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Dialogue with China must continue: Gyalo Thondup

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

Gyalo Thondup, elder brother of the Dalai Lama, during a press conference in Dharamshala, India, on 19 November 2008. He said Tibetans cannot lose hope and should continue the process of dialogue with China.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

Have you ever dreamed? asks Gyalo Thondup, during a press conference in Dharamshala yesterday. He said change will come to Tibet. But for the change to happen, dialogue has to continue with China.

Gyalo Thondup, the elder brother of the Dalai Lama, said the Tibetan people are asking for their legitimate rights, and they will do so until they are achieved.

He is in Dharamshala to attend the six-day Special Meeting of the Tibetans from 17 to 22 November to discuss of the future of Tibet.

Admitting failure of the current process of dialogue with the Chinese government that started in 2002, he said Tibetans cannot lose hope. “The world is changing. China is changing. Look at the recent election in America. I am optimistic.”

Rejecting a statement by a Chinese leader claiming that the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping had never said: “except for independence, all other issues can be discussed,” he said he was shocked to hear such a statement as it was to him that Deng conveyed that message.

Zhu Weiqun, executive Vice-Minister of the Central United Front Work Department of Chinese Communist Party in China, said recently to reporters that Deng Xiaoping has never made such a statement. “It is a falsehood made by Gyari (one of the Dalai Lama’s envoys) and is a complete distortion of Deng Xiaoping’s statement.”

Thondup, 80, met Deng Xiaoping on 12 March 1979, establishing new contacts between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leaders. He was also the first Tibetan refugee to come into exile in 1952. “I came to India in 1952 to establish relations with India,” he said.

He said it was at Deng’s order that Tibet was opened for Tibetans from exile to travel to Tibet to find out about their relatives. Deng also accepted bringing Tibetan teachers to Tibet from the exile community. “Deng asked me to bring 1,000 teachers right away,” Thondup said.

The Tibetan government-in-exile issued a document showing Deng’s statement being repeated by other Chinese leaders. In an interview with Xinhua News agency on 19 May 1991, former Chinese premier Li Peng said, “all matters except Tibetan independence could be discussed.”

Copyright © 2008 Tibet Sun

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