Published by: World Tibet Network News Wednesday November 19, 1997

BEIJING, Nov 19 (AFP) - China accused the Dalai Lama on Wednesday of offering to negotiate with Beijing to settle the Tibetan issue while secretly scheming to gain independence for the troubled region.

"The recent years have seen the change of the 14th Dalai Lama's tactics for Tibetan independence," the China Daily said.

"He has declared that he only seeks 'autonomy' instead of independence in Tibet.

"By autonomy, he means a rule exclusively by him and other serf owners who follow him to lead an exile life abroad and the autonomy which will lead to independence," it added.

Chinese authorities earlier warned against "hidden reactionaries", signalling a campaign to root out people who appear to be loyal to Beijing but are secretly sympathetic to the exiled spiritual leader.

In a seminar on "patriotic personalities", Tibet Communist Party Secretary Chen Kuiyuan warned against sympathizers of the Dalai Lama, whom he described as "a politician hiding under the cloth of religion."

"A small handful of dangerous elements who have passed themselves off as upright persons with an ulterior motive have mingled among us," Chen said in a speech published on the front page of the Tibet Daily received here Wednesday.

"We should educate some of the monks and nuns in the temples and help them root out the harmful elements," he said, accusing some of the Tibetan Buddhist clergy of outwardly showing loyalty to Beijing but "secretly sympathizing with the Dalai's splittist clique."

The community of so-called "patriotic personalities," composed mostly of high-ranking lamas and scholars, has rarely been publicly targeted in the past.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly offered to settle for the "genuine autonomy" of Tibet and called for negotiations with Beijing on the issue.

But Chinese President Jiang Zemin in a speech during his US visit, urged the Dalai Lama to publicly declare the region "was an inalienable part of China and ... give up (demands for) Tibetan independence."

The China Daily listed alleged cruelties committed during the Dalai Lama's rule of Tibet, rejecting his offers to negotiate with Beijing on resolving the issue of the region's autonomy.

"While demanding negotiations with the central government, the Dalai Lama moved to collaborate with those who stand for the independence of Taiwan," it said.

China views Taiwan as a renegade province after their split at the end of a civil war in 1949. The Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government in exile have opened an office in Taiwan, a move slammed by Beijing as "collusion" between Tibetan and Taiwanese separatists against China.

"Given these facts, one can hardly believe he sincerely wants to negotiate with the central government," the newspaper added.

Chinese troops took control of Tibet in 1951 and the Dalai Lama fled into exile eight years later following a failed uprising.