CHINA: Representatives of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are in China for talks with the Beijing government on allowing the Buddhist region some form of autonomy, his office said yesterday.
The meeting with Chinese officials is the fifth since contacts resumed in 2002. They take place behind closed doors, details never emerge, and so far have not yielded results.
The Chinese see the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist, who wants to wrest control of Tibet away from China and declare independence.
Beijing accuses him of continuing to spark independence movements among the 2.7 million Tibetans and refuses to allow him back inside its borders.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 and is based in northern India, is a moderate who preaches a "middle way", which seeks special autonomy for Tibet within China, not independence.
Many Tibetans remain fiercely loyal to the figure they regard as a god-king. The Dalai Lama (70) fled the capital, Lhasa, in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, nine years after Communist troops entered the remote, mountainous region.
While there is no information on where the talks are taking place, the crucial element is that they are taking place at all.
Analysts say Beijing is prepared to set aside its distaste and engage in meaningful dialogue because there are fears that when the Dalai Lama dies, it could become a focus of Tibetan anger.
When he dies, it could create a power vacuum which violent, young separatists could try to fill.
"There is growing criticism of our approach, and in the meantime there is no sign of improvement inside Tibet. Our response to them has been 'be patient. More patience, more patience'," he said in a recent interview.
The question becomes whether Beijing can actually swallow years of hostility to deal with him. It would involve a fundamental change in how Beijing views the whole Tibetan issue.
Beijing sees itself as a liberating force which freed Tibetans of the backward yoke of a theocracy, bringing prosperity and doing much to open up the famously secretive region to modern ways.
Beijing points to marvels of engineering, such as the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest, which was completed in October and is due to start operation on July 1st. While some critics say it will help swamp Lhasa with the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group, the government in Beijing sees it as a major opportunity for Tibet.
China keeps comments on visits by the Dalai Lama's representatives to a minimum. The foreign ministry confirmed the envoys had received permission to visit, but insisted they were here in a private capacity.
During previous visits they had "witnessed the development of and changes to the motherland and increased their understanding of the central government's policies," an official said.
The Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala, the north Indian hill station where he is based, said the negotiating team was led by the same envoy who had been involved in earlier rounds, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari.
The last round took place in Switzerland last year and spokesman Thubten Samphel said the talks were frank and intensive. "Our ultimate hope is to resolve the issue of Tibet on the basis of negotiated settlement with the Chinese leadership, so that Tibet's people will have the freedom to preserve what is important to us, which is our cultural identity," he said.
Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims from Tibet and China attended a prayer meeting in India last month alongside the Dalai Lama, a sign China is issuing more visas to ethnic Chinese and Tibetans.
But the tone of cautious optimism is probably outweighed by negative sentiment. The Dalai Lama said in Washington in November that talks so far had done little to ease the repressive atmosphere in Tibet.
This week, Chinese authorities in an ethnic Tibetan county in western China banned the public burning of pelts from endangered animals, apparently because the activities are linked to the Dalai Lama. And earlier this month, a Chinese court jailed five Tibetan monks and nuns for protesting against China's control of Tibet and demanding the 2008 Beijing Olympics be called off.
Ultimately, analysts believe China may be playing a waiting game as it is counting on an easing of the Tibetan problem once the 14th Lama is dead.
After that comes the complicated search to discover the next incarnation. Which may prove a difficult interregnum, filled with turmoil.