'Channels of contact' open to Dalai Lama
Beijing has maintained contact with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, although there have been no breakthroughs in talks, according to a Tibetan leader.
'We have maintained unimpeded channels for contact with the Dalai Lama, and some of those channels are not known [by the outside world],' said Raidi, a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress.
Beijing has been reluctant to acknowledge contact with the Dalai Lama, but the Tibetan government-in-exile has said it has held talks with Beijing since 2002.
'The doors for contacts have been open, which you [the media] might not know,' Raidi said yesterday when asked whether Beijing and the Dalai Lama had maintained contact.
Raidi, the highest-ranking Tibetan leader, made the remarks on the sidelines of an NPC panel meeting of top officials from the Tibet Autonomous Region at the Great Hall of the People.
He said the basis for contact and talks remained unchanged - namely that the Dalai Lama publicly declare Tibet an inalienable Chinese territory, stop all activities aimed at splitting the motherland, and recognise Taiwan as an inalienable part of China.
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, a representative of the Tibetan spiritual leader who has lived in exile in India for nearly 50 years, said he led a four-man team on a trip to Guangxi last month.
Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a traitor, but many Tibetans remain loyal to the man they regard as a god-king.
Analysts say Beijing is committed to the dialogue in part because it fears that if the 70-year-old Dalai Lama should die in exile, it could create a rallying point for Tibetans unhappy with Chinese rule and leave a destabilising vacuum.
