(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-12 07:39

The talks between the Dalai Lama and central government have failed in the past because the Dalai Lama has been sticking to his stance of "Tibet independence", says an article in the New Zealand Chinese Herald.

As the piece points out, in his recent open letter, the Dalai Lama portrays himself as an exiled monk full of benevolence and restraint, but his previous stances and opinions tell us that he seeks an independent Tibet. His superficial appeal for "autonomy" instead of "independence" for Tibet is just political propaganda.

The Dalai Lama dreams of building a state solely composed of ethnic Tibetans and wants Chinese troops to withdraw from the region. It goes far beyond the request of autonomy and surely will not be accepted by the Chinese government.

The Tibetan riots in March and the open letter by the Dalai Lama help people see through the cruel but foxy side of the separatists, says an article on the website www.chinese.net.nz.

The article criticized his open letter from the following positions: The Dalai Lama's concerns about Tibetan culture is just a pretext since the Chinese government and the Hans are working along with Tibetans to preserve the unique Tibetan culture, language and identity. Though he said he supported Beijing's hosting the Olympic Games, he chose the period just before the opening of the games to stir up the riots in Tibet, which clearly betrayed his call for non-violent protest.

He adopted a strategy of showing weakness and fighting for justice to win the support of the international community while pretending to say that he is not seeking independence for Tibet. He agreed to hold dialogues with the Chinese government on the surface, but tried to force it to satisfy his requests by planning riots in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

The open letter of the Dalai Lama is clear evidence of his support of separatism and breaches of peace, says an article on the website www.chinese.net.cn.

The article pointed out that the Dalai Lama adopted a double-faced trick - he used the English version of the open letter to cater to the Western society, but used the Chinese version to cheat on all Chinese. In the English version, the Dalai Lama touched several times on the equal status between the Chinese government and Tibet as well as the Tibetan government in exile. But in the Chinese version, he purposefully omitted key words like "China and Tibet" and mistranslated the English phrase "the relations between the Tibetan people and the Chinese people" into "Han-Tibetan ethnic relations."

A commentary authored by Huang Qing in People's Daily expressed his opinion on what Nancy Pelosi said about the torch relay

When commenting on the statement made by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco, the spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry asked: "Who is making the torch relay a political event? And who is harboring malicious intentions to instigate disturbances and wreck of torch relay in San Francisco?"

To answer this question, we might as well look at the words of Pelosi. On April 8, she said: "For the next four months, the International Olympic Committee and Chinese officials will parade the Olympic torch through dozens of countries and even through Tibet. The torch will be met by politicians and heads-of-state from all over the world along a 'journey of harmony'. It is the Chinese government that is making the Olympic torch relay a political event."

The opinions of Pelosi about the Beijing Olympic Games are filled with "political evil intentions". First, Pelosi put Tibet and other countries side by side, which betrays her intention of separating Tibet from China.

Second, Pelosi said she values free expression. In her statement, she said: "This week, many will exercise this right by demonstrating against the Olympic torch." She used an expression that called for no less than political agitation. Although she urged all those who protest to do so "peacefully and respectfully", previous facts showed protesters have adopted violent, outrageous and disrespectful methods to interfere with the torch relay.

(China Daily 04/12/2008 page4)