Leading Tibetologists in Beijing ridiculed the political rhetoric of the Dalai Lama, describing his reported comments as "absurd".

Zhou Yuan, a senior researcher of the Beijing-based Tibetology Research Center, said, "The Dalai Lama himself could not deny the historical achievements the Tibet Autonomous Region has made for the past five decades since Tibet's democratic reform.

"He denied it just because it was achieved under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which made him reluctant to admit any CPC-led achievements directly," Zhou said.

"The Dalai Lama has admitted all the changes obtained were through the region's modernization process."

As for the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), which was recognized as a terrorist group by many countries, the Dalai Lama insisted on the non-terrorist nature of it, which was only "posturing", Amtseten, a Tibetan scholar at the Tibetology Research Center, said.

"The reason of the Dalai Lama's denial is to win over stubborn supporters by telling lies," Amtseten said.

After the March 14 riot in Lhasa last year, Chinese media published many accounts of the dark side of the serfdom and theocracy of the region in old times, to rebut comments in some foreign media showing support for the activities organized by the Dalai group.

The Dalai Lama began to yell nonsense from a cultural angle, saying that the Chinese government had systematically eradicated Tibetan culture, Zhou said.

Lian Xiangmin, another Tibetologist also from the Tibetology Research Center, said the Dalai Lama did not acknowledge himself as a Chinese, with an ill intention of constructing psychological confrontation between Tibetans and the Han Chinese as well as Chinese of other ethnic minorities.

"Only if the Dalai Lama puts himself as a member of the Chinese nation can he talk about the issue of autonomy. If he and his followers are not Chinese, will any autonomy under the central government make sense?" Amtseten argued.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2009)