25/01/10: |
Hu Jintao's recent hardline rhetoric offers little hope for success on eve of renewed Sino-Tibetan Dialogue
Hu Jintao’s recent hardline rhetoric offers little hope for success on eve of renewed Sino-Tibetan Dialogue.
The Tibetan Government in Exile has announced in a statement (1) today that envoys of the Dalai Lama will arrive in Beijing tomorrow for the resumption of official dialogue with the Chinese government.
Special Envoy Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, together with three senior Tibetan assistants, are travelling to Beijing for the ninth round of dialogue since the talks began in 2002.
According to the statement, the envoys met the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala on January 22 in advance of their trip to Beijing. No agenda for the meeting has been announced, although the statement reported that the envoys will return to India in early February.
The announcement of the resumption of talks comes 15 months after Beijing aggressively signalled that the talks were over and that it would “never” (2) accept autonomy in Tibet.
The talks resume at a time when Hu Jintao’s administration has undertaken a significant hardening of its policy in Tibet. According to a recent article (3) by respected China analyst Willy Lam, a January 8 Politburo meeting, focused exclusively on Tibetan issues, endorsed the Party’s tough new tactics in Tibet. These include: the appointment of more hardline cadres to run the Tibetan Autonomous Region; the replacement of the relatively moderate Qiangpa Puncog as Chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) with the noticeably more hardline Pema Thinley, one of the few ethnic Tibetans with experience of military service; the intensification of “patriotic re-education” – a policy which seeks to control Tibetan Buddhism by registering monks and nuns and forcing them to denounce the Dalai Lama; a spate of severe sentences recently imposed on dissidents such as Dhondup Wangchen who was recently sentenced in a closed trail to six years imprisonment for openly video-recording the views of ordinary Tibetans who spoke out against Chinese rule (4).
Just days ago President Hu articulated this hardening of policy when he spoke out forcefully against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan “separatists”. His comments were reported by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua (5), following a high-profile meeting in Beijing between 18 and 20 January to discuss the 12th five year plan for Tibet. According to Xinhua, Hu said that “Tibet faces a ‘special contradiction’ between people of all ethnic groups and the separatist forces led by the Dalai clique”. Xinhua also reported that Hu had called for a crack down on all forms of “Tibet independence” separatist activity in Tibet.
Free Tibet Director, Stephanie Brigden, said:
“Hu Jintao’s recent hardline rhetoric, and the recent significant hardening of Tibet policy, questions the sincerity of China’s commitment to renewed talks. The international community including the British government must push their Chinese counterparts to ensure that the negotiation process is substantive and meaningful, and that it delivers positive outcomes for the Tibetan people.”
Ends
For further information:
Matt Whitticase, External Communications
t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456 and email: matt@freetibet.org
Stephanie Brigden, Director
t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7530 528264 and email: stephanie@freetibet.org
Notes to Editor:
(1) The statement by the Tibetan Government in Exile (see below for full text) is available at: http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php#
(2) Further information on the eigth round of dialogue and China’s announcement of the failure of the talks are available via Free Tibet’s press release at: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/101108
(3) Willy Lam’s article “Hu’s “New Deal” with Tibet: Chinese Characteristics and Tibetan Traits?” is available at:
(4) More information on the case of Dhondup Wangchen is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/campaigns/free-dhondup-wangchen
(5) The Xinhua article is available at: http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/xw/t653454.htm Hu’s comments were also reported in The Times of India:
Full text of the statement made by the Central Tibetan administration:
25 January 2010
Press Statement
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen will arrive in China tomorrow for discussions with the representatives of the Chinese leadership. This is the ninth round of dialogue. The Envoys are visiting China after a gap of 15 months in the process that began in 2002.
They will be accompanied by senior assistants Tenzin P. Atisha, Bhuchung K. Tsering, both members of Tibetan Task Force on Negotiations, and Jigmey Passang from the Secretariat of the Tibetan Task Force.
At a two day meeting of the Tibetan Task Force in Dharamsala chaired by Kalon Tripa, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan delegation finalised their preparations for the discussions in Beijing. On January 22, 2010 the Kalon Tripa and the two Envoys briefed His Holiness the Dalai Lama and sought his guidance.
The delegation is expected to return to India at the beginning of next month.
Chhime R. Chhoekyapa
Secretary to
His Holiness the Dalai Lama