A failed dialogue

The Dalai Lama’s outreach to the Hans and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s latest statement that his government is open to talks with the Tibetans might suggest that a dialogue is on the cards. The Chinese leadership is now fully conscious of the growing threat to the Beijing Games. The Tibetans, too, know the present revolt cannot go on forever.

On the face of it, there seems to be no reason why such a dialogue cannot take place. After all, the Dalai Lama has already met Beijing’s principal demand — to renounce the call for Tibetan independence.

As negotiators, the Han Chinese and the Tibetans are tough as nails. And they communicate with each other in a code few outsiders can decipher. Unless the Chinese can offer the assurance of a meaningful dialogue, talks between the two sides look a non-starter at this moment. It is always easier to start a new dialogue than revive a recent failed one. The six rounds of ‘talks about talks’ between the Dalai Lama’s representatives during 2002-07 did not produce a political breakthrough.

One of the main sticking points was Beijing’s demand that the Dalai Lama declare that Tibet was “always part of China”. While the Dalai Lama is willing to live within the constitutional framework of the People’s Republic, he is not prepared to falsify the history of Tibet’s separate existence in the past.

Towards federalism

The Dalai Lama was also placing the Tibet question within the larger framework of giving the ethnic minorities their due in China. Strongly endorsing Chinese president Hu Jintao’s call for a “harmonious society”, the Dalai Lama said “this can only arise on the basis of mutual trust and an atmosphere of freedom, including freedom of speech and the rule of law.”

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