Leading newspaper Op-ed exposes truths of Dalai Lama

Source: Xinhua | 04-04-2009 16:25

BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- An Op-ed piece of the national English-language newspaper China Daily on Saturday exposed "some home truths about (the) Dalai Lama."

Zheng Dui, director of the China Tibetology Research Center's religious institute, wrote the opinion piece.

The full text of the article is as follows:

How can there be a "Tibet issue" and, if there is one, what is its nature? These two points have to be clarified for a person to understand the ulterior motives of the Dalai Lama when he gave a speech recently.

First, there has been no such a thing as "independent Tibet" since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) established its suzerainty over the region. It was the invasion of Tibet by British forces in the late 19th century that made Tibetan sovereignty an issue. When the British forces withdrew after waging two wars, they tried to create an "independent Tibet" by convening the Simla Convention.

After Britain's clout on world politics ended with World War II, the United States got involved in the "Tibet issue", and the Central Intelligence Agency even supported the Dalai Lama in his attempt to split Tibet from China.

Second, the way the Dalai Lama spoke about the treaty he signed with the central government in 1951 was aimed at creating the impression that Tibet was an independent country before 1951. Why else did he not mention that the region has been part of China since the Yuan Dynasty?

And when the Dalai Lama mentioned the "Tibet issue", he was apparently referring to his "meaningful autonomy of "the great region of Tibet", which he said was an appropriate resolution of the issue after he abandoned his "Tibet independence" pursuit.