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

TAIPEI, March 25 (AFP) - President Lee Teng-hui pressed ahead Tuesday with plans to meet the Dalai Lama as China sent a veiled warning to Taiwan leaders for hosting the exiled Tibetan leader's visit.

"So far there is no indication of any change" to the plans for Thursday's meeting, the presidential office told AFP.

The planned meeting in the government's Taipei Guest House has infuriated Beijing which has accused its two arch foes of conspiring to divide "the motherland."

Both the Dalai Lama and Taiwan leaders have denied the charges but on Tuesday, China's top negotiating body accused the island of creating new divisions, and ruled out an early resumption of talks suspended in 1995.

"Officials on Taiwan and its so-called President Lee Teng-hui first have to abandon their splittist activities before dialogue can begin," said Tang Shubei, vice chairman of the semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

It came after a report here that the Chinese army was planning to hold war games in southeast China next month in a move linked to the visit.

The report was later denied by the Chinese defence ministry, and the Taiwan military authorities monitoring the situation said Tuesday they had seen no unusual activity.

The Dalai Lama has sought since his arrival on Saturday, along with Taiwan leaders, to highlight the religious rather than political significance of his visit.

But analysts have warned Thursday's meeting is loaded with political overtones.

China has regarded the island as a renegade province since communist forces drove the nationalists here after the 1949 civil war and has imposed Chinese rule on Tibet since 1951.

Professor Chang Lin-cheng, political science professor at National Taiwan University, said Lee was "walking on a high wire" by deciding to meet the Tibetan leader to discuss religion and spirituality.

"No matter what they talk about, the meeting in itself is highly political," she said.

"I really worry about negative consequences in relations with China, although it might not show immediately," Chang added.

But Tawian denied that it was engaged in separatist activities. "We the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) have never conducted separatist activities as repeatedly claimed by communist China," Li Ching-ping, deputy secretary-general of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) told AFP.

"We have also insisted on the one-China principle, but the reunification will be not reached under the rule of the People's of Republic China," he said.

"We are moving on the path of unification and striving for freedom, democracy and economic prosperity" for all Chinese people, he added.

Beijing state radio said late Monday that Taiwan authorities "did not take note of warnings by the Chinese government."

"Taiwan authorities say they wish to improve relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, but in fact they have only adopted initiatives which place obstacles in the way of improved relations," it added.

The Dalai Lama held out an olive branch to China on Monday, offering talks on Tibet which he fled in 1959 and denying he was involved in any conspiracy with Taiwan leaders.

"My position is clear. I am not seeking independence," he said, adding his main concern was "the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture."

It was a repeat of a five-point plan he drew up in 1987 offering to hold talks with Beijing, to which there has has so far been no official Chinese response.

Members of several radical pro-independence groups in Taiwan have, however, seized the opportunity to voice their views, as well as to extend support to independence for Tibet.

Calls for independence were banned and considered seditious for 38 years until martial law was lifted in 1987. The abolition of related laws in 1991 allowed greater freedom of speech.

Premier Lien Chan on Monday urged the world not to harbour illusions about China, saying countries should pay close attention to its growing military, the Central News Agency reported.

He suggested a collective security alliance made up of Asia-Pacific nations to counter the threat.