Humiliation for Britain's Tibet diplomacy as China rejects all calls for autonomy in Tibet

China announced today that it would “never” accept calls by the Dalai Lama for greater autonomy in Tibet.

China’s announcement was made in particularly harsh(1) language by Zhu Weiqun, a Vice-Minister of the United Front Work Department, the Chinese government department responsible for talks between the Chinese government and envoys of the Dalai Lama.

Zhu’s remarks represent the most hardline statement issued by the Chinese government following any round of the Sino-Tibetan talks. (The declaration followed the conclusion of the eighth round of Sino-Tibetan talks held between October 31 and November 5.) In addition to his forthright remarks on Tibetan autonomy, Zhu aggressively laid the blame for what he regarded as the failure of the talks on the Tibetan side. The comments, broadcast live on state television, by such a senior figure from the Chinese negotiation team are a strong indication that the Chinese side is effectively closing the door on further talks with the Dalai Lama’s envoys.

China’s emphatic rejection of any form of Tibetan autonomy represents a major embarrassment for the British government and its recent diplomacy in connection with the Sino-Tibetan talks.

On 29 October British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, announced in a Written Ministerial Statement (2) that Britain was interested in seeing “long term stability” in Tibet and that this was to be achieved “through respect for human rights and greater autonomy for the Tibetans.” The Foreign Secretary endorsed the Dalai Lama’s search for “meaningful autonomy within the framework of the Chinese constitution” as representing the “basis for a negotiated settlement”. In the same statement the Foreign Secretary announced that the British position, which since the early twentieth century had recognised China’s “special position” in Tibet but fell short of acknowledging Chinese sovereignty, was to change and that henceforth the British government would “regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China”. Miliband argued that such a change would enable Britain to “get our points across” on Tibet and autonomy more effectively.

In a statement (3) Free Tibet noted that the British government’s long-standing position that China enjoyed only a special interest in Tibet mattered enormously as it was “the only major power to have dealt directly with the Tibetan government before China’s 1950 invasion” and that Britain was therefore uniquely placed to judge the nature of Tibet’s legal status. As Free Tibet argued in its statement, by changing its postion to one of Tibet being “part of the People’s Republic of China”, the British government had effectively removed the legal and political basis for the autonomy argument being advanced by the Dalai Lama’s envoys and that this amounted to Britain surrendering its “main leverage and influence on China with nothing in return”.

Commenting on China’s rejection of calls for Tibetan autonomy today, Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said:

“For too long Britain and other governments have simply welcomed talks for the sake of talks. Not only has Britain failed to exert any sort of effective pressure on China that could have made these talks a success, it has now bowed to Chinese pressure in recognising Tibet as a part of China, in a stroke removing its main point of leverage. Once Britain, the country best placed to judge Tibet’s status, said it regarded Tibet as a part of China, there was going to be little incentive for China to stay in the talks. Hence today’s blast of rhetoric from Beijing.

It is imperative that today’s announcement by China serves as a wake-up call to the British government and other governments: their policy of welcoming talks for the sake of talks has failed. Having allowed China to walk away from the talks, Britain must now lead the way in creating new strategies to hold China to account for the worsening crisis in Tibet and to force China back into talks with the Tibetans to negotiate a solution to a crisis that is of China’s own making and in its interests to solve.”

Ends

Notes to Editor:

(1)   According to Reuters, Zhu told a Beijing news conference today that China would "never allow ethnic splitting in the name of genuine autonomy" and that the Dalai Lama was seeking ethnic cleansing in Tibet: "If one day, he [the Dalai Lama]really seizes power, he will without any compunction or sympathy carry out ethnic discrimination, apartheid and ethnic cleansing."

(2)   The Written Ministerial Statement is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/david-milibands-statement-291008 

(3)   Free Tibet’s statement is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/060508