Dalai Lama Visit to Taiwan Angers Beijing

Greeted by a placard-bearing crowd of activists shouting slogans both for and against him, the Dalai Lama began his first visit to Taiwan on Saturday and said he had traveled there to promote “basic human values” and religious harmony.

But Beijing condemned the visit by Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader as a religious veil for a political meeting of “splittists,” its term for those it accuses of trying to break away from China. Beijing claims sovereignty over both Tibet and Taiwan.

“The Dalai Lama’s visit . . . will be a political crusade upheld by splittist and Tibetan independence forces collaborating to split the motherland,” charged the People’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper in Beijing.

The Dalai Lama has been seeking autonomy for Tibet since 1959, when he unsuccessfully tried to oust Chinese forces who had invaded it in 1950.

Although the Nobel Peace Prize winner plans to spend most of his six-day trip speaking with Buddhist groups, he will meet with Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui on Thursday, a move that is sure to enrage Beijing.

Beijing has rebuffed the exiled leader’s proposal that would grant a measure of autonomy for Tibet but allow China to retain control over defense and foreign affairs. The timing of his visit, barely a month after the death of Chinese “paramount leader” Deng Xiaoping, may be a quiet attempt to nudge Beijing into reopening formal talks between Tibet and China.

One Tibetan resident of Taiwan said the Dalai Lama wants to press for a quick solution before Tibetan culture is “wiped out” by the steady influx of Chinese to Tibet.

“It is a window of opportunity to draw a line and start afresh,” said Rigzing Choekyapa, a representative of the Dalai Lama. “Deng was responsible for much of the atrocities in Tibet, and now perhaps China can change the policy without losing too much face.”

For China, the Buddhist leader’s trip adds to a growing list of worries as Beijing prepares for an imminent visit by U.S. Vice President Al Gore and deals with severe unrest in its far western Xinjiang region, which is also seeking independence.

Adding to Beijing’s distraction are political jostling following Deng’s death and preparations for Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in July.

In addition to gaining political leverage from his meeting with Lee, whom Beijing accuses of trying to lead Taiwan toward independence, the Dalai Lama will receive a reception fit for a god-king. Devotees have built a special golden chair--worth $40,000--for his visit and have pledged a reported $726,000 in religious donations.

But as he arrived at the airport in Kaohsiung, the man sometimes described as a “victim of peace” was greeted more like a visiting politician. The russet-robed leader, his face fixed in a smile, was met by a mixed crowd of supporters and critics.

The pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party--which recently flew Tibetan flags at City Hall in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, and at all its offices--supports independence for Tibet and has urged Lee to treat the Dalai Lama as a state guest.

Opposing it were members of the pro-China Labor Party, who charged that the Dalai Lama is trying to achieve political aims under the guise of religion.

Members of the ruling Nationalist Party who advocate eventual reunification with China had opposed the visit because they feared angering Beijing.