News and Views on Tibet

Dalai Lama’s envoys arrive in Beijing

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By Kate Saunders

A Tibetan delegation led by the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy, Lodi Gyari, has just arrived in Beijing, following the same delegation’s trip to China and Tibet last September. The Dalai Lama has said he is very pleased with the development and expressed the hope that the visit would help to move the situation forward towards substantive dialogue with China. The last visit represented the first formal communication between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Beijing for a decade.

It is not yet known whether the delegation will travel to Tibet again on this trip. Thubten Samphel, the head of the government in exile’s Department of Information and International Relations, said: “It seems that the itinerary of the visit, which is likely to last two or three weeks, will be decided with Chinese leaders over the next few days. This second visit represents an extremely important opportunity to build upon the relationships and contacts established on the last visit. It is particularly an opportunity to find out the thinking of the two new Chinese leaders [Party Secretary and President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabo] on Tibet. The fact that the visit is taking place regardless of the problem of SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] in China indicates the importance to the Chinese authorities of solving the issue of Tibet.”

The delegation is the same as last September – Lodi Gyari, the Special Envoy, Kelsang Gyaltsen, Envoy to the Dalai Lama and two aides, Bhuchung Tsering and Sonam Norbu Dagpo, the additional secretary in the Department of Information and International Relations in the government in exile in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama’s office said in a statement today that the visit is a continuation of the process begun in September 2002. It is not yet known which leaders the delegation will meet in Beijing; on the last visit they were received by Wang Zhaoguo, head of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) and vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC), and Li Dezhu, minister at the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) and deputy head of the UFWD. The United Front department is the organ of the Party that forms broad alliances with non-Party and often non-Chinese sectors of society.

The delegation met Tibetan leaders as opposed to more senior Chinese officials on its visit to Tibet. The Tibetan leaders Ragdi, now one of 15 Vice Chairs of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and Lhagpa Phuntsog, a Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government, were particularly prominent during the visit and delegation members said that they were impressed by the frank exchange of views that occurred. In a statement on his return from the September 2002 visit, Lodi Gyari said: “Since I had the opportunity to meet Chinese leaders in Beijing in the early 1980s, what impressed us more this time was the much greater flexibility displayed by the current leaders in their mental attitude.”

It is not known how substantive the talks will be, or whether the Dalai Lama’s representatives will meet more senior leaders than last time. But the latest visit indicates that influential figures within the Chinese leadership may wish to see some progress on the Tibet issue.

A US government report to Congress stated last week that it was encouraged by the Special Envoy’s visit to China last September and urged progress towards dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama. Zhang Qiyue, spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, immediately objected to the US statement, saying that Tibet issues were “solely domestic Chinese issues” and that the US should “refrain from using the Tibetan question to ingratiate itself in domestic Chinese politics”. Zhang Qiyue reaffirmed that the same preconditions for dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama remain in place: “Only when (the Dalai Lama) really abandons his support for ‘Tibetan independence’, stops separatist activities aimed at splitting China, declares in public that he recognises Tibet is an inalienable part of China, and recognises Taiwan is also an inseparable part of the Chinese territory, we will contact and negotiate with him.”

This is one in a series of independent reports by Kate Saunders commissioned by the Australia Tibet Council, Free Tibet Campaign and the International Campaign for Tibet. Contact: ks@insidetibet.net

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