The Dalai Lama has, in recent years, been telling the world he has stopped seeking "Tibetan independence" and turned towards a "middle way". By this, he says, he means "high-level autonomy" or "real autonomy" in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas within the framework of the Chinese Constitution. Only by doing so, he has argued, can Tibet best protect its unique traditional culture, religion and eco-environment, and can the unification and unity of China be maintained. (On March 10, 1959, the reactionary upper class in Tibet staged a counter-revolutionary armed rebellion. When it was suppressed, the Dalai Lama and his men fled to India, where he made March 10 as a remembrance "Resurrection Day".) On March 10, 2006, he followed his usual practice of delivering a speech, in which he said: "Making the Tibetan race become the real masters of their own fate and enjoy real autonomy constitutes my only wish. And this wish could be materialized as the PRC Constitution contains special stipulations for this."

    What the Dalai Lama says sounds reasonable at first glance; and he has given up the "independence of Tibet" and turns to work for the interest of the Tibetans. However, if one takes a closer look at the background of what the Dalai Lama has put forth regarding this "middle way", its major contents and the Dalai Lama's explanation, and then compares this with the PRC Constitution, one will instantly find nothing new, only old wine in a new bottle.

    People who know Tibetan history well know that the Dalai Lama stands for the "independence of Tibet" when he has fled to India in 1959. On June 20, 1960, he held his first press conference in India, and vowed to "restore freedom and the special status Tibet enjoyed before the Chinese invasion in 1950". Thereafter, he made speeches on March 10 each year, vowing to win the "independence of Tibet". Moreover, the Dalai Lama set up his "government in exile" overseas and worked out a "Tibetan constitution" (later renamed the "constitution for Tibetans in exile"). He built up a rebel army in Nepal for border harassments in the ensuing years. In the name of "organizing armed troops to fight their way back into Tibet", he collaborated with the Indian military and American CIA to organize the "Indian Tibetan special border troops", set up "representative offices" in some countries, and organized the "Tibet youth congress", "Tibet national democratic party" and "Tibet women's federation." All these organizations have engaged in separatist activities overseas.

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