
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama speaking to members of the local community gathered to greet him at Tenzingang Tibetan Settlement in Arunachal Pradesh, India, on 4 April 2017. OHHDL/Jeremy Russell
PTI
BEIJING, China, 4 April 2017
India is using the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to upset China and New Delhi should deliver on its political commitments to Beijing on Tibet-related issues, state-run Chinese media said today.
The 14th Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang bordering China will hurt Sino-Indian ties because China opposes any official invitations to him, the Global Times quoted an unnamed Chinese analyst as saying.
“The Dalai’s visit to the controversial area, especially Tawang, which China hopes will be returned, will affect relations between China and India,” an analyst from the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the paper on condition of anonymity.
“India (is) using Dalai Lama’s visit to upset Beijing,” the paper quoted the analyst as saying. The 81-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader today arrived at Bomdila in West Kameng district, marking the beginning of his nine-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
“India should deliver its political commitments to China on Tibet-related issues, including opposition to separatists,” he said, noting that China would take steps against any government which invites the Dalai Lama.
He said Tawang is also the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, which gives the place religious meaning to Tibetans. Reacting to Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju’s remarks that the Dalai Lama’s visit is “purely religious,” and that there is no political angle behind it, the expert said this is not the first time India has used the Dalai Lama to express its displeasure to China, especially when bilateral talks fail to include their demands or to “pander to domestic anti-China issues”.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, which is currently on a holiday for the Tomb-sweeping festival, has not responded to a query seeking its reaction to External Affairs Ministry remarks as well as comments by Rijiju over the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as southern Tibet.
I feel like CCP China is always whining about something or the other. It seems to suit the Chinese to always complain and actually play the victim card. They discovered that a long time ago. It keeps people distracted from bigger internal issues and carry on their expansionist policy. This vicious cycle keeps going on.
Most Chinese don’t know that Tibet was illegally occupied and continue to believe their government’s propaganda that Tibet is theirs. They don’t even know that the Tienanmen Square Massacre happened. When you destroy your traditions, brainwash the youth, and despise everything old and ancient, you come up with an evil empire. There are many amazing Chinese people no doubt, but the country as a whole is soulless.