World Tibet Network News Saturday, June 27, 1998

BEIJING, June 27 (AFP) - China on Saturday blamed Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for blocking talks with Beijing, just hours after President Jiang Zemin said the government had opened communication channels with him.

The Dalai Lama's insistence on independence for Tibet pursued a path of splitting the "motherland," making talks with him impossible as long as he calls for independence for the Himalayan territory, foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said here.

"This has shown that the Dalai Lama has no sincerity in wanting dialogue with the central government and the responsibility for the failure of dialogue lies clearly on the Dalai Lama's side," he added.

Jiang revealed after his landmark summit with US leader Bill Clinton here that opened "several channels of communication" with the exiled Dalai Lama.

"As long as the Dalai Lama makes a public commitment that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and Taiwan is a province of China, then the door to dialogue and negotiation is open," Jiang said after a two-hour summit with Clinton.

"Actually, we are having several channels of communication with the Dalai Lama so I hope the Dalai Lama will make a positive response in this regard," he said in a live broadcast after Clinton urged talks to resolve the future of the troubled region.

The comments came after Clinton publicly urged his Chinese counterpart to open dialogue with the spiritual leader.

The Dalai Lama however told the French newspaper Le Monde last week that since 1993 he had no official contacts with Beijing but he kept contacts open with China through "private unofficial channels."

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said after Jiang's statement that his offer of dialogue was "unacceptable", adding there was "not anything new and it is the same wine in a new bottle."