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Outrage at Taiwan president's remarks over Dalai Lama

AFP

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou answers questions during a press briefing with foreign journalists about issues of his first six months in office in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, 3 December 2008. President Ma has ruled out a visit to the island by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.AP/Wally Santana/Taiwan

Remarks by Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou, which ruled out the possibility of the Dalai Lama visiting Taiwan in the future provoked outrage Thursday.

The Taiwan president made it clear Wednesday that the Dalai Lama isn’t likely to visit the island for now, as Taipei’s ties with Beijing improve.

“Religious leaders are welcome to visit Taiwan…but I think at the current moment, the timing is not appropriate for that,” Ma told a group of foreign journalists, without going into details.

The remarks irked the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, who forged closer ties with the Dalai Lama’s government in exile during their eight-year rule, which ended in May.

“Apparently the decision was another indication of Ma bowing to Beijing’s pressure,” DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said in a statement.

“This again proves that he does not think about Taiwan’s sovereignty. We are suspicious that he is unable adequately to safeguard both Taiwan’s democracy and its sovereignty,” he said.

“I urge the Dalai Lama to drop the idea of visiting Taiwan, because Ma is a ‘puppet emperor’ for Beijing. As long as he is in office, the Dalai Lama cannot possibly be allowed to come here,” DPP parliamentarian Chiu Yi-ying said.

Even parliamentary speaker Wang Jin-pyng — a senior member of the governing Kuomintang — suggested the president should think again on the issue.

Ma’s comments to foreign journalists came after the Dalai Lama voiced his desire to visit Taiwan in a recent interview with a local newspaper in Dharamshala, the town in northern India where his exiled government has been based since a failed uprising in 1959.

The Dalai Lama is reviled by the Chinese government, which has branded him a “monster” and has accused him of trying to split the nation.

He made a historic first trip to Taiwan in March 1997 and visited the island again in 2001, triggering strong condemnation from China.

Cross-Strait tensions have eased since Ma took office in May, promising to improve trade and tourism links with Beijing following eight years of strained relations under the previous pro-independence government of the DPP.

Copyright © 2008 Agence France-Presse

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