World Tibet Network News Monday, May 18, 1998

By James Kynge In Beijing

Financial Times

London May 18 1998. China is concerned that heightened tensions with India could ultimately lead to increased pressure on it to start an international dialogue on the question of its rule in Tibet, officials and foreign diplomats said. Senior foreign diplomats in Beijing said that China's key strategy was toresist any notion that a dialogue on Tibet and other sources of tension between Beijing and New Delhi might be one way to defuse the new threat to regional security posed by India's recent nuclear tests. India regards Tibet as an autonomous region in China and does not officially recognise the Dalai Lama's government in exile, despite providing sanctuary for it. The rationale for seeking to reduce tensions through a Sino-Indian dialogue was made clear after George Fernandes, the Indian defence minister, identified China as his country's greatest security threat shortly before New Delhi exploded five nuclear devices last week. "China wants to keep the issue of India's tests in a broad international framew

ork but confine It in terms of content to the problem of [nuclear] proliferation," said one diplomat. "It does not want to get sucked into negotiations on Tibet or other boundaries in the Himalayan region. "Ye Zhengjia, senior researcher on Asian issues in the China Institute of International Studies at the foreign ministry, said tension between India and Pakistan, one of China's staunchest allies, was not a matter for Beijing.

"As for the problems between India and Pakistan, they have to sort out their problems on their own. There is little here China can help with," Mr. Ye said. Diplomats said Beijing, which is Asia's only declared nuclear power, realised that if India started developing weapons, international pressure on the two countries to seek resolutions to their disputes could intensify. A foreign ministry statement from New Delhi at the weekend said India wasopen to a dialogue on nuclear disarmament and relations with China. But Beijing has shown little inclination to discuss resolving bilateral disputes and has turned down an informal Russian overture to mediate. Beijing last month also brushed aside US suggestions for resumption of talks with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual 'leader who lives in exile in India. A foreign ministry spokesman said the Dalai Lama, while professing a desire for an '"autonomous" Tibet, was actually bent on seeking Independence for the Himalayan region, which has been under Chinese rule si

nce 1950. The Tibet issue was especially sensitive for a Beijing government which has set territorial goals, such as reunification with Taiwan, as paramount. There is also a sense. the presence of the Dalai Lama, now 62, will be transient and that his reincarnation, who by tradition is a small boy -will lack his international stature. China condemned at the weekend a resolution by the European parliament to call for a United Nations commission of Inquiry Into Tibet and appoint a special UN rapporteur for the Himalayan region. Zhu Bangzao, foreign ministry spokesman, said Tibet was an internal affair and foreign countries had no business interfering.