When The Dalai Lama Spoke With A Chinese Government Official

Image: bbc

Does anyone, apart from those in denial, deluded or plain innocent of mind consider governments act with integrity, honesty and a genuine commitment to human rights?

If political systems forged from founding principles of justice, democracy, freedom and accountability to their citizens indulge in deception and manipulating public opinion it is naive on a colossal scale to regard information sourced to from China’s totalitarian regime as being factual, balanced or free from propaganda.

Such a reality of course is not allowed to obstruct the mainstream media’s goal of pumping out tasty morsels of news, no surprise then that the BBC today released a report of a 2012 meeting between the Dalai Lama and Mr Xiao Wunan. See HERE

An Executive Vice Chairman of the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation we are informed that it was this card-carrying member of China’s communist regime who provided video footage of his meeting with the Tibetan leader. What a portrait of understanding, cooperation it presents, raising an illusory hope of progress in the notoriously failed efforts of an agreement on Tibet between China’s regime and the exiled Tibetan Administration.

Was the outreach by Mr Xiao indicative of a softening of attitude by the Chinese Regime towards the issue of Tibet, his unofficial meetings with prominent Tibetan leaders to be seen as a positive gesture, or was his presence reflecting a darker agenda?

“An Indian researcher Jayadeva Ranade (a former senior government official) in an article ‘A concerned dragon: China’s fresh overture to Tibetans’ wrote that Xiao Wunan probably carried a personal message from a senior Chinese leader, possibly Xi Jinping. Ranade wrote that he could have informed the Dalai Lama that he was welcome to spend his last days in Beijing provided he gave up ‘anti-China’ activities and expressed support for the Communist regime. The article also notes coincidentally, within a month of the meeting the designation of the Head of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) was changed from ‘Kalon Tripa’ (Prime Minister) to the less controversial, from Beijing’s perspective, ‘Sikyong’ (political leader) Source: extract from2012  article by Jamyang Norbu ‘FREE RADIO FREE ASIA’!

Image: archivenet

One thing for sure his contacts with the Dalai Lama and Karmapa would not have happened without the consent or knowledge of China’s government, the same authority which consistently rejects any overture of compromise offered by the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan Administration.

At the same time Beijing has long meddled within exiled Tibetan politics and its cancerous tentacles have extended into the heart of an Tibetan Administration that has abandoned the cause of its own people in pursuit of an autonomy under Chinese rule. Which brings us back to the objectives of Xia Wunan’s trip to Dharamsala, and despite the BBC description of him as  a former official, his role would have been far from informal. As suggested by the Indian researcher above, he would be able to exert further demands from the Chinese authorities. That he made available a video of his meeting too would suggest a propaganda objective, a moderate and flexible China, earnest in its efforts to reach an understanding! Whatever the motivations and directives which are concealed by the charm and smiles of Mr Xiao Wunan there can be no doubt that China’s Regime is relentless in its persecution and suppression of the Tibetan people. Until such time as China enjoys true political and civil freedom then the warm assurances of its envoys must be assessed with extreme scrutiny. Something which the BBC report failed to exercise in any great measure.