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.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
‘NO WORKABLE SOLUTION’: An official said Pakistan engaged in the spirit of peace, but Kabul continued its ‘unabated support to terrorists opposed to Pakistan’ Pakistan yesterday said that negotiations for a lasting truce with Afghanistan had “failed to bring about a workable solution,” warning that it would take steps to protect its people. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been holding negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, aimed at securing peace after the South Asian neighbors’ deadliest border clashes in years. The violence, which killed more than 70 people and wounded hundreds, erupted following explosions in Kabul on Oct. 9 that the Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan. “Regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurances, kept deviating from the core issue and resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses,” Pakistani Minister of
UNCERTAIN TOLLS: Images on social media showed small protests that escalated, with reports of police shooting live rounds as polling stations were targeted Tanzania yesterday was on lockdown with a communications blackout, a day after elections turned into violent chaos with unconfirmed reports of many dead. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had sought to solidify her position and silence criticism within her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or disqualified. In the run-up, rights groups condemned a “wave of terror” in the east African nation, which has seen a string of high-profile abductions that ramped up in the final days. A heavy security presence on Wednesday failed to deter hundreds protesting in economic hub Dar es Salaam and elsewhere, some
RSS