Published by: World Tibet Network News Monday - May 13, 1997

WASHINGTON, May 13 (AP) -- Despite U.S. urging, China appears unwilling to

engage in a new round of talks with the Dalai Lama on Tibetan autonomy, a

State Department official told Congress Tuesday.

Jeffrey Bader, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and

Pacific affairs, said the Clinton administration has pressed China on Tibet

at high-level meetings from President Clinton on down.

The difficulty, he said, is that Chinese officials suspect the Dalai Lama

wants full independence for Tibetans instead of autonomy under Chinese rule

despite his statements to the contrary, including in April when the

spiritual leader visited Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

"The gap between the stated position of the two sides would appear to

outside observers to be bridgeable," Bader told a hearing of the Senate

Foreign Relations Committee. "The problem appears to be one of will,

especially on Beijing's side."

But Sen. Jesse Helms, the committee chairman, accused the Clinton

administration of stepping too lightly around sensitive Chinese issues for

fear of angering the Communist economic power.

"Let's be honest about it. Aren't so many in control of our government

scared to death that they're going to offend China?" asked Helms, R-N.C.,

who had called the hearing on Tibet. "They don't want to do anything about

Tibet. They don't want to do anything about the Dalai Lama."

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since he fled Tibet in 1959

after China crushed Tibet's independence uprising. During the 1980s, China

allowed Tibet greater cultural and religious freedoms and held autonomy

talks.

But since Beijing's 1989 crackdown, Tibetan talks have stalled as China

"decided the Dalai Lama would not be part of the solution in Tibet," Bader

said. Meanwhile, repressive policies increased, with Buddhist monks

imprisoned for seeking religious, political and cultural freedom.

After the Dalai Lama's meeting last month with Clinton, the president urged

renewal of direct talks between Tibet and China and the administration

promised to continue pressing Beijing on that and other human rights

issues.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., expressed frustration the administration couldn't

do more to influence China, but he indicated he didn't believe sanctions

such as withholding trade privileges would work either.

"We are just seeing a repetition of rhetoric," Kerry said. "It begs the

question, What do we do?"

Clinton is expected to renew by July 3 most-favored-nation trading status

for China, providing low tariffs. Congress then has one month to approve.

Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and John Chafee, R-Rhode Island, introduced a

bill Tuesday to grant the Chinese permanent normal trade status.

"Debating MFN status every year makes long-term thinking (on China-U.S.

relations) very difficult," Baucus said. "It creates an artificial annual

crisis, which is in nobody's interest, and we ought to put a stop to it."