HONG KONG - Some 50 days after the March
14 violent protests in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet
Autonomous Region, Beijing officials finally
managed to sit down face-to-face with envoys of
the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader, on Sunday, May 4.
China's
state-run Xinhua News Agency described the
occasion as "contact and consultation", refraining
from using the words "dialogue" or "talk". This
deliberate nomenclature is one sign showing how
careful and cautious the relatively more
open-minded decision-makers in Beijing are in
avoiding provocation of the conservative
hardliners who are not happy to see any
conciliation with the Dalai Lama and who will take
every possible opportunity
to
jeopardize any such effort, say analysts.
During Sunday's "contact" in Shenzhen, Zhu
Weiqun and Sitar (who uses one name), both deputy
directors of the United Front Work Department
under the Communist Party's Central Committee,
exchanged views with the Dalai Lama's two private
representatives, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen.
The atmosphere of the closed-door meeting
in the southern Chinese city was reportedly "going
very well". The exchange of views was said to be
longer than originally scheduled.
Both
sides have agreed to continue discussions in the
near future without a date being fixed. This is
small progress, though it may disappoint those who
want peace soon. According to Xinhua, Chinese
negotiators urged the Dalai Lama not to "disrupt
and sabotage" the upcoming Beijing Summer Olympic
Games, and warned that future contact and dialogue
will not be held unless the Dalai Lama stops
advocating Tibetan independence.
The Dalai
Lama has repeatedly defended that he is not
seeking the independence of Tibet, and denied any
role in the recent unrest. In response to the
Dalai Lama's remarks, Chinese President Hu Jintao
told Japanese media on May 4 that "we have to
listen to his words and watch his deeds".
Despite all the misgivings, the May 4
meeting was the first face-to-face contact between
Chinese officials and the Dalai's representatives
after the bloody March 14 riots in Tibet, in which
at least 22 people were killed. Tibetans in exile
accused the Chinese government of suppressing
their people, but the Chinese authorities insisted
it was ethnic Han and Chinese police who were
attacked by Tibetans.
China's alleged
brutality has drawn widespread criticism from the
West. Exiled Tibetans and rights activists have
called for a boycott of the opening ceremony of
the Beijing Olympics scheduled to take place on
August 8. A European parliament resolution on
April 10 called for the resumption of dialogue
between Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama, or
else the group would also endorse the idea of a
boycott of the opening ceremony.
China's
leaders, who have long hoped to hold a successful
Olympics, are now caught in a dilemma. On the one
hand, they have to deal with pressure from the
West. On the other, there are hawks in Beijing who
construe mending fences with the Dalai Lama as "an
indication of flaccidity".
As one of the
rumors goes, moderate Beijing leaders are now
treading a "dangerous" tightrope by holding
contact with the Dalai Lama. The rumor has it that
the hawks consider it wrong to offer an olive
branch to the religious leader, whom they have
branded as "a wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a
human face but the heart of a beast".
That
such opinions exist seems to be confirmed by the
continuous verbal bombardment on the Dalai Lama by
major official publications before the May 4
meeting. The party's flagship newspaper, the
People's Daily, and the national English-language
newspaper, China Daily, ran commentaries blaming
the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the March 14
riots in Lhasa.
The appearance of these
official editorials triggered various
explanations. One of the theories is that the
moderate Chinese leaders are trying to calm down
the hawks within their ranks and assure them that
they are not backing down from their bottom line.
Some other observers have claimed the
sensitive timing of these articles reflects
efforts by some influential individuals in Beijing
to tease the moderate leaders in a discreet
manner. It is alleged that the camp against
conciliation with the Dalai Lama choose to
satirize the incumbent leadership by attacking the
people with whom they are holding talks, since it
is a protocol in Beijing that official newspapers
cannot overtly criticize top leaders. For the
Chinese hawks, the trick of disguising themselves
as "patriots" always works, even though sometimes
this trump card is at the expense of China's soft
power.
Beijing has held six rounds of
negotiations with the Dalai Lama since September
2002, during which the Chinese government has kept
a tight lid on details. But on May 4, when the
latest contact was made, Xinhua unusually
identified participants of the Sunday meeting
within hours. Wen Wei Po, a pro-Beijing newspaper
in Hong Kong, published details of the previous
six rounds of talks. Global Times, a sister
publication by the People's Daily, also ran
pictures of these dialogues on its website.
Analysts say the unusual disclosure of its
talks with the Dalai Lama suggests the Beijing
leadership's eagerness to impress the
international community that they take the Tibetan
issue seriously, obviously because of the
impending Olympics. Still, some think that a
successful Olympics is essential for the incumbent
Chinese leadership, because it is the only way to
mute internal opposition against negotiations with
the Dalai Lama.
It is noteworthy that
during the meeting, Chinese negotiators have
hinted at the difficulties negotiators faced
internally. According to Xinhua's news release,
Zhu and Sitar pointed out that "the riots in Lhasa
on March 14 had given rise to new obstacles for
further contacts and consultations with the Dalai
side. However, the [Chinese] central government
still arranged this meeting with great patience
and sincerity". Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen
are both being labeled by radical exiled Tibetans
as "traitors".
Pundits point out that how
Western leaders perceive the just-ended meeting
will, to some extent, shape the political
landscape in China. Should the West recognize the
dialogue as genuine on both sides and handle the
Olympics issue with goodwill, the policy of
moderate Chinese leaders will likely survive and
dominate. On the contrary, in the event Western
politicians snub the talks as window dressing
propaganda, hardliners in Beijing will prevail,
muting the voices urging more reform and
flexibility on Tibetan issues.
Fong
Tak-ho is managing editor of the Chinese
edition of Asia Times Online.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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