Published by: World Tibet Network News ISSUE ID: 97/10/29

By Justin Jin

BEIJING, Oct 29 (Reuters) - China publicly defended its policy on Tibet on Wednesday, just hours before a summit in Washington between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. President Bill Clinton.

``Freedom of religious belief is guaranteed in the Tibet Autonomous Region,'' the official Xinhua news agency quoted a Tibetan scholar in Beijing as saying.

``Tibetan Buddhism is in the prime of life,'' Gabsang Gya said.

``The government has provided a fine environment for the development of Tibetan Buddhism.''

During an informal meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Clinton and Jiang discussed Tibet, human rights and Taiwan, a White House spokeswoman said.

Western human rights groups accuse China of seeking to destroy Tibetan religion and culture in the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region. They say many Tibetan monks have been jailed and tortured for their support of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Sino-U.S. summit will be the first for eight years,and Clinton has said he will raise human rights issues.

Several hundred critics of China's rule over Tibet staged a peaceful protest outside the Chinese embassy in Washington late on Tuesday chanting ``Free Tibet Now.''

China argues it has dramatically raised living standards in Tibet since the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese communist rule.

Separately, Xinhua quoted an Australian student in Tibet as

saying living condition were improving daily.

Geoff Baily was quoted as saying he was surprised at the number of Chinese and

foreign-made cars on the streets of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

``It turned out that the local people are enjoying a fairly good life,'' Xinhua

said, quoting Baily.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman travelling with Jiang scoffed at anti-Chinese protests that have greeted the Chinese president since his arrival in Honolulu on Sunday.

``Some of my colleagues asked them if they had been to China and they said no ...asked them if they knew where Tibet was and they said no,'' Shen Guofang said on Tuesday.

Shen said a new film by U.S. actor Richard Gere -- a longtime supporter of the Dalai Lama -- would find no market in China.

China rejects international criticism of its human rights record as interference in its internal affairs.