Rochelle News– China’s Leader Insists Sovereignty Is at Stake Over Tibet (New York Times)
BEIJING — President Hu Jintao on Saturday defended China’s crackdown against the recent Tibetan protests as a necessary response to protect national sovereignty and described the demonstrations as violent crimes orchestrated by the Dalai Lama.
“No responsible government will sit idle for such crimes, which gravely encroach human rights, gravely disrupt social order and gravely jeopardize the life and property security of the masses,” said Mr. Hu, according to Xinhua, the government’s official news agency.
Mr. Hu’s remarks were his first public comments about the Tibetan unrest, which began on March 10, and they hewed to China’s official line that separatists intent on splintering China had engineered the protests. Mr. Hu also sought to counter critics who have blamed repressive government policies against Tibetan culture and religion for the turmoil.
“Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem,” Mr. Hu said while meeting with the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual gathering of business and political leaders on China’s Hainan Island. “It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland.”
China continued its crackdown on Saturday, arresting nine Buddhist monks suspected of bombing a government building in Tibet, Xinhua reported, according to Reuters. The bombing, which Xinhua said occurred on March 23, had not been previously reported.
A senior monk in the Tongxia Monastery in Gyanbe Township was the ringleader, Xinhua said, adding that he and the other suspects, all monks from the same temple, had confessed to the crime.
For weeks, as violent confrontations have erupted between Tibetan protesters and the police in western China, Chinese officials have spoken in sharp, biting language against the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, even as Western leaders have called on the governing Communist Party to resume a dialogue with him.
Mr. Hu had been studiously silent. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao initially assailed the Dalai Lama at a news conference days after riots erupted in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. Mr. Wen later softened his remarks at a speech in Laos.
On Saturday, Mr. Hu left open the possibility of dialogue with the Dalai Lama, though he framed the opening in the careful terms often used by Chinese officials.
“The barrier to contacts and talks does not lie on our side, but on the side of the Dalai Lama,” Mr. Hu said. “If the Dalai Lama has the sincerity, he should put it into action. As long as the Dalai side stops activities splitting the motherland, stops activities scheming and instigating violence, and stops activities sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games, we are ready to continue contacts and talks with him at any time.”
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied any role in instigating the Tibetan protests and said he would welcome any international investigation, including with Chinese participation, into his actions. He has said that nations and their leaders should not boycott the Olympics and has consistently said that he does not want Tibetan independence but rather a more genuine autonomy for Tibet within China.
Mr. Hu also met with Vincent Siew, Taiwan’s vice president-elect, at the Boao conference on Saturday, the highest-level contact between the governments in more than half a century, The Associated Press reported.
The two leaders discussed improving economic relations. Mr. Siew’s Nationalist Party favors closer ties and eventual reunification with China.
“On this occasion I am happy to exchange opinions on the cross-strait economy with Siew,” Mr. Hu said.
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Tibet » Blog Archive » Rochelle News– China’s Leader Insists Sovereignty Is at Stake Over … said this on April 13, 2008 at 4:43 am
To China Experts in the Free World: Taiwan & PRC had agreed to disagree on the definition of so called ONE CHINA policy in 1992 which most of you still unheard of to this date. I suggest you get hold of that agreement if you still want to be a China expert.
In short, both Taiwan & PRC agreed that there is only One China on earth. PRC claims that it owns the entire China & therefore Taiwan, Tibet, etc. are part of PRC. It sounds quite right if you agree that PRC is China & China is PRC.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t agree to it. They claim that:
[1] PRC, Taiwan, etc. are just part of China & none owns the entire China; &
[2] Taiwan [officially Republic of China, ROC] was founded in 1911 & PRC in 1949, no one has ever owned the other since their births. Therefore Taiwan is not a part of PRC but it is indeed a part of CHINA.
Now we have a Mexican standoff, don’t we? USA is the major contributor in creating this unfortunate, dangerous grey zone, intentionally or otherwise. Fortunately some cool heads [non-mongers, of course] in the US are calling for Washington to right its wrong by redefining the so-called “ONE CHINA policy”. To wit:
THERE IS ONLY ONE CHINA ON EARTH WHICH CONSISTS OF PRC, TAIWAN [aka ROC], etc.
PRC prepresents CCP only instead of the entire China.
We believe this is the only way to have the long lasting peace in that region.