Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said on Friday he hopes to visit Taiwan next year, in what would be his first visit in seven years and an apparent reversal of a policy of avoiding the nation for fear of angering China.
“Taiwan-China ties are developing smoothly, so maybe this is a good time,” the Dalai Lama told Elta TV in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala. “I haven’t visited Taiwan for several years, but I have never forgotten Taiwan.”
The Dalai Lama praised Taiwan’s democracy in the televised interview.
“What is most precious about Taiwan is Taiwan’s democracy. China kept talking about liberating Taiwan, but in fact, it is not unlikely that Taiwan might liberate China’s dictatorship with Taiwan’s democracy,” he said.
The Dalai Lama refused to predict the outcome of the Taipei- Beijing talks, but said that given the current situation in China, it was very hard to achieve concrete results.
“Look at Tibet. China keeps saying that the door to dialogue is always open, but when we want to discuss details, they become very hard,” he said.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese control. China accuses him of being a separatist, though he insists he favors greater Tibetan autonomy, not independence.
The Dalai Lama visited Taiwan in 1997 and 2001 to give Buddhist lectures and meet then president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). His representative office — the Tibet Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama — opened in Taipei in 1998.
Meanwhile, China said on Friday it was forced to react over a planned meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama, after postponing a summit with the EU.
“China firmly opposes any contacts with the Dalai Lama by foreign leaders in whatever form,” Qin Gang (秦剛) said in a statement quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency, repeating China’s stance.
China on Wednesday scrapped the summit scheduled for next week in France, which Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) had been due to attend.
It directed its anger particularly at France because it holds the EU’s rotating presidency and because Sarkozy has insisted he will meet the Tibetan spiritual leader in Poland on Dec. 6.
The Dalai Lama is also due to visit the Czech Republic and Belgium, where he is scheduled to address the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday.
France had brushed aside China’s stance and bilateral relations, Xinhua quoted Qin as saying.
“The Tibet issue is related to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and touches on China’s core interests,” he said, adding that France had not responded adequately to China’s efforts to maintain good relations with it and the EU.
“Therefore, the summit cannot be held in a sound atmosphere, nor can it achieve expected goals. Under such circumstances, China has no choice but to postpone the summit,” he was quoted as saying.
“The current situation is not caused by China, nor should China be held responsible,” Qin said.
“We hope that France could proceed with an overall perspective, fulfil its commitments, and properly deal with China’s major concerns in earnest so as to create conditions for the steady development of bilateral relations,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat