By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, April 29: The President of the Tibetan government-in-exile, known officially as the Central Tibetan Administration, Penpa Tsering refuted the recent remarks made by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin regarding non-existence of back-channel dialogue with China. Tsering was addressing the Tibetan community in Zurich on Saturday.
“When discussing with a visiting group of Indian journalists from Delhi, the topic of back-channel dialogue emerged in our conversation. Yet, it’s important to note that discussions about back-channel dialogue took place as early as April last year, notably during the BBC Hard Talk interview, and this stance has consistently been communicated to various media outlets. The information conveyed to the visiting Indian journalists remains consistent with our previous statements,” the Sikyong stated.
“The spokesperson’s statement, which confines dialogue exclusively to representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and excludes the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, has been a longstanding position. It is not a new development,” he also said.
However, the head of the exile polity was not overly optimistic of any concrete results at the moment. “Regarding engagement with China, while there is indeed contact, it would be unrealistic to anticipate significant progress, especially given Xi Jinping’s regressive policies in Tibet,” he emphasised. With regard to this, he reiterated the necessity of negotiation as the sole path to resolve the Tibet-China conflict. He affirmed that the CTA will persist in urging the Chinese government to reinitiate dialogue, taking into account evolving circumstances within China. Additionally, he reaffirmed the CTA’s unwavering advocacy for genuine autonomy for Tibet.
On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Beijing will only engage with representatives of the Dalai Lama, ruling out dialogue with officials from the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Wang rejected reports of secret back channel dialogue between the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, while also calling the Tibetan government-in-exile, headquartered in Dharamshala, as a “separatist” entity, during a press briefing in Beijing. This came after Sikyong Penpa Tsering disclosed to a group of journalists in Dharamshala a day earlier, that informal back-channel engagements had been ongoing since last year.
