WASHINGTON—The United States on Wednesday urged China to stop vilifying the Dalai Lama and instead talk to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in order to achieve peace and stability in troubled, Chinese-ruled Tibet.
"The Chinese government should seize the opportunity to talk to those Tibetans, represented by the Dalai Lama, who oppose violence and do not seek independence for Tibet," Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a U.S. Senate hearing.
"Public vilification of the Dalai Lama will not help defuse the the situation," he said of China's angry tide of statements since protests erupted across Tibet in March.
Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China's response to U.S. attempts to persuade Beijing to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama and to allow diplomats or other observers into troubled Tibet have been "minimal at best."
Epoch Times Staff
Evidence demonstrates that the Chinese communist regime in Beijing is using agents provocateurs to set off violent outbreaks in otherwise peaceful demonstrations in Tibet. The Chinese regime is using these staged violent incidents to justify increasing violent military repression and a blockade of media reports from Tibet.
Tibetan monks began demonstrating against Chinese communist repression and cultural genocide on the 49th anniversary of an uprising against the Chinese communist invasion and occupation of Tibet.
Possibly because China has come under so much international scrutiny since the start of the Olympics, the monks, soon joined by Tibetans around the world, continued their demonstrations despite increased police and military repression. Tibetans in China even staged limited demonstrations to support their countrymen.
Some protests turned violent, and many Tibetans were beaten and shot; as with the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989, the Chinese regime denied all such reports, despite photographic evidence.
Recently, individuals from Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency that monitors global electronic communications, revealed that intercepted communications supported claims by the Dalai Lama and others that Chinese soldiers, dressed as monks, staged violent incidents at demonstrations to allow the CCP to bring in extra military forces from China, to suppress the demonstrations.
Photographs taken in Tibet, supported by eyewitness accounts, pinpoint incidents of undercover policemen inciting violence at peaceful rallies.
But he said China would not achieve the stability it seeks without resolving grievances built up over decades of Chinese rule and failure to work with the 72-year-old Buddhist leader would create space for extremists in the Himalayan region.
"Through outreach and genuine dialogue, China and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the vast majority of Tibetans, can begin to bridge differences, explore the meaning of genuine autonomy and address long-standing grievances," he said.
Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of being behind March 14 protests in Lhasa and the subsequent violent crackdown by Chinese soldiers and police in other ethnic Tibetan areas, as part of a bid for Tibetan independence and to ruin the coming Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama has said he wants autonomy for Tibet, not a separate state, and has denied he orchestrated the protests, which China says killed 19 people. Exiled Tibetans have given a far higher death toll.
The situation has resulted in demonstrations against and attacks on the Olympic torch as it travels around the world ahead of the summer games in Beijing.
The Dalai Lama met Paula Dobriansky, the U.S. special envoy for Tibet, in Michigan on Monday and told her he appreciated U.S. concern with China's handling of the political unrest in Tibet, adding: "At this moment we need your help."
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