Zhu WiequnThe Dalai Lama, who has said that while his faith in the Chinese people remains strong his faith in Beijing is diminishing, is predictably being blamed by China for the failure of recent peace talks. Beijing accuses him of asking for sovereignty, which he is not.

“They are at a complete breakdown,” said Michael Davis, a law professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong who frequently writes about Tibet. “There’s no sign that China will acknowledge the concerns of the Tibetans, so the talks have failed.”

The Dalai Lama’s envoys have met Chinese officials nine times since 2002, including the latest round, held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5.

The Dalai Lama has sounded increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for greater autonomy and called the Nov. 17-22 special meeting in Dharmsala of Tibetan exile communities and political organizations to discuss the future of their struggle.

Envoys of the Dalai Lama have said they would not comment on last week’s talks until after that meeting.

“We will never make a concession,” says Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister in China’s Communist Party. That doesn’t exactly provide fertile grounds for talks. More spin:

Asked to comment on reports that the Dalai Lama said he would follow a so-called “middle way” if the talks failed, Zhu said the claim of “middle way” aimed at outright “Tibetan independence” and thus was unacceptable to the central government.

Some more on  Zhu Wiequn and Buddhism here (from a paper published by the China Society For Human Rights Studies, © Intercontinental Pan-Chinese Network Information Co., Ltd.)

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