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China launches new attack on Dalai Lama's "lies"

By Ben Blanchard | Reuters

China launched a new attack on exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Thursday, denouncing what it said were his “lies” about Tibet and saying the region would never become independent.

The Dalai Lama earlier this month criticised some aspects of Chinese rule over Tibet, which he fled in 1959 after an abortive uprising.

He told Le Monde newspaper during a visit to France that Chinese troops had fired on protesters in eastern Tibet on Aug. 18, and that 400 people had been killed in the Lhasa area alone since protests against Chinese rule broke out in March. But an opinion piece carried by China’s official Xinhua news agency said the more “lies” the Dalai Lama told, the less he would be believed.

“The larger a balloon is blown, the easier it will be to pop. The more shocking the lies, the easier it will be to expose them,” Xinhua said.

China’s crackdown on protests in Tibet in March drew widespread international criticism.

China accused the Dalai Lama and his allies of orchestrating the trouble, and of trying to derail the Beijing Olympic Games. The Dalai Lama denied the allegations, saying that he supported the Olympics and that the Chinese people deserved to host them. “The Beijing Olympics let the whole world better understand a modern China which is open, developing and self-confident,” Xinhua said.

“Conversely, there are fewer and fewer viewers interested in the Dalai’s political performances in international society, even including in some Western countries,” it said.

China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since its troops marched into the remote Himalayan region in 1950. Xinhua did not directly mention recent talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, but said the government had always had a “tolerant, patient and sincere” attitude towards him.

“The Chinese government … hopes he realises his errors and amends his ways on the evil road of plotting splittism it said. “Tibet independence has no future, and neither does splittism,” it said.

The Dalai Lama says he does not seek independence for Tibet, only broad autonomy.

An aide said in India on Wednesday that the Dalai Lama is exhausted and had cancelled two foreign trips to rest and undergo medical tests.

(Editing by Paul Tait)

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