Published by World Tibet Network News - Tuesday, March 25, 1997

TAIPEI, March 25 (Reuter) - Big crowds in Taiwan greeted the Dalai Lama's "enlightenment" tour on Tuesday while officials were reported to be working on booking meetings between Tibet's exiled spiritual leader and Taiwan's leaders.

The Dalai Lama, scorned by Chinese communist authorities as a Tibetan separatist, began the fourth day of his unprecedented Taiwan stay at Fu Jen Catholic University.

He then moved to an arena for a marathon inter-denominational gathering of religious groups witnessed by some 20,000 people the second of three stadium-sized "enlightenment meetings" on his six-day tour.

With less than 48 hours left in Taiwan for the Dalai Lama, who is revered by Tibetan Buddhists as a god-king, officials remained tight-lipped on expected meetings between the 61-year-old monk and Taiwan's top leaders.

The Government Information Office said it knew nothing about a report in the United Evening News that Vice President Lien Chan, who doubles as cabinet chief or premier, would dine with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday.

"We have received no information," a government spokesman said by telephone. "It is not in the premier's schedule."

The newspaper said Lien's appointment with the Dalai Lama was to discuss details of the Tibetan's likely meeting on Thursday with President Lee Teng-hui an encounter that communist China has condemned as the collusion of "splittists."

Beijing on Tuesday continued a series of attacks, scorning the Dalai Lama's statement the day before that he sought only self-rule for Tibet, not independence from China.

"On one side the Dalai Lama publicises internationally the view that he does not want Tibetan independence, on the other side he everywhere engages in activities to split the motherland," Beijing spokesman Cui Tiankai told reporters.

"This makes clear he is basically not sincere and has certainly not put aside his stance for so-called Tibetan independence," Cui said.

The Dalai Lama has said he hoped to discuss "spiritual reforms" with President Lee, who said he welcomed a meeting.

Taiwan officials have refused to comment.

Local media said the two would meet on Thursday at the foreign ministry's Taipei Guest House rather than the Presidential Office in a bid to play down the political nature of their first face-to-face encounter.

Since his arrival on Saturday, the Dalai Lama is known to have met only a few senior Taiwan officials, including Interior Minister Lin Feng-cheng and Provincial Governor James Soong.

He was expected on Wednesday to meet the leader of Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, Hsu Hsin-liang.

The exiled Republic of China government that has existed only on Taiwan since its 1949 civil war loss of the mainland still maintains that the island should one day reunite with China, though not before Beijing adopts democracy.

But Taiwan's democratic reforms since the 1980s have given new voice to open calls for a sovereign Republic of Taiwan. That angers China, which calls Taiwan a rebel-held region that must "reunify with the motherland."

The Dalai Lama has tried to play down the political implications of his journey to Taiwan his first return to Chinese territory since he and thousands of followers fled Tibet in 1959 after Beijing crushed an anti-Chinese uprising.

Despite China's attacks, a Taiwan newspaper poll showed that more than 50 percent of residents support a Dalai-Lee meeting, believing it would help improve Taiwan's relations with the exiled Tibetan government.