(TibetanReview.net, Apr24, 2015) – Apparently referring to the recent US State Department’s annual Tibet Negotiations Report to Congress, China said Apr 22 that Tibet affairs were totally within China’s domestic affairs and foreign countries had no right to interfere. The State Department report had said the Chinese government’s failure to address problems in Tibet “will continue to be a stumbling block to fuller political and economic engagement with the United States,” according to Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet Apr 17.
Delivering his country’s standard remark on the issue, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying during a Regular Press Conference in Beijing, “The Tibet issue is purely China’s internal affairs. No foreign country has the right to interfere.”
Hong was further quoted as saying, “The Dalai Lama is not a pure religious figure, but a political exile who has long been engaged in activities aimed at splitting his homeland under the cloak of religion. If the Dalai Lama is sincere about having contact or negotiations with the central government of China, he should reflect upon what he has said and done and stop all separatist activities against China.”
Hong specified those conditions when informed that the US State Department had urged China to review its policy on the governance of Tibet and restart dialogues with the Dalai Lama or his representatives with no preconditions attached.
The State Department had noted that “The Dalai Lama’s representatives and Chinese officials from the United Front Work Department have not met directly since the ninth round of dialogue in January 2010.”
The report is mandated by The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, as contained in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-228). The Act requires that the State Department’s annual reports should cover steps taken by the President and the Secretary of State to encourage the Chinese government to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives leading to a negotiated agreement on Tibet. The report also must address the status of any discussions between the two sides.