China-Dalai Lama Dialogue Round Ends: Party Restates Hard Line, Tibetans Begin Meeting

November 25, 2008

A senior Communist Party official told the Dalai Lama's representatives during the most recent round of formal dialogue on the Tibet issue that the Dalai Lama should "face reality" and "fundamentally change his political positions," according to a November 6, 2008, Xinhua report.

A senior Communist Party official told the Dalai Lama's representatives during the most recent round of formal dialogue on the Tibet issue that the Dalai Lama should "face reality" and "fundamentally change his political positions," according to a November 6, 2008, Xinhua report. Special Envoy Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen arrived in Beijing on October 30 for the eighth round of dialogue with Chinese officials since such contacts resumed in 2002, and returned to India on November 5 following official meetings in Beijing on November 4 and 5, according to a November 6 statement by Gyari (Tibetan Government-in-Exile, 6 November 08). Du Qinglin, Head of the Communist Party United Front Work Department (UFWD) and Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, reiterated to the envoys the "four no supports," a set of four new preconditions on the dialogue that he initially pressed upon the envoys in Beijing on July 1 and 2, 2008, during the seventh round of dialogue. UFWD Executive Deputy Head Zhu Weiqun and Deputy Head Sita (Sithar) also met with the envoys during the November meetings, according to Gyari's statement.

The Chinese government sought to impose these additional demands on the Dalai Lama following an unprecedented wave of Tibetan protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau in March and April. Tibetan rioting took place in 12 counties identified in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2008 Annual Report (p. 183), but generally peaceful Tibetan political protests took place in more than 40 additional county-level areas. Officials blamed the Dalai Lama and "the Dalai Clique" for the Tibetan protests and rioting, and did not acknowledge the role of rising Tibetan frustration with Chinese policies that deprive Tibetans of rights and freedoms nominally protected under China's Constitution and legal system. (See Section V-Tibet, in the CECC 2008 Annual Report for more information about factors underlying the Tibetan protests and their consequences.)

Chinese officials escorted the envoys to the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region prior to the Beijing meetings. (The Hui are a Chinese-speaking, principally Muslim ethnic minority.) Later, academics in Beijing "briefed [the envoys] on the laws, policies and practices concerning China's regional ethnic autonomy system," according to the Xinhua report. Gyari said in his statement that the Tibetan delegation presented to the Chinese leadership a "memorandum . . . on genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people," but he provided no information about the contents of the memorandum. The CECC 2008 Annual Report identified weak implementation of China's Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law (REAL) as a factor that has exacerbated Tibetan frustration. Weak implementation of the REAL has prevented Tibetans from using lawful means to protect their culture, language and religion.

On October 25, the Dalai Lama said in a Tibetan-language speech delivered before Tibetans in India that the path Tibetans had followed "towards finding a mutually beneficial solution . . . has had no effect on our main objective, which is to improve the lives of Tibetans inside Tibet," according to an October 27 International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) translation of the speech. The Dalai Lama noted that Chinese authorities continued to blame him for "instigating the March protests inside Tibet," and observed, "[I]t seems as though I am a hindrance to finding a solution for Tibet." "I have not lost faith in the people of China," he said according to the translation, "but my faith in the present Chinese government is thinning and it's becoming very difficult."

The Dalai Lama referred in his speech to an unusual meeting of Tibetan political, religious, educational, cultural, and community leaders living outside of China in communities around the world that is scheduled to take place in India on November 17-22, 2008, (see list of participants, Tibetan government-in-exile, 29 September 08). The attendees will consider the status of discussions with the Chinese leadership and the current Tibetan approach to resolving the Tibet issue. The Dalai Lama's Middle Way Approach, which he adopted in 1979 and Tibetans living in exile approved in a 1997 poll according to an undated report on the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Web site, lists principal objectives that include:

Without seeking independence for Tibet, the [Tibetan government-in-exile] strives for the creation of a political entity comprising the three traditional provinces of Tibet; Such an entity should enjoy a status of genuine national regional autonomy; This autonomy should be governed by the popularly-elected legislature and executive through a democratic process and should have an independent judicial system . . ."

The Dalai Lama said in his October 25 speech, according to the ICT translation, that "there is no reason to stay the same course just because we are on it." He described the objective of the Tibetan meeting as "to understand, analyze and together think of long-term solutions based on the real, current situation." Special Envoy Lodi Gyari noted in his November 6 statement that the Dalai Lama had advised the envoys "not to make statements about our discussions before this [November] meeting." Xinhua, however, released a flurry of reports on November 10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that emphasized Chinese rejection of the Dalai Lama's proposal. UFWD Executive Deputy Head Zhu Weiqun denounced the Middle Way Approach as "aimed at outright Tibetan independence," and declared, "We will never make a concession."

For more information, see "Status of Negotiations Between the Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama or His Representatives" in Section V-Tibet, in the CECC 2008 Annual Report; "Status of Discussion Between China and the Dalai Lama" in Section IV-Tibet: Special Focus for 2007, in the CECC 2007 Annual Report; and "Status of Discussion Between China and the Dalai Lama" in Section VIII-Tibet, in the CECC 2006 Annual Report.