Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, June 27, 1996

BEIJING, June 25 (Reuter) - China on Tuesday denounced the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled god-king, as a puppet of international forces opposed to Beijing and said he would never succeed in his goal of independence for the Himalayan region.

"The rather small Dalai clique can do nothing to turn the tide of events," the China Daily said in a harshly-worded editorial.

"The Dalai clique will fare even worse as China continues to develop rapidly," it said.

Any Tibetan dream of splitting from China was futile, it said. "(The clique) is basically inept, with no country proclaiming support for the 'independence of Tibet'."

The tirade comes amid a diplomatic row between China and Germany over Beijing's human rights record in Tibet. Beijing has withdrawn an invitation to German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel and Bonn has cancelled official visits to China.

Bonn on Monday called off planned visits to China by two ministers, a day after Beijing postponed Kinkel's trip, to protest a recent German parliamentary resolution that accused China of human rights abuses in Tibet.

The China Daily accused the United States and Taiwan of backing the "Dalai clique" in the 1960s and of exploiting the Dalai Lama's 1959 flight from Tibet to try to isolate China internationally.

"The true facts are that he (the Dalai Lama) has become the ringleader of the separatist clique and a pawn of international anti-China forces," the newspaper said.

However, the Dalai Lama was welcome for talks with Beijing and to return to China if he abandoned his demands for Tibetan independence, it said.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after an abortive uprising in Tibet in 1959, has never advocated independence for Tibet, but wants autonomy under Chinese rule.

China has governed the deeply religious Himalayan region since the People's Liberation Army marched into Lhasa in 1950.

A Bonn government spokesman said Chancellor Helmut Kohl viewed Beijing's response with "regret and incomprehension" and said the Chinese rebuff was unjustified. Kohl himself kept a low profile and declined to comment on the flap.

Officials in Bonn said they hoped postponing the trips would help ease the political climate between the countries, which have clashed several times in the last few months.

Bilateral trade of some 27 billion marks ($17.6 billion) makes Germany China's biggest European trading partner, and Bonn officials are loath to undermine business when their export-dependent economy is struggling.

Business leaders played down the row, but Bonn's new steps showed Germany was not about to yield to Chinese pressure.

Kinkel said he regretted Beijing's move but pleaded for restraint to prevent the dispute from escalating.

"I appeal to both sides to do everything possible to make sure this does not become a serious burden to our relations," he said. "They are too important for that."

His appeal seemed to fall on deaf ears among the German media and other politicians. One of parliament's vice-presidents compared China's behaviour to that of an "adolescent schoolboy."

Members of the opposition Social Democrats said they wanted a parliamentary debate on Beijing's reaction this week.