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 Although international support for the Tibetan cause might be welcome, the Dalai Lama knows he cannot win autonomy from Beijing without significant political support inside China. The Dalai Lama is not merely the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He has considerable following among the many Chinese practitioners of Buddhism.

Reaching out to the Chinese citizens in an open letter last week, the Dalai Lama said, “As a simple monk who strives to live his daily life according to Buddhist precepts, I assure you of the sincerity of my motivation.” Recalling that Buddhism flourished in China before it came to Tibet, the Dalai Lama said, “We Tibetans have historically accorded the Chinese people the respect and affection due to elder Dharma brothers and sisters”.

The Dalai Lama also talked of his continuous interaction with the Han Buddhists living outside China and sought their good offices for a genuine reconciliation with Beijing. Warning Beijing against promoting hatred between the Tibetan and the Han nationalities, the Dalai Lama said, “Despite my repeated support for the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities, with the intention of creating rift between the Chinese people and myself, assert that I am trying to sabotage the games.” The Dalai Lama also welcomed the group of Chinese intellectuals who criticised Beijing’s crackdown in Tibet and called for a genuine dialogue between the two.

Reminding the Chinese that his fight was not an isolated one, the Dalai Lama pointed to the Chinese victims of the Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing during June 1989 who are yet to receive justice and the thousands of Chinese peasants who are protesting for their rights today. “I express these concerns both as a fellow human being and as someone who is prepared to consider himself a member of the large family that is the People’s Republic of China.”

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.”

“If these values are embraced”, the Dalai Lama said, “many important problems relating to minority nationalities can be resolved, such as the issue of Tibet, as well as Eastern Turkistan, and Inner Mongolia, where the native people now constitute only 20 per cent of a total population of 24 million.” (Eastern Turkistan refers to the Xinjiang province).

Seen from this perspective, the Dalai Lama’s case involves a lot more than autonomy. It is about constructing a China that accepts internal diversity and upholds the principles of pluralism and federalism.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg