Dalai Lama’s Envoys to Resume Talks With China

BEIJING — Envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, arrived in China on Tuesday to resume a long-running series of negotiations over Tibet that have so far been fruitless.


The current set of negotiations will be the ninth since 2002 between the Dalai Lama, whom China accuses of being a dangerous “splittist,” and the Chinese government, which has flooded large areas of Tibetan regions in western China with security forces since a widespread uprising there in March 2008.


The Dalai Lama, 74, who lives in exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, says he does not want independence for Tibetan regions, but rather greater autonomy — the Tibetans should be able to make their own policy regarding religious practice, education and immigration to the regions, he says. Tibetans are anxious over the large numbers of ethnic Han, who dominate most of China, moving to the Tibetan plateau to seek their fortunes.


The series of negotiations between the Dalai Lama and China broke down in November 2008, after Chinese officials strongly rejected a proposal for genuine autonomy presented to them. During the eighth round of talks, the two envoys who handed over that proposal were Lodi G. Gyari, from Washington, and Kelsang Gyaltsen, of Switzerland. Both are representing the Dalai Lama again in this round.


The envoys will return to India in early February, the Tibetan government-in-exile said in a statement on its Web site.


The United Front Work Department, the part of the Chinese Communist Party that officially deals with ethnic policy, said in a written statement on Tuesday: “We hope the Dalai Lama side will cherish this opportunity and eagerly respond to the demands by the central government.”


Tibet remains one of the most delicate issues between China and the United States. President Obama has said he will meet with the Dalai Lama early this year. Last fall, Mr. Obama declined to meet with the Dalai Lama while the Dalai Lama was visiting the United States. The move was widely seen as an attempt by Mr. Obama to improve United States-China relations, but Chinese leaders continued to press the president on Tibet during his first state visit to China in November. State Department officials quickly abandoned a new phrase that had been coined to describe the conciliatory approach — “strategic reassurance” — and which had been criticized by some Americans as being tantamount to appeasement.


Late Monday, the State Department said it welcomed the latest round of negotiations between the Dalai Lama and China.


“The United States strongly supports dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives to address longstanding differences,” said Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, in a written statement. “The administration hopes this meeting will produce positive results and provide a foundation for future discussions to resolve outstanding issues.”


Though Tibetans uniformly revere the Dalai Lama, there are many, especially younger ones, who criticize the Dalai Lama’s approach to China. They say that the Tibetan exile movement should be seeking independence for Tibet, not accommodation under Chinese rule. The Chinese government has no intention of giving ground, they say, and is just using the series of negotiations to stall for time until the Dalai Lama dies.


“Until we see visible change on the ground in Tibet and some real give-and-take on the part of the Chinese government, we can be confident that the resumption of the dialogue is nothing more than a delaying tactic designed to mute international criticism, especially in the lead up to the expected meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama,” said Tenzin Dorjee, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, a group based in New York that advocates for Tibetan independence.


The Dalai Lama’s spokesman, Tenzin Taklha, said Monday that the talks were part of an “important process of trying to find a mutually agreed solution,” according to Agence France-Presse.


Last week, China’s top leaders met to draw up plans for governing Tibet. State news organizations said the leaders determined that continued economic development would bring “stability” to the region.

Xiyun Yang contributed research.