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Is
China changing its Tibet policy?
By
Tsering Namgyal
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. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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