World Tibet Network News Tuesday, June 30, 1998

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS BEIJING, June 29 - Tibet's government in exile on Monday said it saw real promise in the remarks of President Jiang Zemin over the week end and thanked Jiang and President Bill Clinton for expressing a willingness to discuss theregion's status. U.S. officials, too, said that Jiang's remarks on China were very significant and a sign that substantive talks between China and the exiled Dalai Lama might be possible. `We..applaud President Jiang Zemin for publicly recognising the fact that Tibet is an important issue needing a solution and for indicating his willingness to have exchange of views and discussions on this.'

TIBETAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE'S STATEMENT

TIBET'S GOVERNMENT IN EXILE, based in Dharamsala in north India, said "we...applaud president Jiang Zemin for publicly recognizing the fact that Tibet is an important issue needing a solution and for indicating his willingness to have exchange of views and discussions on this. "The statement also hailed Clinton for asking the Chinese government to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Clinton told a nationally televised news conference in Beijing that he had urged Jiang to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama in return for recognition of Tibet as a part of China. The Chinese president said that door was open for negotiations as long as the Dalai Lama recognized Tibet as an inalienable part of China and that Taiwan was a province of China. The Tibetan statement said that the Dalai Lama had already stated that he was not seeking independence for the Himalayan region and that Tibetans hoped the Chinese leadership would accept the sincerity of their spiritual leader's gesture. "As far as the question of Tibet's st

atus is concerned, nobody can change the past. However his Holiness feels that we should not be encumbered by the past," the statement said.

OPTIMISM FROM WASHINGTON A senior U.S. official confirmed that Washington views Jiang's remarks as something of a breakthrough. The senior official, who asked not to be named, said the Clinton-Jiang summit had moved China closer to talks with the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet during a communist Chinese crackdown in 1959. China invaded and occupied the mountainous kingdom in 1950. "I think what you saw in public, what Jiang said, was very significant," said Jeffrey Bader, one of Clinton's chief advisers on China."I cannot recall a Chinese leader ever talking about a multiple channel discussion with the Dalai Lama before, talking about openness to dialogue (and) the context in which it was offered suggests a new readiness to talk if certain conditions are met," he said. "I don't want to overplay or exaggerate how close they may be to a dialogue-there are still conditions - but the tone of what he said was new, and the fact that he was public about it for a nationwide audience was new.

"TELEVISED NEWS CONFERENCE `As long as the Dalai Lama recognizes Tibet is an inalienable part of China and that Taiwan is a province of China, then the door is open for dialogue and negotiations.' JIANG ZEMIN Chinese president Surprising U.S. officials and many others, Jiang not only allowed the news conference after his Saturday summit with Clinton to be televised nationally, he actually discussed Tibet - one of the most sensitive matters for the Chinese leadership. China has long accused the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, of trying to split their motherland. U.S. officials had said before the summit that they saw no interest on the part of the Chinese in discussing Tibet with the United States, and one official predicted Clinton would raise the touchy subject only during his private talks with Jiang. But at the start of their news conference, Clinton said he had urged Jiang "to resume a dialogue with the Dalai Lama in return for the recognition of Tibet as part of China, and

in recognition of the unique cultural and religious heritage of that region. "Jiang could have let the issue drop, but he did not, returning to the subject later. "As long as the Dalai Lama recognizes Tibet is an inalienable part of Chinaand that Taiwan is a province of China, then the door is open for dialogue and negotiations," he said. "I hope the Dalai Lama will make a positive response."