Tibet Talks Conclude With Little Progress

BEIJING, July 3 -- Envoys for the Dalai Lama ended more than two days of talks with Chinese government officials Thursday with no immediate reports of substantive progress on easing tensions in Tibet, something the United States and other foreign governments had pushed for.

A report on the talks in state-controlled media contained no concessions on the part of the Chinese in allowing more autonomy for Tibetans in the wake of widespread protests this spring against Chinese rule. Rather, the report repeated the conditions that the Tibetan spiritual leader would be required to meet before the Chinese would agree to new talks before the end of the year. Most significantly, he must prove that he does not support activities that would disturb next month's Olympic Games in Beijing, and agree to "concretely curb" violent activities of groups advocating Tibetan independence.

The Dalai Lama's envoys left Beijing on Thursday afternoon, and spokesman Tenzin Taklha said they would return to Dharmsala, India, to brief the Dalai Lama before making any public statements. The Dalai Lama repeatedly has said he supports Beijing as host of the Olympics and would attend the Games if invited. He has also denied he is seeking independence; he has said, rather, that he is urging more cultural autonomy.

Some Tibet experts had hoped for signs that the talks were more than a Chinese attempt to take international focus off Tibet until after the Olympics. The experts found only slight shifts in which to take heart.

"Now they are implicitly accusing him of 'supporting' violence instead of directly insisting that he masterminds it," said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar and professor at Columbia University in New York. "I can't see this going down very well in Tibet or anywhere else."