China’s top Tibetan official said yesterday “the door was open” for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama, but repeated its charge that the spiritual leader was a separatist bent on Tibetan independence.
In China’s first high-level comment since the Dalai Lama retired in March as head of Tibet’s government-in-exile, Xizang Autonomous Regional Government Chairman Padma Choling (白瑪赤林) said the spiritual figure was welcome to return to Tibet as long as he ended his separatist activities.
“If he wants to come back, the door to China is always open,” Choling, Tibet’s highest-ranking official, told reporters. “If the Dalai Lama really does retire as he says he has, if he stops his separatist activities, stops disrupting the stability of Tibet and really concentrates on Buddhism, then this will be good for Tibet.”
“The key is if he really gives up Tibetan independence,” Choling said.
China has made similar statements before, but Tibet-watchers believe Beijing will not allow his return because of its potential for causing political instability in tense Tibet.
China has for years insisted that the Dalai Lama wants to establish an independent Tibet, charges the 1989 Nobel laureate has long denied, saying he only seeks “meaningful” autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.
Following his March retirement, Tibetan exiles elected Harvard academic Lobsang Sangay, 43, as their new prime minister, handing him the daunting task of assuming the political duties of the Dalai Lama, a global icon.
Beijing has long been seen as playing a waiting game, believing that the Tibetan exile movement will splinter and collapse after the eventual death of the 75-year-old Buddhist monk.
Choling, who was speaking on the 60th anniversary of China’s “peaceful liberation of Tibet,” further accused the Dalai Lama of seeking to restore the Tibetan theocracy that existed for centuries before China’s 1951 takeover.
“Since he went into exile in 1959, he has never done anything good for Tibet. Everything he has done since he left is to struggle for the restoration of feudal serfdom,” he said.
He further reiterated Beijing’s stance that the exiled Tibetan government was “an illegal organization,” and said any future negotiations on the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet would be with the Buddhist leader and not the exiled government.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS