In 1997, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) took the bold initiative to invite the Dalai Lama to Taiwan as a state guest for the first time in history.
His foresight allowed Taiwanese to be exposed to the Tibetan leader, who has earned respect as a great Buddhist teacher.
Lee’s passing is a true loss for Tibetans, as he was a strong supporter.
Prior to the 1997 visit, much dialogue had taken place.
Our delegation would not have anything to do with the then-Mongolian Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC), which was a sticking point in Tibet-Taiwan relations, and we had discussed the closure of this office, as it had become irrelevant.
In due course, the commission’s role was diminished and later merged with the Ministry of Culture.
Scores of Tibetans who had entered Taiwan on different passports were offered residency.
His Holiness was allowed entry not only as a religious but also as a political leader.
One direct result of the visit was the setting up of the official Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Taipei.
A few days before His Holiness’ visit to Taiwan, I was asked what I thought of the visit. I said that it was a historic visit, as His Holiness would be visiting a Taiwanese territory. If the visit was to be successful, it would be the springboard to visiting China.
The visit was extremely well received by both the government and the people of Taiwan. It left a changed view with us that Taiwan was not part of China, but instead a separate entity.
In our dialogue with Beijing, they insisted that His Holiness recognize Taiwan as part of China. This was a precondition that Beijing said would lead to future talks.
After visiting Taiwan, seeing the vibrant democracy and making many friends, His Holiness found it difficult to declare that Taiwan was part of China.
In 2001, then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) invited His Holiness for a second visit and started the Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation to deal directly with the Tibetan government-in-exile.
In 2009, then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) allowed His Holiness to visit as a religious leader.
Recently, His Holiness has expressed the desire to again visit Taiwan as a religious leader, as he has a large following in Taiwan and thousands of Taiwanese visit Dharamsala, India, every year.
Even though Taiwan has in the past 10 years made statements that it would welcome a visit, His Holiness has not been able to visit, as recent Taiwan governments have been sensitive to China’s hardline position and not been able to hold as independent a view as earlier presidents.
Taiwan has more to gain by allowing His Holiness to visit as a religious leader.
Khedroob Thondup is a former member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
On May 13, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of nuclear reactors from 40 to 60 years, thereby providing a legal basis for the extension or reactivation of nuclear power plants. On May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators used their numerical advantage to pass the TPP caucus’ proposal for a public referendum that would determine whether the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should resume operations, provided it is deemed safe by the authorities. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has
When China passed its “Anti-Secession” Law in 2005, much of the democratic world saw it as yet another sign of Beijing’s authoritarianism, its contempt for international law and its aggressive posture toward Taiwan. Rightly so — on the surface. However, this move, often dismissed as a uniquely Chinese form of legal intimidation, echoes a legal and historical precedent rooted not in authoritarian tradition, but in US constitutional history. The Chinese “Anti-Secession” Law, a domestic statute threatening the use of force should Taiwan formally declare independence, is widely interpreted as an emblem of the Chinese Communist Party’s disregard for international norms. Critics
RSS