(TibetanReview.net, Jun21’24) — In response to a meeting he had with a bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers at his home in Dharamshala, India, on Jun 19, China has reiterated its conditions for holding talks with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exile spiritual leader. The delegation had called on China to resume talks with the exile Tibetan leadership as sought in a Resolve Tibet Act bill that now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature for becoming law.
Responding to the bill and the Dharamshala events, the Chinese foreign ministry has said Jun 20 that the Dalai Lama must “thoroughly correct” his political views as a condition for contact with what it called China’s central government to resume.
“With regard to contact and negotiations between the central government of China and the 14th Dalai Lama, our policy has been consistent and clear,” Reuters Jun 20 quoted Lin Jian, a spokesman at China’s foreign ministry, as saying.
“The key is that the 14th Dalai Lama must fundamentally reflect on and thoroughly correct his political views,” Lin has said at a regular ministry news conference.
Also, responding to the US bill, Lin has said, “We urge the United States to fully recognise the importance and sensitivity of Tibet-related issues and earnestly respect China’s core interests,” Lin has said.
“We should abide by our commitment on the issue of obstacles, refrain from any form of contact with the Dalai clique, and stop sending wrong messages to the outside world.”
A ten-year-long series of talks between envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government ended on a bitter note in late 2010, with the latter accusing the former of seeking independence with their demand for genuine or meaningful autonomy in exchange for accepting China’s sovereignty over the Tibetan homeland.
China also made it clear that the only talks they will hold with the Dalai Lama would be concerned with the conditions for his “return” to China, including his personal status under Chinese rule. For that, it requires him to “admit” that Tibet was part of China since ancient times and to give up all his activities in support of the Tibetan people.
But the Dalai Lama’s position remains that the only talks he can hold with China would be over the well-being of the Tibetan people as a whole; that Tibet was historically an independent country but would be willing to accept genuine autonomy under Chinese rule through a negotiated settlement, and that there is nothing to discuss aa far as his own well-being is concerned.