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Is China Changing Its Tibet Policy?
Tsering Namgyal
September 25, 2002
TAIPEI - The recent visit to Beijing by two special
envoys of the Dalai Lama does not seem like a one-off,
isolated event. The trip came on the heels of an
earlier whirlwind tour of the Tibetan region by the
Dalai Lama's elder brother Gyalo Dhondup, who has long
served as an important emissary between China and the
Dalai Lama.
Earlier this year, Beijing released a Tibetan
political prisoner, ethnomusicologist Ngawang Choephel,
who was accused of spying, and last month sent into
exile Tibet's longest-serving political prisoner,
Takna Jigme Sangpo.
This time, however, China surprised observers by
allowing into Beijing and Tibet two of the most
important ambassadors of the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari
and Kelsang Gyaltsen, based respectively in the US and
Europe.
It looks as though China - emboldened by its
fast-growing economy, rising multinational investment,
and an upcoming Olympics hosted by its capital city -
is earnestly attending to one of its biggest headaches.
Does the series of recent moves by China vis-a-vis
Tibet show that Beijing is pursuing a more enlightened
policy with regards to the restive Himalayan region?
China's willingness to allow the representatives of
exiled Tibetans into the country underscores that the
leaders in Beijing may finally be using dialogue as a
way to find a lasting solution to the Tibetan issue.
And now is the time to do so. One of China's biggest
arguments justifying its iron rule of the Himalayan
plateau is that it is bringing development and
progress to Tibetans. Many in Tibet do seem to have
already been infected by the capitalistic fever that
has become so much a hallmark of China's booming
coastal provinces.
If indeed Chinese rule has improved the lot of the
Tibetans, then China should showcase this to the world
at large by inviting more exiled Tibetans to Tibet -
and even possibly the Dalai Lama to the Chinese
mainland, if not Tibet itself.
The Tibetan leader has long expressed his interest in
visiting the pilgrimage site of Wutai Shan in China's
Shanxi province, considered sacred by Tibetan
Buddhists. "It is up to the leaders in Beijing to
decide, for I have said what I wanted to say," said
the Dalai Lama when asked about his intention to visit
China during a trip to Taiwan last year.
China has nothing to lose by communicating with the
exiled Tibetans, although Chinese officials have
called the latest visit a homecoming of "expatriate"
Tibetans. Tibet is after all firmly under China's
control, and only an estimated 100,000 out the total 6
million Tibetans live in exile.
However, Beijing's time-is-in-our-side attitude toward
the Tibetan issue is not without risks. The exiled
Tibetans, while small in number, are growing
increasingly frustrated and agitated, for they grow up
in exile hearing about the hardships of their
relatives, many of whom had to flee their Himalayan
homeland to the scorching heat of the slums of the
South Asian subcontinent. (On visiting a Tibetan
settlement in the outskirts of Delhi, writer Amitav
Ghosh wrote as early as 1988: "Everyone who went there
got drunk. You couldn't help doing so - it was hard to
be in the presence of so terrible a displacement.")
Such hardship has not deterred the Tibetans from
fleeing into India. More flow into the region every
year, though this influx is yet to pose a major
security risk to the region, thanks to the Dalai
Lama's repeated admonition that the Tibetans follow a
pacifist, Gandhian approach in their struggle for
survival.
But after growing up stateless in India and Nepal,
many young Tibetans are now moving to the West (many
to wash dishes in New York and Paris).
Already, they have become a visible force in the
United States and Europe, often disrupting the visits
of Chinese dignitaries with loud protests. China's
continued intransigence over the Tibetan issue may
have served to radicalize them, as they now - thanks
to the freedom of global travel - have the means to
vent their desperation.
Importantly, the Tibetan leader has said that he is
not seeking independence, but "genuine self-rule". The
Dalai Lama has already achieved a high level of trust
among Chinese people, particularly those residing
overseas. The Dalai Lama, as can be seen from his two
visits to Taiwan in the past four years, is deeply
committed to establishing better rapport among the two
peoples.
The enthusiastic reception he receives among the
Chinese diaspora shows that - beyond politics - there
is still room for the two to co-exist peacefully to
their mutual benefit.
At a joint news conference in Beijing with Bill
Clinton during the then US president's China trip in
June 1998, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said he
wanted to "study" why the Tibetan culture is so
popular. Clinton urged him to reopen a dialogue with
the Dalai Lama, calling the Tibetan leader a "good and
honest man".
The historic press conference raised hopes for a
possible resolution. But the aspirations were dashed
after China kept the door of negotiations shut by
attaching impossible preconditions, including
affirmation by the Dalai Lama that both Tibet and
Taiwan are inalienable parts of China.
The situation now seems to have taken a turn for the
better. It is now up to the leaders in Beijing to
determine how far it is willing to compromise to seek
a solution acceptable to both Chinese and Tibetans.
Recent events suggest they are finally opting for the
former.
© 2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd
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