Encouraged by backing from intellectuals in China : Dalai Lama

Sunday, February 21, 2010

PTI
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The Dalai Lama (R) shakes hands with former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo after the Dalai Lama received the National Endowment for Democracy's Democracy Service Medal during a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, February 19, 2010. (Photo: Getty Images)

Los Angles: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says China remains "very hardened" towards him and fellow Tibetans though he is encouraged by the growing support for the Tibetan cause among Chinese intellectuals.

Two days after his historic meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House, the Dalai Lama said there has been no progress in the latest round of talks with China on the vexed Tibet issue and over his call for greater autonomy.

"No progress...... Always the Chinese authorities [are] very hardened. Not only [against] Tibetans, but also... toward their own people," the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told the Los Angeles Times when asked if he saw any progress on the Tibet issue.

The last round of negotiations between his envoys and officials of the Chinese government were held last month but reported no progress. China told representatives of the exiled Dalai Lama that it would make "no concessions" on Tibetan sovereignty.

The 74-year-old spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, said he found some reasons to cling to hope that the standoff could ease.

"The number of Chinese intellectuals and writers [coming] out, they openly support our middle way approach and [are] very critical of their own government policy," he told Los Angeles Times.

The Dalai Lama claimed that Chinese intellectuals had become more sympathetic to Tibet as a result of pro-autonomy demonstrations in 2008 that prompted a swift, violent response from Chinese authorities.

Since then, he said, he has met many Chinese who say they were unaware of the Tibetan issue until the demonstrations. Now, he said, they find his call for a self- governing Tibet that remains a part of China to be "very sensible, very logical”.

He also said Chinese writers had published 800 articles in support of Tibetan autonomy, 300 of them published in China itself. Those figures could not be independently verified, the paper said.

He said he had met with Obama because "it was my duty to inform or report what the situation was in the relationship with the Chinese government."

China had reacted angrily on the Obama-Dalai Lama meeting by accusing the US of double-speak on Tibet and "seriously undermining" bilateral ties by "conniving" with anti-Beijing separatist forces.

China describes the Dalai Lama as a "separatist" and accuses him of pursuing Tibet's independence, a charged denied by him saying that he is only seeking greater autonomy for the remote Himalayan region.

The 14th Dalai Lama was the administrative and spiritual leader of Tibet before going into exile in India in 1959 when China wrested control over the region.