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Beijing starts new `patriotic' education campaign in Tibet

China has launched a campaign in Tibet to denounce the Dalai Lama and to strengthen ties between the public and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Tibet Daily reported yesterday.

The two-month “patriotic education” will cover the capital Lhasa and surrounding rural areas and will focus on strengthening relations between Tibetans and local CCP officials, the newspaper said.

Group education sessions will be held to unify their thinking and “deepen” the struggle against independence forces and hit back at the “Dalai clique’s splittist plots,” it said.

China has stepped up so-called “patriotic campaigns” in monasteries in Tibet requiring Tibetan Buddhist monks to denounce the Dalai Lama and declare their loyalty to Beijing.

In place for more than a decade, the campaigns are believed to have fueled recent protests by monks in Tibet and other Tibetan areas of China that broke out on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising.

The new campaign is called “Oppose splittism, Protect stability, Encourage development” the newspaper said.

CCP members will educate rural people about the truth of the March 14 riots, the paper said. They will use video and pictures, invite those who were involved in the riots to talk and will also hold denunciation sessions, it said.

Meanwhile, US Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky yesterday reiterated a US appeal for dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama, saying it was “the only viable way forward” to resolve the issue of Tibet.

Dobriansky was also scheduled to meet yesterday with the Dalai Lama.

“President [George W.] Bush has repeatedly expressed his own steadfast support for dialogue between the Dalai Lama and China’s leadership,” Dobriansky wrote in the Washington Post. “Meaningful dialogue presents the only viable way forward.”

Dobriansky said the best way for China’s leaders to address Tibetan concerns is to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

“The Dalai Lama is the only person with the influence and credibility to persuade Tibetans to eschew violence and accept a genuine autonomy within China that would also preserve Tibetan culture and identity,” she wrote.

She also demanded that China cease repressive measures directed at Tibetans seeking to practice their religion, preserve their cultural identity and release those detained for peacefully expressing their views.

In related news, China mounted a stern defense of its human-rights record yesterday, accusing Western countries of ignoring problems of their own and having double standards.

Luo Haocai (羅豪才), deputy head of a largely ceremonial top government advisory body and in charge of the government affiliated China Society for Human Rights Studies, said China had made “huge strides” in improving human rights.

“Chinese citizens’ rights and political rights are fully guaranteed,” he told a forum in Beijing, according to a transcript of his remarks. “Chinese people enjoy unprecedented freedom of every kind and basic human rights, including freedom of religious belief and the right to political assembly.”

Also see: Chinese student in US threatened over protest
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