Two Dalai Lama envoys left for China yesterday for talks on the future of Tibet, just days after the Tibetan spiritual leader said he saw no hope in the current dialogue with Beijing.
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, Kelsang Gyaltsen and three aides will be in the Chinese capital for a week for what will be an eighth round of talks with Chinese officials, the Tibetan government-in-exile in India said in a statement.
Ahead of the talks, the Chinese government said it expected the envoys to give positive responses to its demands made in previous talks.
In comments published by Xinhua news agency on Wednesday, an unnamed Chinese official said the Dalai Lama should “treasure this opportunity” for dialogue.
But in a public address in Dharamshala last weekend, the Tibetan leader made clear that he had all but given up on the possibility of reaching a mutually acceptable solution to the Tibet issue with the current Beijing administration.
The Dalai Lama said he had “faith and trust” in the Chinese people, but that his “faith and trust in the Chinese government is diminishing.”
The Dalai Lama has long championed a “middle path” policy with China that espouses “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet, rather than the full independence for the remote Himalayan region that many younger, more radical activists demand.
The future of that policy will be the focus of a special meeting in the Indian hillstation of Dharamsala next month of about 300 delegates representing the worldwide exiled Tibetan community.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule.
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