The Daily Telegraph - 22 March 1997

By Graham Hutchings, China Correspondent

TWO of the men that China fears most - the Dalai Lama and President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan - are expected to meet for the first time during the exiled Tibetan leader's landmark visit to the island, which begins today.

Beijing has called both men "splittists" and "traitors" for trying to preserve their homelands from Chinese Communist rule. It ritually attacks any foreign leaders who dare meet them.

Both men are seen as the heads of illegitimate governments that present an unacceptable challenge to Communist party rule, and impair the sovereignty of the People's Republic.

The official China Daily this week accused both of working to divide the country. "They do not really care about the interests of the people living in Tibet and Taiwan, and the fate of the nation," the paper said. "Both men are struggling for the same goal, which is splitting China."

The Dalai's first visit to Taiwan has also provoked controversy in the Nationalist-ruled island. The government is keen to avoid damaging prospects for further talks with Beijing that could help to ease tension between the rival Chinese governments. China abandoned such talks in 1995 in protest against President Lee's unofficial visit to the United States.

During last year's first direct elections for the Tibet presidency, Beijing staged war games oppositeTaiwan and test-fired missiles close to its two major ports in an attempt to curb independence sentiment in the island. The intimidation appeared to check support for the Democratic Progressive Party, which campaigns for Taiwanese China independence. But it prompted the United States to deploy two aircraft carriers in the region in support of the island.

China's heavy-handed tactics also backfired by helping Mr Lee win an overwhelming victory at the polls. The man China's official media once described as the "scum of the nation" has since continued to pursue his policy of independence for the island in everything but name. Unity with the mainland is a distant prospect, as far as Mr Lee is concerned. And it certainly cannot be entertained while there is a Communist government in Beijing.

China's hatred of the Dalai - awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his campaign on behalf of his troubled homeland - dates back to 1959, when the man revered by his people as a "God-King" fled to India after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

He has since served as head of the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamsala, north India. During his absence from Tibet, China has come close to eradicating Tibetan culture. Hundreds of monasteries were destroyed, and monks and nuns persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. In the past 15 years, Beijing has relaxed its control over religious life, and invested millions of pounds in the remote Himalayan region in an attempt to win Tibetans over to Chinese rule.

The Dalai is in Taiwan as the guest of Taiwan's Buddhist Association. The government has stressed that he is being received in his capacity as a spiritual leader, and not as the head of an exiled government. Taipei, like Beijing, believes Tibet to be a part of China. But it says the region should be granted more autonomy than it has been given under Communist rule.