Under pressure, China to meet Dalai Lama’s envoy

The Chinese government said Friday that it would meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama in “coming days,” apparently bowing to international pressure after weeks of anti-Beijing protests that have threatened to tarnish the Olympics.

Friday’s terse statement, carried by the official New China News Agency, made no mention of the drumbeat of criticism and demonstrations China has faced abroad since it launched a crackdown on Tibetan unrest in mid-March.

Rather, China said that its move was in response to repeated requests by representatives of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and that Beijing was always willing to engage in dialogue.

Early reaction to the turnaround was cautious. “If they are really genuine in reviving this dialogue, it’s very welcome,” said Tsering Tashi, a representative of the Dalai Lama at the Office of Tibet in London. “But it shouldn’t be just for the sake of saying it. They should really mean it and there shouldn’t be preconditions.”

In fact, Beijing’s statement repeated many of the accusations it has leveled recently, urging the “Dalai side” to stop trying to split China, incite violence or disrupt the Summer Olympics in Beijing “so as to create conditions for talks.”

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 during an anti-China uprising, has called for greater autonomy for Tibetans rather than an independent state. He has also said he supports a successful Olympics in China.

Chinese officials have dismissed those statements as lies or cynical negotiating tactics.

Washington welcomed China’s announcement. “We are hopeful that this will be a new direction in their relationship,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday, adding that President Bush viewed the Dalai Lama as a man of peace.

China analysts said Beijing recognized that it had a problem and wanted to be seen as taking the initiative.

But the underlying problems are complex and not amenable to easy solutions, said Wang Lixiong, a Beijing-based writer and Tibet expert.

“I am not terribly optimistic we’ll see substantive results,” he said.

China’s one-nation, two-systems policy on Hong Kong offers a model for expanded Tibetan autonomy, said Wang Yong, a professor at Peking University, although it could be difficult to achieve in the current charged political climate.

“The two sides lack trust,” Wang said. “We need to see what the Dalai Lama wants to achieve.”

China has faced repeated calls in recent weeks from global leaders, including Bush, to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. China’s ethnic Tibetan area has witnessed a security crackdown and reeducation campaign after riots broke out in mid-March that killed dozens of Chinese and Tibetans.

“International pressure is one of the main reasons the Chinese now feel they have to talk,” said Khedroob Thondup, the Dalai Lama’s nephew and a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile. “I definitely think this is a public relations move intended to address international concerns.”

China will probably be represented in any meeting by officials from its Tibetan affairs agency, and the Tibetans could send Dalai Lama envoy Lodi Gyari.

Exiled Tibetans said they would prefer the meeting take place in Switzerland or another neutral location.

China and representatives of the Dalai Lama have had intermittent contact since the 1980s after then-leader Deng Xiaoping adopted a more flexible policy toward him. But negotiations have been inconclusive at best. A sixth round of talks broke off in July, say exiled Tibetans, after Beijing’s position hardened.

Experts on both sides said a series of small steps by China and the Tibetans could build confidence before more substantive talks. They also cited the importance of toning down the rhetoric.

In recent weeks, Chinese officials have called the Dalai Lama a “wolf in monk’s robes,” accused him of planning suicide attacks and referred to his followers as the “scum of Buddhism,” while various Tibetan groups have slammed China as inhuman and morally bankrupt.

Exiled Tibetans said the confidence-building measures Beijing might consider included allowing foreign humanitarian, media and medical teams to visit Tibet and independently assess the recent unrest and crackdown; releasing hundreds of Tibetans reportedly now in prison; and taking steps to end religious and cultural repression.

On the other side of the ledger, Chinese experts said, they would like to see the Dalai Lama use his influence to help end the unrest seen throughout China’s ethnically Tibetan region in recent weeks. They also want him to stop allying himself with international pressure groups.

“The Tibetan problem should be solved by China, not by Westerners,” Peking University’s Wang said.

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mark.magnier@latimes.com

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Gao Wenhuan in The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.