Following the Lhasa violence on March 14, the Dalai Lama has made many speeches in an attempt to absolve his clique of the responsibility it bears for the enormous casualties during the riots.

The other day, he once again stated that there was no change in his "middle path" stance, and expressed the hope that "Chinese leaders hold substantive talks with Tibetans".

"We sincerely pursue genuine autonomy for ethnic Tibetans, for whose rights China's Constitution has explicit provisions," he said.

Then what is the middle path the Dalai Lama claims to follow, and what on earth does he want from the Chinese central government?

In his speech to a US Congress human rights panel in September 1987, the Dalai Lama put forward the so-called "Five-Point Peace Plan".

At the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, the following year, he distributed among participants the so-called "New Seven-Point Proposal".

The contents of these proposals have subsequently constituted his so-called "middle path" formula for Tibet. The Dalai Lama has stressed several times that the formula offers the optimal path to the Tibet issue within the ambit of China's Constitution.

However, a close look at his proposals shows that they are in complete violation of the country's Constitution.

In his proposal, the Dalai Lama bares his conspiracy to falsify and blur the ownership of Tibet. In his "five-point plan", the Dalai Lama claimed that "Tibet was a fully independent country when the People's Liberation Army entered Tibet in 1949".

He also repeatedly emphasized in the past few years that "Tibet has been a country under colonial occupation".

In his view, the issue of Tibet is not China's internal affair but one of a colony, which has the right to exercise its "national self-determination" according to international law.

This is no doubt equivalent to another "Tibet independence" attempt.

The Dalai Lama tries to negate the extant political system practiced in Tibet. In his "new seven-point proposal", the Dalai Lama said Tibet "should have a democratically elected executive and establish a two-chamber legislature and an independent judicial system".

In the so-called "Tibet's future political system" proposed in 1992, he claimed that Tibet should be rid of "China's tyranny".

It is obvious that the Dalai Lama is attempting to overturn the decades-old political system the central government has practiced in Tibet.

In his proposals, the Dalai Lama exposes his desire to establish the so-called "independent greater Tibet" that did not exist in history. The Dalai Lama has long dreamed of unifying all Tibetan-populated areas and establish them into a "greater Tibet".

It is known that the Tibet government has never exercised rule over Tibetan-inhabited regions beyond Tibet. The "independent greater Tibet" plan will inevitably affect China's existing ethnic distribution that sees many ethnic groups live together in the same region, hurt their economy and result in social chaos.

In his proposals, the Dalai Lama also demands other ethnic groups retreat from his "independent greater Tibet". This completely turns a blind eye to Chinese history: That Han, Hui, Mongolian and other ethnic groups have long lived together with Tibetans across the broad land.

China's army should be withdrawn from the "independent greater Tibet", the Dalai Lama has said.

The right to post an army is an important part of a country's sovereignty. Such unreasonable claims expose the Dalai Lama's scheme to deny the central government's right of rule over Tibet.

The central government has all along exercised utmost patience while pursuing dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

Even after the Lhasa riots, the central government has made clear that its policy toward the Dalai Lama is consistent and clear.

However, it is the Dalai Lama who has undermined the foundation for talks despite his loud calls for engagement with the central government.

The Dalai Lama should stop instigating and orchestrating violence, stop trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and stop attempts to split Tibet from the motherland as basic conditions for talks if he is serious and sincere.

(China Daily April 2, 2008)