Zhang Qingli, head of Tibet, said Wednesday that the attempt by the Dalai Lama and his supporters to split China will be doomed to fail.

Zhang, secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), made the remark when recalling the riot in Lhasa on March 14 last year, which took 18 lives and injured many more.

The riot has caused negative impact on the social stability, economic development and the image of Tibet, said Zhang, who is attending the annual session of the Chinese legislature.

He said that the Dalai Lama has never stopped making trouble "even for one day" since the incident.

"He has visited some countries selling his ideas, which indeed contain the splitting motive in different forms," he said.

"He was reluctant to see his failure (in the March 14 incident)," he said.

Zhang said that over the past year Tibet has remained stable and the region is unswervingly "marching on a socialist road with Chinese characteristics".

Life of Lhasa residents has become normal again. Business people who suffered losses received aids and most shops destroyed in the riot were reopened, he said.

Therefore, the Tibetan people will not let it happen if the Dalai Lama wants to make more troubles, said Zhang.

As on the impact of the international financial crisis over Tibet, the overall economic growth of Tibet remained fairly well because of its unique geographic condition and industrial structure, he said, expressing confidence on maintaining a regional double-digit GDP growth rate in 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)