Geneva - American movie star and pro-Tibet activist Richard Gere said yesterday he saw signs during President Clinton's visit of a new willingness among Chinese leaders to discuss autonomy for Tibet.
Mr Gere said he saw "some positive things" in a joint news conference by Mr Clinton and the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, broadcast live in China even though it dealt with the supposedly taboo subject of Tibet.
"Based on the press conference they had, even in terms of the body language, there were subtleties of communication that [show] there is a willingness on the Chinese side to discuss the Tibetan issue, to discuss the role of the Dalai Lama, to engage in the whole idea, which they have not thus far," said Mr Gere. "The fact that both leaders would be speaking live to a very, very large Chinese listening population and include Tibet in a large portion of that press conference I think was very meaningful, maybe more than the details of what was said.