Dharamsala, November 17 – U.S. President Barack Obama said he urged China to resume talks with the representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, according to reports. Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, the US president said he also told China that all minorities should enjoy human rights.
Obama said he also told Chinese President Hu Jintao about U.S. beliefs on human rights. Obama, who won the 2009 Nobel peace prize, was criticized by right groups for downplaying human rights issues and not meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama when the latter visited Washington last month. But the Tibetan leader’s special envoy has said they may meet after Obama returns from China, which condemns the Tibetan leader as a “separatist” despite him repeatedly saying he only seeks meaningful autonomy within the People’s Republic of China.
However, Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed U.S. President Barack Obama’s recognition of sovereignty issues dear to China, after a bilateral meeting in Beijing on Tuesday. “China approves of President Obama’s repeated reiteration of the one-China principle,” Hu told reporters.
Talks between His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s envoys and Beijing came to a standstill after a “Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People” submitted by the Tibetan side at the eighth round of talks in October last year was met with Beijing’s derision. China accused the Tibetan side of seeking “disguised independence” through the “so called autonomy”.
The Tibetan side, however, maintains that the articles of the memorandum were prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and its laws on National Regional Autonomy.
