The central government representative who held recent talks with Dalai Lama's private envoys in Beijing refuted the Dalai Lama's so-called "Middle Path" at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.

Zhu Weiqun, vice minister of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, who held talks with Dalai Lama's private representatives, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen while they were in Beijing from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5, yesterday briefed the press on his understanding of Dalai Lama's so-called "Middle Path".

When asked what the "Middle Path" means and why the central authorities cannot accept it at a press conference sponsored by the State Council Information Office, Zhu said that the Dalai Lama has been telling the world that since the late 1980s he has stopped seeking "Tibetan independence" and turned towards a "middle way".

In 1987, the Dalai Lama delivered a speech to the US Congressional Human Rights Committee, putting forth his "five-point scheme for Tibetan peace"; in 1988 he tried but failed to address the European Parliament in Strasburg, and instead spoke in the hall of the parliament, where he declared his "new seven-point scheme". In the two speeches the Dalai Lama made his statement with regard to the "Middle Path", and the two speeches with a "Memorandum" tabled to the central government by his private representatives during the recent talks served as the most authoritative explanation of this approach.

According to Zhu, those remarks and documents showed that the Dalai Lama's "Middle Path" aimed at outright Tibetan independence.

He reasoned that the Dalai Lama does not accept that Tibet has been an integral part of China since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Dalai Lama maintains that Tibet was an independent country before 1949 when it was liberated by the People's Liberation Army. He continues to deny China's sovereignty over Tibet and seek grounds for "Tibetan independence".

"Dalai Lama is conspiring to seize the so-called 'Great Tibetan Zone' which includes not only Tibet, but also parts of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and more, covering almost one quarter of China's territory. There is no historic support for the 'Great Tibetan Zone', and areas outside Tibet have never been under Tibetan authority," said Zhu.

Dalai has also been attempting to deny and overthrow the current socialist system in Tibet under the name of "a high degree of autonomy". "For him, autonomy means that all civil affairs should be managed by Tibetan people, and all decision-making authority should be held by Tibetan people. What he really wants to do is to restore a feudal theocratic serf system," Zhu said at the press conference.

Dalai also demands the withdrawal of the PLA from the so-called "Great Tibetan Zone". Zhu said:"There is no country in the world that would remove its troops from its own territory. China will never allow an 'international peace zone' in its own land. Without armed forces, how could China safeguard its border areas?"

Dalai advocates the removal of non-Tibetan people from the "Great Tibetan Zone". In his announcement, Han people living in Tibet should return to "China", and he has called for a halt on immigration to Tibet. "It is obvious that Dalai wants to take control of Tibet. Racial discrimination, racial segregation, and racial elimination are inevitable if this happens," said Zhu.

China is a country in which various ethnic groups live together. If ethnic groups in China all ask for an autonomous region in which only people of their own groups could live, the whole country would be cast into chaos," he said.

This is the ninth round of talks between the central government officials and the Dalai Lama's private envoys since 2002 and the third round of talks this year.

(China.org.cn by Xiang Bin & Fan Junmei, November 11, 2008)