WASHINGTON—Two years after protests against Chinese rule erupted into rioting in the Tibetan capital and spread across western China, sporadic talks between Beijing and envoys of the Dalai Lama appear to have achieved little progress.
“If there were no anti-China forces or no Dalai to destroy and create chaos, Tibet would be better off than it is today,” the region’s Communist Party secretary Zhang Qingli said in an interview posted on a government Web site.
As the two-year anniversary of the Lhasa violence approached, the Dalai Lama’s senior envoy Lodi Gyari meanwhile accused the Communist Party of sowing seeds of racial strife in the wake of the unrest.
Beijing ordered a huge military intervention in Lhasa following the riots, which began March 14, 2008.
“With all respect, they have really been distorting the facts and really trying to create a negative image of His Holiness,” Lodi Gyari said.
‘A dangerous game’
“My biggest worry ... is that the Chinese government, especially after 2008, did something that is irresponsible, by creating in the minds of ordinary Chinese people [the belief] that the Tibetans are hostile to the Chinese people,” he said.
“This is a very, very dangerous game they are playing. For the temporary benefit of being able to [place] blame [for] what happened in Lhasa or in Amdo or in Qinghai or in Sichuan, they are planting a seed of mistrust,” he said.
He warned Beijing not to “make the mistake of creating a real split between the Tibetans and Chinese and different nationalities,” and he called on ordinary Chinese people not to rely on official versions of events in Tibet.
“Don’t just leave it up to the central government to give you the facts, because the facts must be searched by themselves,” said Lodi Gyari, who recently returned from a ninth round of talks with officials in Beijing.
“I wish I had some good news,” he said of the talks.
Anniversary was key
Protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa marking the anniversary of the March 10, 1959 uprising descended into deadly violence two years ago, sparking a military clampdown in the region which has yet to be lifted.
Beijing blamed the unrest on the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile.
“Although anti-China forces and the Dalai clique are trying to ... destroy our harmony and stability, they can never shake our heartfelt belief that China cannot live without Tibet and Tibet cannot live without China,” he said.
Foreign tourists still need a special permit to visit the troubled region, although tour operators said Lhasa was quiet ahead of the sensitive anniversary amid continuing patrols by riot police.
According to the Tibetan government-in-exile, more than 200 people were killed and some 1,000 hurt during the unrest. But official Chinese figures said 21 Han Chinese and one “insurgent” were killed.
At least 5,700 people were arrested during the period, the government has said, with many Buddhist monks given long prison terms.
Open wallet, new troubles
Meanwhile, top leaders and lawmakers meeting at the country’s annual parliament have lauded Beijing’s efforts to develop Tibet economically.
Officials point to economic growth of 12 percent and 180 billion yuan (U.S. $26 billion) of infrastructure investment by the government.
Further divisions were apparent over the selection of a Panchen Lama, second in authority only to the Dalai Lama himself, by Beijing, and a refusal to recognize the Panchen Lama approved by the Dalai Lama.
The Beijing-approved 11th Panchen Lama appeared on China’s political stage for the first time as an adviser to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, official media reported.
Lodi Gyari welcomed recent reports that the “real Panchen Lama, whom His Holiness recognized according to our religious tradition” was in good health.
“We now have an atheist Chinese government-appointed Panchen Lama sitting at the Political Consultative Conference. The real Panchen Lama, whom the vast majority of Tibetans consider as the real Panchen Lama, is somewhere where we have no access,” Lodi Gyari said.
Beijing has also said it will approve the selection of the next incarnation of the current Dalai Lama, a process with potentially explosive consequences.
Traditionally, the search for the figure’s reincarnated successor is conducted by senior Tibetan lamas.
But China’s officially atheist Communist Party-ruled government has claimed the right to intervene, citing a precedent set by a past emperor.
Lodi Gyari said that while Tibetans could co-exist with the Chinese Communist Party, under the Dalai Lama’s proposed settlement for an autonomous Tibet within China, the Party would stay out of religious affairs.
“Issues such as reincarnation and such should not be interfered with by the government,” he said. “Certainly not by the Communist Party, because it is an atheist organization.”
Karmapa spoke out
One of Tibetan Buddhism’s most senior figures, the Karmapa Lama, says he fled Tibet 10 years ago in part because he feared political manipulation by Chinese authorities.
While life inside China might have been “endurable” if his activities had been limited to religious functions, the Karmapa Lama said recently he was sure the Chinese government would have assigned him a political role, whether he liked it or not.
Lodi Gyari said he told Chinese officials in January that a recent meeting between the Dalai Lama and U.S. President Barack Obama wasn’t intended as a hostile act.
“The Chinese ... always get upset when His Holiness meets with world leaders,” he said. “I said, he doesn’t do it because he has nothing to do. He doesn’t do it as a hobby.”
“He is compelled at the moment to do that because of [China's] attitude.”
The Dalai Lama, escaped into exile in India in 1959 following a failed national uprising against Chinese rule.
Chinese authorities routinely denounce him as a “splittist” seeking independence for Tibet, and they blame him for inciting the 2008 protests—the largest in five decades.
Original reporting by RFA’s Mandarin and Tibetan services. Mandarin servicer director: Jennifer Chou. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
