26 May 2006
Academic says Dalai Lama's demands are obstacle to talks
An influential Chinese academic has said that envoys of the Dalai Lama have raised demands on Tibetan autonomy and on the region's borders which China cannot accept. "During the process of making contacts, the Dalai Lama raised two big questions. One is Greater Tibet. One is high-level or real autonomy", Laba Phuntsog (Chin: Laba Pingcuo), secretary-general of the China Tibetology Research Center and a former vice-chairman of the TAR, told reporters. "The two demands he raised don't match the history of Tibet", he said, adding: "The Dalai Lama's demands have set up great obstacles". The Dalai Lama fled Lhasa in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, nine years after Communist troops invaded the area now known as the TAR. But parts of the western Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan are also home to large ethnic Tibetan populations and are considered part of a historic, or cultural, Tibet whose future Laba Phuntsog indicated the Dalai Lama wanted to be taken into consideration. The Dalai Lama has also advocated a "Middle Way" that seeks greater autonomy for Tibet, rather than independence, but Laba Phuntsog said granting more self-rule would be difficult. "To change the status quo would not be in accordance with the constitution of People's Republic of China and it would not be in accordance with the laws on autonomy for minority peoples".