lama because of pressure from authorities in Beijing. “He was told not to say anything political and to curtail his activities,” AFP cited the nephew as saying.
China accuses the 74-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader of separatist activities and warned this week that his visit could have a “negative influence” on cross-strait ties. The Dalai Lama says he has no “political agenda” in Taiwan and aims only to console survivors of Typhoon Morakot, the storm that swept across the island last month killing more than 600 people.
TVBS television yesterday showed more than 200 police surrounding the downtown Taipei hotel where the Dalai Lama is staying, as pro-unification protesters waved banners and chanted “Taiwan and Tibet belong to China.”
Nationalist Defeat
Taiwan and China have been ruled separately since Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, or Nationalists, fled to the island after being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communists in 1949. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to reclaim it.
Wang Yu-chi, a Presidential Office spokesman in Taipei, declined to comment on the gagging reports. “The Dalai Lama’s schedule in Taiwan is fully decided by his foundation and the government respects its decision,” Wang said.
The Dalai Lama will meet at his hotel with about 500 Tibetans and other supporters today, Sonam Dorjee said. They will discuss issues such as preserving Tibetan culture and problems faced by Tibetans abroad, he added.
“The Dalai Lama doesn’t plan to meet politicians or government officials today as the trip is strictly a religious visit,” Sonam Dorjee said.
The Dalai Lama met with Catholic Cardinal Paul Shan yesterday in the southern city of Kaohsiung. A day earlier, he led a two-hour ceremony attended by more than 15,000 people to pray for the victims of the typhoon.
Deadly Storm
The storm, the deadliest to hit the island in half a century, killed 613 people and caused NT$110 billion ($3.3 billion) worth of damage. About 25,000 people were evacuated and 388 people are still housed in 10 shelters, according to the government.
The Dalai Lama was invited to Taiwan by politicians from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party to lead prayers for storm survivors. President Ma Ying-jeou agreed to the visit as his popularity slumped amid criticism his government responded too slowly to the devastation caused by Morakot.
The trip may hurt Ma’s efforts to further strengthen ties with China, the island’s biggest trading partner.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed rebellion against Chinese forces in 1959. He accuses the government in Beijing of committing “cultural genocide” there and says mass migration of ethnic Han Chinese has made Tibetans a minority in their own land. China says it peacefully liberated Tibet and saved its people from serfdom.
The Dalai Lama will leave Taipei for New Delhi on a 7:50 a.m. flight tomorrow, Sonam Dorjee said.
