ĦĦĦĦBEIJING, June 9 (Xinhuanet) -- An article titled "What is the real
intention of the United States" published Monday refutes a US report on Tibet
negotiations.
ĦĦĦĦFollowing is a summary of the article written by Hua Zi:
ĦĦĦĦIn accordance with the "Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 2003", US
president George W. Bush submitted a report on Tibet Negotiations Consistent
with Section 613 of the Act to the Congress on May 8,2003.
ĦĦĦĦThe report on the one hand reiterates that the United States recognizes
Tibet to be part of the People's Republic of China, whereas it claims that it
supports Dalai Lama's "Middle Way Approach" of seeking "genuine self-rule", and
urges the Chinese government to respect the unique religious, linguistic, and
cultural heritage of its Tibetan people and to respect their human rights and
civil liberties.
ĦĦĦĦAccording to the report, the "important objective" of the United States is
to encourage the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama to hold substantive
dialogue, to lead to a negotiated settlement of "questions related to Tibet".
ĦĦĦĦThe report also lists efforts taken by the US President, Secretary of State
and other US government officials to encourage the Chinese government to enter
into a "dialogue" with the Dalai Lama.
ĦĦĦĦAs is well-known, the "Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 2003" carries
quite a number of anti-China clauses. The Chinese government immediately
expressed strong opposition to the legislation right after it was raised in the
US Congress.
ĦĦĦĦIn September, 2002, President Bush made an announcement when signing the
legislation, noting that the clauses related to China in it were inappropriate,
that the one-China policy of the United States had not changed, and that its
signing did not mean that he had accepted them or incorporated them into the
country's foreign policy.
ĦĦĦĦCommenting on the announcement made by President Bush, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a press conference on Oct.4, 2002: "We
hope the US side, being true to its word, will not implement those clauses so as
to avoid any negative impact on China-US relations."
ĦĦĦĦIt is a regret that the US government submitted the presidential report on
Tibet eight months later. Such a move by the US government, which went back on
its word, has already had a negative impact on China-US relations, no matter
what the content of the report is.
ĦĦĦĦThis writer has been following the "Tibet issue" in China-US relations for
years, and has noted that it was the first time that a US President ever
submitted such a report, which showed the degree of Bush administration's
concern on the "Tibet issue".
ĦĦĦĦStrictly speaking, there would have been no "Tibet issue" in the world,
just as there have been no "Washington issue" or "New York issue".
ĦĦĦĦThe "Tibet issue" essentially arose from the fact that for nearly a century
western imperialist forces had fostered and supported Tibetan separatists
attempting to separate Tibet from China.
ĦĦĦĦAt present, the "Tibet issue" would not exist, if the United States and
other western countries don't support the Dalai clique,if the Dalai clique gives
up its intention of seeking "Tibet independence" or independence in disguised
forms, and stops activities of splitting the country. The United States should
not shun the essence of the issue.
ĦĦĦĦSo far, all previous US governments have never recognized Tibet as an
independent state, but recognized that the Tibet Autonomous Region is part of
the People's Republic of China, and also held that this is the view of the
international community.
ĦĦĦĦPeople will naturally ask: Why has the United State showed so much interest
in China's internal affairs and concerned itself so much over the "Tibet issue"?
ĦĦĦĦAccording to the report, the United States is concerned about the "Tibet
issue", taking it as an "important objective" of the US government to "encourage
substantive dialogue between the Chinese govenrment and the Dalai Lama," just
because "for China to work with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to resolve
problems facing Tibet is in the interest of both the Chinese Government andthe
Tibetan People", and also because "the Dalai Lama can be a constructive partner
as China deals with the difficult challenges of regional and national stability.
He represents the views of the vast majority of Tibetans".
ĦĦĦĦIf the Chinese government doesn't hold "substantive dialogue" with the
Dalai Lama "without preconditions" and doesn't reach resolution of differences
at an early date, it will lead to "greater tensions inside China and will be a
stumbling block to fuller political and economic engagement with the United
States and other nations."
ĦĦĦĦThis is really an American way of thinking. Does what the report say
conform to the facts? This writer reviewed what the US government had done on
the "Tibet issue", and analyzed whether the US concern on the "Tibet issue" is
beneficial or detrimental to the Tibetans, to the stability of China, and to
China's political and economic exchanges with the United States and other
countries.
ĦĦĦĦThe United States has never denied China's sovereignty over Tibet, nor
recognized Tibet as an independent state. The State Department said in a
statement in 1995 that historically, the United States recognized China's
sovereignty over Tibet. At least beginning in 1966, the US policy has clearly
recognized the Tibet Autonomous Region to be part of the People's Republic of
China (The Tibet Autonomous Region was established in September 1965). This
long-standing policy is in consistence with the view of the international
community, including China and its neighboring countries. None of the countries
in the world ever recognizes Tibet as a sovereign state. Because the United
States does not recognize Tibet as an independent state, it has not established
diplomatic relations with the self-claimed "Tibetan government-in-exile".
ĦĦĦĦOn July 27, 1998, at a joint press confernce in Beijing with Chinese
President Jiang Zemin, US president Bill Clinton said that he agrees that Tibet
is part of China, an autonomous region of China.
ĦĦĦĦThe report submitted by President Bush also says: "the United States
recognizes the Tibet Autonomous Region to be part of the People's Republic of
China. This long-standing policy is consistent with the view of the
international community."
ĦĦĦĦThe report on the one hand recognizes Tibet to be part of China and doesn't
recognize Tibet as an independent state, while on the other hand, it holds that
the Dalai Lama represents the views of the vast majority of Tibetans, "His moral
authority helps to unite the Tibetan community inside and outside of China".
ĦĦĦĦIn other words, the US government holds that the Government of the People's
Republic of China cannot represent the views and interests of the vast majority
of Tibetans, who are citizens of the People's Republic of China.
ĦĦĦĦSuch a concept, putting China's vast Tibetan citizens in opposition to the
government elected by themselves, is illogical if not ill-natured, and will by
no means be beneficial to the Tibetan people and China's stability.
ĦĦĦĦOn April 17, 1997, US Ambassador to China James Sasser said during his
visit to Lhasa that ever since the Sun Yat-sen era, theUS government has
recognized Tibet as an inseparable part of China.
ĦĦĦĦThe Chinese central government has adopted explicit and consistent policies
towards the Dalai Lama. That is, only when the Dalai Lama abandon his claim for
the "independence of Tibet", haltany separatist activities, openly states he
recognizes Tibet as an unalienable part of China, Taiwan as one of China's
provinces and the government of the People's Republic of China as the country's
sole legitimate representative, would China have contacts and negotiations with
him.
ĦĦĦĦNevertheless, those policies, which the United States itself recognizes
publicly and the international community adheres to universally, are not
required from Dalai Lama by the US government. On the contrary, the US
government has repeatedly prompted the Chinese government to have substantial
dialogues with the Dalai Lama unconditionally and resolve the so-called
"questions related to Tibet's relationship with the Chinese authorities".
ĦĦĦĦLet the "Tibet's relationship to Chinese authorities" and "resolution of
such questions through negotiation with the Dalai Lama" rest for the time being,
such act and tones of connivance and provocation from the US government have
betrayed their hidden motives to abet the Dalai Lama to dispute with the central
government of China. Does this help resolve the so-called "Tibet issue" at an
early date?
ĦĦĦĦSince Tibet is an unalienable part of the Chinese territories, the Tibet
Autonomous Region exercises regional autonomy under the leadership of central
government. It is widely known to the international public that the Chinese
government adheres to its clear and definite stances and policies on affairs
concerning Tibet. Any country in the world (including the United States itself)
would not allow foreign forces to finger and gesture on how to deal with its
internal affairs. It is the basic norm of theinternational law.
ĦĦĦĦOn the so-called "Tibet issue", the United States not only failed to abide
by such a basic norm, but grossly intervene in China's internal Tibet affairs.
More than a dozen such interveningmeasures listed in the US "Tibet Policy Act of
2002" include "steps taken by the President", "steps taken by the Secretary of
State" and "steps taken by other Department of State officials". The U.S. act
even claimed "the lack of (China's) resolution of these problems will be
stumbling block to fuller political and economic engagement with the United
States and other nations." Aren't these threats too overbearing?
ĦĦĦĦFor over half a century, what had the US "concerns" for "Tibet issue"
brought to the political situation in Tibet? What consequences they had incurred
to the Tibetan people? We'd better take a look at the past.
ĦĦĦĦIn the end of 1942, the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the
forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency) assigned Captain Ilia Tosltoy and
First Lieutenant Brooke Dolan to Lhasa. They were the first officially
sanctioned American mission to Tibet.
ĦĦĦĦIn the end of 1946, then President Harry Truman ordered to sendto Tibet
several diesel generators which were used subsequently byTibetan separatists in
1949 as power for its radios carrying out propaganda for the "independence of
Tibet" and also as equipment to contact and communicate with the United States.
ĦĦĦĦIn March 1953, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) marched towards
Qamdo as a prologue to the liberation of Tibet. The United States then agitated
the Dalai Lama and local Tibetan authorities to expand its arms in a bid to
resist the liberation. For a time, the so-called "theory on Communist threat"
and "theoryon China's aggression and expansion" flooded all American newspapers
and journals, big and small. On May 23, 1951, Tibet waspeacefully liberated with
the signing of the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local
Government of Tibet on the Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet.
ĦĦĦĦIn July 1951, Thubten Norbu, Dalai Lama's eldest brother and his private
envoy arrived in New York and served as an intermediary for the secret contacts
between the United States andthe Dalai Lama with the aid of the US Central
Intelligence Office (CIA). While another of Dalai Lama's older brothers, Gyalo
Thondup,signed an agreement with the CIA to conduct intelligence collecting and
carry out guerrilla warfare in Tibet.
ĦĦĦĦMeanwhile, with the involvement of the CIA, American diplomats in India had
worked out a "outside flight plan" in an attempt to bring Dalai Lama to India.
But the plan failed to implement immediately because of the opposition from
Tibetan patriotic strength. However, close contacts between separatists of
Tibet's upper strata and the CIA and separatists' schemes asking for
CIA'sfinancing, support and supply continued all along.
ĦĦĦĦInitial CIA missions in Tibet appeared in early 1957 when the first groups
of six Khampas residing in India were picked to receive secret service training
by agents from the United States. The United States also established training
camps in Colorado for those picked agents who were later parachuted back into
Tibet and other Tibetans-inhabited areas in China to join the rebel forces
against the Chinese central government.
ĦĦĦĦWhen the Tibetan rebellion occurred in 1959, Dalai Lama was helped to flee
to India with CIA's support. Planes of the CIA intruded hundreds of miles into
China's airspace to escort those fleeing Tibetans, spy the movement of the
People's Liberation Army(PLA) and drop food, maps, radios and money for those
rebels. A trained-in-US Khampa agent escorted Dalai Lama all along during his
flight.
ĦĦĦĦAround 1960, under the plotting of the CIA, the base of the Tibetan
rebelling forces were transferred to Mustang, Nepal. In the end of 1960, some
200 Tibetan rebels arrived at Mustang and founded a guerrilla base there. Since
then, they had kept crossingborder, stole into Tibet and assaulted PLA men and
other government staffs. It was until the eve of late President Nixon's first
official trip to China in 1972 that the CIA stopped financing Tibetan rebels,
suspended their weapons supply to those guerrillas and closed their guerrilla
bases within the boundaries of India and Nepal.
ĦĦĦĦDuring this historical process, the United States' "concerns" over the
"Tibet issue" only resulted in the aggravation of the rebellions in Tibet and
other Tibetans-inhabited areas. Such "concerns" connived the flight of Dalai
Lama and landed the Tibetanpeople in an abyss of misery and led to many years of
unrest alongthe border areas in China's Tibet.
ĦĦĦĦIn the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States' instigated some small
countries to put forward motions on the so-called "Tibet questions" in the
United Nations. They adopted meansthat were so inferior that they themselves
would probably never want to mention again.
ĦĦĦĦHowever, the history of the United States' "concern" about "Tibet
questions" did not end there. The so-called "Tibet questions" then became a card
serving its "human rights diplomacy."
ĦĦĦĦOn June 18, 1987, the US House of Representatives approved an amendment
regarding so-called "China's violation of human rights in Tibet." The amendment,
after further revision, was passed by the US House of Representatives and US
Senate and was affixed to the US Foreign Relations Authorization Act Fiscal Year
1988-1989.
ĦĦĦĦParliaments of other Western countries followed suit and passed bills that
interfered in China's Tibetan affairs, accused the Chinese government for
"violating human rights in Tibet," and supported the Dalai Lama.
ĦĦĦĦOn Sept. 21, 1987, the human rights sub-committee of the US House of
Representatives gave the floor to the Dalai Lama, who putforward a "five-point
proposal" regarding the so-called "status ofTibet."
ĦĦĦĦThe Foreign Affairs Committee of the House held a hearing on Oct. 14, 1987
on human rights in Tibet, during which several congressmen backed the Dalai Lama
and tried to put pressure on China. After that the Dalai Lama stepped up
separatist activities and frequently went all out selling his ideas in Western
countries.
ĦĦĦĦWas the US "concern" on the questions related to Tibet really conducive to
China's domestic stability during 1987-1989? The fact was that on Sept. 27,
1987, six days after the Dalai Lama spoke at the human rights sub-committee of
the US House of Representatives, Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous
Region,witnessed the first riot aimed at realizing the so-called "Tibetan
independence" since 1959. Some slogans and posters appearing on the streets at
that time said that the US Congress had begun to pay attention to Tibetan
affairs.
ĦĦĦĦThere were dozens of riots in Lhasa in the following two years,which caused
tremendous losses of lives and properties to people in Tibet and seriously
undermined their normal work, study and life. The riots were resolutely opposed
by people of various ethnic groups in Tibet. The People's Government of the
Tibet Autonomous Region has irrefutable evidence that the riots in Lhasawere
directly plotted and instigated by Tibetan splittist forces overseas.
ĦĦĦĦThe US Government and congress continued to support the Dalai Lama in
various ways after 1989. And the tones of the Dalai Lama's splittist activities
changed from time to time. On Aug. 19, 1991, the Dalai Lama announced abandoning
the so-called "Strasbourg Proposal" made in June 1988, and firmly asked for
"complete independence of Tibet," which he predicted the same year would be
realized within five to 10 years.
ĦĦĦĦAfter 1993, the Dalai Lama put forward the so-called "middle road
approach," and asked for a "high degree of autonomy " in Tibet like the "One
country, two systems" designed for Hong Kong, following a statement of the US
vice president, who advocated realizing "Tibet independence" in two steps.
ĦĦĦĦUp to now, we've not seen any public statements by the Dalai Lama
indicating he would accept the principles for negotiations proposed by the
Central Government. The United States, taking no notice of the Dalai Lama's
duplicity, has kept pressing the Chinese Government to conduct negotiations with
the Dalai Lama "without preconditions."
ĦĦĦĦSuch "concern" cannot but set people thinking as the recent report by the
US Government went so far as to say that the issue would possibly become a
"stumbling block to fuller political and economic engagement" with the United
States.
ĦĦĦĦTo sum up, all instability in Tibet over the past half century and more was
because of the disturbances and sabotage by the Tibetan splittist forces, backed
by US and other Western anti-China forces.
ĦĦĦĦFor the United States, which calls itself a pioneer of "democratic
politics," it seems difficult to make clear who represents the interests of the
people in Tibet. The Chinese people would not allow it if the Chinese
Government, elected by the National People's Congress (NPC), and the deputies to
the NPC,elected by people of various ethnic groups in China, do not represent
the people's interests. It's the same case with the People's Government of the
Tibet Autonomous Region.
ĦĦĦĦTherefore, it is the Chinese Government and the Tibet Autonomous Regional
government, rather than the US government and the Dalai Lama who left his
motherland and religious followers more than four decades ago, that best know
how to safeguard the fundamental interests of people of all ethnic groups in
Tibet, including protecting the Tibetan language, religions and cultural
heritage.
ĦĦĦĦThe Tibetan local government reported a population of one million in 1953
when new China conducted its first census. The population of Tibetans in China
amounted to nearly 4.6 million, ofwhom 2.41 million lived in the Tibet
Autonomous Region in 2000, according to the fifth national census. It is
estimated that thereare 120,000 to 130,000 Tibetans living overseas.
ĦĦĦĦEither viewed historically or realistically, the US Government report's
claim that the Dalai Lama "represents the views of the vast majority of Tibetans
and his moral authority helps to unite the Tibetan community inside and outside
of China," is a lie.
ĦĦĦĦThe Dalai Lama used to be the chief executive of the local Tibetan
government, which was an integration of political power and religious authority,
and Tibet under his rule was under the dark feudal serf system.
ĦĦĦĦThe Dalai Lama betrayed his country and threw himself under the shield of
foreign anti-China force just because he was opposed to any change of the
barbaric system. In exile, he has made no contribution to the development of
Tibet nor to the happiness and benefit of the Tibetan Buddhism followers over
the past 40-odd years.
ĦĦĦĦOn the contrary, the so-called Tibetan "government-in-exile" led by the
Dalai Lama has been involved in political activities aiming to split the country
for years. The Dalai Lama, in violation of the religious rite and historical
convention of Tibetan Buddhism, appointed Panchen living Buddha on his own. How
could he be the representative of the Tibetan people? How could he"unite the
Tibetan community inside and outside of China"?
ĦĦĦĦIt is a historical choice made by all Tibetan people to follow the
socialist road and the system of regional national autonomy under the leadership
of the Communist Party of China, and they will never turn away from this choice.
ĦĦĦĦThe US government,by distorting the facts, has tried its best to puff the
Dalai Lama. It has patently profaned the will of several million Tibetan people
in China. By putting pressures or even threat on the Chinese government, it is
interfering in China's internal affairs, which hurts the progress of Tibet, the
stability of Chinese society, and the improvement and development of Sino-US
relations. Such interference can but meet with firm opposition from the Chinese
government and create further distrustin the United States by all Chinese people
including Tibetans.
ĦĦĦĦWhy is the US government concerned about the Tibet issue, since it is not
for protecting Tibetan people's language, religion,cultural heritage, human
rights and freedom, or for safeguarding China's stability? This writer believes
that the Tibet issue or the Dalai Lama serves as a card for the US anti-China
force in its attempts to contain China. Enditem